Scottsdale Artist's School Art Camp + Random stuff

I signed Elisa and Ian up for a week-long art camp at the Scottsdale Artist's School, during the first week of June. It was quite the drive out there, 45 minutes each way with a total of 3 hours a day driving for me. Needless to say, I was completely burned out with driving by the end. These were also fairly expensive classes; I found out there was a scholarship only after the camps had begun. Elisa was in the High School/teen camp, fantasy-themed, and Ian was in the 9-14 class, dragon-themed.
They both enjoyed their art camp and, by the end of the week, had produced quite a bit of art; it was impressive. Not only did they make a lot of art, but they made a lot of art from lots of different mediums! Elisa was only one of three teens in her class, but she was hands-down the best artist among them!

June 1

Ian's class started 15 minutes before hers, so we waited in the hall till hers started

Jun 1

Ian, sitting at the table of his choice before class began

Jun 1

Elisa was excited to start making art!

June 5

Elisa's last day of art camp!

June 5. At the last hour or so of the last day of art camp, they hosted the art show, which was all of the art that the kids had made that week. There sure was a lot!

Ian made a unique stuffy of his own

A Yoshi made out of clay

I was surprised to see that jewelry-making (wire wrapping, specifically) was included in the camp 

A dragon hatching from an egg

I laid out all of Ian's paper artwork from the camp across the bed when we got home

Now, on to Elisa's fantasy art:

She made lots of fun things, including a mask and a shadowbox.

The middle drawing is Elisa's.

Elias's painting and...not sure what the other thing is!

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June 4

After art camp, I took all the kids plus a friend of Ian's to see The Digital Circus movie at the AMC theater. They were so excited about the movie that they even dressed the part!

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Here are some other fun random things we did those first few weeks of June, besides the art camp:

June 5

While Ian and Elisa were at art camp, Erik and I took Gabe to eat brunch at First Watch. I think Erik started work late that day, unfortunately he wasn't able to get off in time for Ian and Elisa's art show later that day.

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https://youtube.com/shorts/F8liwKZtf-k

I had Ian learn the hymn "Did You Think to Pray?" on the organ so that he could play it in sacrament meeting. Here is the video of his practice, a day before church. He played it quite fast at home, but during the performance he dragged it too much, but still he played it quite well!

June 6

Driving home after practicing the organ at the church, I caught the street lights glitching out!

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June 9

I took Ian and Elisa to the mall, were I spent too much money on them at Hot Topic. We were hungry so we ate lunch at Popeyes.

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June 

Ian was a trooper getting lots of shots at his 11-year doctor's checkout. I took him to lunch at Culver's afterward.

Utah Visit with Elisa, Part I (Birthday Treats)

In celebration of Elisa's 15th birthday, we flew (Frontier) up to SLC so that she could spend some time with her cousins. Somehow, they always schedule the father/son campout on her birthday weekend, so it was no big deal for Elisa and me to go up to Utah since Erik and the boys would be gone a night anyway. Our flight left Friday, May 1 in the morning, around 11am. Erik let me take his car and got us premium parking as well. It took a few minutes for me to find a spot. Thankfully the flight wasn't delayed like it was last year. Elisa and I sat apart, but it's only an hour flight, so no big deal.
I'm pretty sure it was Lisa who picked us up from the airport. The girls are always happy to see each other. We only spent a few days up in Utah, but they were filled with lots of fun. Here are the pictures I took:

While the girls were at the park, Lisa and I stopped in Sephora. Lisa made good use of the in-store samples, and I went to the counter to claim Elisa's free birthday gifts, which were a few perfumes that she didn't care for too much. I kept telling Lisa to get going because it was almost time to pick up the girls. She ignored me until I was checking out at the counter, and then she loudly interrupted us by telling me to hurry up and that it was time to go haha!
 

May 1-Lisa trying on as much makeup as she could, it was all fun until one of the products she used started to peel off her face.

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May 2 

Elisa's actual birthday. We made sure she had lots of fun. She and Aaliyah's favorite place to go is Angel Devil desserts. I let her order whatever she wanted. She got a drink, a strawberry and a grape tanghulu, which she almost choked on. 

The girls enjoyed their drinks.

Grandma came with

I thought I said Elisa, but the dude must have heard "Hi Lisa" haha. 

While Lisa and my mom and I shopped around (I think we went Buckle), the girls looked around Hot Topic. I bought both of them some stuff. Aaliyah asked for a hat and a shirt, so I bought her those. After we checked out, an employee hosted a trivia contest with a spin and win. Elisa got the trivia question correctly (something about the Demon Hunters movie) and got to spin! She won a free shirt! So, we went back inside, and she found a shirt from one of her favorite anime shows, the Apothecary diaries.

Then we had lunch at their favorite restaurant, CupBop. My mom and I shared a cup. I would like them better if there was more good stuff and less rice/noodles or if their prices were a little lower. The girls also really like their fish-shaped ice cream treats.

Enjoying their Cupbop meal.

After eating, I picked up a full cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Elisa had chosen red velvet flavor. It was yummy and took a few days to devour. We invited Isabelle over to celebrate Elisa's birthday. The girls had a fun time giggling and eating cake.

Enjoying some girl time on the trampoline

Isabelle and Elisa about to enjoy the cake. There was so much frosting on this cake, which I normally like but this cake had an excessive amount.  

