Shanna and Haley turn 7!

At the beginning of May Shanna and Haley turned the big 7!  (My favorite number!) It really wasn't weird that they were turning 7.  But thinking of them being baptized next year does seem a little weird!  For their cakes Shanna requested "Nya" a Lego Ninjago character, and the only girl ninja as far as I know. I stayed up way too late doing their cakes!  That night I went to a baby shower which was really fun.  I didn't stay long though and came home and kept working on their cakes. For each of the cakes I actually baked two 9x13s.  Usually I bake one cake, cut it in half and decorate one-half for each girl.  I love leftover cake--which we had!




Haley wanted a butterfly.  She liked it, so I guess that's success!






Can you believe it Lois?!  I decorated!  I saw an easy tutorial on a blog and made the purple and pink backdrop with plastic table cloths...click here for link. It didn't take me very long either. I didn't want mine super long so just left it folded in half like it was already.  And I taped it to the frame of the opening-I didn't use push pins.


I was going to type the next morning, but for me it was only a few hours later that the girls were up!
Shanna, with Elden's photo bomb.


Haley.


I love having girls!


Their birthday was quite a busy day, so we let them open some presents before school.




I just noticed as I was putting this picture on the blog that Cal is fastening Haley's necklace for her.  How sweet!


I got some great deals on some cute bracelets and lipgloss at the Children's Place.  This two pack of lipgloss/chapstick was under two dollars!




Like how my kids eat with measuring spoons?


Some bracelets.


Who wouldn't like getting a $2 bill?  The girls enjoyed receiving cards from both sets of grandparents.




I bought them a set of "best friends" necklaces, which they are wearing in the picture.  New slippers too!


A random photo of Clark, just for fun.


After school and a quick snack we went to the church so I could help with the final preparations for the ward spaghetti dinner that night.  It's a yearly ward activity that the young women are over.  Mainly because after the spaghetti dinner there is an auction to raise money for girls camp.  People could bid on things like desserts, babysitting, lawn mowing, handmade cards, kitchen towels, etc.  Our ward members were so generous!  The auction was a success and at least 100 people were there. 

The birthday girls seemed to have fun running around with their friends and siblings while I directed and helped the young women.  After attending this auction last year, I have since learned that I LOVE auctions!  I was looking forward to sitting in on this one, and I loved it yet again.  Last year we decided on a few items that we wanted and just bid on them till we got them.  This year we had a much lower budget and I brought cash.  There were some things that Lee and I decided we'd throw in our play/fun/personal money.  Several things got too high so we stopped bidding on those particular items. Amazingly we walked out of there without using any of our personal money, but still won some fun items.  Next year we'll have to budget more!

After we arrived home, we enjoyed cake, ice cream and the girls opened more presents.


My friend Sarah gave her daughter a Rapunzel hat for Christmas.  I thought my girls would love something like that, so I hired my niece to make me something similar.  So cute!






The girls got new robes too--first ones ever actually. I asked Shanna what her favorite presents were (after the friend party too) and she said the robe and slippers.  She has been asking about getting those items here and there, and I found some good prices.  Here the girls are each holding a tropical bird head that they designed (Haley's design actually) out of fondant.


The next day they had a "friend" party.  I rarely do them, but Shanna was persistent and kept asking.   I thought of doing more for the party, but with all that I had done the weeks prior with babysitting my brother's kids, traveling to Utah, and the spaghetti dinner I kept it simple.  The girls seemed to have a fun time!  Haley made a "pin the candle on the birthday cake" game.  It was cute.  The candle were really little too, ha ha.


I turned on Pandora and the girls enjoyed dancing to some Disney songs...I think this one was from Frozen.  So cute.


I made extra fondant on purpose when I made the girls cakes.  Each girl decorated a cupcake or two with fondant. 


Happy Birthday Shanna and Haley!  I was so amazed for months after they were born that I had TWO babies; twins!  Now I have to remind myself that they are twins!  They are different in looks and personality.  We are so blessed to have them in our family.  I always wanted a daughter, but I wanted that daughter to have a sister.  Somehow I was blessed to have them at the same time! 

