OGHS Grad Nite 2009!!!

Here it is... FINALLY! A year of planning and fundraising, a week of set up, staying up for more than 24 hours straight on graduation day, 4 hours of sleep the next day to start clean up, AND THE BEST TURN OUT FOR GRAD NITE IN ABOUT 15 YEARS!!! HOLY COW! I am still getting goosebumps thinking about HOW AWESOME Grad Nite was this year! A big part of it was the Class of 2009! I have discovered that each year, the Class as a whole seems to have a personality, and 2009 was full of some of the best, most successful, most respectful, GREATEST kids EVER! (and, no, I did not have a kid in this class...)

The theme was "Cruise to Your Future" and it was as if the grads were entering a cruise ship, luggage piled everywhere, passport booth, parents dressed in "cruise staff attire with matching name badges", booths designed as cruise ports from around the world... FUN!

Here is a slide show of some of the photos that I took of the day...
starting with t-shirt distribution graduation morning...
to final set up with Anna being treated to a climb on the rock wall and getting her hair done in the beauty salon...
The "Grad Nite Game Master" - he was BRILLIANT!...
Make your own music videos - costumes, instruments, perform against a green screen, special effects added and a DVD burned on the spot (we also had a HUGE video screen in the gym - the next building over from the PAC where the videos were being shot - and Jeff ran cable from one building roof to the next so the live video shoots would be seen in the gym)...
Tattoos - boy do the kids love getting temp tattoos!...
Beauty salon - they boys spent more time getting their hair and nails done than the girls!...
The scrapbook booth where there was A LINE TO GET A SEAT IN THIS BOOTH THIS YEAR!!! Like I wouldn't have the first scrapbook booth at Grad Nite in Southern California... thank you RUSTY PICKLE for your AWESOME donation to make this booth a reality!!! Yeah, I design for the most INCREDIBLE company! :-)
Food, coffee bar, prizes...
Casino and the Texas Hold 'Em Tournament...
Dress up booth, the disco...
Outdoor laser tag, the Velcro wall, joust, and rock climbing wall...
Photo ops and the photo gallery... AND MORE, MORE, MORE!
One of the highlights was a group of teachers and students that played a 30 minute set of songs like, "School's Out for Summer" and a custom OGHS rap... THEY WERE FANTASTIC!
And the end of the event, the Ceremonial Fire and prize give-a-ways.

It was a GREAT night and, yes, I have already had my "OH, OH, OH..." brainstorm moment for next year! It is going to be unlike ANYTHING Grad Nite has EVER seen!!! If you are a 2009 grad, feel free to copy any of the pictures that you would like. Also, we will have a link to all the photos taken on Grad Nite for you to download soon.

Make it a WOOO HOOOO kinda day!!!

Rusty Pickle - May Assignments...

Hi All-

I wanted to post my monthly assignments here on my blog... I have been reviewing submissions... SERIOUSLY... YOU GUYS TOTALLY ROCK!!! Here are my (Oh, so not worthy) projects for this month...

See you all in the morning!!!

RUSTY PICKLE DT UPDATE!

I know there are LOTS of you waiting to hear what is going on with the Rusty Pickle Design Team auditions!!! Since I don't want you taking out your stress on your poor F7/Refresh button or chocolate, I will be posting updates here for you!!!

At this moment, all of the entries are being reviewed by the current Chefs (DT members). I can't wait to start reviewing the entries myself in a few hours! From what I have heard, the entries are AMAZING!

Have a GREAT day and GOOD LUCK!!!

Grad Nite Season - Coming up for a quick breath of air...

I KNOW it has been forever since I posted, but we've been a bit busy! It is Grad Nite season, after all, so our life for the past month has been organizing, planning, constructing, buying, creating and setting up Grad Nite. It is a TON of work, but it is soooooo worth it when you see the happy grads running around having the time of their lives! I feel it is a PRIVILEGE to be a part of the last hours of the kids' high school carers! Even better, we are the only school in the district that still constructs an on-campus Grad Nite... in my book, the ONLY place to be on Grad Nite... your own campus with your fellow grads... AWESOME! Since life goes on, even during Grad Nite season, here are a few shots of everything ELSE that has been going on in the past 2 weeks... SWIM... HOLY COW!!! Chris and the 200 free relay team qualified for CIF... THEN they qualified for CIF FINALS... THEN they TOOK FIRST PLACE in the consolidation round and ended up placing 7TH OVERALL IN CIF!!! I don't even know when OGHS last placed in CIF Finals... I'm just SO GLAD that our boys DID IT! And Chris swam his fastest ever... 24.1... looking forward to what this Sophomore can do next year!!!
Our home school preschool is still in session and we took the kids to the Escondido Children's Museum. What a GREAT place. My favorite was the one-room school house with the old desks and costumes!

