Marcus' Weekend Visit

I was going through our pictures from this weekend to make a blog about Marcus visiting from New York. Of course, all our pictures are of food and presents. But I'm okay with that. It was great having him here for a couple days. We went to dinner, saw a movie, bought our cat a new toy, walked around the mall, bought me some shirts for work, went to Costco, played with our crazy cat, watched some Potter, and of course, ate some cupcakes.

Yum! These are from Cupcake Chic by Costco. I obviously didn't make them. They're too perfect. Anyway, I think I may have a cupcake problem.

We decided to go out for our anniversary this weekend. It was a no brainer-- Texas Roadhouse. (This picture is actually from the very first time we went months ago, but I found it on my ghetto phone while searching for those cupcake pictures.)

We did kind of celebrate on our actual anniversary. Marcus knew what he was getting, but he had to wait a week to get it here in Utah. I was so surprised when his friend Nick had dropped this off at work last Monday.

mmmm... Red Velvet. With cream cheese frosting. I ate that instead of the dinner I had packed. Best. Gift. Ever. Maybe except my early birthday present, which I'll blog about in July after we go see it.

And here's Marcus' present. The cat had to inspect it first. Naturally.

Marcus loves it. Even though he asked for one and knew it was coming. Thanks BBB!

**notice-- new clothes, same vacuum. Yes, he vacuumed no less than four times over the weekend.**

It was so great having him here (vacuuming). :) It was doubly sad to see him leave, but this means the next time I see him, I'll be in NEW YORK!!!! gasp!

Two Years

Happy 2nd Anniversary Marcus!

...let's be honest, if you were here, I probably would've made something like these:

After two years, at least my cupcake abilities have gotten better. See you soon :)

Monster Mash

My cousin Kelsey and I have a joke going that whenever I make treats for our family's Third Sunday Dinner, she actually made them. Sounds lame, but I promise, it's fun for her and me. So this time, she made Monster Cupcakes! I was going to do a fun summer theme, but given all the snow in the mountains, I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I found these fun guys online.

This little guy got in trouble for making a mess. (Actually a friend at work wanted to see them, so I saved him one.)

And they all congregated...

For the Monster Mash :)

I won't lie, the cupcakes didn't turn out quite as good as I hoped because I used a different type of recipe. But I think the decorations are still fun ;)

Final Elementary School Concert

Thursday was my last day of elementary school orchestra. It's always been a love/hate relationship, but I was actually sad to see it end. I most likely won't be teaching next year since I can't commit to a full school year (because Marcus graduates in December!!!). Anyway, I decided to have an ensemble concert. All the students were at such different levels-- it was easier to tailor pieces to their abilities this way. Plus I thought it was a fun change.

Benjamin, Nikolas, Scott

Scott said I could take one picture of him smiling at the camera...

Nikolas and Jens

Maddie and Baylee (two of my cello girls announcing their piece)

Maddie and Baylee playing

Scott-- he insisted on playing Brandenburg because he practiced it a ton

Shyell, Gracie, Baylee, Claire, Maddie

Benjamin and Nikolas (they were such little perfectionists with this song)

Gracie and Claire (they're twins! they learned to play Old Joe Clark-- it was a fun way to end the concert)

James, Scott, Jens, and Nikolas cleaning up

Gracie, Claire, Maddie, and Baylee

I thought this was a cute picture of Baylee waiting for her family

I can't believe I have already taught orchestra for two years. Time flies. And thank goodness you only remember the good times by the end, since we had some crazy days :)

Dorothy's Wedding

The one great thing about this time of the year in Provo is the tulips. They're everywhere. It would be a wonderful season if it didn't keep switching from sunshine to rain or snow basically every single day. It drives me nuts.

Two weeks ago, right after Marcus left for New York, I went up to Salt Lake for my friend Dorothy's wedding. It was the perfect Spring day. So naturally, I have some pictures from Temple Square, starting off with the tulips :)

Her reception was later that night in a beautiful building. It was up on the roof, and the sides had these cut outs where you could see off to the mountains.

Dorothy was cracking me up because she was sitting there fixing the speakers when I showed up. She's so pro-active with everything. It was fun hearing all her ideas about reception plans when we worked together.

Ahh, isn't she pretty?!!

And that's Don :)

Sadly, they're off to Oregon for the summer. I'm crossing my fingers they'll be back in the fall. I miss her at work already!!!

Marcus' New York Adventure

Marcus made it through his first week in New York City! I can't believe it. Well, I can believe he made it through the week at CooperKatz (because he's amazing), but I can't believe it has already been a week. It would only be better if I could've gone with him. I'm so jealous of this opportunity. Luckily, I can feel like I'm there a little bit by reading his posts (mkhardy.wordpress.com). So if you're interested too, check it out :) He writes quite a bit of his adventures and makes a slideshow of pictures. Here's two of the pictures from today (Sunday) in Central Park.