Mission Trip Send Off

We sent Hayley off on her first mission trip yesterday.  She and twelve of her friends from her youth group have been working really hard this year preparing for this trip.  They headed off for Salem, Oregon to a sort of training camp for the first three days of the trip and then they are headed up to Portland for the rest of their nine day mission trip.  They are going to be working with an organization called YWAM (Youth With a Mission) which is a Christian missionary organization whose goal it is to "know God and to make Him known".  One of the neat things that they are going to be doing this week is working with another organization called BridgeTown Inc.  The kids will be helping them with their Night Strike.  Night Strike is a unique opportunity for people to gather under the Burnside Bridge every Thursday night and love people because people matter. It’s an opportunity for members of Portland’s homeless community to hang out, enjoy a hot meal, receive a free hair cut, shave, have their feet washed and have their old shoes/clothes/sleeping bags replaced. Hayley and the other kids in her Youth Group will have the chance to share in the experience, help serve the needs of the homeless in that community.

The obligatory silly shot!

Hayley and Madison with their respective "lovies", Boo and Rosebud.

We are so proud of Hayley.  It's only been one day, but the house seems so quiet without her!  She'll be gone for nine days with no communication with us at all!

Northwest Folklife Festival

We've had such a fun Memorial Day weekend!  Saturday was spent at the Olympic Sculpture Park, Sunday we had a backyard bbq with a couple of other families and Sunday I took BFF's, Hayley and Savannah, to the Folklife Festival at Seattle Center.  I hadn't been to this festival since well before Hayley was born!  It was so much fun (especially because it was forecasted to rain and it turned out blue sky beautiful!)... just wish we had a few hundred to spend on all of the amazing vendor booths!  Hayley wanted something from each crafter!  Ah well, there's always next year!

Hayley and Savannah posing with their new headbands.  They also bought sarongs and Hayley got a new
'hippie chick' handbag.

There were tons of amazing performers (mostly musical) literally every few hundred yards apart!

Concerts were going on all day at many, many different venues. 
I think we all agreed that the Indie Stage was our favorite.

I guess it's been awhile since I've been to the Seattle Center because there is now
an amazing new feature:  Chihuly Garden & Glass.  The girls and I didn't go in because
there was a fee that we weren't planning on spending.  Maybe next time because it looked amazing! 

We ended the day in Wallingford at Molly Moon's Handmade Ice Cream.  They were voted 'Best Ice Cream'
by Seattle Magazine last year, so of course, we had to try it!  Savannah had Salted Caramel (deeelish!), Hayley had Balsamic Strawberry (yumm-o!) and I had the Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet (so good!).  All the ingredients
are fresh, seasonal, and hormone free.  It's definitely a place to visit this summer! 

Beauty & The Beast

Hayley auditioned for and got a small part in a high school production of Beauty and the Beast.  She's been in rehearsals since the beginning of January and the show just wrapped on the 28th of April.  The kids put on ten amazing shows over a two week period and, I believe, they even had three or four sold out shows!  This is Hayley's 6th or 7th show that she's been lucky enough to be involved with at the high school since she's been in third grade.  She's looking forward to being an 'official' high school cast member in the fall!  Can't believe high school is almost here!

Hayley putting on her silver make-up.  One of her roles was to play a mantlepiece.

The girls had to paint their own costumes.  I know they don't look great up close, but on stage they really did resemble marble.

She had one hectic wardrobe change when all of the characters turned 'Human Again'.  She had a team of friends helping her with a very quick make-up removal and costume change.

After the show posing with BFF and ballerina, Savannah, and cousins Ashlie, Cody, & Dylan.

Posing with one of her BFF's, Hailey and the character Gaston.

Posing with Babbette and LeFeu.

Posing with Beatrice and Hailey.

Posing with Belle and the Beast.

Posing with our beloved director, Mrs. Pam Cressey!

Braces Off!

