Eliza's Janesville Prom, April 28th, 2012

Eliza's last prom!!!

Eliza and Hannah getting all beautiful at Hannah's house! Aren't they gorgeous?

 It's become a tradition at Janesville for all the kids going to Prom to meet down by the river for group pictures before the grand march and dance. Here's Eliza with most of the Senior guys.

It was freezing cold and all the girls were shivering! Drew gives Eliza a hug to warm her up!

 Eliza with her date, Jacob. Just friends!

Eliza with some of the Senior Girls.

Eliza & Jacob at the Grand March. Funny story... It was so crowded, I was way off to the side as you can see by the angle of the picture. Eliza and Jacob didn't see me, so as they started to walk away, I yelled, "Eliza...Over here!!" Everybody laughed. I was the first parent to yell at the kids to look at me for a picture. A few other parents did it after me! Eliza was very embarrassed, but they did look at me. Unfortunately, my camera took too long to take the picture and they had already turned away by the time it took. Needless to say, I was furious, but I wasn't going to yell at them again. Oh well...

For my siblings who went to Janesville School...The above picture is taken in the new cafeteria, which has a very high ceiling (remember how low the ceiling in our cafeteria was!) and this (see the picture below) is the balcony, or walkway, overlooking the cafeteria. Basically, this balcony is what used to be that narrow hallway we took every day with Mr. Gifford's and Mr. Stufflebeam's classrooms on one side and Ms. Blair-Broeker's and Mr. Johnson's classrooms on the other side, with the science room at the end of the hall, if that makes any sense. It's hard to explain! The school is so different! I want you all to come see it! Anyway, so in this Grand March, the kids posed in front of the back drop, exited the cafeteria, went up the stairs and then proceeded down the balcony until they were all lined up along the balcony. It was really quite cool!!

Eliza and Hannah at the dance. They are just SO cute!!

Eliza's Waverly Prom, April 21st, 2012

Eliza went to the Waverly Prom with her best guy friend, Andy, and her best friend, Megan, with her boyfriend, Travis, and some other Waverly friends. They had a great time!

Getting ready at our house. Check out Meggy-poo's shoes! Her date wore a matching pair.

Crazy Eliza!

Eliza & Andy outside our house. It started raining (just a sprinkle) right when we started taking pictures!

Travis, Megan, Eliza and Andy at the Waverly-Shell Rock High School.

Beautiful Girls!

Bare feet & Chucks! Aren't they adorable?!!?

ELIZA'S 18TH BIRTHDAY!! April 27th, 2012

To be honest, Eliza's 18th Birthday party was pretty lame, I'm sad to say. We were both so inundated with graduation stuff, we just didn't have the energy or time to do much more. I guess her open house will have to count as her big party this year! On her birthday, we went to...guess where?! Sakura. For the third time in like 6 weeks! Sadly, we didn't get a picture at the restaurant. But the food was great and it was fun as always. After dinner, we went back to the house and had cake and Eliza opened her gifts. I was determined to find her a gluten-free cake and I found this cute little ice cream cake at WalMart! Yay for WalMart! 

 
Eliza's gives her best friend, Hannah, a big hug after opening her gifts...

She gave her a bunch of gluten-free stuff. How cute is that?!

Amanda gets a big hug after opening her gift, which was Season 2 of the TV show House. 

Eliza with Grandma and Grandpa - what a precious picture! She had just opened their card, which of course, contained muy mula (much money)!!

Eliza opens her gift from her Dad and I. Just a little glimpse into the action during the birthday party!

I didn't get any pictures, but Eliza also got jewelry from Nana, Aunt Julianna and Aunt Jenni, money from Aunt Lauri & Uncle Matt, and of course, her amazing trip to NYC (which was also a graduation gift) with and from Aunt Tammy and cousin Heather! I believe Tammy and Heather also got both the girls Itunes gift cards and probably more that I can't remember. Like Amanda, she felt VERY loved!

I can't believe my baby is now considered an adult! It's just weird and seems so unbelievable. Where do the years go?

Amanda's Pops Concert April 26th, 2012

Amanda has the coolest band director ever!! She is just the coolest person - all the kids LOVE her and she has really brought Band back to life in Janesville. For this Pops Concert, she had a projector playing clips from a movie as the band played a song from the movie. Some of the movies they did were Harry Potter, Pocahontas, Saving Private Ryan, The Incredibles, and Forrest Gump. The Saving Private Ryan one made me cry almost instantly even though I've never even seen the whole movie! These videos do not do this little band justice. They sound SO great!! The videos are pretty short - the first one is from The Incredibles and is under 2 minutes, the second is from Pocahontas and is 1 minute long. In The Incredibles song, Amanda & the guy next to her have a pretty sweet snare part about 42 seconds into the video. It is really really cool! (In my opinion). That guy next to her (you'll see him up close better in the next video) is one of Eliza's best friends, Drew. You might recognize him from her 16th birthday party and you will see him again in prom and graduation pictures. He and Eliza's other best guy friend, Andy, dropped out of band after Junior High because they didn't want to go to Waverly. But Amanda's band teacher, Mrs. Limyao, talked them in to joining band this year. Amanda had so much fun drumming with Drew this year! It's too bad he waited until his Senior Year to re-join! Anyway, hope you enjoy these videos! My girl is so talented! I mean, she's been practicing to play the drums since she was old enough to drum out rhythms with her fingers on any hard surface she could find!

AMANDA'S 15TH BIRTHDAY!! April 8th, 2012

Our family has found a new favorite restaurant. We went to it for the first time for Tim's birthday and loved it so much both the girls wanted to go back for their birthdays. It's called Sakura - it's one of those Japanese restaurants where the chef cooks it in front of you and throws knives and does all sorts of tricks. It is really fun and most importantly, the food is FANTASTIC!! So here we are with Mom and Dad for dinner, stuffed to the rafters and happy!! After the dinner, we went to see Wrath of the Titans. Awesome movie!

15th Birthday Cake, made by Grandma. What would we do without wonderful Grandma? Amanda looks so grown up...just one more year til the dating begins!! Yikes!

Blowin out the candles. I wonder what she wished for...my guess is a date with Channing Tatum or Chris Pine.

I wanted to get Amanda clothes for her birthday cuz that's what she had been asking for, but I didn't want to pick them out. So, this video will show what I did instead...

Here she is in her awesome new outfit. Doesn't she look GREAT?

Amanda and Bruva George reunited! (You all remember Bruva George, right? Her pretend monkey friend!)

Amanda with all her dough! She had a lot of fun shopping with it.

Nana made her this beautiful necklace. She is so talented!

...And this wonderful necklace and bracelet were from Julie. Amanda always loves getting the beautiful jewelry Nana and Julie make.

Grandma Jane & Grandpa Tim and Aunt Lauri & Uncle Matt gave her money, Eliza got her a book, she got some really cute gifts from some friends, Aunt Jenni made her a bracelet which she gave to her when we were in Maryland, and Tammy and Heather took her shopping when they came out for Eliza's graduation, which you will see pictures of in a future post. (I hope I didn't forget anyone...if I did, I'm SO sorry!) Amanda had a great birthday and felt really spoiled, but mostly just really loved!!!