. . .a collection of random events from the past two weeks!

I guess that I am not very consistent with my blogging this time of year.  The last two posts have just been a bunch of events thrown together . . . and this one is no different.  In an effort to get caught up, here are a few events from the past two weeks.

First up! . . . The O'Hara Auction!

What an amazingly fun night.  It is our school's biggest annual fundraiser.  So much hard work went into it, and it was a HUGE success.  This year's theme was, "Lights, Camera, Auction".  So basically it was a Hollywood theme.  The decorations were amazing (thanks to my good friends Heather and Leslie).  Pancho and I had a BLAST.

The VIP Entrance!

 As you walked into the front doors of our school, the paparazzi were there to take your picture.  Then you got to step on to the red carpet and get your picture taken with a real life sized OSCAR (made by our fabulous Art teacher Anna).

Our school was completely transformed.  This is actually the hallway right outside my classroom.  The walls were covered in black curtains and had filmstrip pictures hanging from them. 

The Hollywood Walk of Fame had stars with all of the teachers names on them.

I took a picture with my STAR!

This was the most adorable of all to me!

One of the Moms at our school is a professional photographer.  She gathered some very "Hollywood - like" costumes and took a picture of every student in the school.  The decorating committee made them into filmstrips and hung them everywhere.  I loved walking down the hall and looking at all of those adorable pictures. Lucy's was especially cute to me :).

 . . . . and I absolutely loved Max's picture!

Notice that the kids all put their autograph on their picture too.

Julie S. Heather (the brains behind the decorations) and Me.

 ...a picture of the stage at the auction. 

Our school gym was totally transformed, it really did feel very Hollywood!

Me and Kris

I LOVE her! 

Whenever my work day gets crazy, difficult, funny or overwhelming, she is the one that I turn to.  Her classroom is right across the hall from mine.

 Gotta have a couple picture!

Pancho was holding my camera for me that night. Hence, a lot of pictures of me!

Once again, the night got even better as a big group of us went Karaoke singing at Quackers (again).  For some reason, this always produces belly aching laughs for me. Pancho and I did our rendition of "Sonny and Cher - I've Got You Babe".  Christy and I sang "My Humps".  It was (my teaching partner) Mike's  Birthday, so he got serenaded by a hilarious "friend" of his.  Mike A. sang (or screamed) some Beastie Boys, and best of all, we didn't get home until almost 3:00am! 

Such a fun night!!!

 A few pics of Max playing Basketball.

Max has had tournaments for the past 2 weekends.

They play 2 games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday.

His team is doing so great and they are so much fun to watch!

Max #3

Pancho took the boys (and Daunte) to see the Globetrotters.

They could not stop talking about it when they got home.  Apparently the Globetrotters are my boys sense of humor.  They were absolutely cracking up when they were telling me about it!

Lia and Lucy

The girls and I had a fabulous girls night at home together while the boys were at the Globetrotters.

The Saint Paul Basketball Tournament

It was so weird to look across the gym and see Max sitting with all of his buddies watching the game.  It seems like just yesterday, that I was sitting in this same gym as a student, watching Marist play.  It makes me realize how fast Max is growing up, and shocks me to think that he will be here as a student in just a few years!

We went to the tournament to watch Natalie play in the finals.  Christy is one of the coaches too.  Unfortunately they lost the championship game, but that means they got second place and it was so fun to watch them play so hard.

Natalie - the superstar!

She played so hard!

They called Armond, Christy, and Natalie up to honor them.

Three generations of a family that has been so involved in the tournament.

Sam was goofing off for the camera.

Lucy had been at a sleepover with Ali.

What cute little buddies!

Natalie's Team!

Great Job Girls!

Just An Average Week (or two)

The  past few weeks have been pretty average . . .

work, school, basketball games, dance classes, sleepovers etc.

Pancho has been travelling quite a bit, and I have had to work quite a bit more than usual, but somehow life just keeps moving along!

So here are a few pictures that I have taken along the way . . .

I took this picture of the kids in front of the minivan, because this one little picture will bring back many many memories for me in the future.  Most Saturday mornings, we head out to the car to load up and head off to Max's 2 basketball games, Lucy's dance class and Sam's 2 basketball games.  Yes, that is 5 games/classes in one day.  There are also many weekends when Max has 2 games on Sunday too!

Max is the one who has by far the most games and the one that I have the least pictures of!  I really need to take more pictures of my kids playing sports.  Sports pictures, to me, are "you've seen one, you've seen them all".  I realize that there is a chance that my kids may want to see sports pictures of themselves someday, so I vow to be better!

I have taken a few pictures of Sam playing on his team however.  Why more pics of Sam you ask?  Well, Sam is playing on the O'Hara team this year.  I love that he is back with the boys that I know so well.  He is having a blast and even won his first game this weekend.  He was so excited!!!!

Even though Sam has had a great experience at Spring Creek the past 3 years, I am so excited that he is coming back to O'Hara next year!  He still has so many friends there and he has loved playing basketball with all of his old buddies.  

And (of course) the most pictures of Lucy, because this was her very first EVER dance class!

She was so excited to wear her new dance clothes and join her BFF Lauren!

. . . listening to their super fun teacher!

They got to do a little free dancing!

. . . and more (so cute)

first position?

silly picture!

This past week was Catholic Schools Week.  While this week is always special, it is also very long.  It involves quite a bit of extra hours for us teachers.  It all started with an open house at O'Hara last Sunday.  Yup, that's right, I got to go to work on Sunday, which made for a 6 day work week this week (I'm not bitter).

