Teacher of the Year!

My mom has been teaching music in the La Habra City School District since I was twelve years old.  She started out without even a teaching credential, but as soon as she got hired she got to work on her own education.  She earned her California teaching credential, completed enough undergrad units to begin a Master's degree in Music Education, then earned that Master's degree.  She student taught her own job at one point.  My mom is full of energy and ideas and she's organized enough to pull it all together to accomplish great things.  

At the end of last school year she was excited to find out that she had been nominated and won Teacher of the Year for her school district.  She has gotten to do some fun things associated with this award, but one of the most fun things was this Teacher of the Year dinner.  It was held at the Disneyland Hotel and was fancy and fun and honored her accomplishments in teaching and her dedication.  I am so grateful that she is my mom and the one who taught me so much of what I know. It was such a blast to celebrate with her and see her recognized for all that she does!

We all dressed up fancy and headed to the Disneyland Hotel Friday evening.  We checked in and then got to take pictures with Mickey and Minnie while we waited to be seated in the ballroom.  The room was just beautiful.  When we got to our table we found Mom's chair all decked out with swag.  She got a cool info sheet about her and her award from the OC Register, a personalized blanket from School's First Credit Union, and a bag of other awesome swag.  Mom got to connect with the other teachers and her principal from her schools that were there and we got to know the sponsor rep at our table.

We enjoyed our delicious dinner while visiting and laughing.  The appetizer was an individual caprese salad with vinegar and oil.  I don't even like tomatoes and it was good.  The main course was an herb crusted chicken with orzo pasta and veggies in a cream sauce.  Yum.  The dessert was almost too pretty to eat, but we managed.  It was an extremely rich chocolate mousse in a shortbread bowl with pumpkin and raspberries on top and a white chocolate candy garnish with the dinner's theme on it: "Teachers Rock." Nothing is done halfway when it's Disney.  Even the dishes had tiny Mickey heads embossed on them.  It was beautiful.

After dinner Mom had to go sit with the other nominees and they started the program.  The show choir from Brea Olinda High School were the entertainment, which was fun because that's a school that is really near us and because one of the main girls in the choir is our cute friend Julianne Sexton.  Mom got her started singing in the SCCC when she was just tiny and now she's in high school and singing is her passion.  She sang a solo in the show and did amazing!

The rest of the program was presenting each nominee.  There were 56 teachers honored.  They kept it moving pretty well and mom was more towards the end so we weren't totally checked out too early.  Mom came onstage while a sound bite of her talking about her love of teaching and music played and her picture and info were on the big screen.  The Brea Olinda choir kids were escorting the teachers off the stage after their presentation and Julianne got to be Mom's escort off the stage.  So personal and fun!

After it was all over we met up with Mom for a group picture.  When we went outside the Disneyland fireworks were going so we got to watch those while we walked to our cars.  It was just such a fun, special night.  Even our group bathroom trip in the middle of the dinner was a blast. I just love spending time with my family, especially when all my sisters are together like that.  It's the best.  I missed having Ian there, but I'm so glad I was able to attend this important night.

California! (with no kids!)

Last weekend I got to sneak away for a quick California trip without the kiddos.  The main reason for going was to attend the big Teacher of the Year dinner that my mom was being honored at.  I drove down with Brad and Mel on Thursday morning.  Barely Thursday morning.  We left at 3:30am.  Yeah, it was crazy. I was kind of ok with it since I figured it would be easier to just be gone when the kids woke up, but despite being super quiet while getting dressed and gathering my stuff, Talia woke up and came out of her room.  She saw me dressed downstairs with the lights on and assumed it was morning.  She also was not happy that I was leaving.  I tucked her back in, but Ian said she still threw a tantrum when I left.  Sad.

We drove fast and made it down to CA in record time.  The drive was pretty fun. I had fun visiting and being silly with Mel.  Then I curled up in the backseat for awhile and watched Pitch Perfect on the ipad. Then we were there!

We picked up a Subway sandwich for Mom and headed straight to her school to say hi and bring her lunch.  We were pretty tired from the drive, but we powered through and got to see her new piano lab and watch her with her 6th grade chorus for a few minutes.  We drove through In N Out before going home, eating, and crashing.

I got up from my nap and showered.  It felt so good.  It was weird to be at my parents' house and not have to work around any of the kids' schedules.  Nice, but weird. Later that afternoon Mel and I went to watch Mom's choir at their first performance.  It was for the classified employees.  They did SO great!  They sounded fantastic and I couldn't believe how well behaved they were.  No one was wiggly or fidgeting.  They watched Mom the whole time.  They also looked so cute all in their black and coral. My mom is seriously such an amazing teacher.  I'm so proud of her!

