Lucy's 6th Birthday Party

Yes!  I made it through my first birthday party as a working Mom! (Everything is a milestone for me this year).  Lucy wanted to have her party at Build-a-Bear, and it turned out to be a really easy place to have a party.  She invited 8 friends and her brothers.  Max was way too cool to make a Build a Bear but Sam joined right in and made himself a turkey with a leather jacket (random). 
Did it cross my mind that it seemed a little white trash to be singing Happy Birthday to my daughter in the middle of the Valley River food court with a bunch of strangers all around? . . . Yes! 
Did I care at this point? . . .No! 
Lucy loved her party and it was really easy for me, so everyone was happy!

Lucy and her best friends . . . notice Ethan is still at the top of the list!

Lucy with her Birthday Bear! 

I still can't believe that my baby just turned six (tear!)

All of the "partiers" in the doorway of Build-a-Bear at the mall.

The theme was (of course) Princesses, and Grammy made her delicious cupcakes from scratch!

Lucy, blowing out the candles on her cake surrounded by loving family, friends, and other random people eating at the food court that day!

The Fulton Girls

Lucy with her "boys". 

Max and Sam were so happy to be a part of the Build-a-Bear fun!

Grammy and Papa were there of course, and once again they were such a HUGE help throughout the whole party.  They got everything set up in the food court for us while we were building our Bears (and other random animals).  Everyone LOVED Grammy's homemade cupcakes!  Thank You Mom!

opening presents . . .Lucy got tons of fun toys!

On the way home, Lucy said "Thank you for the fun party, I love you Mom"

I LOVE that little girl so much . . .please stop growing up!

St. Paul Auction

Chad and Teesh invited us to be guests at their table at the Auction.  It was a safari theme.  We had a blast.  It is always so much fun to hang out with all of our good "St. Paul" friends.

We all went in together to buy a "wine night" again. 

Quite a few crazy stories have come ot of our St. Paul wine nights in the past, so I anticipate another hilarious and fun time with this group!

I got my new iphone on that day.  Can you tell that I was proud of it?  I bought it with my own money from my own first paycheck! 

O'Hara Jog-a-thon

Every year our school has a Jog-a-thon, to raise money for our school.  When it is all over, they give out awards to the students who ran the most laps in each class.  Max won for his class!  He ran 39 laps (thats almost 6 miles) in an hour and a half!  He is very determined and competitive, and I could tell that he wanted to win very badly.  The student who ran the most laps in the whole school, ran 41 laps.  Max already has his eyes set on the BIG prize for next year.

. . .4th grade (most laps) winner!

Our school raised over $65,000.

. . . getting his medal in front of the whole school at the assembly.

By the way it was Free Dress Day, very exciting!

Note to my fellow bloggers...

First of all thank you for all of the great advice you gave me about my posting problems.  In doing my research on how to fix it, I came across a new posting feature.  I have been playing around with it and I think it makes posting MUCH easier once you play around with it and understand it.  Go to "settings" then click on "basic" then scroll down to the bottom and look for "updated editing options" (I think thats what its called).  Click on it and "save" it and give it a try.  (If all of you already new about this and have been using it for a year, just disregard this note and chalk it up to me being way out of the loop due to overscheduling in my life!!!)  I just thought it was cool.

The Corn Maze at Night! Scary!!!!

I left my purse at home so that it wouldn't get stolen out of the car and my camera was in it! . . .darnit!

I forgot my camera!!!! So this picture was taken on Leslie's cell phone and emailed to me. I am just glad that I have at least one picture to document this hilarious and fun evening. Some of the O'Hara teachers planned a girls night, including dinner and drinks at Cornocopia and a visit to the Cornmaze. I LOVE the people that I work with, they are so much fun! We were laughing so hard that we almost peed our pants at the restaurant, and then half of us really DID pee our pants at the cornmaze! Ha ha! It was so scary, and funny at the same time. I got chased by a man with a chain saw and only fell in the mud once! My voice is gone today from screaming and laughing. I feel so lucky and blessed to be working at a job that I really truly have a Blast at, I'm already excited to go into work on Monday and relive this fun evening with the girls.

Happy 6th Birthday Lucy!

Can my baby really be 6 years old? Seriously where does time go???!!!!

Lucy has been so excited about her birthday this year. She is all into Princesses and Barbies, a true girly girl! My mom had a family birthday party at her house for Lucy last night. Panch and Max had to leave early for Max's football game, but Mom, Sam, Lucy and I kept the party alive and Lucy was so happy to have Grammy's special homemade cupcakes.

Happy Birthday to my sweet adorable 6 year old!

Grammy got her this Disney Princess Pillow, she LOVES it!!!

Mom and I both love our little Lulu so much!

Go girl power!

Ever since my kids were little, I have been decorating their rooms while they are asleep the night before their birthday. Then when they wake up on the day of their actual birthday, their room is full of streamers and balloons and they have one gift waiting for them.



