John's Birthday

John's birthday was last Friday and we had just planned to go out to eat in his honor, but John changed his mind and decided he wanted to barbecue instead. So we invited a few people over and celebrated. My plan to go shopping Saturday was postponed so I could cook & clean and get ready.

Anyway, the kids made a yellow cake (from a box, but it was a Paula Dean cake mix, so it was quite yummy) with chocolate frosting and sprinkles and decided it looked like a giant donut. Then Colten decided that's what he wants for his birthday cake, a giant donut, oh boy! John also requested a chocolate meringue pie from his mother and she was proud to show off her best meringue yet. And of course it was yummy, too. Here are the cakes, and sadly, the only pic I took during the barbecue:

Ashlyn is still busy with basketball. They had a game last night and I finally remembered my camera. She plays point guard and here she is dribbling in to start a play (number 12). They haven't won too many of their games, but she has definitely shown much improvement this year. I hope she sticks it out.

This week is finals for Ashlyn and she just had to take two this year because of her good grades and she also got to pick which two to take out of her core classes. She picked geometry and english which are both today. It's a crazy week because they only have to be at school for the finals they take, but still have to check in at 8:30am for attendance and she still has basketball practice. We've been having to find stuff for her to do so John doesn' t have to drive to towns 3 or 4 times a day. Craziness! Yesterday she helped out one of her friend's moms who is a teacher and then had basketball practice. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Then Friday she doesn't have to go at all, but Colten has a play at 8:30am so she'll still be there since we're all going to the play. I took Friday off so I can go shopping after the play, but Ashlyn then has a game in Burnet in the evening so I haven't figured out what all we'll be doing... ACK!

I should have most of the holidays off. Planning to take 1/2 days for the first 3 days next week and then be off through New Year. Things are busy at work so I might have to sneak off to a wifi hot spot to check on things occasionally, but that's better than working all the time :) (which unfortunately is still possible, but I hope not.......)

I'll try to post pics of Colten's play, but if I don't get to it, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year and hopefully we'll see around during the holidays!

Food Show

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Ours was nice, and the aggies won so that was a bonus :)

So we have another food show under our belts. We made the trek to Abilene again and without any tragedies this time, thank goodness. Colten didn't place, but he ended up in the category with the most contestants - 19! And Ashlyn got 5th in her category, so she was happy. We knew one of her judges and she let us in on some things for her to work on for next year. There's some tough competition!

Here's the Mason crew:


Ashlyn has been busy playing basketball lately and they finally won their first game last night which happened to also be be the first night Rena and Omie & Opie could come to one of her games. She was happy.

Colten's 2nd Buck!

Yay sausage!

Halloween

Things have been so crazy lately, I was really not looking forward to Halloween this year, especially it being on a Sunday. Which is the night I try to go to bed early for Austin the next day and this time happened to be the night I had to turn in the popcorn orders for our pack. It turned out I had plenty of time to do this, though, because Colten got one of his headaches, and as hard as he tried to tough it out, we only lasted at the fall festival about 10 minutes before we needed to call it a night. He was very upset to miss out on all the fun. Ashlyn and Rena (she was visiting for the weekend) stayed a little longer, but it was a pretty uneventful night.

Here they are before heading to town - Ashlyn the hobo and Colten the ninja:


Ashlyn has started basketball, so we are getting busy with that. Before it gets too busy, the kids and I are heading to College Station this weekend to visit Rena and let John have a hunting weekend.

Golf

Colten took golf lessons this month and they had a tournament yesterday. I tried really hard to get there to watch, but made just in time to see them finish. Here are the contestants at the final hole:

They are going to continue giving lessons and Colten likes it a lot so he'll probably keep going. He didn't want to do baseball or football or soccer, so hopefully he likes this!

Food Show

Quick update - food show went well and everyone won 1st place, yay!!!! Colten was the only one with a beef dish (frosted meatloaf) so he won the $25 beef award from the Hill Country Cattle Women. Ashlyn made risotto with mushrooms and Jayde made a tomato-basil finger snack. Everyone's food was delicious and got rave reviews. Now on to district in Abilene Nov 20th!

Camp Sol Mayer

This past weekend, we went to Camp Sol Mayer for their Cub Scout Horsemanship camp and this time we spent the night there. It was a wonderful time with perfect weather. Couldn't ask for better. Colten got to fish and ride a horse and shoot bb guns and play and was pretty much in heaven. Ashlyn got 5 hours of volunteer work in (out of the 30 she needs to graduate) by running one of the activities that they had there. She was in charge of broomstick polo and had to show the boys what to do and then have them play a game which she had to participate in if there was an uneven group. She was worn out after that, but I was super proud of her for sticking it out.

Here are some photos from the weekend.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=285571&id=755340907&l=09741f8e6a

We were fortunate enough to have our county food show moved from this past Sunday to next Saturday. I was so glad, because I was not looking forward to cooking after getting back from camping and unloading everything. Colten will be making Frosted Meatloaf (meat loaf with a layer of mashed potatoes on top) and Ashlyn will be making Risotto (Jill's recipe:) ). Wish them luck (even though they and Jayde will likely be the only ones competing and will all be in different groups, automatic 1st place for everyone! lol).