Sadie Hawkins 2009

I've always wondered.....exactly WHAT is Sadie Hawkins? I suppose I could google bit, but I am too lazy to, and prolly just don't care enough to need to know.

Around here, it's a girls choice, casual dance. The kids had a ball. Scavenger hunt, homemade pizza's, the dance, and then watching a slide show of all the pictures from earlier in the night.

As I mentioned the dress is very casual, and usually the girls get matching shirts for their dates. Over the years I have seen some different trends go by, but this was the first year that screen tee's were the choice. Each couple had matching tee's with the same screen or logo on them. Some were cute like ernie and bert, or cookie monsters, but Tuffy's gal knows how to do it right.
Yes friends, that is a "Call of Duty" shirt. The latest craze right now in the video game world for mature teens. He has been rockin the game since he bought it last week and loves it. She did a very good job on the shirt choice!

Tuffy left the house at 12:30pm and walked in shortly after midnight. Other than a few minutes for me to take pictures, I didn't hear from them.

Good.times.

Pictures that make me happy right now.....

Kasey's ashes. We miss him. He was a good dog. But I love knowing he is still in our home.

Sissy finding a creative way to use her princess clings that she scored in one of her halloween goodie bags.

Jordan who is a good sport and lets me put ridiculous shirts on her.

Sissy LOVES her Woody and Buzz. She has to sleep with Woody and he is a recipient of many of her hugs and kisses. Lucky guy.

Buzz is never too far behind

Sissy loves her Uncle Tuffy and when the scary dinosaur makes an appearance, his steady arm is there for her to cling to.

It's Sadie Hawkins - and Tuffy got asked. They COVERED his car in Oreos and wrote a cute note all over the driveway asking him
He and Splenda had to go clean it so he could see to drive. Well done, MB - well done indeed girl!

Tuffy answered with a slew of tortillas flung all over her front line. On the sidewalk leading to the front porch he wrote in chalk "Mama Mia, the answer is on a tortilla" She needed to find the 'yes' written on the back of one of the tortillas. Good.Times.

Tuffy's Senior Homecoming

This is his last at WJHS. Unless of course he goes back as a "super senior" but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't get caught DEAD doing that. Such a stigma on the "super seniors"

He took a darling date who also happens to be one of my YW. My boys have all had a thing about NOT dating the girls in the ward. "Ewww, they're like my sister or something" But on occasion, they've gone anyway and had a great time. Last night was no exception.

Now if you don't live in UT, I'm pretty sure that the way we do dances here is going to seem strange. It's because it is.

There is no simple asking, and answering. There is a whole PRODUCTION.
There is no simple having a nice dinner and going to the dance and then going home. It's an ALL DAY AFFAIR.

Tuffy asked MB by getting a dozen of beautiful friendship roses and then sneaking into her car while she worked and writing a cute poem across all her windows. In the flowers, he left a cute little card with his name, so she would know who asked.

MB answered by "bombing" his room while he was away with balloons, crepe paper and then left on his bed a delicious looking chocolate cake. He found the answer "yes" baked inside.

Very fun! I liked that they both kept it fairly simple, but cute and certainly not a wallet breaker!

The morning of Homecoming, they were out the door at 7:40. Breakfast at Denny's at 8:00am and then headed to the zoo. They were in a group of about 10 couples. That's 20 kids! How fun is that?!

After doing the zoo all morning and into early afternoon. They dropped their dates off to get ready. Tuffy relaxed by drumming. And drumming. And drumming. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE IT! He is good and I love to hear him.

About 3:00, he started getting ready again. I ironed his shirt, and pants, he pulled out his new (match her dress) tie, and by 3:45, he and his bestie were out the door to go fix dinner(yes that is Tuffy grabbing B's butt. He's such a clown!)


