A Valentine's Birthday!

First I need to put up this picture.  The girls gave Josh a "Heart Attack" and it was so cute!

 And then to Delaney's birthday!  She wanted a lemon cake with "fun" frosting. This was suppose to be coral colored.  

She was quite pleased with it.  I added citrus flavor to the frosting and it was mighty tasty!

A silly Rylee.

And Delaney is very excited to finish cake and move on to presents. 

Oh yeah.  She was happy with the presents! 

Marian was unenthusiastic.  Just kidding.  She really wasn't.  She just didn't want a photo.

 Callie is just pretending she doesn't want a picture.  She really loves it!  (Ha ha, that's a total lie.  She hates it.)

Josh is happy to be there.  He's so cool.

Delaney had a good birthday. She was well spoiled and loved it!

And she loved these silicone CTR rings she got from her grandparents.

Pizza in the Sky

 Calla and I went on an adventure up to Nago. We had grand designs but ran out of time.  We did make it to Pizza in the Sky though.  Apparently it is on the Foodie must-do list.

However, you drive 90 minutes north and up narrow streets like this to the top of a mountain.

Eventually you arrive here.  However, how do you know you have arrived?  There is nothing in English to notify you, apparently you have to know or trust the GPS.

 This is why it is called Pizza in the sky.  This is the view from the back of the place.  And it has seating out there to enjoy the view.

I will agree that it is a spectacular view.

This was the menu. 

My mango juice came in this giant soup mug. Which would have been awesome if it had been filled to the top.  Alas, it was barely half full.

This was the pizza.  Fire cooked crust, Japanese cheese and other toppings.  Not bad.

But also not amazing.  So Foodies, you can keep your secret, up the mountain, hard to find, mediocre food. I'm happier to go to Pizza Hut and eat much cheaper pizza without having to drive 90 minutes.

A sad story

An odd thing happened.  We ran out of eggs on a Sunday evening just as we were getting ready to make cookies.  I know, a tragedy. And I could not figure out how that happened, since I was quite certain that I had just purchased a carton of eggs on Friday.  But there were no eggs at all in the fridge.  We begged and borrowed from the neighbor and I supplemented with powered eggs and we made delicious cookies.  But still, I was puzzled as to how we went through an entire carton of eggs so quickly that there were none by Sunday evening.

The mystery was solved when I went to the commissary on Monday. Let me mention how much I love the reusable bags.  I have been known to not go shopping if I haven't got my bags with me.  I hate having to lug 500 plastic bags from the car, so I must have my lovely reusable bags to  buy groceries.  I have my main bag that holds all the other bags.  You know it is my main bag because it has a caribeaner clipped to the handle so I can hang it on the cart handle.  

I cruised through the commissary and got my cart filled with groceries and went to check out.  As I was lifting my main bag of bags onto the conveyer belt, I thought it felt a bit heavy to be holding nothing but bags.  I lifted the pile of bags up and lo and behold, there was a smushed carton of eggs underneath the bags.  Oops.

The mystery was solved!  Apparently the bagger had put the eggs in that bag, and left the unused bags in there with them.  The bags flopped on top of the eggs and I didn't realize they were in the bag and they sat there for a week all squashed.  There was quite a mess at the bottom of the bag.  And it was quite awkward having to ask for some paper towels to wipe off the bags before putting them out.  

So that was my sad story.

Okuma Retreat

 Our Relief Society managed to get 21 women to make the 90 minute drive to Okuma for a Women's Retreat.  20 of them spent the night and one drove up Saturday morning.  We ate and chatted and played games on Friday and Saturday there was yoga on the beach, except I don't yoga, so I strolled and lad a lovely time on the beach.  We had a life coach come and give a class on how to look at your life and how to pick one achievable goal to improve ourselves. It was a great event.

This was the selfie I sent to Dan when he asked how it was.  It was raining most of the time, with a perfect break for the yoga outside! And the rest of the pictures are of the lovely beach.

Semester Award Ceremonies

I got to attend 4 different award ceremonies for the older 4 to celebrate their academic achievement.  Yippee.  I went, I clapped, I enjoyed my children's success.

The middle school does a fantastic job of making sure the parents can get a photo of their kids.

 And I guess middle-schoolers do a better job of cooperating!

Some with more enthusiasm than others.

 Plus, the middle school has smaller numbers of kids, and they break them down into manageable groups. (Callie is on the very left end.)

 Callie and her good friend, Sofia.

And she is not thrilled I made her stand for the photo.  

The high school did a dreadful job of situating the kids for photos. Stacking the kids in front of the stage on risers made it impossible for anyone with a last name at the bottom of the alphabet to get a clear photo.

But they were spectacular at moving quickly through the names and getting it done.  I did not get any decent shots of Marian.

 I forgot that Josh's AP classes are weighted differently, so it was a pleasant surprise to see he had a 4.0 GPA.  

And I didn't get much better photos of him.  After the Award Ceremonies were over, both of them bolted out fast enough I never saw them again.  Sigh.But they are still marvelous and I love them.