Jules and Rick came over after work and Dad got us all Chinese take out for dinner.  After dinner the girls went shopping while the boys watched sports. It was a fun, productive shopping trip.  We hit something for everyone going to Nordstroms and Target. :) I got an outfit for my family pictures coming up, shoes for Mr. Beck, and a couple other things I needed.  We squeezed in a stop at See's too.

I was so tired by the time we got home that I just couldn't stay up any later.  I slept great and got to sleep in a bit too.  Friday morning I woke up to donuts on the cat!  Dad was getting ready to run errands so I threw on clothes and spent the morning running around town with him.  It was really fun.  I'm glad I got to hang out with my dad a lot on this trip.  He's one of my favorite people.

Dad dropped me off at Mom's school in the middle of the day so I could help her during her piano lab class.  It was interesting and super cool the way she has it set up.  The room is quiet and everyone wears headphones.  Mom can listen in on individual students and talk to them.  She can also have everyone listen to individual students or have everyone listen to her.  I just went around and helped out kids who were struggling or working on a new piece.

Jules picked me up from piano lab and we went home for lunch.  The Henshaw's arrived after lunch.  It was so good to see my cute nieces!  They are growing up so fast. :)  I gave Mimi her birthday present from our family.  She loved her new Pokemon cards.  They kept her and Rachel occupied for a good chunk of the afternoon.

Next up . . . Teacher of the Year dinner!

Barnyard Boo!

Before I move on from Grandma and Papa's visit, I have one last gem to share.  On Sunday after sacrament meeting we tried to get a picture of Grandma and Papa with the kids.  I hadn't seen the pictures until the other night.  I scrolled through them and was literally crying (tears streaming) because I was laughing so hard.  These pictures did not turn out.  It was just so funny.  Each picture was even worse than the last.  Here's one of my favorites.  :)

Monday was the kids' last day of Fall Break, so I thought we should probably do something fun.  Monday afternoon after we spent most of the day cleaning the house and letting babies nap, I told the kids to dress up in whatever they wanted and we would go to Farm Country for their Halloween party.
We hadn't been to the Barnyard Boo in a few years, so there was more to do than I remembered. It was lots of fun and Talia got lots of compliments on her Thor costume.  Davin went as Bumblebee ninja and Weston was the army guy.  They did pony rides (except Davin who has sat out the last few times we've been to the farm), pumpkin bowling, face painting, wagon ride, made goo at Frankenstein's lab, and more.  Good times.  I can't say enough how awesome our Thanksgiving Point pass is.

Loyal, Strong and True

We bleed blue here at the Bowles house. Ian's parents are BYU alumni as well and love the Cougars.  Jim and Denny come up to Utah almost every year to attend a BYU football game.  It's always a ton of fun.  Denny barely made it this year.  She flew into town last Saturday morning.  We went out to lunch at In N Out, then got ourselves ready for the game.  

Talia and Beckett stayed home with a babysitter while the rest of us went to the BYU v. Georgia Tech homecoming football game.  I was worried it was going to be cold, but the weather was perfect.  We were all fine in our t-shirts until about halftime.  Our section was supposed to wear white, so Denny made us all white sweatshirts with BYU patches on them.  They turned out really cute and the boys wore their new hats Papa bought them at the bookstore.

We had a great time cheering and watching the game.  The Cougars played a good game and won 38-20!  We ate cougar tails and hot dogs.  Davin was a super loud cheerer and liked checking out the players and Cosmo with Papa's binoculars.  A little after half time he got cold and tired.  He didn't whine though.  He just snuggled up with Grandma for the rest of the game. I am so glad we got to go to a football game this year.  It was such a blast!  Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Jim and Denny spent Sunday morning playing with the kiddos.  We all went to church then Ian took Beckett with him and dropped his parents off at the airport.  It was a very fun Fall Break weekend with grandparents.  We are so glad they could come and visit!

Cornbelly's

Friday was kind of a slower day.  We relaxed in the morning.  Ian went to work and Papa went to meet up with a friend for lunch.  Later that afternoon when Ian and Papa were both home we all went to Cornbelly's for some corn maze fun.  It was a blast.  The kids could have stayed there all night.  We did a lot of fun stuff.  Bounce houses, slides (Talia loved the slides), walking through the haunted "creature," a grain train ride, pedal karts, and the corn maze.

That night we got a babysitter and the adults went out to dinner at the new Dickey's right by our house and then to the movies.  We saw Gravity in IMAX 3D.  I wasn't sure how I was going to like the 3D since I haven't seen anything in 3D except Planetarium movies in years.  But it was actually really cool.  The movie was great too.  I love Sandra Bullock and she was strong and relatable in this movie. I hope she gets an Oscar nod for it.