Graduation and Mother's Day Weekend

The Gorgeous Grad!Lizzie graduated from A&M Friday morning. She's the one walking down the stairsJosh looks like he's excited to get his diploma! His graduation ceremony was a few hours after Lizzie's.
Becky came to graduation too! I swear, Lizzie and Becky could easily be sisters. There's Leslie in the background in the flower jacket that I love!
Old Ags!!! (but still hot!)The Trouts
The Kleimans
Cassie and Lizzie with Mom and Dad
Cassie and little brother CJEven Skipper got to graduate! The day after graduation, we all spent the day together at Lake Somerville. It was incredibly hot and humid, but it was really fun to be with the whole family at once, so it was worth it! We played this fun game that was similar to horse shoes...

Tripper entertained himself (literally for hours) by trying to catch the waves. He would bite and paw at the water when the waves would reach the shore. It was really funny to watch and quite entertaining for us as well.
Lizzie with two of her roommates, Jena and Sarah. Dad and CJ
My beautiful mom
Richard kickin' back Lizzie looking cute and hamming it up for the camera
Lizzie, CJ, and Cassie behind a beautiful sunsetThis was our group shot just before leaving. I snapped this just before we got in the car to leave...it was such a beautiful sunset! Trip crashed out in the truck on the way home. He must have been really exhausted after trying to catch all those waves! And Prince Skipper crashed out on his throne in Lizzie's room that night. Lizzie and I hosted a Mother's Day Brunch at her apartment this morning and had all the Moms and babies over (and the Dads, too). From left to right is Nate (Josh's twin brother), Terry (Josh and Nate's mom), Josh, Cassie, Mom, CJ, Leslie, and Lizzie.Lizzie and I stayed up after midnight the night before preparing the food while watching my Love Boat DVD on her laptop. We had a lot of fun. We put out flowers and arranged all the presents on the bar. For brunch we served mini tomato tarts, berry salad, sausage and potato breakfast casserole, and orange juice. It was all really good, but I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of the food! I love this picture!

Fine Arts Night

My last Fine Arts Night at Shadowbriar took place last Thursday. This has been an end of year tradition at our school for the last 4 years and I hope that the next art teacher will be enthusiastic about continuing the tradition after I'm gone.

Here are the four bulletin boards where I displayed 4th and 5th grade art made this Spring. If you click on the images, you can get a better look at the individual pieces.

The other photos are some of my favorite "Artists in a Box" and the Modern Mona in an Old Navy shirt is one of my most favorites in the entire show.

Art Scopes

The third graders made "Art Scopes" in my class a few weeks ago to take on their annual trip to the Museum of Fine Arts. An Art Scope is sort of like a telescope, but it's used for looking at art. Basically, it's just a decorated toilet paper tube, but used with a little imagination, it can be a lot of fun in the museum. I went on the field trip to the MFA last week with the third grade and they were so cute with their little Art Scopes hanging from their neck and holding them like a telescope while looking at the paintings.

John at HVCCA

John poses with artist, Jonathan Messe, on Saturday at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. Jonathan was doing a performance piece that day and the two of them gave an artist's talk afterwards. This museum also happens to have one of John's paintings in their collection!

Naked cupcakes

Last weekend I made raspberry vanilla cupcakes using the Sprinkles cupcake mix Leslie gave me. The recipe I used called for a teaspoon of raspberry jam dropped into each cupcake before baking. The jam was supposed to sink into the cupcake as it baked, but since I made miniature cupcakes, my jam sort of bubbled to the top. Although the recipe didn't go exactly the way I wanted, the cupcakes still looked neat. I loved how each one was so unique. I especially love the one that looks like a big set of red lips (3 columns to the right, 3 rows down).

New York Pics of the Day

John took this is a beautiful picture of Broadway at dawn with his cell phone the other day.

When I saw John's photo, I immediately thought of this piece by Red Grooms. The two images together make an interesting comparison of Broadway.

Cassie's Green Sandals

I absolutely love these sandals!!! John saw these green sandals in the window at Nine West on Broadway and knew right away that they were made for me. Sweetie, you know exactly what I like!!! I love you!

New York Pics of the Day

John saw this ad for Xanadu on Broadway (on what I think is a trash can) and sent it to me because he knows how much I love the movie. Yes, despite it's corniness, I'm a HUGE fan of this movie. I love watching Olivia Newton John sing and roller skate in her pretty, flowy dress. The Broadway version has actually received good reviews. I reeeeeeeally want to see it! This is The Noho Star, one of our favorite restaurants. We've been there a few times for brunch, which is delicious. The first time John and I ate at the Noho Star was on Father's Day, 2006. Unfortunately, our dads were not with us that day, but I'm sure we all spoke on the phone. Maybe we'll get to have brunch with Joe, Rick, or Richard at the Noho Star one Father's Day in the future.

Amira pics

Here is Amira with her daddy, John's brother Andy.




And here she is in her new sunbonnet. This was taken yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa's house yesterday in Enid.