Anna went to her friend, Kylee's, gymnastics party and had an AWESOME time!!! I had fun on the trampoline and doing flips onto the mats... who says we adults ever have to grow up!? :-)

We took the kids on another preschool field trip to the Wild Animal Park and, since it is spring, we saw a lot of "animal couples" (like the cute Meier Cats) and LOTS of babies... birds, giraffes, an elephant... soooo cute!

Last, but certainly not least, we attended a banquet at the Sony Corporate Headquarters where Chris was announced as a Sony Star Scholarship Finalists for the class of 2011! Sony runs a scholarship program for OG that starts as they choose 12 Sophomore finalists who spend their junior and senior years doing community service, attending Sony events, learning about and seeing how a corporation like Sony works, going on field trips to the Sony movie sets, etc. Toward the end of the finalists' senior year, 2 winners will be chosen to each receive a $10,000 college scholarship and new laptop computer. We are so proud of Chris for being chosen as a finalist and we thoroughly enjoyed the banquet, meeting the Sony executives, School Board Members and School Superintendent, seeing how many teachers and admins were there to support the kids, and hearing all the kids' stories, accomplishments, and aspirations. This is going to be a FUN two years with Sony!!!

It is time to start breakfast and enjoy our first Memorial Monday in over 5 years (we are so ahead on Grad Nite construction this year that we are taking the day off!!!) After breakfast, I think a mountain bike ride up at Daley Ranch is in order! Make it a GREAT week, CONGRATS to all the upcoming grads, and HAPPY SUMMER!! WOOOO HOOOO!!!

A Few Layouts...

I just finished a few layouts for Ever After Scrapbooks (my LSS in Vista) and couldn't wait to share. "Bubble Gum Alley" is of our recent trip to San Luis Obispo using Prima 12 x 12 cardboard, transparency and flowers... add in some Glimmer Mist, bling and distressing and you have a "Tracey" layout. I was also asked to create a "green" layout. Since my Dad and my husband can both vouch for the fact that I don't know how to recycle to save my life, I decided to do a layout of one of our "green" vacations... climbing Mt. Whitney.
Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT day!!!

Mother's Day WEEKEND!

Yep... Mother's Day is more than one day... it is a whole weekend! :-) Mom, Dad and Jessica came down for the weekend. Saturday, we sat in the backyard under the huge pepper tree... Anna splashing in her little pool... a cool breeze keeping it comfortable... blended drinks in hand... a WONDERFUL afternoon! Then, on to dinner at O'Sullivans... the Irish Pub downtown. We have only lived here for 7 years... it was ABOUT TIME that we tried this place out... and we LOVED IT! We all had different meals from their "traditional Irish fare" menu and WOW! Mom and I got the "Chicken Boxty." YUUUUUUUMMMMMMMM! Add in some Irish beer and it was a GREAT night! Today, homemade quiche brunch served on the patio and then Mom, Dad and Jessica headed for home. Jeff, Chris, Anna and I went on a 2 1/2 hour mountain bike ride around Lake Hodges... WOOOOO HOOOOOO! IT WAS AWESOME! The day COULDN'T have been more beautiful... getting a workout, smelling the spring sage and blooms, climbing up the hills, trying not to fall down the hills, pass on the left, stop for water breaks... AWESOME! Tonight, a BBQ of my famous homemade hamburgers, family cuddle time, and well deserved rest! Enjoy these fun pics and I hope that all of you Mom's had as great a Mother's Day Weekend and we did!!!

WHAT A WEEKEND... Scrapbook Expo, train, Prom...

SERIOUSLY... When I sign up to work a Scrapbook Show, it is usually a year in advance... which is why during the past 4 days while I worked and TAUGHT at my first Scrapbook Expo (San Diego), I missed a swim meet, Anna's first train ride, and Chris and Nicola's Prom... AUGHHHHHH! I had SO MUCH FUN teaching at the Scrapbook Expo... I had a "Teacher's Pet" for every class (4 classes per day). I have never worked with an assistant before and they were all SO MUCH FUN! I think I am spoiled now... I may write into my contracts that "I will require only BROWN M&M's AND an ASSISTANT for each class..." HA, HA, HA... but seriously, that was pretty SWEET!

Below you will see pictures of this weekend... I taught my very first MALE SCRAPBOOK STUDENT... His name is Bob... he came to the Expo with his Girlfriend, Ann Marie... what a GREAT guy! Then there are pics of Anna on the train platform and at the Oceanside pier... and a bunch of SPHS Prom Pics... including the amount of family members standing around to take pics of the kids! As you know, Chris goes to OGHS and his girlfriend, Nicola, goes to cross town rival, SPHS! Who really cares? Besides Prom, Nicola spent most of this weekend auditioning for the University of California Riverside Cheer Team... around 50 gals trying out for 15 spots... GUESS WHO made the team in front of a few of the existing team members... ummmm, yeah, that would be our Nicola!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO! What a GREAT weekend! I hope you had as much fun as we did!!!

What a PERFECT WEEKEND! I hope you make this a WOOOOO HOOOOO kind of week... you deserve it!!!