Elisa's Unicorn Painting

Elisa wanted me to paint her a unicorn painting (she is really into unicorns right now) and so I figured it would be a great time to brush up (haha get it?) on my painting skills.  I had a 16x 20 canvas that I had painted purple (obvisouly that painting didn't turn out) hanging around so I thought it would make an ok background for the unicorn.  I googled "unicorn coloring pages" and I liked this  particular unicorn best.  I enlarged the unicorn and printed it out and then transferred it onto the canvas.  Then I got to painting! I like to start with the hardest parts first, that way I don't get burned out.  Therefore, I started with the rainbow hair.  It wasn't so hard as it was tedious. Even with doing one color for several strands at a time, it still took forever.  To keep myself from getting too bored with doing the hair, I worked on the body intermittently.  I love how the unicorn turned out! I let Elisa pick out the saying.  She said she wanted "Be Magical Like a Unicorn", only to change her mind after I had painted the words on.  Too late! I regret this, but I painted a bunch of flowers (obviously) around the unicorn because I thought it needed "something else".  Well that "something else" certainly was not meant to be those flowers.  I think they make the painting look too busy.  I should have painted the words first, and then decided if it needed "something else".  I think it would have looked fine with just the words and nothing else. Part of me wants to paint over all the flowers with purple, but Elisa says she likes them so I'll just leave them for now. I was all done when Elisa dictated something else: the unicorn needs "magic" coming out of her horn.  I honored her demand and painted some squigglies (who's to say magic doesn't look like white painted squigglies??).  I found a white frame on clearance for $6 at Walmart and hung it on her wall.  Done and done!

It says "I Love you.  You are Not Done I whant you to Make Magic comeing out of the uinqcorens horn Love Elis [sic, sic, sic]

A Fun Saturday

Back when we lived in Peoria, Erik got in touch with his best friend from childhood, Billy Fenter. They talked about getting our families together, but we never seemed to find enough time. A few months ago, Erik contacted Billy and they arranged to meet up again. Billy's family lives by Queen Creek, so it didn't seem feasible to meet at someone's house. They decided to meet somewhere in between our houses, which ended up being Freestone Park in Gilbert where they played as kids. 

Erik said that Freestone Park hasn't changed much, with the exception of several carnival rides. We met Billy and Teanne and their 5 kids by the rides and rode the train together. Apparently the train had derailed just before we got there (no injuries or anything bad), so they had to put it back on the track and go slower than usual to prevent another mishap. The kids went on the jet ski ride with the few tickets that we had left over while Erik and Billy reminisced about their childhood (Nintendo, basketball, Patterson Elementary, Erik's pool, soccer games, batting cages, fun runs, parents, and old friends).

One of the big lakes at Freestone Park. Erik says that they used to have paddle boats here.

After visiting Freestone Park, we decided to meet up for lunch at Joe's Real BBQ. Despite claiming that he is a vegan, Billy had a BBQ beef sandwich. He said that he was only being vegan for a short time to lose some weight and that he would start his diet after eating at Joe's. The kids played outside for a while since Joe's has some outdoor games like beanbag toss. However, we ran inside after seeing all the bees buzzing around the trash and our food.

Gabe's Stick Bot

Ever since Gabe bought himself a Stik bot, he's been obsessed with making Stik Bot videos! He is very creative with them! Silly boy.  Gabe downloaded an app on my phone and uses the app to take the videos and add sound and special affects. Here are all of his Stik Bot videos I had on my phone. They were taking up a lot of space! I don't expect anyone to watch all of them (even though most of them are super short), but you can tell Gabe is a clever little boy by just watching a few:

Gabe had a book report that required reading a book (obviously), decorating a cereal box, and making a video advertisement about it.  Gabe chose Calvin Coconut Zoo Breath.  Poor kid went ahead and made a cereal box and video all on his own, but he didn't follow many of the directions and so mean mommy and daddy made him do it all over again.  It all turned out so much better than the first round and he got an A!

This is his first draft of the video and you can see the first draft of the box, too.

The final version we sent to the teacher

February Randomness

 February may be a short month, but it wasn't short on fun! Here are a bunch of random pictures of fun things we did in the month of February:

Shopping at Fry's grocery store! Sometimes (I haven't gone in awhile) I go to Sonic right by Fry's and order a Fruit Refresher for $1. The strawberry one is awesome and well worth the dollar! I figure its much cheaper and healthier than going to the Starbucks inside the store, although if Erik knew, he would more than likely complain about me going to Sonic and spending $1 once in a blue moon with my own money (insert eyeroll). LOL!
Anyway, Ian sits in the cart for the first quarter or so of my shopping trip.  There is a little fruit stand set up in the produce section, and it has free fruit for kids.  Ian always picks out a banana, and occasionally an orange or apple.  He happily devours his fruit, makes a huge mess all over himself, and then I drop him off at the Kid's Corner (really, the whole reason I go out of my way to this particular grocery store) with (usually) Ms Sandy who is so sweet and nice to Ian and she loves him and we love her for it!

 Elisa's friend Kassidy's mom invited us over for a Super Bowl gathering, again.  I'm surprised they invited us over again, but I suppose Kassidy needed a friend to play with.  Erik balked about going to their house since it was a Sunday, but Ian wasn't feeling very well so Erik got his wish and stayed home with Ian, and Gabe too.  I have zero interest in football but I do enjoy eating food and I will sit and watch the halftime show.  This year's halftime show was put on by Justin Timberlake, and it was pretty awesome!

 Ian is only 3 and can write his own name and all of the letters of the alphabet! Has definitely going places...! 

