The dress in 1991 and 2016.

Okay, folks, who wore it better? Yes, here’s a DOOZY of a Then & Now. I first wore this dress to my high school Senior Awards Night and then to my graduation party (as seen in the photo, 1991). I loved the dress and kept it at my mom’s house all these years, wanting to get back into it someday. And that day was today to celebrate our 15th anniversary! And I traded the single-strand pearls for the pearls I wore with my wedding dress!

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Sidenote 1: Owen took the picture from tonight.

Sidenote 2: When Owen saw me working on the collage, he said “WAIT. YOU HAD THAT DRESS 25 YEARS AGO?” 😯

Owen’s reward for being bored.

I had a doctor’s appointment at the hospital this morning—plus lab work—and even though I told him to bring something to keep busy, he only brought his Pokémon book and he quickly tired of that. It was a long wait to get my blood drawn (almost an hour) so when we were done, we went Pokémon hunting…and he won the same gym twice! (Well, at least that’s what I’m pretty sure happened and what these pictures mean!)

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Catching up on his summer reading.

Owen isn’t great about keeping up with his Summer Slide reading, so we’ve had to have some days where we read 40-60 pages to try and catch up. (It’s not as bad as it sounds—it’s not like he’s reading full chapter book pages. Some of them are, but some are also books for Katie with one sentence per page. So it averages out.) Notice he had a buddy today, as well.

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Cirque Kurios

We splurged on a Cirque experience for the whole family: KURIOS—Cabinet of Curiosities! We were worried because it was HOT AS HELL and the last tent experience (last summer) was awful—we were all hot and miserable and uncomfortable because the A/C and fans just didn’t cut it. So this year we prepped with special cooling towels and we took a cooler with drinks…and it ended up just fine—the A/C worked just fine and I was actually chilly. 🙂

 

The only kinda yucky thing was the seating—we had a decent view of the stage…until people sat in front of us. A smallish girl sat right in front of Katie and there was no way she could see anything. And then a guy about 100# overweight sat next to me so I was cramped. So I actually put Katie on my lap and scooted over to her seat so it was okay—but not great. Then we had to readjust after intermission because the family in front of us all changed seats! 

But overall the kids loved it and they couldn’t even decide what their favorite parts were! For me, it was a little expensive for what it was…but then, Tom and I have seen a Cirque show before. But the kids were happy, and that’s what matters, right? 🙂

Owen’s half birthday pool party!

Once again this year, Owen decided to have his birthday party at the community pool with Costco pizzas and cake (which I forgot to get a picture of)! The trade off is that many of his friends are away on vacations…but even though we had a small turnout and it was about 110°, everyone had fun!

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After his party, one of his friends came back to spend a few hours. They had fun playing Xbox and then building Legos.

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After he left, Owen opened his gifts and was COMPLETELY GEEKED to get some Ninjago Legos, a bunch of Pokemon cards, a Nerf bow and arrow, a Star Wars board game, and $15 cash. This was my favorite card he got:

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And it didn’t take long before Owen and Katie had their noses buried in Pokemon cards.

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