Non-Prom..or Homecoming rather

If you ask Rylee how old she is, she'll probably say, "almost 16!"

She's getting excited for dating.... and honestly I am too.

Because Rylee, and most of her girlfriends aren't 16 yet, they made a plan for a girl's-night-out on the evening of their highschool Homecoming dance. They decided to dress up, go to Olive Garden for dinner and then meet back at a friend's house to watch a "chick flick".

Rylee went "retro" by wearing my mom's old highschool choir dress. After minor adjustments, it fit her well and she looked cute in it. She added her own touches with the belt, beads and other accessories.

Riley Mortensen, Paige Simpson, Jane Stepherson, Rylee, Sarah Bruneel, Eliza Bradford & Melissa Brown.

As Sarah's parents and I were taking these pictures, we commented on how next time the picture would most likely have guys included! That's crazy to think about. :)

Instead of a parent driving/chaperoning, they had Sarah's 21-year-old sister Audrey (3rd from the left) take them. Much more COOL and FUN than a parent I suppose.

(I wanna go.)

What a fun way to spend Homecoming night.

Girl Power! :)

Race for the Cure

This year, I joined a team of friends and did the "Race for the Cure" 5K, for the second time.

Team name:

"Save the Peaches!"

Five of us ran and 3 of us walked.

I was a runner... or should I say jogger. I was disappointed that I didn't run the whole thing, but the combination of the humid heat and not running regularly for several weeks, caught up to me. Oh well... next time. :)

Good job girls!

Taylee's Night Owl PJ Party!

And finally we get to the PARTY...

We welcomed all NIGHT OWLS with a sign.

Notice Taylee's new pj pants. They are orange (her new favorite color?) with an owl print. She also received an awesome owl necklace, from one of her Activity Day leaders. So cute!

Friends started arriving around 5pm.
While dinner/breakfast was baking and being prepared, the girls jumped on the trampoline and hung out.

Breakfast for dinner...one of my favorites.

Ham & Cheese Breakfast Casserole, mini muffins, bananas, grapes and orange juice.

Yum!

By this time, almost everyone had arrived.

(Several girls had sports after school, so they came when they could.)

Things were quite calm at first, but then from no where GRAPE GOOFINESS broke out.

Maddie as a bunny rabbit.

Sage as a monkey.

Lauren as.... what do you think?

Next, the girls "hatched" their owlets and started stuffing and decorating.

It surprised me how much they enjoyed stuffing, decorating and sewing their owls.

Every owlet needed a name, so BIRTH CERTIFICATES were filled out.

Rachel and her little owl FREEDOM.

Taylee & Courtney

Bella & Sage

Maddie & Lauren
Check out the "nerd glasses" , sunglasses and guitar. So funny.

Kristin & Brittany

Maddy & Bailey

All the goofy girls and owlets.

Next we played "I have never____" or some call it "Never, have I ever___".

Someone starts out by saying, "Never, have I ever water skiied or gone fishing or seen a buffalo, etc". Then if you HAVE done that thing, you have to put a candy in the bowl. Some girls picked on their friends so they were the only ones putting the candy in the bowl, others said funny/outrageous things no one had ever done. All were good sports and SO fun to be around. Some of these girls are hilarious!

Next, Taylee opened gifts.

She received lots of great things; bottle cap necklace with interchangeable magnet pictures, scrapbook set, bracelet making set, ceramic figurines, purse, lip gloss, candy, gift certificate, and more.

Thanks friends!

Next on the agenda, was the movie "Tangled". The girls each got a bag of popcorn and added candy, pretzels, raisins, chips and cookies for their NIGHT OWL MUNCH MIX.

After the movie, we sang Happy Birthday and had cake/ice cream.

By then it was late and parents were arriving to pick up their girls.

On their way out, they grabbed some COOL silly socks as a favor.

Taylee bought these with her own money and was SO excited to give them out. She loved the neon colors and weird prints.

What a FUN night. Happy 12th Birthday Taylee!!!

Happy Birthday Jaime!

Last year, Marianne and I took Jaime to breakfast for her birthday. This was significant because Jaime's birthday is on Christmas Eve and she had never spent time with friends on her actual birthDAY.

This year, she invited lots of friends to celebrate. We went to "Goldy's Breakfast Bistro" downtown Boise. It was a quaint little place, so we filled it up with about 15 women.

We talked, we ate, we laughed..... and had an ornament exchange. It was a fun, early-morning celebration. Jaime is hoping to make it an annual thing.

Happy Birthday Sweet Friend Jaime!

A Favorite Things Party

You've probably heard of "Oprah's Favorite Things"... well, I did my own version this year.

Instead of our normal book club this month, I had a "Favorite Things Party".

I asked guests to bring one of their favorite treats or snacks to share.

We played a FAVORITES version of "What's Yours Like?" game.

I haven't actually played the real board game. Wonder if it's as fun as my made-up version. Anyone ever played it before?

Also, each guest brought one of their favorite THINGS to give. We shared about our favorite thing, then drew a name out of the bowl and gave it to the person we drew.

It was so cool to see all the favorite things and to hang out with "the girls".

I received tinted, minty lip gloss (Bath & Body Works) and bright red, metallic nail polish.

Can't wait to paint my toenails with it!

This was such a fun party to do. And shhhhh... WAY easy. :)

Anyone want to do it again next year?

