Thanksgiving

Tiffani decided she wanted to make her next cupcake creation as a surprise for our Thanksgiving Dinner at Grandma J & Grandpa Ron's. The plan was to have Brianna & Tiffani go out early and help make dinner, but we made dessert at home the night before. Tiffani picked the "Corn on the Cob" cupcakes because Grandma J has this thing about adding corn to stuff. In planning the menu we also mentioned that we'd like beans or corn for a vege and Grandma J told Brianna that since she preferred corn on the cob it would be probably be beans instead. But that "sealed the deal" on Tiffani making her cupcakes for this dinner! Let me tell you, finding yellow jelly beans is not easy! WinCo had jelly beans in bulk & some single colors but not yellow. Tiffani & I ended up at the mall at a candy store to buy several colors of yellow jelly beans. Bought WAY more then we needed (wish I would've known that, because they were expensive! but oh so worth it). And of course the candy store is right next to the pretzel place so we had to get a pretzel, too. :-) We ended up getting 4 shades/flavors of jelly beans - popcorn (white spotted ones), then there was lemon, pineapple, & pina colada. The salt & pepper is sugar & crushed chocolate sprinkles. The butter is a yellow starburst. And of course, corn cob holders to complete the look.

We did have pumpkin pie, too. And most of us ate both....!

Tiffani also made the cupcake batter from scratch. It was really thick & good.

"Another picture? Really!?" Putting on the corn kernels.

The completed cobs. Only made 5. That was time consuming putting on the jelly beans, I mean kernels. ;)

Grandma J loved them. While setting the table for dinner, Tiffani found a corn cob plate, so we had to present one to Grandma J on it.

Tiffani also made the table pretty by folding flower napkins for us all. Thank goodness there was only 6 of us!

After dinner she made a tiny one out of paper.

Tiffani's latest creation

Tiffani got a new cupcake decorating book and picked her first one to try Sunday. She made Aliens to bring to yearbook class tomorrow. We had to make a few substitutions because we couldn't find chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the eyes (she used mini chocolate chips) and black string licorice for the antenna (she used pretzels). We had a few "fatalities" while dipping, the head part fell into the frosting... But 22 of 24 survived! It turned out pretty cute for an alien invasion. We'll see what yearbook staff thinks of them...

Upadate: Yearbook staff devoured them... :-)

Making the heads stick to the bodies...

All ready for the freezer to set...

Dipping, to give the finished coat. This was one of the fatalities... as soon as I snapped the picture its head fell in the bowl!

Giving them eyes and antenna. AND, the bag of cookies in the background she baked up on Friday after school. Good stuff!

The finished product. Looks good Tiffani! :-)

Concessions weekend

I'm not sure if the final concessions was a good one or not, but I'm glad the stress of it all is behind us (Les!) now. It takes a lot of his time and commitment from kids that wasn't happening, to the point that I went and helped out this last game because he was short handed. So he called it quits - except to help another person get started if they find someone else. It was fun. It was crazy busy most of the time. It was freezing cold (I'm pretty sure!). We were in the shade and it was breezy. I got to stand in the sun while the kids set up, but take down the sun was going down, too. We got to the stadium just after 10am and left just before 6pm. I snapped a pics with my phone so not high quality, but at least it gives you an idea where we were & what we were doing! And what the girls & Les (& other kids) have been doing the last 4 years! It is on the north end of the stadium closest to the river.

This is the jumbo tron that we can catch glimpses of the game on when it's not busy. We were set up just across the track from it where the white tent is.

We worked from both red trailers and the grilling of hamburgers & hot dogs was done in the middle.

The two silver containers are for the hot chocolate. Les thinks we sold maybe 100 gallons of hot chocolate! Brianna is getting the stand ready to open. I don't even have a guess as to how many cups I filled!!

The bleachers behind our stands. I think this is where most of the customers come from for our trailers. I got a kick out of the people on the top row - as soon as they were allowed in, they raced up there and then taped their blankets to the seat and then came down to get food & drinks!!