After two years and five months (and so many visits to the orthodontist that I can't even count them!) the day finally arrived for Hayley to get her braces off!  To say that she was excited was a little bit of an understatement!

One last photo of Hayley just before her appointment with her braces on.

Dr. Kashner (love him!) just finished removing her braces.

One pretty, happy girl with pretty, straight teeth!

I had taken this photo the night before her appointment.  Last picture of both kids with metal mouths!

Hayley's Fifth Annual Cookie and Gift Exchange

Hayley's fifth annual Cookie and Ornament Exchange was on the 18th.  It was another fun event for the girls.  Twelve girls arrived bearing four dozen delicious cookies each.  I'm always impressed with their creativity!  The girls always start the party off with a quick game of Left, Right, Center... this year we didn't have quarters so they played with M&M's.  :)  They move right onto the gift exchange and then onto tasting and voting on their favorite cookies.  Fun times again this year!

Traditional LRC game.

Becky's darling cookies

Sarah called these 'Reindeer Droppings'

McKenna's delicious peanut-buttery cookie

Hailey made cute reindeer and some coconut snowballs.

Savannah made a different version of her cute reindeer.

Maddy A. made some supercute cookie pops.

Maddy P. made yummy Oreo Truffles.

Gabi made Harry Potter sugar cookies.  They were darling... she made all of the characters... Dobby, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Snape, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Sirius Black, etc.!  Gabi's cookies were voted (unanimously) as 'Most Creative'.

Sarah checking out Jordan's gift during the exchange.

Savannah is super excited about her gift!

Abby, Maddy & Hailey

Becky showing off her gift.

Maddy A. was hoping someone would steal her gift!

Gabi, McKenna, & Becky

Savannah & Maureen

Hayley and Mari modeling their cute gifts!

Mari won AGAIN! for 'Favorite Cookie' and Gabi won for 'Most Creative'.

Group shot of the girlies!

Crazy shot of the girlies!

  

Happy Birthday Miss Hayley!

I'm playing a little catch-up on a few events that occurred in October!  I guess working more hours at my job in addition to coaching JV swimming at the local high school really took a toll on me.  Well, I could not let the month pass by without documenting Hayley's 14th birthday.  Because I was so busy, and the fact that we are trying to watch our pennies lately, I had been trying to convince her to just have a family birthday celebration.  She was a good sport and went along with the idea, but I knew that deep down she really wanted to have a party with a few of her friends so I decided to try to pull off a surprise party.  It was awesome and she was definitely surprised and overwhelmed with emotion!  Here are some pics that captured the evening.

We went to the local Japanese restaurant for what she thought was just going to be our family birthday celebration.  Here she is doing the birthday dance while the wait staff was singing and banging the drums.

Once dinner ended it was still too early to go home, so we walked down to the local coffee house for her B-I-G gift.  She has been wanting a really nice camera and we were able to get one at a steal (she contributed for half of it)!

The look of surprise when she realized what she just got!

She was so overwhelmed that the tears started a few seconds later... :)

Cute pic of the kiddos.

Once we got home we sent Hayley upstairs.  Half of her friends were hiding in her closet waiting to jump out and surprise her.  She looks like she's upset in this photo, but really she was just crying from happiness (her words...).  She truly didn't expect anything after her family dinner celebration.

Then she went into another room and the rest of her friends jumped out and surprised her again!  So, there were more tears of joy from Miss Hay...

Sarah, Matt, Maddi, Harrison, Maddy, Hailey, Gabby, Hayley, and Savannah

Blowing out her birthday candles.  The cake was another surprise for her.  She had been asking me a few days prior to her birthday what kind of cake I was going to make her and I asked her if she'd mind if we just picked up an ice cream cake.  I usually always make homemade cakes, so I knew she was disappointed at my response, but she was trying to roll with it because she knew that I had been so busy.  She loved the rainbow layer cake!  Anyway, the evening was full of surprises and her 14th birthday will be one that she won't soon forget!