Noteworthy

Cantus Youth Choir,

invited the female acapella group

NOTEWORTHY

(from BYU)

to come sing for a fundraiser here in Meridian.

Rylee invited some friends from our old ward/school, to the concert.

It was fun and entertaining.
They encouraged audience participation, as we learned how to "beat box".
Ya, I'm still no good at it.
They also awarded prizes (NOTEWORTHY CDs) for correct answers to personal information questions about themselves.
Afterward, the singers were more than happy to give out their autographs.....

...and take pictures.
At first, I didn't want to disturb others trying to get autographs, so I took the first few shots with only a few singers. When the singers kept popping in and out of my shots, we finally decided to get everyone together and do a big group photo.

Next, we went outside and goofed off.

We did about 20 or more of these jumping photos.

The girls thought it was SO funny, they kept wanting to do another and another and another.

Next up, goofy line up.

Toe star.

Finger star.

Charity, Shay

Maddie, Gretchen, Rylee

And finally, the pyramid.

Rylee had so much fun hanging out with her old friends. She's already making plans on when she gets to see them next.... maybe birthday time?

My Birthday

My birthday celebrating began with this....

Treyson made me a Captain Crunch cereal, toast and milk breakfast-in-bed.

Started my sugar rush early...it was a FREE day!
For lunch, I went to Red Robin with some friends from the ward. I had a yummy burger. I can't remember the name of it, but it had a fried egg in it. I was a little scared to try it, but the waiter said it was good, so I went for it.
It was good.

We were also celebrating Stacey's birthday.

We're Birthday Sistas!!!

Weeks earlier, Stacey had told me she loved skulls. So when I saw this, it had her name written all over it!

She said, "I don't have one THIS big. Thanks."

Good Food + Good Company= Good Lunch!

I received a text from Jason, it said, "I'm getting off at 5. I will pick you up at 5:30 and we are going out!"

When I got home from lunch, I took a little nap. I was feeling a bit under-the-weather and wanted to rest up before the evening events began.

When Jason got home he showered and rushed around. He asked if I would hang out in the room for a while because he and the kids were doing something.

No problem..... I'll just take a little longer nap.

In my sleepiness, I heard scuffles, bumps and glass clinking together. Couldn't figure out what was going on out there, so I didn't try and went back to sleep.

Finally, Jason came in and said that they were ready. He escorted me to this quaint little Italian cafe, "Smullini's".

We were greeted by this lovely hostess...

"Hello. Welcome to Smullini's. How many will be in your party tonight? We have a table over here, next to a window, does that sound good? Great. Right this way. (Lead them to their table.)

I found her script, behind the sign, after dinner. Too cute!

We were seated and noticed the nice view of the broken trampoline, in the back yard. :)

Our waiter then greeted us...

"Hi, my name is Treyson and I will be your waiter for tonight. Can I get you something to drink? We have cherry Kool Aid and water" (said in the cutest, kind of robotic, voice).

He then took our order and poured our drinks. Next, he brought out our Caesar salads.

As he was walking back to the kitchen, he stopped (probably thinking to himself, "I should say something"). He then turned around, nodded his head and said, "Enjoy!".

So funny. We couldn't contain ourselves and started laughing. He was trying so hard to remember everything he was supposed to say and trying to be the best waiter ever.

He WAS very attentive. He kept our water glasses full. He also kept asking, "Does everything taste ok? Can I get you any thing else?"

Rylee the cafe manager.

I later heard her say, "Wow, being a manager, you've got to do a LOT of work (she prepped all the food and kept the kitchen running smoothly)..... I thought that I'd just be sitting back and watching!"

Abree the waitress.

She brought us our garlic bread, hung out in the kitchen and eventually brought me gifts to open.

Smullini's menu

When we were finished with our meal, Treyson said, "I heard it was some body's birthday."

All the kids came over to the table with a chocolate cream pie and candle and sang "Happy Birthday".

Next, it was time for gift opening.

The best gifts EVER!

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to a 'get out of jail free card' from a weeks worth of laundry by your awesome Hubby."

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to one full day (8am to 5pm) of honey do's (arrange with J) for a day."

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to a sink free of dishes for the rest of the month of October. Happy Birthday!"

Can't wait to use my birthday coupons! I always tell Jason he doesn't have to buy anything big or expensive for gifts. All I want is a mile-long list of Honey Do's ....DONE.

He would rather buy the big or expensive thing. :)

Rylee is becoming the rich one in our house. She bought me these cute flats.

Taylee gave me this. She actually made it with a kit and a mold.

She said, "Do you get it?"

Me-"Uhhhh, no."

T-"It's a cricket..... you know a CRICUT."

Me-"Nice!"

Do you get it? "Cricut" is a scrapbooking die-cut paper cutter thingy.

She really knows what I like. :)

Treyson gave me a Bronco sport poster.

Abree have me a colored princess picture, sack puppet and a piece of gum.

She said, "Since I ALWAYS give you a sack puppet, I thought I should give you something else too, so I made you a princess picture."

To end our evening, I was escorted upstairs for a movie..... including a concessions bar; popcorn, cookies and pork rines. We all started watching the movie, but when it got too "kissy" we sent the kids to bed and finished it ourselves. They were not very happy about that.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day. I felt loved, appreciated and remembered by the phone calls, texts and Facebook messages.

Thanks for making my birthday so nice.