Blissful Youth

Chandler: Mom, what are you making?

Me: Cupcakes for Grandma's wedding.

Chandler: That's in like forever.

Me: It's in a week and a half.

Chandler: Like I said. . .

Hanna's Junior Homecoming

Well, Hanna was gorgeous (in my unbiased opinion). She has been friends with her date, Dallin, for a long time and they had a fun time.

Hanna and Kathryn taking pictures together before the dance. Notice Hanna's sleeves because I made them. We found the perfect dress but it had no sleeves or straps at all. So after several tries, we were both happy with the look and the modesty level. I made the straps short so the chest would come up higher but what I didn't realize is that I was also making the dress shorter. I will try not to do that next time. I don't know why dress designers can't manage to make dresses with sleeves? But I am proud of Hanna for her modest standards.
Hanna's dress was gold so she needed a clutch purse to match, but we couldn't find one anywhere. So on the day of the dance we ended up making one for less than $2. To bad we didn't think of that in the first place to save us so much looking.
I realize this post is from a Mom's point of view, but hey, that's who I am.

Alaskan Project

Maranda had to make a 3D book of Alaskan animals for a school project. Her artwork is just incredible. These animals and backgrounds are all hand drawn by her. Nice work, Maranda!

Carlsbad Anniversary!

So we hit the big 20 this year and we decided to do something new. Usually we spend a few days in Scottsdale for our anniversary but this year we went camping for 3 nights at South Carlsbad. We didn't mind the drive because it was so quiet and peaceful and we were together anyway.

We easily set up camp because we didn't have to keep track of anyone besides ourselves.

Look how neat our campsite is, this was just too easy.

Here we are standing in our campsite.

Here is the view of the ocean from our bed.

Here is our bed in the tent trailer, overlooking the ocean and a beautiful sunset.
Here I am reading a book on my bed overlooking the beautiful sunset.
One day we went to the San Diego temple then we stopped at Sea World (since we have season passes). It was different without children. We had to take pictures of ourselves. Here I am in the polar bear den.

Dan feeding the ducks.
After a while we decided we were done and wend back to the campground.

The next day we walked around Carlsbad village and looked in the little shops there. We love the used book shops.

Every night we sat around our fire and read and talked and drank hot chocolate.
It was the perfect vacation, we'll try it again next year. Thanks, Mom, for watching our children for us while we were gone so we didn't have to worry at all. And thanks, Dan, for 20 wonderful years!

First Day of School 2010

Man am I behind on posting! It's funny how life grabs a hold of you and nothing can possibly get done but the A-list. Anyway, here's the first day of school:

Hanna (Junior) and Danina (Freshman)
Maranda (5th grade), Andria (4th grade), Ruthie (1st grade) and Zanya (preschool)

Cooking with Hanna 2010

This year Hanna took summer school all of June so her cooking class dates were very limited. We had some interest from girls who were in the class last year so she decided to double up and do two lessons per week for July. Hanna taught two separate sessions to accommodate the girls vacation schedules, one session before we went to California and one session after. We had the same deal this year; Maranda and Andria were enrolled for free and I paid for all the ingredients. We limited the class to 10 students each session including Maranda and Andria.

In the first sessions the classes included:

Cupcakes from scratch, including homemade fondant;

Breakfast foods (whole wheat pancakes, muffins, eggs, etc), we forgot to take any pictures that day :(

Homemade soft pretzels and chocolate dipped mini pretzels

Pizza from scratch with no bake cookies.

The second session classes:

Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting,

Mexican foods including homemade tortillas and two kinds of salsa,

Pie (apple or peach) including the crust, with ice cream,

Pasta dinner with breadsticks from scratch, and homemade tomato and alfredo sauces.

As you can see, the classes were fun. We had to carefully calculate each time so that we had enough for everyone. Some things the students learned:

Triple chocolate cupcakes need the baking powder or they will be a bit flat, but still tasty.

Pies take a long time to make and bake.

Slicing cinnamon rolls is done with dental floss.

Kneading can be gooey, but never knead pie crust.

Also:

Ruth and Zan do not like to be banished upstairs but it's all right if they get yummy treats later.

It's stressful to teach two lessons per week, don't do it if you don't have to.

Hanna is considering cooking class next summer too!

California Beach Trip 2010- Beach

This year was the coldest one in many years. It was quite cold for a few days with clouds and rain then it cleared up and we had most of the week with sun all day and cool nights. It was perfect. When we stay in California, we go to the beach nearly every day and we stay the entire day. The beach is perfect for kids because it is so entertaining with so much to do:

Play with the human rubber band. I can't describe it but it is a blast.

