Strawberry Fun

Each year the Village of Arroyo Grande hosts the ever popular Strawberry Festival. Thousands of people come from all over to enjoy none other than the infamous little red fruit. If you can make it with strawberries...they have it!
Bubba and I spent one day walking around with friends checking out the different vendor booths. Of course, we HAD to sample the food there!! The next day, Bubba and I spent doing a community outreach program with our church. Since our church is located in the village, our services were moved to Sunday night and lots of us signed up to pick up trash during the festival. While its not the most glamorous job in the community service world, we were definitely out there being Jesus with skin on to those who were visiting!

Bubba and Camron take a moment to pause for the camera! Nice smile Camron!



Do I dare ask what was in that tall fruity drink???

Coach's Award

One of the highest honors an athlete can get is to receive the "Coach's Award". Just as its name states, this is an award specially chosen by the coach. Tonight, Bubba received that honor from his Junior High Basketball Coach. Bubba showed great leadership qualities and an outstanding sportsmanship attitude, despite being one of the youngest on the team.(not to mention the shortest!)
WAY TO GO BUBBA!!

Apfelstrudel Anyone?

Thats German for Apple Strudel!
To complete Bubba's country report, he was to make (not store bought) a food that comes from his country and have it out at Open House to share and accent his Report. Mom's ony 2 rules: It had to meet the teachers criteria that way "we" got the extra credit points....and it HAD TO BE EASY TO MAKE!!! It's not like we have a ton of spare time just sitting around that I can slave over the stove for this...so easy was the name of the game!
Enter....a Clever Duck, a bike dude...and the World Wide Web. Both my boss, and the Director of the Bike Coalition (who share our office space at work) lived in Germany for well over 5 years, so their input was crucial to us gaining ideas of what to make! Google Search: German Food Recipes.....Results: Easy to make Apfel Strudel! Wala! We had it!
Supplies were purchased and we were ready to go! So Wednesday night, we peeled, sliced and cored Granny Smith apples (thanks to our handy dandy Pampered Chef little gadget!) and away we went with the fabulous "pre-made" frozen pastry dough! (LOVE the woman who thought up that idea!!...a mom's dream!)
ApfelStrudel was a HUGE hit at the Open House and I came back to an empty platter to take home!
Gute die Arbeit Bubba!! (good job Bubba)

Peeling, slicing and coring the apples ( Love the cherry drink mix mustache Bubba is sporting!)


Roooolllll the dough and stamp it with a "B"....Put it in the oven for Brandon and Me!


"Brushing it with slightly beaten egg will give it that golden brown look"


Just NOT a pastry without a sprinkle of Cinnamon Sugar on top!


Now...is that just too beautiful or what? Almost professional!

Queen for a Day

After spending an outstanding weekend away scrapbooking with the girls, (see blog below) I came home to a sparkling clean house, and my very own Tiara and Magic Wand! I was Queen for a Day...and my family was happy to oblige!
They washed my car...made me dinner.... took exceptional care of "The Queen". Of course the "magic bossy powers" of the wand ended at midnight Sunday night... but the appreciation I felt on Mothers Day will last for a long time! (that sounded like a commercial huh?)

My Thanks to the Royal Family for making this Queen feel loved!!

All Hail the Queen!!


Queen's servant boys wash her "Carriage"


The cooks work up a delicious meal fit for the Queen.

Mother's Day Cruise

What started out as a simple weekend getaway, turned into a full blown Girls Cruise! Let me explain~
Our dear friend Jan's mom owns a beautiful home in Cambria whose backyard is literally the ocean! While her mom was away, she was asked to watch Buddy...the family dog! Jan quickly assembled a group a gals to help her with her task of making sure Buddy was ok....and in the meanwhile she put together a much needed scrapbooking weekend!
With one simple cruise related question (verdict is still out on who started it!) Jan ran with the "theme" (you know how we are all about themes!!) Before we knew it, emails were flying back and forth regarding our impending "cruise" ( I could never compete with the writer Jan in the bunch!!) ...and the next thing you know we had our very own "Cruise documents"...complete with our Sea Pass card stating our room assignments!
Upon arrival, our sail away party included a Champagne fountain hosted by our dear "Cruise Director Jan". After tasty appetizers and a delicious dinner, the highlight of the evening (besides the constant laughter that was happening) was the Chocolate Fountain...which was purchased on EBay especially for our cruise!
Saturday consisted of sleeping in, yummy breakfast and the most exillerating mud bath that consisted of mud smuggled in directly from the Dead Sea. ( I can't name names of who brought it....top secret!)
We may not have been on an actually cruise ship, but you would NEVER have known it because we were treated like royalty the whole weekend...complete with the "towel animals" that cruises are famous for!

In time, I will do "digital pages" documenting the fun...but for now, I will share a few of the highlight pictures for you to try and get an idea of the fun that was had!!


THANK YOU Cruise Director Jan.....Job well done!!


My "work view"....hard to get any work done looking at that all day!


The Champagne Fountain



The Girls set sail! (Cheryl was there too...just behind the camera!)



Our favorite...the Chocolate Fountain! We discovered, ANYTHING goes with chocolate!



Jan assured us the Dead Sea Mud was good for our skin.....



Mud Queen!



Elle the Elephant! (thanks to YouTube!)

Mission Accomplished

Our Mission-should we chose to accept it, was to find Stacey a very special MOTB (mother of the Bride) dress for her daughter's upcoming wedding June 1st. We set our date, made out our plan of attack and then headed out to conquer the shopping world!
First stop: Macy's in the mall. I need to go shopping with these gals more often because within the first 15 mins, we had Stacey loaded with dresses and headed to the dressing rooms! Third dress later, we had our winner! Best part was her "perfect" size wasn't on the rack with all the other ones....but right outside the dressing room hanging on a shelf all by its lonesome! Goes to show you God cares even about the little things in life!
Next...time to accessorize! Thanks to Claire and her boutique of fine jewlery, we found accessories to compliment Stacey's fabulously PERFECT dress!
Once we had accomplished our mission, it was off to enjoy some yummy dinner (ooo garlic fries!!) and then to do some extra curricular shopping (non mission related!)
Awww...good times!! Until next time girls...Love ya!


Arms loaded...and heading in!


Wala! First store.....third outfit... we have a WINNER!!


Onto some extra curricular shopping at Target'
Let's see if these really cool jammies fit!!
But why walk all the way over to the dressing room...
let's try them on here!
Don't fall!!


Now now now Karen....didn't your mama teach you not to stick out your tongue???
By the way...jammies look fantastic!

Hume Lake Outdoor Education Camp 2008

Last week my baby boy joined his class along with several other hundred students at Hume Lake for an Outdoor Education camp like no other! They were treated to classes on reptiles, natural habit, sierra logging and physics and nature. They had activities like archery, rappelling, swimming, kayaking and lots of games. Awesome worship music complemented their chapel time. Of course, there was the good food, the occasional pilliow fight and who could forget the Ark....the place where all the junk food is stored!!
As tough as it was for mama to be away from him, I am so glad he had an outstanding time! I'll share just a few pictures that I took before they left. As soon as we get the disposable camera developed and a CD created(for mom's use of course!) I'll add to the pictures!!

Geared up and ready to go!


Can't forget the fishin gear!


Listen up! Some last minute instructions from Mr. M. before they head off!


Hume Lake or BUST!!