 Someone stole my bath water!

 Ian's favorite foods are: Mac n Cheese, pizza, and ABC (alphabet) spaghetti.  This particular lunch he chose pizza!

 One of the best things that happened in February was that I (along with the entire presidency) was released from my calling as Young Women's 1st counselor.  It wasn't for me, lets just put it at that. I was called to be Primary Pianist instead (yay!).  The counselor that released me mistook my joy for being called as Pianist (which I was happy about), but my joy mostly stemmed from being relieved of that tortuous calling.  Haha. Anyway, some of the advisors made this for me and some of the YW signed it on the back. We ate all of the candy except for the Hot Tamales which were promptly thrown in the trash where they belong.
   

 My pretty girl in her new dress.  We love it!

 Ian sleeping in the car with his baby doll.  He carried her around for awhile until her head came off and I had to throw her in the trash (sans outfit, of course).  He'll make a great daddy someday!

 My awesome find at Goodwill! We were driving back from an activity with Erik's friend in Mesa and we had nothing better to do than stop by Goodwill.  It was 50% off day.  I found this practically-new desk/cupboard this that I thought would be perfect for my craft room.  And it was a steal at only $10 for the entire thing! And I was right--it is absolutely perfect for my craft room.  I'm so glad I listened to myself and snagged it before somebody else did. I cleaned it up-it wasn't very dirty except the outside-and Erik and I hauled it up the stairs.  I still need to put my craft stuff in the drawers, but I'll get to that, someday!

This is the video that freaks Ian out.  Gabe took it on my iPhone app called MSQRD.  The kids and I like messing around on that app.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Stetson Hills PTSA hosted a Daddy Daughter Dance. Elisa kept changing her mind whether she wanted to go or not. Finally Erik said that they would go, so Elisa got excited and said that she wanted to go. They wore matching purple and white outfits and bought "homemade" corsages and boutonnieres at the dance. The school teaches kids up to 8th grade, and there were a surprising number of girls of all ages at the dance. A gourmet dinner of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, chips, and cookies was included. Elisa and Erik were able to stay together and dance most of the time, even though Elisa would occasionally run off with random friends. They were both fairly tired by the time they got home.

So adorable, both of them

The PTSA did a decent job of decorating the school gym.

It took Elisa about 3 seconds to find her best friend Kassidy.

Best Friends

The DJ did a good job of getting the dads onto the dance floor. Most dads were pretty willing to learn a few new dances (i.e. the whip and nay nay) and teach the girls some old dances (i.e. the macarana and YMCA). However, when the conga line started, the dads instantly disappeared from the dance floor.

At one point the train broke just in front of Elisa, so she was leading a few moments.

Erik and Elisa finished their night with some ice cream at home. I think Elisa had a good time and wants to go again next year.

Gabe's Book

Here are some pictures of Gabe's book.  I didn't have a lot of time to edit it, so there was a few mistakes but I tried to fix them post-print.  The illustrations are originally in color but between the scanner and the printer, any color that was there was somehow lost. Gabe say he doesn't like this book because he thinks its "making fun" of him, Erik says the book is "inappropriate", and every one else I've shown the book to thinks it is hilarious.  Well, can't please everyone I guess. 

Valentine's Day 2018

Another fun Valentine's Day! Here are the pictures:

I made Elisa a new dress for Valentine's day.  She picked out the chocolate covered strawberry fabric at Joanns. I think it turned out super cute! She wore it to church the Sunday before Valentine's day, but hasn't worn it since.  I was hoping she'd wear it to school, but she refused and insisted on wearing another shirt that was way too big for her:

 Ian wearing the vest I made for Gabe years ago, that matched a Christmas dress of Elisa's. 

 So sweet!

Celebrating Valentine's Day at School:

Gabe finishing signing his V-day cards

 Elisa's heart-hair! 

 Two cuties on Valentine's day, just before getting on the bus

Not pictured: The huge mess of Valentines cards and candy wrappers from the school Valentine exchange

Of course the kids got spoiled by Mommy and Daddy for Valentine's day cuz we just love them so much! 

I got Elisa a doll that turns into a cupcake and visa versa.  She smells good, too!

Elisa loved her unicorn Valentine that I made for her!

I'll post it in a bit, but I made Gabe a book.  He has a love/hate relationship with it.  He doesn't like that he's a character in the book that farts.  He does like it because its funny!

I got Gabe some putty that comes with a light that can write on it.  The kids were pretty enamored with it for awhile, but since they are seemingly incapable of putting anything away, it dried out so I threw it all away a day or so later.

I got Erik some circus animal cookies and some other random stuff, and he got me a brand new touch-screen computer! In reality, its not really mine, not really.  It sure is nice, a little slower than what I was hoping it would be, but our old one barely starts anymore so its nice to have somewhere safe (i.e. that won't crash) for my music library and my pictures to be. 

A touch screen computer is easy for 3-year-old Ian to use!

The old computer still works-barely-so when it does, its convenient if more than one kid wants to play on it.

We had a babysitter come watch the kids while Erik and I went out for Valentine's day dinner.  We had a different place in mind originally, but we didn't make reservations and the wait was too long so we (well, Erik) picked another place to eat, that actually didn't have a wait at all: Flemming's Steak House.  Erik had been there several times but I had never been so I was happy to be eating there.  The food was delicious.  I ordered steak (of course!) and Erik ordered lobster.  We decided that the steak was better than the lobster.  We also ordered a chocolate turtle cake and it was super yummy, even the whipped cream on top was amazing: