Blossom Festival 2012

This weekend is the blossom festival on the Square in Magnolia.  Since it is our first year as a Magnolia resident, we just had to partake in all of the festivities!

They have tons of fun things to do.  Of course there is always the parades, carnival food, arts & crafts, music, and they even have a huge steak cook-off every year!

Jason & his dad walked in 5k this year-which just so happened to be right across from the dog contest.  So while I was waiting on Jason & Bob to finish their race, of course I couldn't resist the urge to enter Maci into her first "doggy beauty pageant" (as I refer to it, because lets face it, "dog contest" doesn't sound nearly as glamorous as "pageant")

It was almost as difficult as a real pageant though.  We have been talking to Maci about it all week! Well...this morning she woke up and was very nervous! Her stomach was hurting & she wouldn't even eat breakfast.  

I got up at 6:00 am to get her bathed, brushed, & dried.   Then we had to do her hair and of course pick out the Perfect outfit-with matching hair accessories of course. 

We were totally having a toddlers & tiaras moment. 

She had a meltdown in the bathtub and didn't want to be brushed...or blow dried....maybe it was just too early in the morning for her ????

Pixi sticks...where are you????

Luckily...I had my wonderful MIL there to help me get her ready & to sew a last minute outfit mishap.

While we were waiting on the dog show to start, we stood at the finish line of the 5k waiting on the guys. 

We found Mallory, who used to work with Sandy. She ran the whole 5k! She is tough! 

Mallory & her boyfriend John after the race

Here comes Bob leading the pack!

Not even breaking a sweat

It was a true family affair...Jason's cousin Ed & Bob, but where's J?

There he is!!!

Getting ready to begin the Dog Show

Checking out the competition....

That dog looked like a polar bear. It was huge!

This dog (Sugar Bear) won lots of prizes!

Getting ready to make her debut...

And she's up...."cutest dog" contestant #1-Maci Clark

There were six contestants in her category.  There was some tough competition!

And the winner is.....

.....

Contestant #1......MACI.....CLARK!!!!

(tail wagging...panting, tail waggs some more....)

 She was pretty excited! Even the announcer couldn't keep his hands off of her. She's just so darn CUTE! :)

 Here we are with our loot! A blue ribbon & a bag of dog food.

 Maci was disappointed that she didn't win any money. She was planning on buying a cow for the backyard to play with her & Wiley (T &T joke-haha)! 

I can't wait until I have kids & can take them to the parade, face painting, and all of the fun stuff that the blossom festival has for families!  I guess until I have a little girl/boy of my own, doggy pageants will have to suffice. 

But overall she was just happy that we came out a winner! I am so proud of her & Jason today. They did so great in both of the Blossom Festival Activities. 

Right now, Jason & Maci are laid out on the couch sleeping.  They are worn out after all of their contests today.  Now we are getting all rested up for the Lost Trailers concert tonight!

If you've never been to the Blossom Festival, definitely make plans to attend in 2013! It is an awesome family activity for young & old alike.

I present to you...the class of 2012!

This has been such a busy week, full of graduations! I had three to go to this week. Bradley's was Tuesday (but I got no pics :(, then Magnolia's on Thursday, & Lafayette County on Friday.

Since I am slacking (BIG TIME) in the pic department for Bradley-I will sum it up with saying it was an amazing graduation. I will really miss this group of Seniors :(....

Some of my seniors even gave me & the counselor a card to say thanks and how much they will miss us.  Needless to say, I shed a few tears over that one! It's not every day you have a high school student tell you "thank you" for working with them. That is the only card I've ever gotten and it really meant the world to me! I am really going to miss that bunch!

On Thursday....we had Magnolia's graduation.  Jason had to work at it while I stayed behind to get Dalton's party all set up and the food out.  

Gradual pics as I was unloading food...

Wonderful cake from the Bakerman! It was amazing!

As you can see, Maci worked hard to help me set everything up.  She's eyeing that food table like she's got a trick up her sleeve...

I had to keep my eyes on her the whole time!

The full set up!

Dalton's "real" family, Michelle, Joey, & Joseph

Dalton & his Cake!

Time to dig in!

Dalton & his sweet girlfriend Morgan

Round 2!

