Happy 9th Birthday, Elisa!

Elisa is 9! Can you believe it? I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I feel like she should be...about 5, maybe? Haha. Elisa had a fun birthday this year, even if she didn't get the big birthday party like she usually does. And the best part is that Grandma and Grandpa came down for her birthday! Elisa needed a new bike (her old one was too small) so I let her choose one that she liked on Walmart.com and then Erik went and picked it up. It was downstairs waiting for her when she woke up on her birthday morning. Elisa wanted a bike with gears so that she could pedal backward without stopping the bike. Silly girl. I did do a teeny tiny birthday party for her, and invited just the friends that I knew would come. I didn't want to plan a big party and then have only a few kids show up. Elisa invited her BF Kassidy and her other friend from church and school, Eliza. I didn't put a whole lot of thought or planning into Elisa's party, but it was still a fun, cute little party. I made a heart cake the morning of, it's nothing super fancy but it turned out cute enough. Elisa didn't really have a "theme" this year for her birthday, but I did decorate the cake in her favorite colors--pink, light turquoise/blue, and purple. I also decorated a little bit in the front room (lame, I know, but better than nothing) in the same colors. Elisa also conveniently dressed herself in a dress that matched her colors! At the party, I helped the girls make pour paintings with their initial/name in glitter, and besides singing, cake, and opening presents, the girls just hung out and had a good time in each other's company.

Elisa and her brand new bike!

The girls making their paintings

Elisa's cake! She chose the colors, flavor, and shape.

Happy 9th birthday! So cute.

Its good to share a birthday with friends

Click here for her Happy Birthday video! It was too long to upload here.

Opening presents! Elisa already got a bike from Mommy and Daddy, and a stuffed llama from Grandma and Grandpa, but she still had a few more gifts to open!

Ready to open presents!

A picture with her friends while we waited for everyone to come

Elisa got a large squishy owl from Grandma Julie!

Opening Eliza's gift--coloring pages with markers. The girls went to work coloring some of these pages right after presents.

Opening Kassidy's card and gift. Elisa didn't really know how to work the gift (It was a Crayola light board) so she hasn't touched it, not yet, anyway.

I had a few other presents to give Elisa besides the bike--a makeup kit and a lotion/body spray kit I found at the after Christmas sales at Walmart. She has definitely made use out of those gifts!

Elisa and her stuff llama, which was the first thing she opened long before any of these gifts! Its colors match her party!

A picture of the girls' pour paintings. I think they turned out cool.

Random April Happenings, Part II

Here are more fun things we did in the month of April:

April 11

I got an email from the ward clerk letting me know that there was a free decor and furniture giveaway somewhere downtown Phoenix. I was told that a hotel or two was redoing their decor, and normally they sell the furniture and decor, but because of covid, they decided to just give everything away instead. Who was I to say no to free stuff? Especially when it comes to expensive items such as furniture and home decor. So I went by myself (I didn't want to bring any kids and it was a Saturday so Erik was home to watch them) and helped myself to these treasures you see above. I also got one other large(ish) picture, not shown. I didn't get any furniture because I didn't need any, and I didn't have a way of moving it even if I did. I was super happy to get these lovely items. I hung the mirror in the hallway to the garage, the large colorful tree picture was hung in the loft/toyroom, and I have yet to decide where I want to put the other pictures, but I love the desert set, hopefully I'll find somewhere soon to put them. What a great find, and completely free! 

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April 16

 I finally got around to purchasing some vinyl in order to cut out (yep by hand with an X-acto knife, I don't have a cricut machine) some phrases to put up on my metal display board. I wanted to do it myself so I didn't have to pay someone and wait for weeks to finally get it. It was a pain and tricky to put up but I figured it out. I like the way it turned out!

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April 17

My mom begged me to make her and my dad and brother facemasks. Shortly after I started making her masks, I got an order from Elisa's friend's mom for more masks.  They were pretty quick sews, and it was nice to be able to use some of my fabric stash, and get a bit of cash on the side. I added a little strip of metal for the nose bridge, that way the masks would stay on the face better. 

