Happy 14th Birthday Alex

Alex's birthday celebration began on Friday the 23rd with several of his friends coming over to hang with him. In true Alex style he invited only the friends he thought who would attend. When some didn't show he relied on his good friend Kelcie to drum up additional party goers. The gang ended up staying nearly 5 hours and having a blast. They played guitar hero/rock band, capture the flag, and watched you tube videos while freezing their little glutamus maximus off on the back patio. Then on Saturday night he was able to attend his first church dance. This is a rite of passage in the Mormon faith since you are not allowed to go to church dances until then. He was quite thrilled that the bishop allowed him to go a day early. You may know that Alex and Monique have been taking Ballroom Dancing classes for about 5 months now and he was eager to go dancing. On Sunday he received a white boutonniere from his family to wear with his suit so that everyone would realize he was special today. To make this weekend even better was that Tony was home. Alex was also interviewed by the bishop and advanced to the Teacher's quorum.

Make a Smilebox greeting

D'siblings growin' up

Can't believe that our family is growing up but from these pictures it becomes quite evident that we are all growing older - hopefully wiser too.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Sisters

Make a Smilebox postcard

Sisters are an important part to our lives. As youth we fight over whos is mom and dad's favorite, closet space and clothes and yet as adults we learn to appreciate one another's strengths and learn to tolerate the weaknesses.

Elisabeth's Class webpage

Occassionally her teacher creates a scrapbook page of fun activities they have recently had and adds it to her class website. I am giving you the link so that you all can check it out. They do some really neat stuff. The most recent one shows Elisabeth's team's presentation of their solar system hands-on activity. They painted different sized styrofoam balls and arrangements in the size of the planets in our system. Then painted a box black to create space. Then they took their arranged solar system and inserted that into the box. I think they even added sparkles for space dust. It was a very well thought out and constructed project. Elisabeth and her friend Brooklyn are seen in the picture on this scrapbook page explaining their project. Go check it out!

http://web.mac.com/tracywatanabe/iWeb/Mrs.%20Watanabe%27s%20Class%20Home%20Page/Welcome.html

Happy 2009

The Bowler Family got together in grand style at our house for New Years! Nearly everyone was there. We definitely missed Marvin, Laurie and Priscilla and their respective fan clubs. We had pizza and munchies all night long. The teenagers went to the Stake New Year's Dance while the "old people" played Wii. Ben knows how to sing. Priscilla and Ben would make great lead singers for the Bowler Band. Amazing how much hidden talent lies within the depths of our family.

Brooklyn and Addison (Elisabeth's friends) came over for a bit as well and really didn't want to leave. We even roped their dad into playing rock band with the guys. The rest of the old geezers played Golf. Ronnie looked like he was winner with -2 par. Uncle John and Aunt Becky came over. They brought with them Becky's brother who was hanging with the old married farts. :)

The kids all stayed up until about 2 a.m. playing UNO and scrabble. We did little sparklers and noisemakers at midnight. It was just a very nice evening and we are so glad that we have the opportunity to live close to our family so we can get together at the last minute and have fun. Many lasting memories have been forged. Family is truly the spice of life! Thanks for sharing life with us.