A Star Spangled Celebration

Tonight we saw one great patriotic performance from the first grade class. This picture is kind of like Where's Waldo, but James is on the back row, about third from the left. They practiced for weeks for their big night.

James was a great flag waver. He told me this was a very important responsibility.

The pledge of allegiance.

Faith can give the best applause.

Saluting our military men and women.

"Thankful for the USA." Great job, James!

Each class made a patriotic quilt. James' quilt block is below:

We are so proud to have Grandpa Cowles on the Wall of Honor.

Those who are brave enough to sit through a minute and a half of watching James wave his flag can do that on the previous post. Warning: this might just be for Grandmas and Grandpas.

This One's for Stanley

We have had flat Stanley before, but never such a large flat Stanley. Have you ever seen anything like this? Our nephew Cole made this Stanley and sent it to us right as we moved into our new house. We finally found him again and decided it was time to send Stanley on an adventure since the kids didn't have to go to school yesterday.

I took the Brown kids with us since it is much more adventurous to take six kids by myself on the subway (seven if you count Stanley, which I think you should considering his size and all).

When we got to DC, our first stop was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing so we could see how they print our money.

That big column on the left is filled with shredded money. The boys really loved being close to all that money.

Stanley, Spencer and James with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

We tried to go to the top of the Washington Monument, but the elevator was broken.

We had to take Stanley to the Smithsonian since he was free.

The kids love the science experiment room in the American History Museum.

My favorite picture.

windsurfing

I had to stop into Julia's kitchen.

After a fun day, we got back on the subway to go home. Goodbye, Stanley!

Another Year Older

I think every girl should sit down in front of a birthday cake and eat like there's no tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'm getting too old to do that so Faith took care of that for me.

I chose the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday dinner. It's always interesting going out to dinner with these three.

Faith used the butter packages on the table to give herself a facial, then became addicted to Sprite.

I love the Cheesecake Factory because you get to enjoy your dinner for lunch the next day since the portions are huge. It's obvious I love their cheesecake too. I ordered the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake for my treat. I think I gained five pounds just looking at it.

Welcome, 35! I hope you are good to me.

Pre-Birthday Celebrating

I had some early birthday presents Saturday with this huge cake from my dad...

and a package from Teresa in my ward in Long Beach. What is better for your birthday than a pirated copy of Michael Jackson's This is It?

Teresa also sent me this Inflatabuffet. In case you aren't part of the Inflatabuffet fever that is sweeping the nation, you can go here to order one. What a great idea--I plan to use this every day in the summer. Teresa is really so sweet.

Cinderella

Saturday afternoon we went to see the matinee performance of Cinderella at a local high school. These girls are in our ward, and they did such a great job. After the performance, the cast signed autographs and took pictures with all the cute little girls in their princess dresses. I guess Faith isn't quite there yet. She had marker all over her and was really sticky from the ring pop we used to get her to sit through the performance. She is definitely not a princess in training---yet.

Field Tripping with Spencer

Yesterday I met up with Spencer's class at the Natural History Museum in DC for his field trip.

I had just landed a couple hours before after the red-eye flight from Long Beach. I was so tired, but couldn't miss the chance to go on a field trip. Good thing I wasn't an official chaperone and didn't have to ride the bus with the kids since I fell asleep on the subway ride home.

Going Home

Faith and I hopped on a plane to spend last weekend in...

I've been gone six months from Long Beach, but as soon as I stepped off the plane, I knew I was home. Doug took the boys for the weekend, and I got to go as my birthday present--one of the best presents I've ever had.

I got to hang out with fun gals all weekend, eating more food than I have in a long time (I felt like I was on a cruise), laughing harder than I have in a long time, staying up later than I have in a long time, and loving every second while I was there.

Kendall, Melissa, Tina, Tiffany and Anne.

Cindi, Lori and me.

Me and Melissa.

Faith renewed old friendships with Jane as well.

Me, Faith, Melissa, Cindi, Anne, Tina and Amy.

It was a wet weekend! Long Beach had major rain two of the days I was there, turning parking lots into swimming pools. I'll never forget us rolling up our pants to get into our cars after a pedicure. The good news is our feet still look great. This picture is of Cindi trying to find her shoe that washed away.

Thanks so much to Doug who took the boys, and the fun girls of Long Beach who made my birthday. Let's do it again.