The big 15 is here

When Greg was out of town a lot in February, and we had a temporary subscription to Netflix we watched a lot of The Great British Bakeoff.  On one episode the bakers were asked to make a classic British caterpillar birthday cake.  We'd never seen anything like it but Emmy fell in love with it and was determined to make it for her birthday.  She made the meringues all on her own on Saturday and Tuesday after school she and I labored over this cake until the cousins showed up for her early birthday party.

She was very pleased with herself and in spite of some major errors it turned out pretty well.

She got lots of clothes, some make up, a fight toy, fingernail clippers and her favorite kind of candy bar.

Here she is on her actual birthday wearing a new outfit and eating her birthday bear claw.

Her birthday, like Kate's, was on Wednesday this year.  We were going roller skating.  Sherry Mills was awesome and showed up with a birthday hat and sash which Emily wore the whole night and even got a birthday shout out over the speaker.  It was a fun night.

On the way home Sherry even stopped by Dutch Bros so Emmy could get her birthday drink.  Love my crazy red head.

Kate's Senior Prom

Late February Kate started talking about Prom and looking for dresses.   She had decided that she was going to go wither a guy asked her or not.  She made plans with one friend, then they were asked by a boy.  She made other plans with a small group of girls, found a dress to borrow from one of Natali's friends, and bought tickets, then one of the girls got asked by a sophomore and all the girls in the group decided to ask his friends.  Kate wasn't so interested and was getting frustrated.  Then our old neighbor and friend, Tim, showed up a few days before prom and asked Kate.  It made her so happy to get asked and still go to prom.  

She responded with this little duck sign - we had a lot of little ducks sitting around our house waiting for a good use.

Kate and Tim went with a bunch of Tim's friends and knew enough of them to have fun and enjoy the night.

Ginger Walker made their beautiful bouquet and boutonnière.

They ate dinner at Mel, of Mel's Kitchen Cafe's house followed by lava cakes after the dance - Kate had such a blast.  So grateful for friends like the Dombroski's.

Utah Girl Time

Thursday after dance the girls and I made a late night drive to our hotel in Burley, continuing our journey to Utah the next morning.  We made it to the Salt Lake area and I met up with a bunch of my college friends for lunch while the girls got picked up by Natali and hit the shops (they know that is way more fun without me).

A bit too much fun at Sephora.

It was such a blast catching up with my old friends then I moved on to Provo and took a nap in our hotel while I waited for the girls to arrive with all their spoils.  They had a blast shopping.  After that we picked up cousin Claire and went out for pizza.  Claire kept us entertained with the updates from her family.  We finished off my Cold Stone gift cards after pizza then made our way to Natali's apartment and met up with Grandma Dame for a few hours (she was in town for Curt's daughter's wedding).  We chatted till about 10:30pm then I took mom to Carma's and Claire to her apartment.  The girls stayed at Natali's for a sleepover.

The next morning I enjoyed sleeping, exercising, and getting clean while Emily, Natali and Miguel hiked the Y.  I would have liked to but I was dealing with shin splints and already in pain.  

Natali had an afternoon commitment so I picked up the girls and we went to lunch, which was fabulous and had this cute photo station set up for their Easter party so we took advantage.

Then the girls spent over an hour at a dance shop trying on pointe shoes not available at our local store.  They had such a blast but it was all a bit over my head.  I took a nap at the hotel then we met back up with Natali and went climbing at the  UVU gym.  Emily and Lily totally loved it.  I learned to belay and decided my hands didn't like it.

We followed with dinner at Seven Brothers with Miguel and did some shopping after, and maybe some random posses by this wave...

Sunday morning we were treated to a musical sacrament meeting in Natali's ward where we were all blown away by the talented musician, Natali being one of them.  So glad we got to hear her sing before we hit the road to make it home in time for Kate's meeting. Ironically, these 4 were all in complementary colors - they looked ready for family pictures.

Kate is 18!

Hard to believe that my sweet mama loving baby girl is 18 and going to college in September!

She gave me a break this year and wanted a poppyseed cake instead of her usual laborious cheesecake (not complaining here).

We had the cousins over on Sunday and celebrated Kate and Luke's bdays.  He had already celebrated so this was round two.

She got lots of stuff for college and some BYU-I swag.  

Her birthday was on a Wednesday which is kind of lame with youth activities so we partied early and on her actual birthday she skipped the shooting activity and chose to stay home and happily clean her room while the rest of us were at activities.

We are going to miss her so much next year.  No one makes us laugh and smile like Kate.