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April 18

I can't remember exactly why I took this picture, but here is Erik in the kitchen making us all a nice Saturday morning breakfast

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April 19

3rd hour of church with Daddy. The kids learned about King Benjamin and his teachings to the people listening in their tents. They took turns reading King Benjamin's address and listening in tents.

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April 21

A typical Elisa outburst. She gets so overly emotional and says things she doesn't really mean. Also she probably needs more sleep!

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April 22

I took some pictures of Ian for no other reason other than he's adorable.

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April 24

I found a recipe for lemon pound cake--actually I think my mom sent it. It turned out fabulous. Moist, smooth textured, and a nice, but not over-the-top, lemon flavor. I've made it once more after this first one, but now our lemon tree is out of non-rotten lemons so I'll have to wait until these new lemons ripen to make this yummy pound cake again, aka lemon loaf.

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April 24

                                                                                                                

April 25

Ian had a little spill on his bike and scrapped up his knee. You can tell what a little drama queen (drama prince?) he is in this video. He also refused to get his "owie" wet too so when he took a bath he made sure to stick his whole leg up while laying down and stood like a stork while standing up. Silly Ian.

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April 27

An unflattering picture of me during evening scripture study.

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April 27

I almost deleted this because it has no picture and I forgot what it is, but once I turned up the volume I remembered! Its a video (well, audio) of Ian talking in his sleep! Even though I could see Ian with my natural eyes okay, the phone camera couldn't see anything so that's why there is no video. I was doing my nighttime rounds checking on the kids, and when I came in Ian's room, he sat up, turned around, and said "I love you" several times, I was lucky enough to catch part of it on camera. I wonder what he was dreaming about? Sweet boy. 

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April 28

The computer screen matches her dress!

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April 28

A rare photo and video of Gabe practicing his trumpet for school band.

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April 29

Elisa spotted a baby bird out of its nest in our front yard and yelled for me to come see it. It don't know exactly what happened, but the nest must have fallen from the tree because its nest buddy was next to it, upside down, trying in vain to flip itself over, and pieces of the nest were scattered around the two birds. I picked up the distressed bird, but unfortunately it died in my hand not long after. Right after it died, a puddle of fluid seeped out of its beak and onto my palm. Yuck. So I buried it in the backyard using a metal kitchen spoon to dig the hole. Elisa was next to me the whole time, holding the other bird that seemed to be okay physically and didn't mind being held.  After thoroughly washing my hands, I told Elisa to put the other baby bird back where she found it, because I saw its mom nervously flittering around the spot where the nest had fallen (BTW, the story that the mother bird won't take back the baby if she smells human scent on it is a MYTH, look it up if you don't believe me). I haven't seen any dead birds around so I'm pretty sure the other bird was reunited with mommy bird and is now grown up and happy pecking at our crop of plums growing on our plum tree in our backyard.

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April 30

Free school lunches are the best! Here is Ian with his crop of goodies.

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Bike Rides with Ian

In Late March, early April, Ian got really comfortable riding his little Thomas the Train bike. Side note about that bike-- annoyingly, him and Elisa tore all the stickers off and cut up the Thomas-themed padding because they decided they didn't want his bike to be Thomas the Train anymore--it was just a plain little blue bike with a "T" on the seat after they did that. Despite Elisa's "help" in stripping Ian's little bike of stickers, she sure was helpful in Ian's learning to ride without training wheels! I told Ian that when he learned to ride his Thomas bike with no training wheels, then we would buy him a brand new bike, because that Thomas bike was ridiculously too small for him.  Ian told us that he wanted a red bike, so as soon as he was able to ride his little blue Thomas the Train bike, Erik went to Walmart and bought him a red bike that was the perfect size for Ian. Ian took to the new red bike right away. Almost every evening, Ian and I went for bike rides. Sometimes Elisa came along, and once even Gabe came! Our favorite place to go was the newly-discovered (as in, we've never been) pedestrian bridge that spans the 1-17 freeway. The first time Ian and I rode our bikes there, Ian was so slow and wobbly, but a week or so later, he was a pro!  We took as many bike rides as the weather would permit, or at least until the clouds of flying gnats became intolerable and the mosquitoes showed up. Our last bike ride was mid-May, and now (June) is just too darn hot.