The boys were cooking dinner for the girls. They had reserved a church so they could have room for everyone and set up a nice table and decorations on the stage. Someones mom did a great job of helping them!! Apparently it was filet mignon with strawberry cheesecake for dessert. And the cost for each couple? MUCH cheaper than a restaurant which they would have spent half the night waiting for a table anyway.

They picked up their dates, came home for pictures and then away they went. (placing the beautiful corsage)

(I am not biased or anything but they are damn cute!)

(Since they are both "my" kids I decided I needed to be in a picture too)

(And the "pull a funny face - but mom you're such a dork" pose)


I didn't see him again until this morning as he headed out the door for work.

Me: So how was last night?
Tuffy: Great! It was fun.
Me: How was dinner?
Tuffy: It was really good actually.
Me: And the dance? Did you guys actually dance?
Tuffy: Yeah (chuckles)
Me: What did you do after the dance?
Tuffy: Watched a movie.
Me: Which one?
Tuffy: Something like Matchstick men or something like that
Me: Was it good?
Tuffy: Yeah, it was all right.
Me: What time did you get home last night?
Tuffy: About midnight

And that my friends is how post-date conversations go with sons. I'm sure had he been a girl, I would have gotten detail, after detail, after detail.

Do I know he really was home by midnight? Yes. I'm the bad mom that doesn't sit up and wait till all her brood is home safely in the nest. That's Splenda's job.

He had a great time, with a darling girl and since this was her first dance, I am hoping she had just as great a time. I hope to hear all about it in YW on Sunday!

PS. Notice how modest her dress is? YESSSSSSSS!!!!!

It' s back to school - It's Homecoming time!

Last week Tuffy asked a darling girl {MB} to go to Homecoming. She answered him tonight:





Thanks girls for not completely trashing his room! And the cake? To.Die.For!

Junior Prom - 2009 - The Tuffster is a P.I.M.P!

Uh huh, yeah, that's right, that's my boy!

Junior Prom was Friday night and he has been looking forward to it for awhile now.
Got his tux Thursday, checked it Friday morning to make sure everything fit right. I must say, well done Tip Top Tux. I'd love to provide a link, but they aren't on line, dang. However, they are a great little Mom and Pop shop out of their home. Any tux, any style, complete with shoes for 39.99. Fantastic deal! If you are in the market, you know how to get the deets from me.

The plans for his group kept changing and changing and they didn't have final set plans until early afternoon on Friday. For the record, that made.me.nuts! But whatever, it's not my prom now is it?

He got all spiffied up and let me snap a photo
Then off he went to pick up his date K and back again for me to get ANOTHER photo.Aren't they cute?

Then they were off to meet their group for dinner. They had reservations at 5pm at Macaroni Grill. THE place to be for prom! At 5:30, I got a call from them saying that they were lost and could I direct them? HUH! Wha? How do you get lost going about 5 miles from our house? Okay, I ask them where they are at, and they are now in South Salt Lake - WAY FAR AWAY! After about 10 minutes of me trying to orient and direct them, we hung up. Me on the way to get Splenda, them to hope that the others in their group were already there and still had the table.

Now tradition at our school is that the Junior's promenade. This year, as is in year's past, it was held at the State Capitol, which is a gorgeous building!
Inside the rotunda where the dance is held, are two big grand staircases. The one on the west side of the building is where the juniors line up, have their names announced and come walking down the stairs. Parents typically come for this part and snap photos and I was not going to miss this chance! Making sure Splenda was settled in and taken care of, I picked of Tuffy's BFF's mom Lori, stopped for the Shark, and off we went.

The capitol building is in downtown Salt Lake so we had a little drive. We didn't know exactly when they were going to DO the promenade and since none of the kids would text us back to tell us, we were just taking the chance that we'd catch it and not miss a thing!

Parked, hiked in the rain and listened to Shark tell me how I really could have parked closer. Why the heck did I park so far away? See all those empty parking spots? If your going to go in the front door, you park in the front and blah blah blah. Actually, it was funny. And all three of us were NOT dressed up, Sissy was on my hip with her ugliest blankie. We were a pretty hawt group going in there.