One thing that makes it all worth it is the "All Schools Mass" at Marist High School. 

I LOVE this Mass!

It is so cool to see all 3 Catholic Schools in Eugene, and many of our local priests, come together for Mass. Hearing all of those kids voices singing "Our God is and Awesome God" makes me teary.  It is always a moment when I say to myself, "I love my job!".

Catholic Schools Week ends on Friday with a conference in Portland.  All of the teachers from all of the Catholic Schools in Western Oregon get together in one location to listen to speakers, celebrate Mass and attend break out sessions.  Last year it was AMAZINGLY boring.  Luckily, someone learned from that mistake and they got a great speaker this year.

Some of my fellow teachers and I went up to Portland the night before and had a nice dinner together and stayed at a hotel.  This was our second year of doing this, and once again, we had a blast together.  So many laughs with these super fun ladies.  I am honored to work with them!

Today was the Superbowl!

Max got sick, so I stayed home with him.  Pancho took Sam and Lucy over to a party at the Hakalas.  It was actually kind of nice to snuggle up on the couch and watch the game with Max.  I switched to being a Packers fan when I found out that Aaron Rodgers was in 5th grade at Vose when I taught 4th grade there.  Sam was still a HUGE Steelers fan and he cried for a half and hour when he got home from the Hakalas  He was devastated!  Tomorrow is another day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Once again, I  had a super fun birthday this year. 

 I still can't believe that I am 41 (it sounds so old) I don't feel like I am, but I figure that I can stay in denial about being in my 40's for a few more years. . .

My birthday is actually on the 22nd, but it started off on Friday the 21st with Pancho bringing me a bouquet of flowers to work in the morning.  I love that guy . . . it was so sweet!

Then he gave each of my students a flower to hand to me as they walked into the classroom.  The kids loved it and I ended up with this pretty bouquet.

. . .of course the school day was filled with well wishes from my students and the other teachers, as well as plenty of homemade cards, a round of the Happy Birthday song and filling my white board up with notes.  If you give 5th graders any reason to celebrate, they are all in!

very sweet

After work, I met a group of my dearest friends at the Ring of Fire for a birthday dinner.  My friend Janet's birthday is on the 21st and mine is on the 22nd, so we have had a combined birthday for the past few years.  It works out great, especially when her husband rents a limo for the night!

Brenda got me a super delicious dark chocolate cake (my favorite) from Sweet Life Bakery.

Steph and Brenda posed for this picture with me while everyone was singing Happy Birthday to Janet and I.  Janet got her own cake too, but she was at the other end of the table.  I am regretting that I didn't get a picture of us together :(

"The Ladies"

We had such a nice dinner at Ring of Fire.  This restaurant has the best Thai food ever!

Kelli and Brenda

Steph, Me and Amy

Kirsten, Melanie, Kelli, Janet, Brenda, Me, Steph, Amy, Mary, Shelly and Darbi

in front of the Hummer Limo!

Inside the limo on our way to "The Bridge" (a new bar in town), getting the party started!

Darbi, Kirsten, Janet, Melanie and Amy

Brenda and Me (self portrait)

I took this picture of us in the limo!

At The Bridge, we all ordered some yummy drinks!

Darbi, Megan, Michael, Brenda and Me

My co partner in crime and fellow 5th grade teacher, Mike and his girlfirend Megan met us  out at the Bridge with a few of their friends,

It was so fun to be with all of the girls and then having Mike and Megan there too was even better!

 

At around 10:30pm, the limo took most of the girls home, but a few of us die-hards were going to keep the party going! Darbi, Melanie, Me, Mike and Megan and some of thier friends headed out to do a little Karaoke!

Mike (who absolutely cracks me up at work every day) serenaded me with the ultimate teaching partner song   "I Swear" - but he changed a lot of the words ha ha.

Mike's girlfriend Megan is also super funny, beautiful and so fun to hang out with.  I was in shock, then laughing my *** off when they sang Aladdin's - A Whole New World and actually acted out the Magic Carpet ride using Mike's jacket.  So funny!

Melanie, Darbi and I actually got up there and sang a few choice songs too, including "Earl" and "I Will Survive", but alas - no one took any pictures of that.  Probabaly a good thing!

On my actual Birthday, which was Saturday.  I was awakened by a group of singing kids - Mine!  Max, Sam and Lucy (and Pancho) came in my room with breakfast in bed and homemade cards.  I didn't take any pictures of this, (you can thank me later) but it was very sweet!

That day I went to 2 Basketball games . . . Max won, Sam lost.  Then we met up with the friends for another "Julie Birthday Dinner"!

We had some bad luck at first, finding a restaurant that we didn't have to wait more than an hour to get into, but we ended up at Mookies, and it was so good!

They even brought me a piece of cake and sang Happy Birthday to me!

Out to dinner with us were the Dacar's, Ficeks, McCarthy's and Hakala's.

The guys sat at one end of the table.

. . . then there was the girls end of the table.

These are my girls, the ones who have been with me the longest, my sisters!

I always love a night out with this group of people.

. . . and the evening ended perfectly with "Mookie", the cook, coming out to wish me a Happy Birthday too!  Ha ha - so random.

All in all it was an amazing birthday with so many fun friends, new and old, and lots of good memories and laughs.  I am so thankful  for the life I have been given and all of the wonderful people in it, especially my husband who planned such a nice day for me! 

God is good!