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.

Random May Happenings (Erik's Golf Tournament + Piano Recital)

May 3 2026. Erik was in charge of breakfast for the Father and Son's Campout. He bought some apples, pineapples, watermelon, and muffins in addition to having everyone make their own omelet in a Ziplock bag, which he cooked by placing the bags in a huge pot of boiling water. He also made tri-tip sandwiches for Gabe and Ian for dinner the night of the campout. On Sunday, they all had the leftovers again for dinner, and Erik sent me a picture while I was in Utah

 May 3

The boys eating Erik's fancy dinner while Elisa and I were away

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May 9, 2026. Erik participated in a golf tournament at work: the Valley Cup. He got a team together with 2 of his partners and his friend Ryan who works as a neuromonitoring technician. They played 18-hole scramble at TPC Scottsdale at the Champions Course. Tee time was 1pm, and the temperature was about 100 degrees all day. They tied for first place with a score of 8 under par. The tie breaker was to replay the first hole, which resulted in another tie. The final tiebreaker was to hit the ball closest to the flag from 100 yards away. Brian got the ball closer and won the tournament for their team. They were given brand new putters for their trophies.

Starting off the tournament on the second tee.

Playing the first tee one more time for the tiebreaker.

The second tiebreaker. The other team hit their ball inches short of the green, so all Brian had to do was get his ball on the green.

Victory!

The "trophy"

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May 12. 

I captured a screen shot of this on my way back from my organ lesson. I thought it was pretty cool. And no, I did not do this on purpose. Not even sure how I could.

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For 14 weeks, Erik and I have taken turns attending Gabe's Peers Group at InSight Psychology. It wasn't cheap and it required weekly meetings, and "homework" as well. The homework consisted of making phone calls, inside and outside the group. The last assignment was to invite a friend over, but unfortunately this particular assignment never panned out for Gabe. All in all, it was a great program for someone like Gabe. There were all boys in this group, and they were all more or less like Gabe. This program focused mainly on social skills. Erik and I think that all people could use a course like this! The boys would be in one space and learn and practice their skills together, while the parents were in another room discussing what the boys need to learn and what we can do as parents to help them. But most of the time, it was one parent or another venting about their issues with their child. I think Gabe learned a lot, so did we.

May 12

I took this picture on the last day of this course (their "graduation" day). I think it's good for Gabe to know that there are lots of other boys in the world similar to him.

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May 13

The van randomly kept doing this weird thing where it would go completely dead after turning it off, and then it would turn on and start after a few tries. I almost got stranded at the library, thankfully it started. It turned out to be a poor connection with the battery--a friend in our ward fixed it for us, for free.

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May 15

Ian started his epic project of making this Bowser stuffie. I helped him a lot, but he still did the bulk of the work. It took him quite some time, but yes, he did finish it! I will post the final product later...

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May 16th was my piano recital--the 3rd year in a row of having it at my student's house, with pizza and a swimming in the pool afterwards. Not a whole lot to say on this recital, it was pretty short since I didn't have a heavy load of students this year. My students played well. We had lots of yummy pizza and treats afterwards. I brought cans of sodas this time, thinking that maybe I had brought too much, but everyone guzzled them! We all had a good time.

My oldest (and most advanced) student playing a Jane Austen composition (allegedly, but still a nice piece). 

https://youtube.com/shorts/WrS8s_5VNI8

https://youtube.com/shorts/SVmdbhnIaTc

Ian's performance. They are too long to post on blogger, so I uploaded them to YouTube. Can you tell he's a Mario Bros. fan?

Some dorky pictures of me saying whatever dumb closing remarks at the end.

Swimming! Ian sure loves this part.

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May 17

Erik drove Gabe and Elisa to the Seminary graduation at the stake center. They made sure to load up on treats at the end.

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May 21

The kid's last day of school for the school year! 

Elisa let me take her picture, too bad the lighting was weird

Gabe wasn't into getting his picture taken!

Ian's last day of 5th grade!

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May 17

Mother's Day treats that our ward set out. Erik brought some home for me since I stayed home from church because I caught some bug that had been going around. 

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Both Gabe and Elisa skipped out on the combined activity "Missionary Night" at the church. Erik sent them some pictures of the displays and treats from each "mission."

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.