September 2013

Homecoming was the theme of this month, as well as M's birthday. We started the month running preparing for the big homecoming dance. I was pulled in by E as the parent adviser. I didn't realize that meant meeting every week or more as well as several calls and texts. The biggest thing was pulling a huge 12 hour weekend to build a volcano, jungle and tunnel to fit "The Incredibles" theme. It turned out really well, the best that the school has ever had, which says a lot for E's leadership and dedication. She did an outstanding job! M even had a hand in it as this is his first year with student government. The pictures of the Pixar characters are from some of their showdown events, which the freshman won over the sophomores ( a school first!) and the seniors won over juniors. Both the kids were pretty happy at those outcomes!

Speaking of student government, B was selected to be her class representative as well. That makes all three of our kids involved in that process. B was so proud to join and be just like her older siblings.

As for the actual Homecoming dance, E went with a good friend from church, who asked her. He surprised her with balloons and she replied by tagging his truck. She had a fun night on a double date, despite the crazy amount of rain we received (even flooding the doors of the school!). The mask was the ticket. They went to Outback and then the big dance.  Since we were on the planning and decorating we actually got to go to the dance as well.  It was very different from my dances in high school.
 

 
M went with a group of friends. He was asked to go by several girls. There was one in particular that wanted him to ask, but he has learned his lesson and is waiting to do any kind of dating thing till he is 16. He also went to Outback, so he and E got to see each other there.
 
E had her annual spaghetti dinner for choir. She sang in a quartet with one of my piano students. They did my student's mash up of Moonlight Sonata and Adele's Someone Like You. It turned out awesome! It is strange that that was E's last one of these. Time is passing way too quickly this year.

M turned 15 this year (I can't believe that!) and instead of wanting a mellow game night with friends, chose to have a big party. We followed the Who Dunnit? theme from the show this last summer. He likes all things mystery and Sherlock Holmes, so this was a modern way to pull it off. I made martini glasses that said Who Dunnit? on them with splashes of blood. We served mocktails with Dum Dum lollipops as the olives in Sprite. The soda changed to the color and flavor of the lollipop, which was pretty cool. There was all kinds of food for the mocktail party and then E was murdered! We set up a scene in the bathroom upstairs and I took the picture and showed it to the guests. They had to divide up in three groups and choose which place they would go: the last known whereabouts, which had the clue of the vials of flowers extracts, including hemlock; the crime scene, which had the clue of the glass; and the morgue which had E in it as the dead body. She did great just lying there, but the kids would hardly look at her and didn't pick up the clue of the mouth. From there they got a riddle that they had to unscramble seven different flower names and then the first letters would tell them the clue, hemlock. At the beginning of the party we had the kids pull out an occupation and pin it to their backs. They had to guess who they were with yes or no questions and then pin it to their front. The murderer was the one who pulled out botanist. M was a boxer and we had all kinds of things, even a guy who was a hairdresser. We recorded their guesses and played them for everyone. Those that guessed the botanist, with hemlock in the drink won a 100 Grand Bar. It was a fun party and definitely a more mature one. Now we just have to plan next year's big 16. He decided that he wants the big party instead of the smaller cool experience, so I have to change what I had planned.

The rest of this month has been filled with lots of football with M playing the first string center position and guard, the Hawk Hussle at B's school (which E did with B) and building the forever taking deck.


 
We did manage a night out to a Hawaiian show with my parents and sister's family. My brother has also been visiting here off and on and so he was able to go too.

I wanted to include some of the photos that E took in her class.  They are of M and B and won her extra credit points and a place on the teacher's photography blog.  Maybe a new talent is surfacing?!
 
It was a crazy month that flew by. I really hope this year doesn't speed by so fast that we can't enjoy it!