Random April Happenings, Part II (Erik's MCO Performance, Ian's Band Concert, Elisa's Early Birthday)

April 24-25

Erik's parents came down to see his MCO's Spring/patriotic concert. They came down a day or two before. Before the concert, Elisa, Grandma, and I went to Goodwill, the local Farmer's Market, and then Michaels (made some free bracelets and got some balloons) and then stopped in Bath and Body Works. Erik had an earlier performance before our scheduled show (ours was the very last) so we drove down to Mesa and picked up food that Erik had ordered at Joe's Farm Grill. The food was okay except we had no drinks and no napkins. The kids were thirsty, so we went to a McDonald's drive through for some drinks. They got our order wrong, so we had to go through again. We ate some in the car, and then some just outside the Mesa Arts Center with Erik. The concert was very patriotic with almost all USA-themed songs, and even if they weren't directly USA themed, the blurb given by Brandon before the song somehow tied it to being a patriotic song.  The concert was good; I think the kids liked it. I wore my patriotic shirt and earrings. I saw a few people from our ward at the concert, I'm glad we're getting the word out about the MCO!   

April 24

Erik, his parents, and I ate at State 48 Rock House. It was pretty good--I think I really liked the fries.

April 25

Going shopping with Grandma and Elisa

Ian with his meal from Joe's Farm Grill. It was a Sonoran hotdog, I don't think Ian even finished it.

Here are a few videos that Erik took during rehearsals, they sound amazing already! 

We had a decent view of Erik when they came out on the balcony

"Call of the Champions" by John Williams. I liked when Erik was on the balcony so we could see him better.

I'm So Blessed...the kids have strong feelings against this song, but I like it. I believe it was the last song of the evening; you can hear and see the enthusiasm the choir has for this song! They sang it a few years back in their Spring concert.  

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April 28

I got back into playing with my beads. I really like bead embroidering stuff. I made a bunch of pins and magnets. I didn't take pictures of everything I made, but I did get a picture of this kitty pin. 

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April 29

Ian had his last band concert of the school year. I really wish the school had an auditorium/stage (or at least used the high school's) because it is always so hard to see Ian, let alone get pictures of him, but Erik got a few. And a bonus picture just after the concert of me and Ian. Ian plays the trombone and seems to enjoy it!

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April 30

The glass on the dryer door got busted. I'm not sure exactly what happened or how this happened, but I'm pretty sure it was from metal things clanging around that were attached to Elisa's jeans. I can't think of anything else, other than maybe someone slammed the door too hard. My thought was to run to Lowe's and buy some heat-resistant tape and tape up the glass. Erik poo-pooed my idea and then closed the door and reopened the door, and that was when the glass just all fell out. When I first saw the door, the glass was shattered, but still intact.  If we had gone with my idea, we might have at least had a useable dryer while we waited for a new dryer door that Erik found on eBay. Erik switched out the glass and threw the new door away. It was dirty when we bought it, but we cleaned it up and you'd never know that it was glass from another dryer door.

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April 30

Princess Elisa had a birthday coming up!  Elisa didn't want a big friend party, so we just had a small family party. Grandma and Grandpa left just in time to not be in attendance ha. She decided on pizza for dinner. Then she opened up a few gifts (her main gift was going up to Utah). Elisa really liked the little Nothing Bundt Cakes that I got for Erik and Gabe's birthday, so I got her some of those instead of a full cake. I can't believe my gwilly is already 15! I know I'll be saying that every year! This was just part of her birthday celebration...there is more fun to come! We really liked going up to Utah for her birthday last year, so I decided to take her up there again. 

Pizza for dinner

Silly gwilly opening her gifts. I don't remember what was in this box, it could have been her Hades Melanie Martinez CD I got her, or it could have been something else entirely.

The kids put their money together and bought Tomodachi Life; they were the most excited about this game!

Singing Happy Birthday to the family princess--Happy 15th Birthday, Elisa!

Random April Happenings, Part I (Elisa's Art Show)

Here are some fun things we did in the Month of April, after the Blaylock's visit and Easter had passed:

April 10

I finally got around to fixing this wall picture I found at World Market with my mom way back in February. It was just too darn orange, and orange is the color that I want the least of in my house. I put a lot more green and pink paint to cover the orangiest spots. When I was satisfied with it, I hung it up on the wall in my front room.

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April 11

I took the kids to Desert Donuts, since I had previously bought a Groupon deal that got me a donut ice cream pie for half-price. I presented the coupon in store and let Elisa pick out a pie that she wanted. Then I let the boys pick out a donut of their choosing. Gabe chose a blue one and Ian chose a cereal one. The donuts were pretty good; I liked the slight crunch on the outside. But, like anything good, they were a little expensive (about $4 each).

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April 12

A silly Come Follow Me Lesson activity. I don't remember what the lesson was, but the kids were amusing to me during this activity. Something about Moses and holding up his arms.

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April 17

After having my jewelry armoire for about 15 years, I found this little charm in the drawer that holds my rings. I had no idea what the heck it was supposed to be, until I asked ChatGPT and it told me the charm was a Jewish symbol, called the Chai which means life/living in Hebrew. Pretty cool. I think I lost it since then. Not sure what I'd do with it anyway.

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April 17

I filled Ian's bike tires up with air as well as mine. I had to practically force Ian to come on a bike ride with me. I'm not sure why he was so hard to get out the door. We rode around the neighborhood; it was perfect weather and I enjoyed riding my bike. Ian wasn't so excited, so he pooped out earlier than I would have liked. I think I overinflated my tires though; a few days later they were completely flat.

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April 22

Erik, Ian and I went to Elisa's art show. We had no idea about it until Elisa told us last minute. You'd think they would send a flyer out or at least an email. It was fun seeing all of the artwork, especially Elisa's. She refused to let us take pictures of her with her artwork, but Erik convinced her to let him take just one. 

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We hung up the bible page that I bought from Moon's Rare Books.