Ian's Pinewood Derby Night

April 23
Even though there's no more Cub Scouts for the boys, the Pinewood Derby still remains! Ian was excited to participate. First, he designed his car: a Mario Kart (no surprises there). I helped him find a design on Pinterest, and Erik helped him cut it out. Ian even found a broken Mario figurine that Erik secured into the car. Ian chose the paint colors and painted most of it himself:

This cutie with his car, not quite finished

I helped Ian paint the body in my craft room

Erik drilling the Mario figure into the seat he cut out on the car.

Ian painted most of the Kart, and I neatened it up for him and put a layer of mod podge on it. Erik wouldn't put the wheels on it until the paint job was complete.

The day of the race came, and Ian competed against maybe 15-20 other cars. He beat them all, except one car which belonged to his friend James. He beat the 2nd place car several times, except for the last time, so idk how it is he won 3rd and not 2nd place. There were treats and the gym was decorated with fun racing decorations including lots of balloons.

Ian had a blast goofing off with his buddies

Ian won all of the races except for one. He really should have tied for 2nd place, because one of the tracks was slower than the other.

3rd place! He was happy that his best friend won first. I told him it was great that he placed at all. Gabe never placed ever in his pinewood derby. This race included all the girls too, so they competed against quite a bit of cars.

Such a fun night! Even if he didn't place, he would have had fun.

Ian's car, awards, medal, and badges.

April Random Happenings, Part II (Elisa's Camp Surf)

 A continuation of the last post...more April happenings!

April 21

I made a blueberry pie using ready-made crust and just blueberries I found for sale at the grocery store. I'm kicking myself for not printing out the recipe, because this pie sure turned out delicious!

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April 27

Erik and I got last-minute tickets to go to the Millennial choir concert via his friend Dan. This concert was very patriotic, a few months ahead of 4th of July! Of course, it was amazing. Next year's performances will be a little different; Millennial choir is teaming up with the Men's trio Gentri to perform Messiah in America. Erik has auditioned to be in the choir, we will see if he makes it in!  

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April 28

The Youth had a special sacrament meeting in which they did most everything: talks, prayers, and music. Elisa and Gabe sang in the choir, and Gabe even accompanied the congregation on the piano for the sacrament hymn. He did a great job! 

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April 28

Another delicious pie made by yours truly. This time it was strawberry. I was trying to use up the cheap pie crust we had bought a few months prior before their expiration date.

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April 29-May 1

Elisa went on her class field trip to Camp Surf in California. Gabe went last year and had a good time, and Elisa also had a good time! Mostly because she got to hang out with her good girlfriends. Her friend Jayde's mom was a chaperone and kindly sent me a few pictures. 

 Waiting for her friend to come pick her up at 5:08 am. At least this wasn't as an ungodly hour as 3am like Gabe's was last year. Elisa was anxious because they came a little later than they said they would.

Ariel, Elisa, and Jayde

Eating. Elisa said the food wasn't so good.

Rock climbing. Elisa got all the way to the top! She usually does. She has always like crawling on top of stuff ever since she was a toddler.

On the bus home!Elisa is sitting behind her bffs Kassidy and Jayde, who are sitting behind Jayde's mom.

April Random Happenings, Part I

Here are some of the fun things that happened in April!

April 8

Solar Eclipse day! I didn't have any glasses, but I snuck this picture by turning my phone camera to selfie and pointing it towards the sun. Can you see the moon going over the sun? I didn't see anything else interesting; I think we were too far away from the viewing path.

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April 11

I helped Gabe clean the crap outta his room. It took awhile! I hung up some floating shelves the next day. He sure likes to keep a lot of garbage--I took out bags and bags of it!

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April 13

After I cleaned Gabe's room, I helped Elisa clean hers. She was very reluctant to have me in there, even though she outta be thanking me. Anyway, guess what I found while cleaning out her closet? Ian's phone! He had been missing it since December. Can you tell he was happy to have it back?

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April 16

I made black bean brownies for the first time. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. Yummy and fudgy, you can't taste the beans at all. There is also no flour and no eggs in this recipe. Its healthier than regular brownies, but I would not call it low-fat. I didn't tell the kids what was in these brownies. They still haven't got a clue (I've made them again since this time). The kids gobbled them up pretty fast. I think I'll make a double batch next time--this doesn't make very many brownies.

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A visual representation of what its like to have a lemon tree. We got a lot of lemons again this year.

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April 19

Ian's teacher asked us to write notes of encouragement for his state testing, one from each family member. Elisa sure had fun writing hers!

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April 19

Elisa got her first baby sitting job! He was 10 so they were only a few years apart, but nevertheless she was paid $50. 