There is a tiny speck of a plane at the top corner of the Bronco trailer. That is the newly painted Horizon plane in Bronco blue & orange. It flew over before the game started.

This large grassy area is covered with trailers, tents, people, pets... (we saw a llama & the BSU bronco back there) all way before the game started - at 10 when we got there it was pretty packed - all for tail gate parties. This picture & the next were taken after the game & people had started clearing out already.



The BSU pickup - that is one bright orange pickup!!!

Water Marbles

Costco dishwasher soap bucket. Water was half way full, the beads didn't even cover the bottom. This was after soaking up all that water & some of the marbles are taken out all ready, too.


And now just a little picture post of some fun thing we found at the craft store. They are called water marbles. They come in tiny bead form. Soak them in lots of water for 6 hours & you get water marbles. They are great fun to play with and the bounce! You can dry them out, they will shrink back to tiny beads and then you can watch them grow all over again! Each of us girls had to take a baggie of them to school/work and they got played with a lot! Great sensory item. :)

Windy night

The night the girls were all over here "working on the quilt" it was really windy. Didn't think too much of it because we were so busy. But we came downstairs to start dinner and saw this pot of dirt (minus the pot) out the back door. You can see all the rain on the house too. I think it was raining just as hard as the wind was blowing!


We had to search the backyard for the pot which was on the other side of the house by the garage. The drain pan for it was half way down the backyard.

The two chairs which are normally right outside the door on the left, were picked up and sat down upside down, side by side, behind the grill on the right!

The Quilt

The quilt went from a discussion about what the girls could do for Melissa, to an idea on paper that got changed around a few times, to finally, the finished product. Brianna, Cassie, & Tabbi picked out the fabrics. The girls each decorated a square. We printed the pictures from Vallivue on fabric paper that you run through your printer. Brianna traced the saying & title on separated squares. Brianna did most of the sewing on it. Brianna, Tiffani & I tied it. A lot of work & time went into the quilt but Melissa really liked it.

The craft room picture is when Cassie & Tabbi come over the help Brianna with the quilt... They were giving moral support while Brianna did the sewing... Cassie made a candy bouquet for George (Melissa's husband) and Tabbi wrote out her birthday invitations. Tiffani would pop in & join us now & then, but she was busy working on her own candy kiss bouquets (in secret while all three of the seniors were in the next room!).

Senior Night

The final football game of the season was on October 30th. Football seniors were recognized before the game and Marching Band seniors during halftime, after the performance. It was also the night before Halloween so the band was allowed to dress up as they wished. The colorguard chose to wear their uniforms. All seniors were given a little bag with candy, bubbles, & a black & gold balloon. Tiffani also wanted to make something for the colorguard seniors which is (Brianna, Tabbi & Cassie). She practiced her candy bouquets & made hershey's kisses trees. They turned out great (wish the pics weren't so blurry!).

DIII at BSU

10/24 The final competition of the Marching Band Season is the DIII Festival on the blue turf at BSU. It is usually very cold and I personally hate the stands - very high & steep! I get there and stay there, cuz if I go down for something I'm not going back up again until next year!! :) You'll see in the pictures one of the view from the stands - one of the best parts of being that high. The other good part about being that high is actually seeing the bands & their formations and things like that while they are marching. You don't really get to see that from the stands at high school football fields. So despite freezing, it was a good day, and Kuna took home a 4th place win.

Vallivue Marching Competition

On 10/17, Kuna participated in the Vallivue competition. They brought home a 3rd place win again. Here's a few random pictures from their performance. Each year at the Vallivue Competition there is a photographer taking pictures of all the bands. Les got a few snapshots of Kuna Band and the Colorguard.

No pictures... but the following Monday on the 19th, Kuna participated in the Ontario Festival. This Festivial is not a competition and is a just for fun, practice in competition format kind of a show. So every one got an "award". This year the theme was video games and Kuna's award was the "Super Mario Brothers Award". They did give out a trophy to the overall best, so there was a bit of competition going on - but it is mostly a "for fun" event.