April 9

Big sis helping Ian learn to ride without training wheels.

A beautiful desert bike ride, with Ian on his too-small Thomas bike

He was so excited to get his new bike! He woke up early the next morning to ride it.

On the bridge! It was mesmerizing and dizzy-ing to see how fast those cars and trucks are going below us.

Easter 2020

Easter 2020! Even though nobody would come down to have Easter with us, we still had fun together. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary, we just mostly stuck to what we've always done--coloring eggs, making Jell-O eggs, watching "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown",and putting out Easter baskets the night before. An egg hunt, acquiring a sugar rush from eating too much Easter basket candy and Jell-O eggs, and a special Easter lunch/dinner were all activities we enjoyed the day of. There were two new things that the kids were able to experience this year: receiving a special message from the Easter bunny, trying out edible Easter grass, and decorating Easter-themed sugar cookies that we made. I made.

The Easter Bunny took time out of his/her busy day and made these special signs for the kids, and their cousins too!

Coloring eggs with daddy. Every year, daddy helps the kids color eggs, while I make the Jell-O eggs. And every year, one of the kids spills something or cracks an egg and daddy gets irritated. LOL poor daddy!

The edible grass that we decided to try this year.  It's okay. Just very startchy, slightly sweet and absolutely void of any flavor whatsoever. Elisa claimed to not like it at first, but I saw her sneaking bits and pieces, here and there, so much so that I think that she actually did like it.

The Easter bunny came! The kids all came downstairs in their jammies and dove right into their baskets.  I'm so glad that he/she didn't try to compete with Santa this year.

All of the pretty colored eggs. The kids gobbled half of them Easter morning, and the other half I used to make deviled eggs for Easter dinner/lunch.

The egg hunt. Poor Gabe tripped over his own feet and fell down and his eggs went everywhere. Other then that, the kids had a fun time hunting for eggs. I didn't fill them with candy, since they had so much candy in their baskets, but I did fill them with other fun items such as little erasers, coins, little toys, packs of fruit snacks, and best of all, a few dollar bills. Next year we'll try to put more dollar bills, the kids really liked getting them.

I'm not sure which was more fun for the kids--finding the eggs, or opening the eggs!

 I also did 3 prize eggs--a sparkly egg, one for each child--and they held a slip of paper redeemable for one prize! I didn't get pictures, but Gabe got Nerf gun bullets, Elisa got a mini fingerling/monkey toy, and Ian got a 3D Mario made out of Perler beads, by yours truly. I would have made Gabe a Luigi (or visa versa) but I was completely out of green, black, and blue Perler beads. 

It's the Easter guinea!

Cutie wearing her Easter shirt. I can't believe this shirt still fits her. She's been wearing it since kindergarten!

Our Easter lunch/dinner. I made funeral potato casserole, deviled eggs, and the rolls were frozen Rhodes rolls. Erik grilled the lamb again this year, but it wasn't nearly as good as the cut we got the previous year. I got the bone-in leg cut this Easter, whereas last time I got the lamb cutlet (I think). The bone-in leg was fattier, chewier, and not as much meat, although the flavor was definitely good.

Decorating and eating Easter cookies! I bought a bunny and egg cookie cutter a few weeks before Easter, and on Easter day, I noticed that we still had lots of Easter sprinkles, so I thought what the heck lets make some Easter sugar cookies! This is the same recipe I use to make my Valentine's sugar cookies, but I halfed it since it makes enough cookies for the neighborhood. 

That's if for Easter 2020! A fun Easter together!