Award display

There are some sports that you have the potential to earn a lot of medals! Gymnastics is one of them! Now you are guaranteed, so don't sign your kids up thinking their wall will look like this, but it's possible. AJ worked so hard this year and here is his medal wall! He was hanging them on a trophy off his shelf but it got so crowded we had to come up with a new idea. So here it is! We used a curtain rod and it's hooks, it looks so nice! We choose the dark brass color that goes well with his lovely gold medals! Now I just have to scrub that orange goo off the wall where his world map poster was held!

The question, is do we box them up at the start of the new season or just pile them all on there!

Fun family dinners

This week was a very fun experimental week with food for me. I was very hungry when I looked through my copy of Cooking Light. SO we had Moroccan Chicken Skewers and Korean beef tacos, and I tried a new white pizza along with my classic pizza on friday night. And it was all so, so good! The Moroccan skewers are spicy and yummy, the first time I made them on Monday night and I forgot to buy Greek yogurt to dip them in like the recipe suggests. Everyone loved them but I said next time I'll just marinade them and not skewer them because that takes a lot of effort. But when Kirk asked me to make them for the family dinner at our house tonight and I said sure but I think I won't skewer and he said, but I like the skewers.... i skewered 9 pound of chicken thighs. It was a lot of skewers!!! But I remembered the greek yogurt and boy is it ever good like that!! The white pizza last night was good, but we agreed the magic of my pizza is the homemade pizza sauce, so i don't think it will happen again. The Korean tacos, were so delicious! Kirks only complaint was they weren't burnt enough! Its hard to cook steak for him when he likes it to be as cooked as show leather!
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-moroccan-chicken-skewers-50400000121410/

My jungle

Did you know that this is what happens to asparagus when you don't pick it? Kinda pretty

Dance the nights away

LAst weekend was the weekend of dances! Connor went to his first school dance, the 8th grade graduation 2 weeks before school gets out dance! I was really surprised when he texted me one day asking me to buy him a vest for the dance! I would have guessed he would skip it, but he does have a girlfriend and maybe that leads to dances? Would you guess that vests are not the thing this year? Yes they look nice but NO ONE in 3 malls is selling them! LAME! So this is a vest Matts been wearing for about 3 years. Doesn't he look great! I asked him how he liked the dance and he said it was a look of fun. I asked if he just danced with his girlfriend and he said no, he also danced with "the girl who wants to me my girlfriend, the other girl who wants to me my girlfriend, a few friends...." Who knew? Well I should have known cause he's so cute! He said he loved the loud music and the bass was awesome, another thing i wouldn't have guessed he liked, since his ears are so sensitive. And no he wouldn't smile for the camera but I assure you he was not as miserable as he looked!

Meanwhile Matt had his "Mormon Prom" on Saturday night. He took Sarah who has been his girlfriend for about a year and a half.  We explained the dress code to her and she went shopping with her mom. SHe sent me a text of a totally cute dress with one sleeve and I had to find a way to text that its gorgeous but she's really going to need 2 sleeves. I didn't get to see the winning dress until the night of the dance, but it turned out beautiful. I think they had a fun time. They said it was as fun as a "church" dance could get.

Connor playing with Ruger

While driving Connor through the mountains I saw several signs for State parks that I've been curious so when I got home I mentioned to Kirk that we should just go camping there for the night since I have to drive to get Connor anyway. It felt like it wouldn't waste 2 long drives. Elle was very excited and mentioned that she had never camped before! Kirk and I had to think about it and she's right she hasn't camped since she was 6 months old in California! The boys camp so much with scouts that the family never does it. So 2 hours later we were in the car driving! We went to Desoto falls which has a small first come first serve campground ground on a small river coming from the "water falls". Water falls in Georgia means water running down rocks. But we had a great time. Matt refused to go so he stayed home with his uncle. Kirk and I were so relaxed because Aj and Elle just ran everywhere playing games together, no fights or anything! Elle had her first silver turtle and breakfast over a campfire. I have discovered that I am too old to camp without a mattress. The ground is hard and my back still hurts! I've also discovered that my packing skills are rusty. I forgot forks. Kirk carved us some, I should have taken a picture!

Connors Order of the Arrow

Connor was nominated by his troop to go earn his Order of the Arrow this year.  He was excited at first but then the whole process took so long he got a little bored, but maybe that was just for show! Anyway so there are 3 Ordeals this year, one this last weekend that was full, one at the end of MAy when he is gone for 8th grade field trip and the last in Novemeber. I felt bad signing him up for Nov because it's so far away and everyone would have it before him. (Did you know I'm competitive?) So I sent a email of to the main Lodge guy and asked if there was any type of waiting list for this last weekend. He emailed me back and said probably not. Then he did it and got him in! So Connor had 2 days warning and it was 2 weekends of camping in a row. Some boys would love this, not Connor. Since no other boy from our troop got in and I had the wonderful opportunity of driving him 1.5 hours to the camp in friday night traffic, yeah! He slept most of the way but it was a gorgeous drive through the mountains. Once we got there I signed him in and offered to sit with him or walk around and he said no. He said I walk that way and you go home. I was both, proud and sad. We picked him up Sunday morning, and it looks like a lot of people left early so he was maybe one of the last 20 kids to go. His first words were I hate you. Always a heart warming thing, but he was smirking sooooo.... He said on Saturday they got almost no food and they had to chop wood and haul it around to campsites all day. And that is about all the details I got. He is pretty low key but he did allow me to get one picture with his sash!
Is he in the same clothes in both pictures 3 days apart? Yes. Did he have opportunity to shower and not take it? Yes. But most importantly did he shower before school today? Thank heavens YES!!