Dig deep holes and tunnels, or play in the ones that your uncles dig.

Bury yourself or your cousin in the sand. FYI every picture I have of Maranda is from the back heading towards the water because that is where she always is. Here is at least a side profile.

Dig for sand crabs and make dribble castles. Here, Andria played with Lexi and helped her feel comfortable near the water. She even showed her how to build a dribble castle.
Take a little rest in the cabana. Zan didn't actually nap this year for the first time but she did want some down time with a snack.
Boogie board with your cousins. Dan and I call this group the "mids" In our family we have the big kids, the mids and the littles. They are distinct groups and they seldom cross lines.
Play in the sand with your cute baby cousins. This is Ruth and Zan with Teichert. I keep scarfs on my girls heads because I braid and bead their hair before we go. With tiny braids, we never need to comb the hair, just wash the sand out. The scarf is to cover the bare scalp and prevent burning. We learned this the hard way many years ago with checker board burned scalps. Sunblock spray works too but scarfs make our children easy to see in a group. Plus I think they are cute even if they do look like cancer patients.
Sit together and chat. Only teenagers do this.
Take a nap, again with the teenagers.
Body surf with your siblings and cousins or just decide the water is too cold and get out again.
Boogie board-these are the big kids, see, no mids
Match your cousin on accident (so cute!)
And spend the afternoon with 7 or 8 cousins taking goofy pictures of each other.
Also you could walk down the pier, get an ice cream cone, find crabs in the rocks, look in the sea shell shop, learn to surf, read a good book or enjoy the cool breeze.

We love the beach and we love our cousins!

California Beach Trip 2010- Sea World

We went to Sea World twice while we were in California since our passes are good until the end of the year. It 's a pain to go in the summer when there are so many people but summer is the only time that they have certain shows like Cirque de la Mer and the nighttime Sea Lion show. We love these shows so we brave the crowds. The first day we went, it was cold and the second time it was warm. I prefer the cold but some of my kids like to get wet and that is only fun if it is warm.

Anyway, here is a fun activity while your siblings and cousins, who are tall, get to ride the Atlantis ride: stand in the splash zone and get soaked.
Our favorite place is the polar bear cave. You smile for your mom/aunt to take a picture,
then you scream and run out when the polar bear roars!
This is a wall of ice. Chandler discovered on our first trip that Zanya could beat him in a freezing hand contest. So the second trip, Zan challenged Clark to the same contest.
My brother, Clark, was surprised at how long Zan could keep her hand on the ice. I'm not sure if he really lost or if he was just getting bored. Clark?
Watching shows, polar bears, and commodore dolphins, touching starfish and riding the rapids.
Everything is more fun with a dozen cousins, including Sea World. Next time you should bring your parents.

California Beach Trip 2010- Campsite

When we go on our family vacation, we bring all our cousins along. We go camping in our tent trailer and do lots of fun things with the whole family right in our campground. We cook in the dutch ovens, roast marshmallows, eat smores, have our meals together on a L O N G table, sing around the fire (ok, not so much but Danica and Spencer did sing a few songs for us),This year we took a cousins picture (surprisingly painless compared to years past). They are standing in birth order, oldest in the back from left to right and the oldest (Chandler) is holding the youngest (Ryker).
We had a chubby bunny contest. If you don't know what this is, its a contest to see who can shove the most marshmallows in their mouth. Hanna is the Evans champion and Callie thought she could beat her. Nope. Hanna reigns supreme with a mere 16 marshmallows, not even her personal record. This is not a contest for the feint at heart. If you don't gag, it is likely that you will be grossed out.
The Garns brought a bocci ball set this year. Most of us had never played but we decided it is a very fun game, perfect for cool Sunday afternoons. Here is Tate, Hanna, Dan and Greg:
And this is Sherry, Margaret, Rebecca and me. I think Rebecca and I actually won even though Rebecca wasn't very good.

Father's Day 2010

Time to Redecorate

Post script: Here are some "after pictures"

Hanna and Danica have been in the bedroom with the purple stripes for several years now. But we inherited new bedding which didn't match. Hanna had exactly one week between the end of school and the beginning of summer school. So she told Dani it was time to get to work, and fast. I didn't want to have anything to do with a painting project (I've done enough, thank you. Plus, I didn't mind the purple stripes with the red floral). So the beauty of this project was that they did it ALL themselves! Well, I did go with Hanna to purchase curtain fabric and paint. Then I sewed curtains while they did everything else.


I can't tell you how happy I was to see this big project get done without me doing it! They even moved all the furniture themselves. Wow, really wow.