As soon as we get into the rotunda, we can see they have already lined the kids up and they are just about to begin! We get to the front of the crowd, and position ourselves to the side. Yes, there's B, Tuffy's BFF, and right behind him is Tuffy. Sweet! There were smart enough to get to the front! Next thing you know, it's their turns repsectively, and I'm snapping away. DID ONE OF THOSE OF HIM ON THE STEPS TURN OUT????!!!!!! Caaarraaap. Hoping Shark got one.The Shark comes through, and no that is NOT Tuffy's date, it's B's.

Called the kids over with their dates and we chat for a minute and snap a few more pictures.Tuffy and his date K

Tuffy and his bestie B



And of course, I needed a picture of me with my date as well!
Yes, we are the Prom Royalty! (and once again, The Shark is an amazing graphic genius!)

After grabbing a brownie for the Sissy, waiting while B's mom got some photos of him and his date, we finally let the humiliation of my child end and we headed home.
Interesting that in year's past, you almost couldn't even get in position to get a picture of your kid on the stairs because of all the parents packing the place. This year, I think I could count on one hand the number of parents I noticed. Why is this? It's a cool thing that they only get to do once ever in their whole lives! Why not come support it? I don't know. I don't get it.

I did find it interesting that attached to their Prom tickets was this:A flyer on NOT driving drunk!
No worries with this boy of mine and his group. A passel of good kids. After the dance, they were too late to go to the comedy club that they had planned on, so instead they hung around at the grocery store getting soda's. How much trouble can that be?

Tonight is the follow up. Movie, dinner and the comedy club. Good Times!

Saturday - Sweethearts

Today was the "Sweethearts" dance at my youngest's high school. It's girl's choice and he was lucky enough to be asked by a cutie patootie named Katie. Who also happens to be the daughter of a BFF.
Now understand, just the asking to these events is a whole she-bang in and of itself. See this post for those deets. So all that lead up to today, and I do mean today. Not this evening. Not tonight. TO-DAY.
See, nowadays, said dances/proms are all day events. Tuffy's started this morning with breakfast. The group of 15 couples, all gathered at some sucker's, I mean nice mom's, house and the girls cooked breakfast for the boys. Tuffy, being the aspiring chef that he is, was highly amused. He's no stranger to the kitchen and knows his way around quite nicely. He thought it was hilarious watching them try to cook pancakes, waffles, bacon and sausage. He came home laughing and telling us what a great time it was.
Then later today, he got himself all snazzied up.
.Full shot in front of the fireplace.With Jesus.With his brother and BFF over his shoulder.
Katie and another couple then picked him up. He gave her the corsage, she gave him a boutonniere, I snapped some pictures and off they went.
Notice Jesus, right there in between them. My own little prom/dance picture tradition.

The original plan of Olive Garden got ixnayed, due to the 3 hour wait. Instead, they headed for the Macaroni Grill. Tuffy said is dinner was FANTASTIC! Next up, the dance. His words: "Even though the DJ was wicked old and lame, it was still fun. Me and Katie even requested a song, but he didn't play it." He saw some other friends, did more pictures and they even danced (gasp). He said it was a great time! Then they had to head back to each person's house to change clothes. Which meant yet ANOTHER photo op at Katie's house. I guess they just need to come to terms that they really are rock stars! He flew in our place about 10:00, changed like a mad man, and took off again. They went to a place called Gym Cats which is basically a huge foam filled playground. He said it was an absolute RIOT!
He didn't make it home until about 1:15 this morning.You can see he is clearly exhausted. And yes, it was well past his regular curfew, however, I have learned to pick my battles and tonight wasn't going to be one of them.

In the end, a bunch of crazy kids, having a great time. Isn't that what high school is all about anyway?

Next up? Junior Prom...... and the ideas are already ticking.......