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April 20

I went to my cousin's baby shower. I had bought her a baby bouncer a few months prior on amazon.uk, and since she lives in the UK, it was streamed live from England. I also visited with my uncle Spencer, who has Lou Gerig's disease and is bedridden. As I write this, he's still hanging in there, but we shall see come Christmas.

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Lisa's Visit Part III Birthday Celebration/April Fool's/End of Visit

Much to my annoyance, Easter and Erik and Gabe's birthday all fell on the same day this year (March 31st). There was nothing to do about that fact, so I tried to make the best of it. We didn't bother with a cake since everyone's sweet tooth was beyond satisfied with all the Easter treats. We did save time later in the evening for presents! Gabe got the biggest present ever: a 3D printer. He had been asking for it for a long time. I ordered it off of Amazon, with a couple of color spools as well. Gabe was so excited that he opened the package, immediately set it up in his room, and started printing things right away. He sure had that thing figured out fast--he is a smart guy! He's been pretty much printing non-stop with that thing. I haven't counted the number of items, but I'd say it's approaching 100. Most of the things he prints are things for his train table and little toys. Erik and I ate out at a Brazilian restaurant (Sierra Gaucha) the night before his birthday.

Happy 15th birthday, Gabe! You're so nice and cute and smart and silly--we love you so much!

Gabe needs to relearn how to smile for pictures

I wrapped Gabe's 3D printer in a blanket because it was so big.

Erik opening something I got him, which I absolutely cannot remember, but possibly something for golf??

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The next day was April fools' day. Elisa had fun making brown E's for us all. Lisa and I got Gabe so good haha! We told him that we had set him up for a group date with some girls he knew from church/school. He wasn't happy about it--he doesn't like things sprung at him normally anyway, so this reaction was so typically Gabe! Haha poor Gabe! He was relieved to find out it was all an April fool's prank.

Elisa pranked us by giving us "brownies" aka brown E's.

I couldn't figure out how to convert an MP4 audio file to a video file, so I just made a video of it from my phone:

https://youtu.be/KcJOcCXjAe0

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The next day, April 2, Lisa and I went out and left the kids on their own. We went to TJMaxx and then for some sushi:

Sushi at the Bento Box. I've always been happy with their food.

At the last evening of Lisa's visit (yes same day Lisa and I went out for sushi), we all went out to Texas roadhouse to use up some of the free kid's meal coupons we got from the music and arts night at school. 

These girls had so much fun!

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The next day, April 3, I dropped the Blaylocks off at the airport. It was a fun visit! I hope they come again next Spring Break. Their Spring Break is a few weeks after ours, which is good since we can get our cruise in and get another week of fun visits in. Unfortunately, we can never go anywhere like that together because our kids have school while they have vacation.

Getting a few more Nintendo games in before the Blaylocks leave.

Lisa's Visit Part II: Easter

It was fun to have someone to celebrate Easter with this year! We did all the stuff we normally do, but with the Blaylocks. Lisa and I stuffed tons of eggs and maybe went a little overboard with the Easter basket presents, but at least it was fun! First we had church. It was a big day for me since I was playing the organ. I practiced the heck out of my songs. I even did a duet with the other pianist in the ward. Everything went great up until the last song, which we had prepared a key change and everything. There were too many speakers that took too long, so the bishop made the decision to cut the song short, which still makes me angry to this day if I think about it. But my bad for not communicating that we were planning that. Church was thankfully an hour long. Lisa hid the Easter baskets outside and the kids found them pretty quickly. After enjoying the baskets, it was time for the egg hunt! I scattered the eggs all over the yard. There weren't any special eggs since their easter baskets had plenty of special treats, but I did buy an off-brand Lego set of individual easter objects that I put into the eggs, along with Super Mario Bros. egg-shaped puzzles. The boys really liked the Lego sets especially. After the egg hunt we made and ate our Easter dinner while the kids obsessed over their goodies. I made rolls, funeral potatoes, a brussel sprout salad, caramelized pineapple, and deviled eggs. Erik smoked the ribs. It was all yummy. 

The kids lining up for the egg hunt

Get those eggs!

Elisa got the most eggs.

Checking out whats inside the eggs...

Gabe, forgetting how to smile for a picture

Enjoying the baskets outside

Lisa and I found these egg-cakes at the grocery store for an extra Easter basket item for each kid. 

Our Easter dinner!

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April 1st--almost done!

Before putting the vinyl verse on

I meant to have this done so I could hang it as Easter decor, but I didn't quite finish it in time between all the organ stuff and Lisa's visit. I officially finished on April 6th, but I included it in this post because it is meant for Easter. I bugged an acquaintance down the street to make me a vinyl cutout of the scripture verse. She charged me $5, totally worth it since I would never be able to paint letters that well, at least not without it taking another week. I like the way the painting turned out. This was my first time painting flowers.