Sam and Lucy are Best Friends and always sleep in the same room every night. They decide each night whether it will be Sam's bunk beds or Lucy's bed. Last night they slept in Lucy's bed in anticipation of the Big Decoration Tradition! I took this picture while I was decorating!

There is usually a little more in the way of decorations, but the full time working mom did the best she could this year! Lucy was thrilled with the outcome and that's all that matters!

Here is the new 6 year old with her new "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" movie!

This picture was taken at 6:00am this morning before school!

I think that she had a great start to her birthday, now we have her Build a Bear Party to look forward to this Sunday. 10 little girls, 24 of Grammy's cupcakes and a Build a Bear for everyone . . .Wooo Hooo!

All Play and No Work!

When I took my new job teaching at O'Hara, the one thing I requested from my principal, was that I could still do some things with Sam at his school too. Luckily my principal said "absolutely"! Sam's third grade class has an annual field trip that the 3rd graders all look forward to. It's a trip to our local farm/pumpkin patch, but his teacher also reserves a class set of digital cameras from the school district, and they take a photography course while they are there! So . . . I took a personal day today and went on Sam's awesome field trip with him! It was so much fun, and I even learned a few things about MY digital camera!

Sam and I at Lone Pine Farms

The kids had so much fun taking pictures with their cameras!

Sam's fabulous teacher, teaching them about the "Macro Setting" on their cameras.

Look at these cool pictures that Sam took!

I think that he shows a lot of talent!

Isn't this pretty?

Sam, with his 3rd grade class!

Sam, some of his buddies and one of the Dad chaperones.

He even got to pick out a pumpkin!

My life has been a whirlwind lately, with adjusting to working full time. It was so nice to take a day to play! I even got to go to coffee with the girls at Brendas house after dropping off the kids at school this morning, before the field trip! What a fun day!

Max is still all about Football!

Just in case you are wondering what Max is up to, Football is still dominating all of our lives, Max has practice 3 - 4 nights a week for 2 1/2 hours. Then he always has a game on Sunday that goes for 2 hours plus he has to be there an hour early (so make that 3 hours). Its a really good thing that he loves it!

Standing with his team before the game.

Max is number 39 on the left side of this picture . . .

I keep threatening to tie a pink bow around his helmet, because I can never tell which one he is out there!

Brenda and I watching the game.

Thank God for nice weather last weekend!

Brenda's son Brennan is also in this picture, he is one of my 5th graders this year!

Max was team captain for this game.

I think it is so cute when they walk out to the middle holding hands!

Max is on a 4th and 5th grade team. He is a 4th grader this year, but has a summer birthday, so he could actually be a young 5th grader. His team has absolutely dominated EVERY team that they have played. In fact, Pop Warner has a rule that they can never out score the other team by more than 28 points or they forfeit. We spend most of our games trying to find ways not to score more than 28 points. Max always starts off playing on the offensive line, but after they get up by a few points, they start moving the kids around to all different positions. He is getting to try a lot of different things. Like I said, he is having a Blast and so is Coach Pancho!

Whats wrong with me?

Anyone know why My pictures show up looking normal when I am creating my Blog post, then when they are posted they are about 3 feet apart!!!!????? Call me, I need Help! It took me about an hour to post this and I still couldn't get it fixed. It makes me not want to Blog and I am already falling off the face of the "blogging world" as it is! FRUSTRATED!!!!

Kelli's 40th Birthday!

My friend Kelli turned 40, so her wonderful husband Dan threw her a Birthday Party at Ring of Fire on Friday night. It was so much fun to have a night out with friends! It felt good to kick back, have a drink (mostly Diet Pepsi) & relax now that I have a few weeks of work behind me. The only problem? I was hanging out with the parents of many of the kids many class! Is that Bad? The partying teacher!

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The O'Hara Cougars!

Amy, Kelli and I


Me and P-Man!

Mini Murray Family Reunion!

Will, Sam, Max (holding Finn), Annie and Lucy

It was so much fun to have my two brothers, two of my cousins, an aunt & uncle and all of their families come to Eugene for our annual Duck Game reunion. The cousins had a Blast together, and I always love spending time with my "sistas" and my brothers too of course. We got the added bonus of my cousin Scott and his wife KayCee and new baby son Colin staying with us too!

Francine holding Colin and Julie (me) holding Finn

Will and Max at the Duck Game!

KayCee and Scott (my cousin) holding Colin

The cousins having an Oregon Duck Parade

Brenda painted Sam's Hair Green and Yellow! Max wanted nothing to do with this!










You know its a party when you have have cheerleaders and wine!











Max and the Cal cheerleaders! The only thing that would have made this picture better would have been if they were the Oregon cheerleaders.

The Oregon Duck came by and visited our tailgater!

Kate and KayCee the new mommies with their babies only about 2 weeks apart!
A view of out tailgate party!















"The Boys" playing their own game of football.

Me, Pancho, Francine, Sean, KayCee and Scott















Max, Annie, Lucy, Will and Sam on their Way to the Duck vs, Cal football game.














Pancho holding Colin. The youngest Duck fan in Eastern Washington