Old and New

I sold my Dodge Durango. I have really loved this car and I enjoy that it has so much room to take people with me when I need to but it just kills me every few days when I put $75 of gas into it to drive just myself back and forth to work so I made the hard decision to sell it and get a smaller car.

My final goodbye pictures.

This is the new car that I got to replace it. Well, I guess it isn't really new. It's a 2003 Hyandai Elantra. We looked at a ton of different cars and researched them all on the internet and out of everything we looked at this one had the best ratings and the lowest mileage so I think it was a good pick. I had been wanting to look at this type so I think that it worked out great.

Mike filled it with gas yesterday and it only cost $42 so we are already off to a good start and I have driven over 100 miles and it is still on full. The Durango would already be to almost a half of tank at 100 miles so I am excited to see how many miles I get out of a tank.

Megan's Sleepover

I didn't do to good of a job getting pictures of the girls that stayed the night for Megan's birthday. They slept out in the trailer so it was nice and quiet in the house all night. Megan took the camera out with her but these were the only two pictures that she took.

These are some very crazy girls. They did manage to sleep in in the morning so it gave me plenty of time to make all of the breakfast food that they had asked for. I was very impressed with myself. :)

First we have cupcakes. I did make these the night before for the party but they wanted them for breakfast also so I am counting them.

Glazed doughnut muffins. I found this doughnut recipe in the same book as the cinnamon rolls that they wanted but you made these in muffin pans so they were really easy.

Cinnamon and sugar covered doughnut muffins.

What is left of the cinnamon rolls!! These are what they had really asked for and I forgot to take a picture of how good they looked before they ruined them and ate them all.

I think that Megan had a great birthday party weekend. It was alot of fun to have everyone over.

Birthday party time

Tonight was Megan's birthday party with all of her friends. I always wonder what I have agreed to when it actually gets to the day of the party but this one was pretty easy. Since we lucked out and the rain stayed away today the kids all hung out outside the entire party. They played basketball and frisbee and sat by the camp fire. Worked out perfect for me. I had the whole house to myself. I am sure when all of the boys go home it will change since the girls are sleeping over but until then I am going to enjoy the quiet.
Megan, Olivia and a bunch of other kids.

They sat by the fire to eat their pizza and snacks and then ended up sitting out there once it got dark. It was chilly outside even though the rain stayed away.

Alex had his friend Bryce over so that he would have someone to entertain him. It kept him out of Megan and her friends hair all night.

She got a lot of presents from her friends and was having a great time opening them.

We had more funfetti cupcakes. Those seem to be Megan's favorites.

Here is the whole gang. They all seem like really nice kids and Megan sure has a lot of fun with them all. I hope that she had a fun party. I wonder what she will pick to do next year? We can only wait and see!!!!!

Choir Concert

Megan had a choir contest today for school. They had to perform 2 songs and then go into a room and get feedback on how they did from one of the judges. It was fun to go and watch them and listen to how the judges scored their performance. They did a really good job so they had mostly good comments for them.
She is all ready to go. I don't think she was to happy to have to get up and get ready to go on a Saturday. :)

Megan, Gillian, and Olivia. They some how all ended up next to each other.

Here is the whole choir. They did a great job.

I kept trying to get a decent picture of them when the judge was talking to them but this was the best I could get. I think they were being goofy on purpose. They saw me trying to get a picture!!!!!! :)

I brought them back home after the contest to get ready for Megan's birthday party so they got to bring their nice vests and bow ties with them. Normally those are not allowed to leave the school.

Now it is party time. A whole house of 15 year olds is about to arrive!!!!!

Happy Birthday Megan!!!!!

It is hard to believe but Megan is now 15 yrs. old. In just one short year she will be on the road driving. How did the time go by so fast?
We didn't do to much for her birthday since it was on a Wednesday but she is having all of her friends over on Saturday night so that will be fun.
Kim sent her these beautiful flowers. They were the first thing she saw in the morning when she came downstairs so we had to get a birthday picture.
After school, track, and work we met up with Jim and Marilyn down at the Happy Teriyaki. That was where she chose to go for dinner since we don't make it down there to often and it was so good. I am not sure why we don't make that long 15 minute drive more often.

