Sweethearts

"What?" You ask. "Another dance so soon?"

"Yup!"

On February 14th, Courtney, James, and a group of their friends went to Sweethearts.

Instead of going out to a restaurant to eat, the girls decided to make dinner themselves and have it at our house. I whole-heartedly agreed, greedily thinking of all the money I would save.

My luck was holding out when James announced that he had two rugby games to play that day. There was nothing left to do but cancel the "day" activity. (Unfortunate for them, very fortunate for my wallet!)

We spent the day curling hair, painting nails,



baking, decorating,



cleaning and cooking.

Luckily Courtney's friend Kristin came to help.



Big brother Tyler even got in on the action. We asked him if he would google a creative way to fold dinner napkins.



This is what he came up with...



Have I mentioned how much I love Google?

When 6pm rolled around, we were exhausted, but ready.





The dinner turned out great, everything was delicious.



After the dance, it was back to our house for cake and ice cream



and a few rounds of Mafia.



Courtney got the dance pictures back today.



Dress $19.99
Shrug $14.99
Pictures $30.00
Dinner and dessert $30.00

Smile on my daughters face...

Priceless!

Scrumptious Swiss Oats

I am usually not one to blog about food, but I have become addicted to Swiss Oatmeal, so I thought I would share.

In my quest to cook and eat healthier food, I came across a television program one morning called Zonya's Health Bites. Zonya was a little over the top personality-wise, but she was cooking something that looked pretty healthy, so I decided to keep watching. We put her on Tivo and, although she is slightly annoying at times, she cooks some great, healthy meals. On one episode she made Swedish Oatmeal.

One Serving:

2/3 C. Old Fashioned Cooking Oats
2/3 C. Skim Milk
15 raisins (I just grab a small handful - Sean has to count out
exactly 15)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. honey

Stir together and refrigerate for up to 2o minutes, or overnight. (Zonya put fresh fruit in hers, I haven't tried that yet, I am a raisin lover!)

I had never eaten oatmeal that was not cooked in some form or another, so I was very skeptical. We made it that night and had it for breakfast the next morning and the rest is history. Katie (my pickiest eater) even likes it. She came home from school the other day and said that she liked it because she was usually starving by
3rd period, and since she has been eating this oatmeal, she hasn't been hungry until lunch time.

I make it so much that I have started keeping the dry ingredients in separate containers in my pantry. At night, I will just add milk and honey, put it in the fridge, and we have breakfast waiting for us in the morning.

If anyone is interested, Zonya's Health Bites is on Saturday mornings at 10am, on Channel 11.

Jr. Prom

Courtney and James went to Jr. Prom a few weeks ago.

Apparently Prom is an all-day event now. In the olden days (1987ish), you would go out to a nice restaurant, then go to the dance and then go home.

That is not the case anymore.

They started off the morning at the bowling alley. I sent my camera with Courtney so she could take some pictures. I have to say that I was a little disappointed with her picture taking skills.





Believe it or not, these were the best ones she took. I made her promise to take some action photos next time.

After bowling they went back to Bryan's house to hang out and play games.

Kristin and Courtney went to get their hair done, and then it was a race to get them back to Bryan's house for a photo shoot before dinner. Bryan's mother is a photographer and took some amazing pictures of them. I am still waiting to get my hands on the CD she promised to make, so I will post the pictures as soon as I get them. Here are the ones that I took:



They make such a cute couple.





They had a very nice dinner at one of Courtney's favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse, and then it was off to the dance.

They all had such a great time. I have to thank James' parents for driving them that night. Sean and I had a work party at our house and were not able to help as much as I would have liked.

The Eagle Scout Project

For Tyler's Eagle Scout Project, he decided to make marker holders for Primary Children's Medical Center.

First, Tyler and his dad had to cut the pieces of wood, then he invited some friends over to sand



and drill.



We had a combined activity where the young men and young women painted and decorated them with stickers.



Here is Tyler quickly sending off a text before getting started.





The kids did a great job -- I was really impressed with their creativity.



Here is a finished picture of Tyler's marker holder:



We took them up to Primary Children's Medical Center last week. We ended up with 24 marker holders in all. Marie, the director, was very excited to see that we had so many.



A big thanks to all those who donated their time and money in helping put this project together. Especially our Scout Master, without him, I am not sure we could have accomplished any of this!