Summer Days

A sign of a truly great summer day would be this:



and this:



and this:





But definitely NOT this:

Contest = Concert

I entered my first Facebook contest about a month ago. It was being put on by the kids' dentist office and all we had to do was upload a smile picture of a patient and get people to vote. Check it out!



This picture was by far the most awesome one entered, but that didn't matter. What mattered was how many votes it got. And I worked my butt off day in and day out, annoying every one of my Facebook friends to vote, but when it came down to the end...I couldn't compete with a little town in India. With 500 votes, Ethan's Vampire Smile took the silver!

And even though we didn't win the iPad that the first placer got, we did win these!



The day after Endfest, I hit the Powerhouse Pavilion again to watch the top 10 American Idol contestants perform. Unfortunately, I didn't watch this season of AI, in fact, I haven't watched AI for like 6 years so I really wasn't' thrilled about going. I thought about trying to sell the tickets and with them, save up for an iPad, but that didn't play out so I ended up grabbing a few of my girlfriends and we made a girls night of it.



I really enjoyed the concert and was really impressed with all the talent (minus one annoying country girl) AI produced this year. I particularly loved Coltan (I think that's his name) and another girl who had a fohawk (I told you I didn't watch the show). Anyway, the actual concert was freakin' cool. You could tell there was a lot more money put into it than Endfest. This time we were in nosebleed seats and there was no way I was going to get any clear pictures of the artists, so I just focused on getting the coolest concert picture with the lights and all. I liked these:







This one is of Phillip Phillips...He was the winner. He was pretty good, but I was totally annoyed that he was chewing gum while singing...



So I am just a party animal I guess...At least I was told that the other day with my numerous Facebook updates from the Powerhouse Pavilion. Maybe the next concert I go to will be of a band I really like...like...Coldplay. Now that's my type of concert!

Endfest 2012

I got a good deal on some tickets to Endfest 2012 sponsored by 107.9 the End. A music station that is one of Raya's favorites. I like too...for the most part anyway. I took Raya and two of her friends! The concert featured:

KARMIN
OWL CITY
ADAM LAMBERT
DEMI LOVATO

We stopped off at In N Out Burger for dinner



and then headed over to Michael's craft store since we had some time to kill. Of course the girls found a One Direction poster and all each had to buy one. I think I almost died of embarrassment while eating at In N Out when the girls decided that they were going to speak in a British accent while we were there. The restaurant was full and all I could do was just look at my phone and pretend they weren't with me...HA!

Our seats were nosebleed seats but when we got there, they upgraded us to lower level. We were fairly close to the stage, but not close enough to take good pictures. I think I knew like one song from each artist. The girls had a crazy blast. Raya told me that when Demi Lovato came out, she screamed so loud and started getting dizzy and thought that she was going to pass out. I mean, all these people are super famous music artists and Demi is also an actress that has been in a few different movies, so this was big stuff. I think my favorite was Adam Lambert. He sure does know how to work a crowd and, Man! That guy can sing! His sparkly silver zebra print pants were just plain awesome!

This picture was taken the actual night of the concert. You can clearly see the pants. I did not however take this picture, but I'm glad somebody did!



Here's another picture I did not take but at the same night. It's of Demi Lovato:



I didn't like her outfit much. Not a fan of spandex. I seriously can't believe it is making its way back into the fashion world. Somebody please hand me a bucket! Barf!
She sang great though. I had no idea how much of a rocker she was.

Here are the girls waiting in between acts:



I won't embarrass them more by uploading the video I took of them rocking out to One Directions "What Makes You Beautiful" during one of the breaks...

Here's Raya and I on our way back from one of the many trips to the ladies room:



This gives you kind of an idea of our seats and the crowd. It wasn't sold old, but the crowd doubled from the first act to the last act.



The girls and I had a lot of fun. It took me back to my very first concert. I went and saw The New Kids on the Block and I remember thinking that I couldn't believe they were in the same room as I. In fact, I saw them at the same place we were at for this concert except I was in the nosebleed seats. Those were the days. At least I got to go back there with my daughter and re-live them.



Oh, and we won't talk about the sleepover afterwards. 2am giggling that kept me awake. I'm tired just thinking about it! *Yawn*

Pig Pens

I gave up! I decided not to hound the kids to get their rooms cleaned. It's hard enough to keep the rest of the house clean so I decided to see how long it would take the kids to have the desire to clean their own rooms...I thought perhaps it would be when they ran out of underwear or clean clothes, but no. So then I gave in. When I couldn't even open or close the door to their rooms without having to kick something out of the way, I decided that it was time to get their rooms cleaned. So...I left the house and got a pedicure and went shopping but before I did that, I took a picture of each of their rooms and told them that I was going to compare what their room looks like when I get home to the picture that I took and if there isn't a noticeable difference...they would be sorry!

Raya's Room:



Malia's Room:





Yes, that is a mattress on the floor...don't ask!

Ethan and Carly's Room:



Results are in:

Malia cleaned her room.

Ethan and Carly made a noticeable dent...well, sort of.

Raya made a very small noticeable dent. In fact, she never finished her room, so I took her iPad away and told her she could have it back when her room was clean. One would think that would be motivation enough, but nope! A week later, she hadn't touched her room and apparently didn't care about having her newly purchased iPad. So mama had to bring in the big guns and threaten to take away her cell phone. She was told if her room wasn't cleaned by the end of the night, her cell phone was gone until further notice. Four hours before midnight, I was still trying to encourage her to get in there and get it done. I thought for sure I would be confiscating her phone in the AM, but mama was wrong. I guess the thought of not being able to text her boyfriend was motivation enough to clean up her sty!

I would love to post after shots of the clean bedrooms, but I forgot and wouldn't you know it...they're not clean anymore. Go figure!