Shanna and Haley turn 10!

My girls are 10! Yes, double digits now!  So crazy.  Time does not slow down, does it?

I never learn and always start their cakes way too late.  I think once I finished a cake before midnight.  I need to work on this.  I was away for the weekend though and then spent Monday getting the budget done and regular first of the month stuff, plus household cleaning and laundry.  Monday is my day to do laundry and clean the house (mop the floor, clean the downstairs bathroom).  Anyway, I was busy all day.  I finally started on the cakes that evening.  Two of them. 

Almost done making the fondant.  I love the recipe that my sister shared with me years ago.  I don't even use the recipe now.  I just spray a little water into a bowl of marshmallows, melt that in the microwave, and mix in powdered sugar using greased hands (buy "fresh" powdered sugar from the store to use!). Then I add in gel food coloring.


Before that I made frosting and then cut the cake shapes out.  I know I took a picture of Shanna's cake shapes but I must have deleted it.  I did one coat of frosting and then let it chill in the fridge while I worked on the other one.  I also had to make a second batch of frosting.


So a little after mid-night I realized that I didn't have any yellow gel coloring so I did a Walmart run.  I made it there and back in record time with no traffic. 17 minutes!  I am really glad I got the yellow gel.  Haley wanted Pikachu. Even light orange would have still looked orange.  It took hours to get their cakes done....so long that I didn't even go to sleep.  I finished them right before they awoke.  The power went out that morning.  We were going to have bacon and Scotch Eggs for breakfast.  Lee actually make and baked the Scotch Eggs the night before, but we didn' have a way to heat them up.  The boys had cereal before they left for middle school.  Soon there after the power came back on.  We were able to have the Scotch Eggs and orange juice, though we'll cook the bacon another day. 

The finished product!  I do hope when they look back on their birthdays they'll have fond memories of their cakes.  I started making them as a way to do something special and nice on their birthday when we chose to spend practically nothing on them.  The cakes are relatively inexpensive to make and create--just time consuming.


Shanna wanted a castle.  I had to create my own as I couldn't find an exact one online that I liked.  Thankfully Cal was saving toilet paper rolls...not sure why...and I used those as the towers with a waffle cone on top.








They were both happy with their cakes.  Thanks Lee for decorating!


Haley likes editing the photos.....




Shanna showed this to me that morning.  So cute. 


Sadly I spent the day sleeping.  We had a fun party with the girls that evening. We talked about going out to eat that night.  The girls chose McDonald's.  I loved coming home to a clean house afterwards!












Since we had two cakes for eating I invited some friends over last minute to share in the sugar.  My friend Katherine and her kids were able to come, which was fun.












Lee and I thought it was funny that the candles started burning the tower.  I didn't try very hard to make the back of the tower look perfect.












In between birthday stuff the boys had a Spring Concert.




They did a nice job. 






The girls had friends over on Friday after school for a birthday party.  We don't normally do them.  This one was pretty easy.  We walked home with the girls from school, they played and had a snack.  Then they made their own pizzas, watched a movie, opened presents and had dessert and played some more. We left up the decorations from their birthday.  I added a purple tablecloth and some helium balloons.






Haley and her friend attached the balloons to Haley's race cars.  Too funny!


A little movie of them racing around.

We watched Moana.












What a fun birthday!  I'm so thankful to have these girls in our family!

End of April

Really?  April is over?  Time flies.  And I hear it goes by only faster and faster as I get older.  A mix of random happenings on this post, plus a late "Easter".

One day while doing copies, a teacher stopped me in the hall telling me that a girl in 4th grade had lost a screw from her glasses.  Her family situation was such that they probably wouldn't take in the glasses to get them fixed.  After talking to the teachers and Lee, we just decided to stop by at the school and fix them.  Thankfully he brought the right size screw and fix the glasses in the classroom. 


Shanna, Haley and Elden recently bought new bikes!  We helped the girls with theirs but they paid over half of the cost.  Elden bought his all with his saved work money.  When our kids are paid for their jobs they have to put 10% in tithing, 50% in savings, and 40% they can spend however they want.  The savings is for transportation, mission, and college.  Bikes fall under transportation.