Everyone made it to dinner. Alex is taking the picture. :)

She even got a few presents. She had gotten most of her gifts early this year since Kim was here on vacation and took her shopping and Jim and Marilyn, My Dad and Bonnie, and Mike and I had all given her money for her camera last month. Luckily she still had Stefanie and family, Peggy and Alex so she made out very good. She got this lovely story that Alex wrote for school from him. He typed it up and printed it out and put it in a very nice envelope for her. Sometimes I wonder about him but he was really excited about it.

Alex also gave her this cute tank top and a sweater and Mike and I gave her a new swimsuit and shorts for the summer. Someday we will see sunshine even if it means we have to travel to California to do it!!!!!

Stefanie, Jeff, Cameron, Rena and Maleah gave her this purse that she has had her eye on for months. She was so excited about it.

The Keyes also gave her these really cool picture holders that are shaped like flowers. They even sent along pictures for her to put on them. They were so cute.

Here is a shirt the Cameron, Rena and Maleah gave her. Perfect fit!!!!!

Jim, Marilyn and Alex watching Megan open her gifts.

She picked to have funfetti cupcakes so I baked them up and she had Mike bring her most of them to school for her friends at lunch and we took the rest to dinner with us. They were very tasty if I do say so.

She also got some cards, candy and cookies from her friends at school along with some balloon's that she had to carry around all day.

I think that she had a great day. It is hard to believe how fast she is growing up. She has turned into such a beautiful young lady. I am very proud of her.

Happy Birthday Megan!!!!!

Easter

We had a great Easter around our house. We pretty much did nothing productive all day. We had so much fun out in the weather on Saturday that we just sat inside and watched it rain all day on Sunday!!!!!
Alex was the first one up. He found a basket full of summer clothes and candy that the bunny had left for him.

He decided to rest until Megan got up. She is not an early riser!!!!!

Megan finally got up and found a basket from the bunny for her also. That nice bunny bought both of them shorts for the summer. I guess the bunny knows that the sun comes out in California so they will get to wear them eventually. :)

They are all ready to do some egg hunting. We could see signs of colored eggs all over the house.

I made breakfast and we even ate at our table. Those would be two things that rarely happen around here. Alex found a whole basket full of eggs. He was a busy little bee searching around.

Some of those eggs were really easy for them to find and some were a bit tougher. They were going to give up at one point and just wait until the egg started to smell in a few days and then track it down. I pointed out that wasn't a good idea so the search continued!!!!!

They finally found all of the eggs and put them in the container so that we could make deviled eggs for dinner.

Here is a shock. We had meal #2 at our table in the same day. We don't normally even eat two actual meals around here in a day much less do we sit at our table twice. It really was a special occasion. We had lots of deviled eggs and ham for dinner and we had enough left over that we won't have to cook for the next few days. I guess that means eating at the table is out. :)

Sunshine, Eggs and a Fire!!!!!

Holy smokes it is hard to believe but we went an entire day without any rain and the temperature got clear up into the 60's. I know it's a sad day when you get so excited for 60 degree weather and get a sunburn from it but it was really nice out yesterday. No surprise that it is back to raining today but I guess we atleast had yesterday.
Look at how bright out it is and Megan is wearing a shirt with no sleeves. It was pretty funny to run our errands and see how many people were out in shorts, tank tops, and flip flops. Really, it was only in the 60's!!!!!!

We dyed our Easter eggs in the afternoon and they turned out great. The kids did an excellent job with them.

Alex made some very beautiful eggs and he wrote on all of them so that we would know which ones were his.

Megan and Alex trading colors as they finished their eggs.

The finished products. I can't wait to make some deviled eggs out of these beauties.

It was so nice out that we got a bunch of our yard work done and spent most of the day outside. It could be the end of August before we get to see the sun again so we did all that we could and then in the evening we had a fire and made smore's that were so tasty!!!!!

Alex with the BBQ stick all ready to roast something.

It was a fun day outside in the sunshine. It sure does put you in a much better mood. Good news is that I am right back to my crabby self today with the grey cold rainy weather back!!!!!