We are so proud of our "adopted son" & all of his accomplishments!

We are even more excited that we will get to continue our "family" dinners with him since he's staying close to home.

Next up....

Senior Breakfast & Graduation at LCHS

Here at the Farm Bureau Award recipients with Lafayette County Farm Bureau Agent, Mr. Reed Camp.

Rotary Scholarship Winners

Srgt Gober brought Shawn a whopper check to pay for his college!

So proud of our SAU Scholarship recipients

There were so many scholarships & awards given out Friday that I would be posting pics all day! 

Over the last two weeks, Mrs. Jolley & I have been collecting scholarship information on all of our seniors at Lafayette County.  At the end of the day on Friday, Mrs. Jolley had totaled that the 2012 seniors at LCHS got over 1.58 million dollars in scholarships, grants, & military packages to go towards their college education & training!  

Mrs. Jolley & I were thrilled!!! 

Here are a few pics I snapped at their graduation.

Mrs. Jolley had a long list of scholarships to announce 

Patiently awaiting for their names to be called. It's hard to believe that it's been almost seven years ago since I was sitting in that seat. Sweating....and waiting on my chance to start a new life, away from my high school years.

I am so proud of all of my seniors that I've had the honor of working with this year.  It's hard to believe this school year has already come & gone.  Before we know it, August will be here and I'll have a whole new group that will be figuring our their dreams & aspirations.  

Until then...

IT'S SUMMA TIME!!!

April recap!

I cannot even believe how behind I am on our blog. April was my birthday month (which many of you know I celebrate all month long!) We have been so busy with school wrapping up, spring football, Jason's softball games, and all of the other many things going on, we have no idea where the month has gone!

A few nights ago, we left Maci in the laundry room to sleep in her own bed. When I woke up, this is what i found.  Looks like she decided to have her a mid-night snack-a-roo!  The funniest part is she somehow go;0t the bowl out of it's holder and put it on her bed.  As you can see, she left a few crumbs in the bed...Oops!

She even managed to keep a few pieces in the bowl!

In other doggie news....

Here is the newest crazy thing that Wiley has dug up from our back yard, an arrow & a dr. pepper can.

He digs up all of his goodies & brings them all on the back patio for us.  He is so thoughtful :)

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One thing I must share is this wonderful Pintrest recipe that I have made a few times and just can't get enough of.  If you are like me, I pin an incredibly large number of recipes on my boards and usually don't get around to making half of them! So....I thought I'd use my blog to help promote some of my favorite pintrest finds in the recipe sector.  I sometimes tend to change the recipes up a bit, so I will include my revisions as well!  

For all of you that are like me and have a major sweet tooth, but are constantly counting calories-MAKE THIS! You can't hardly tell the difference in the diet version & the real one.  I also tried the dt. dr. pepper version w/chocolate cake and didn't really like it, but this one with the 7 up is awesome!

As you can see...I'm sort of a messy cook!

Final product before plopping in the oven. This batter is amaze-balls! I could drink this stuff!

 Dt. Strawberry Cake

1 box strawberry cake mix

2 cups diet 7-up (add until your batter looks right)

1 box small sugar free strawberry jello

1 cup water

fresh strawberries

cool whip

Pour into greased baking sheet or cake pan.  Bake at 350 for around 15-20 minutes or until tooth pick comes clean.

Next...

Whisk jello mix & water.  Poke holes into cake & pour jello mixture over cake. Top with Cool Whip & fresh strawberries

Yumm-O!

*Not sure how many calories but it can't be too bad! 

Here are all of my wonderful birthday goodies from Jason-Flower Bomb Perfume & a new watch! He is so good to me and spoils me so much. I am so lucky to have such an amazing hubby!

Mom, dad, & Austen got me a new Hobo & Sonicare tooth brush which I am super excited about! I was thrilled to get both of those-Plus she brought me a strawberry pie, which I devoured all by myself.

I know this blog posting is all over the place and probably crazy to read, but I had a lot to catch up on.  We have a busy week planned full of graduations so hopefully I'll have a good post about that soon. 

Not much planned for the weekend-

Date night tonight, Lazy/rainy day in tomorrow, & mother's day on Sunday.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!