Smart Girl

The invite came in the mail for the girl's induction to her school's National Junior Honor Society:

To which I have to say, there was no National "Junior" Honor Society when I was a kid.  Anyway, I'm glad the girl met the standards for it and she was glad to be able to skip a period of school eating cake and punch in the square with her friends.

The next day, we got up at 5:30am so that the girl could meet the rest of the Academic Team to bus together for a big meet 80 miles away.  Gotta say, I dig their team shirts and their play on the popular phrase:

It's like rounds and rounds of Quiz Bowl but unfortunately, they didn't win.  She did contribute a number of answers.

Next time, sweetie!

NFL Red Zone

My cable company, Time Warner, just got NFL Network and NFL Red Zone:

OMG. Commercial-free and pretty much just switching back or simultaneously screening multiple major and/or red-zone plays. It's exciting--though almost too much. It's constantly sending me into panic mode on my picks.

Argh, I'm hooked. There go my Sundays.

Birthday fun in Charlotte

I went up to Charlotte to spend a little b-day fun with a friend and her kids.  I brought up some of the dollar-store props from the girl's photo booth for a little fun.  Princess with wacky glasses anyone?

Impressed that a 5 year old can rock a 'stache better than me:

I'd say it's a toss-up between me and the birthday lady:

I gifted my friend with doughnut baking pans and had a little doughnut sweatshop going with the kids:

Cutest workers in the doughnut factory:

Wishing my friend a sweet birthday!

Party Time

The girl had her first big birthday bash here at the house over the weekend. 20 teenagers. Wow.  What was I thinking? Trust me, future gatherings will have a LOT less kids. Fortunately, she had a couple of friends who came the day before and helped out so much in terms of setting up. After we burned a twenty at the dollar store, they decorated the front porch:

One of the oddest buys were these balloons from the dollar store that came in "assorted shapes".  Seriously, what kind of shapes are these?

We made one wall a photo booth area and set up a prop station (which you'll probably notice included more dollar store finds like the mustaches, boas, leis, straw hat, sunglasses, and a foam cowboy hat):

I loved the signs that the girl's friend made:

Obviously this friend dislikes wasted cups of soda.  My kind of girl:

They even moved the furniture around and hung balloons and homemade banners around the room:

As the kids came in, I'd lead groups of kids to the photo booth wall and some would try props and pose together.  Some really got into the props and others preferred plain group shots.  Before they left, I printed out pictures for the kids to take home.  Since the party was in the afternoon, food was simple--chips with dips and cookies that the girls made:

Good use of one of the balloon shapes, right?  Less sure about the mustache:

Some kids dug the temporary tattoos and went for a "sleeved" look:

And there were birthday cupcakes that the girls baked and frosted.  The part you don't see is after the girl blew out the candle, a cupcake got smooshed in her face.  One of her friends said it's kind of a tradition--I guess it's not just for weddings anymore!

I'm sure a lot of kids would "just die" if I posted their photo booth pics, but I do have this one I snapped of me and the girl post-party.  I think this party managed to age me ten years and ten pounds.

But the girl had a good time. Happy Birthday to my big girl!

Tonight: Watching Criminal Defense

As I mentioned on this post, tonight I'm watching the premiere of Criminal Defense on the Nat Geo channel.  Per a friend's request, I added a pic from the Franny archives for the her amusement.  Looking forward to watching it!

Put your little boy pants on and step it up

It was awesome here in SCAR as the Game Cocks beat East Carolina 48-10 with a back-up QB.  Plenty of fireworks and plenty of Sandstorm!  The funny thing about living so close to the stadium is that due to the tv delay, we'd hear the fireworks and then watch the TD happen.

But yeesh, what a painful Saturday it was for the Big Ten.  Sure Michigan State crushed 41-7...Central Michigan.  Go Spartans.  And yes, Ohio State soundly beat Central Florida 31-16.  And even Michigan pulled out a 31-25 win at HOME, over...Air Force. Yes, all wins over unranked teams.

But as much as I like rooting for the underdogs, it was pretty shocking and hard to watch Nebraska lose to UCLA and Wisconsin lose to Oregon State.  And ugh, all four of those missed FGs in Penn States their 16-17 loss to Virginia.   Not good for the Big 10.  Here's hoping next week is prettier.

It's Official

This girl:

is officially a teenager.  As you can see, she is totally excited:

For her birthday today, we took her to Drip for an awesome breakfast:

Then she was off to school which was a busy but hopefully exciting day for her.  For dinner, off to Menkoi, South Carolina's first ramen house:

The teenager still so thrilled:

Post dinner we hit Tutti Fruitti, a froyo place near Menkoi.  I loved that this froyo place offered non-dairy choices like soy peanut butter and blueberry sorbet:

And back home the girl blew out candles on treats we picked up at Cupcake:

For those interested, we got the Samoa, Strawberry, and Berry Zinger:

Here's hoping her wishes come true!