Melissa Was Here!

Found this on my counter one morning...

We left it there all day!

Creativity with pretzels...

Breakfast of Champions

Disgusting. I am ashamed to admit how often Andrew eats hot dogs. Now he adds chili to them. And all for breakfast....(the frosting wasn't part of it. He put that on the cinnamon bread he ate before the hot dogs.) Enjoy that teenage metabolism.....

Romeo and Juliet - HighTop Shakespeare Company

Summit School's Shakespeare play was Romeo and Juliet this year. Both Megan and Melissa got to be involved - such a great experience and so much fun for them! The entire cast had to wear high top converse shoes as part of their costumes. Thus the name - "Hightop Shakespeare Company."Megan was casted as Juliet's nurse and Melissa was Juliet's father. Most of the girls were cast in boys roles and vice a versa. Megan was one of the only girls playing a girl. To make it more fun and lighthearted (if Romeo and Juliet can be lighthearted) the setting was a hilly billy hoe down.

Lord Capulet!

Supportive audience...

Mr. Powell - this teacher has taught all the Mullin kids, from Tammy on down to Melissa. Pretty amazing. He loves Shakespeare and usually does a Shakespeare play each year at Summit. Katie and Andrew were both involved in several plays with him. Tammy had him for drama in Greenacres Middle School and the rest of the kids have had him for math.

He is one of those teachers that really make a difference - so full of personality and patience and just as silly and immature as the kids they teach sometimes.... We love Mr. Powell.

Juliet and her beautiful nurse.

Romeo and Juliet were both amazing. They just had so much fun with their roles. Juliet stole the show with his (well - her) enthusiasm.

Jenny was involved too.

We got the girls flowers to say - GOOD JOB!

Hope they remember us when they are famous on Broadway!

Church Auction

For Mutual's combined activity last night the kids did an auction. They took some test to earn points and then participated in an auction. The boys brought dinner for two and the girls brought dessert for two.

To stay anonymous and keep it fair, the boys decorated their feet and the girls decorated their hands and that is all they showed when the auction part went on....Kinda crazy. But then the kids didn't know who or what they were bidding on. Katie made a pudding pie and came up with the creative idea to put the numbers of "pi" on her hand. So mathematical! Actually, Katie was nervous to go because of the food aspect - she is so picky she knew she wouldn't like any of the dinners.

Megan made an ice cream cake and this is her hand. She was a little nervous to go because of the social aspect - she thought it sounded like a date. Obvious difference between 12 and 15.

Andrew bought a pizza and kept in warm in the oven for 2 hours - yea - real appetizing. He wore a snowboard boot only because his original idea didn't work out - we didn't have green spray paint. When the girls asked his advice for a good dessert he said - "yes." In other words guys like any dessert - yes to anything you bring!

Kennedy Comes!

Melissa's friend came for a visit this weekend. What a treat to have her stay with us for a few days. She moved to the Seattle area last June and she and Melissa have stayed in touch thru text and letters. She got tall! She went to school with Melissa on Tuesday. Fun to see everyone again.

Sweets

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yummy cookies! Creative girls. I could eat these everyday! Frosted roll out cookies are the best!

We had a happy Valentine's Day. Carol came over and we watched the Olypmics. Fun to see her and Chelsea.

A Great Day for Skiing

Even though we have yet to see cold or snow this winter here in Spokane - we took off Saturday to Mt. Spokane for a day of skiing. It was a perfect day for it! Sunshine and not too cold! It was so good to see snow!

Megan and Melissa skied with us. Andrew took off to the snowboard terrain park and Katie stayed home. Her knee injury from soccer is still keeping her from going all out - and to be honest, she doesn't love skiing.

We took turns riding with one another on lifts.

I borrowed Katie's bright pants. "Stylin' Mom" But Dad's pants are brighter! It was actually a great thing because I could pick him out on the mountain so easy! We never got separated!

We met up with Jenny and Jayna with the Ward family at lunch so we skiied with them the rest of the day.

Dave Ward used to be our home teacher. He is a great skiier - so nice and patient with the girls. His two daughters Brianna and Cassidy are Megan and Katie's age.

Andrew tagged along with us after lunch too.

But not for long - he was gone...

Actually we shared a chair lift ride...

We took a chair lift ride to the top of the mountain and then hiked up to the Vista house - a little stone cabin on the top. We enjoyed hot chocolate and a warm fire....

Outside the cabin are some big rocks on a steep cliff side. The kids were jumping off into the snow. Andrew put on his snow board and did a front flip off the rocks and landed it on the face of the slope below and boarded off. It was very cool!

I caught a pic of him upside down - all you can see is lots of powder...

Another kids there actually took a video with his phone and was supposed to email it to me. I hope he remembers to do it.

Notice the girls are making a star with their skis. Shortly after this, Megan skiied in the powder through the trees. She was having fun until she ran into one....

It was a great day for skiing. My legs are feeling it today. Lots of Advil.....

High School Days - STINKY SNEAKER

This week was the big basketball game between rival high schools - Central Valley and University High School. I remember Tammy being involved in all of this stuff. Katie and Andrew both went to the big game down at the Spokane Arena. Showing their high school spirit with their Stinky Sneaker shirts...

This is the only year Katie and Andrew will be in the high school together. It is fun to see them share a little bit. Tammy gave them all her old T-shirts from the Battle of the Bone tournaments and Stinky Sneaker games. They are so creative each year coming up with themes. I will have to take some pics and do another post just for the memories. Katie loves the old t-shirts and wears them to school. She gets great comments about them. "Hey where did you get that awesome shirt?"