Shanna had a gymnastics showcase where the family was invited to come and see what she's been working on.  She has been in gymnastic classes for awhile now.  The classes here are such that they don't compete at all.  And no one is allowed in the gymnastics room during classes.  It was fun going in and seeing what she's been working on.


The other kids got to play around too which was fun.  Cal actually had a track meet that same afternoon, but thankfully it was canceled because of the storm so we were able to all go over.  I was also running kids to and from piano lessons because it was raining.




I snapped a couple pictures of Cal right before he ran.  They almost had them start running and then stopped the race because of thunder.




This was my favorite "stunt" that Shanna has learned.


The boys had a campout one weekend. Lee tagged along so Cal could go.  It was the Spring Camporee.  The scout troop in charge did an Oregon Trail theme, and it sounded really fun.  Friday night was really nice, but Saturday was wet and rainy all day. 










While the boys were camping, I hosted a baby shower for my friend Valenice.






The sign before it sagged.


Elden had a dental cleaning and NO cavities!!!  Thank you Elden!  My pocketbook is happy too.


Shanna uses my backpack for school, but I needed it for something and took all her "stuff" out.  It was pretty funny to see the contents.  A broken ramekin?  A Barbie leg?  We don't even own Barbies.  Too funny!


I went on a field trip with Elden to the Virginia Safari Park.  You can walk around and see animals and then go on a drive through the park and feed animals.




The aviary was a hit with the kids. 










Elden went to the aviary about three times.




I didn't get a picture of it, but the coolest thing was seeing a tiger sneak up on a white tiger.  The white tiger didn't like the yellow tiger and became really mad and was growling.  It was cool.

We then went on a ride through the park.  The kids loved it.










The kids like taking selfies.  Big surprise, right?!




We had some problems with our washer not draining properly.  I would reset it to the spin cycle and it would usually work, taking out the rest of the water.  The machine stopped working on a Monday. Lee saw that the belt fell off and put it back on.  The washer still wasn't working well. Before Lee discovered the belt problem, we went to a used appliance place in town and found a used washer.  The guy delivered it, took our old one, and hooked up the "new" one for just under $200. It works well so far.  I am worried about this winter it if will still work properly as it has electrical workings. I hope the cold won't interfere with the electrical components. 


Spring is quickly fading away.  It's been such a pretty spring, and now it's gorgeous seeing all the green all around. 


For pack meeting this month I did it on "Our National Treasures".  We talked about some national monuments that have historical significance.  The kids got in groups and did a little treasure hunt as well.  I think it went okay.  It took some patience burning all the edges of these papers....




The Wolves did a little skit at the beginning.


The treasure hunt!


Make-your-own-fruit-kabobs for treat.


Last weekend we went to Darrell's to help move my parents in.  They weren't able to close on the house when scheduled, but we went up anyway and hung out.  A shallow creek runs along the back of Darrell's property. The kids had a blast wading around, exploring and canoeing.  Haley found a half set of dentures.  Gross!


Looks like Cal may need them!


Cal had fun finding random "treasures" too.


Clark brought his drone and flew it for a little bit.


We also had a belated Easter celebration.  An egg hunt was in order.  We had 400+ eggs.  It was so fun.


It looked even more bright and colorful in real life!


















It's exciting that my parents are in PA now!  Only three hours away.  Ten minutes from Darrell and 1 hour from Lois. 




The cousins loved playing together too.


Bringing the canoe down.


Clark, Haley, Reed and Joseph out paddling around.


That night the parents enjoyed going to an ice cream parlor, Eckel's.  It used to be a pharmacy and soda fountain.  So fun! Lee and I had two desserts.

And a lemon lime phosphate. It was yummy and tasted like carbonated lime jello.


Hopefully phosphate isn't too unhealthy.  This is what they put in the drink. 






In the back there is a display of the old drugs and such that were sold there. There is a huge Merck plant right outside of town, so it was fun seeing Merck products.


Really?!  PostureShorts?  SOOO funny! 




My parents were able to close on the house on Monday.  I never saw the inside.  But it's in a nice neighborhood and has a pretty backyard.  I hope they enjoy living there!


Oh, another egg hunt picture.


The outside of Eckel's.


We went to church on Sunday and hung out for a little while.  Cal had a priesthood preview that evening so we left around 4pm.






Thanks for the great weekend Darrell and Stacie!  Welcome to the East Dad and Mom!