5th Grade Concert

Clark participated in the 5th grade concert a few weeks ago.  He got to play the keyboard for a fun Jamaican like song. He did a great job and even memorized his part.






For some reason at the end Clark collected all of the hats, and apparently wanted to wear all of them.  Great job Clark on the performance!


Here are a couple more pictures of when Darrell's kids were here.

DC Trip

After arriving home Thursday night from our Utah trip, that Saturday morning we were off and running again.  My sister and I swapped babysitting for the temple.  Lee and I attended our friend's sealing and wedding at the DC temple.  I love going to sealings! 


We go to DC/Maryland every month.  But we never see things in Washington, D.C.  We go to the temple, visit with Lois, maybe visit a playground here and there and that's it.  Lee and I want to start seeing more places in DC and we just have to do it.  For our first DC excursion with the whole family (Lee, Clark, Cal and I did lots of stuff in DC years ago) was the zoo.  We drove around for about 10 minutes looking a free place to park on one of the side streets near the zoo.  After we found one we walked over.


We weren't there very long, but with the zoo being free I know we'll go again.  Across the street from the zoo entrance is a 7-11.  The kids were dragging their feet on the way out of the zoo, but after we all got slurpees they were very happy and content to walk the 1/2 mile or so back to the van.


We drove from the zoo to the wedding reception for our friend.  The gym/cultural hall in the church looked amazing with their decorations.  All of the food was under the tent.




These pictures are from my cell phone as I forgot my camera and this one is especially blurry. I thought it was really fun that there was a dance area.  There wasn't a traditional "line" to say hi to the bride and groom either, which I also thought was a great idea!  The bride and groom mingled and said hello to people.  It was a fun party.




And on to some other random pictures.  Clark was in charge of our weekly family home evening lesson a few weeks ago and drew a picture of Goliath,then taped it to the wall.  We did a similar lesson back in Tennessee with the Smith family and Clark still remembers it.  He told the story of David and Goliath.  Clark gathered up socks for the kids to throw at him.


They thought it was pretty fun.


For the last random item: Lee's fan has been dying on his work laptop for awhile. I think it eventually stopped working.  He called HP and they said it would be $50 for them to open it up and $100 to diagnose the problem...even though Lee already knew what the problem was.  In the end they told him he should just buy a new laptop.  Well, Lee bought a fan ($6) and with the help of youtube videos, took apart his computer.


And of course the fan was buried deep down.




He replaced the fan and put it all back together.  The moment of truth...it turned on!  It's been working great for him ever since.  Yay for youtube and self-determination!

While Mom's Away....

While I was in Utah Lee and the older boys seemed to have a great time.  On Friday when I was gone school was out so Clark and Cal headed to Lee's office at the Walmart .  He paid the boys to sort some contact lens trials.  Guess it was a big job, and Clark and Cal love doing jobs to earn money.




That night was the pinewood derby. Cal wanted an RV and Lee was able to help him create one.






Clark's car tied for 1st place!  How fun!


Cal's "car" weighed TOO much so Lee drilled out a lot of wood.


That night Lee bought a can of sardines.  He had them a few times when he was a kid and enjoyed them.  Clark actually enjoyed them too.


Cal thought they were disgusting.


Some pretty blossoms on our apple tree!


They also had fun going on bike rides and hikes.




I left 50 or so Easter eggs at home and Lee set them outside so the boys could have an egg hunt too the Saturday before Easter.


They enjoyed some pretty sunsets too.


Another hike.



.
The pretty tulips (thanks Brittany!) growing amongst the poison ivy.  Well, it sure looks like poison ivy.  I pulled it all out today.  Hopefully I don't get a rash.  I wore gloves, and washed my arms afterwards.  We'll see if that was sufficient or not.


And a random photo I found on Lee's phone.  Elden circa 2013, in the late summer.


Again, everything seemed to go well with Lee and the boys while I was gone.  Which I wouldn't have expected otherwise.  Lee enjoyed the time with just the older boys too. Glad we're back together again!