Is It Naptime Yet

Our little family met up with my sister Andrea’s little family and went camping at Cathedral Gorge outside of Panaca Nevada on Thursday and we came home today, Saturday.
It was so much fun and Lilah did not want to leave. She thought it was so beautiful and I know she loved having Zarina follow her everywhere, as long as Zarina wasn’t busy following her parents. I was so happy to come home and put my children in the bath and then wash the last two and a half days of dirt off once I got my long awaited shower. I like camping but I do not love camping.

Can I also note that I grew up in Las Vegas, but until my sister moved to  Ely, Nevada  I didn’t have a clue where Ely was, or Panaca,  or Caliente, or even where Alamo was. I’ve learned so much with our travels with the Parks.

Also Jon says we should visit all the state parks and I told him we’d need to buy a camper. I slept in the car last night for fear of rain. It’s didn’t rain, but he was woken up at 6 am by our camping neighbors chopping wood and I didn’t hear a thing.

Pictures to come later, after I’ve sewn at least three costumes.

Jon had just put some olive oil on his food, I forget what, but the important thing was our olive oil bottle was on the table during dinner.

Lilah: That bottle is half empty.

Jon: You must be a pessimist to say the bottle is half empty.

Eden interrupts: No, it’s half full.

Lilah argues a little that it’s half empty and Eden repeats it’s half full.

I guess we’ll see if Lilah truly is a pessimist and if Eden is an optimist as they get older.

The girls and I did a few events for Earth Day. My friend Emilie called me that morning to tell me how the Disney store was giving away reusable bottles if you brought in three regular plastic bottles. I thought this was great, but I didn’t have any regular bottles due to already using reusable, so Emilie gave us nine bottles, enough to get three reusable.

We picked up the plastic bottles and followed the unknowing Emilie to the mall. We were both heading there, but she didn’t realized I followed her  there. The girls were amazed with the Disney store and would have loved to stayed, but we had to head to UNLV for their Earth Day stuff. They’re happy with their plastic reusable bottles, and so am I since I can freeze these and have ice cold water on hot days.

We got to UNLV later than planned, around 11:10. I saw that they were having a little closing ceremony with the elementary kids there as I headed to Jon’s office but thought nothing of it since it was scheduled to go from 10 am-2pm. We sat and ate lunch and then while I was inside with Eden Jon realized that vender’s were leaving. We were on the far end so it was hard to tell. We decided to pack up lunch and eat at the park and got to two vender’s that were packing up, but still had stuff out to take. I was really disappointed that it went so short and that we missed going around. I still need to write an e-mail to complain about the shortness of the event and how what they advertised to the general public was misleading as to the actual length of the event. Last year we got there early and left before it finished, so I don’t know if they did the same thing.

After kissing Jon goodbye and leaving lots of time on the meter since I thought I’d be there longer, we headed to the park to meet the unschooling group. There we made slushy with a cool ice cream ball and the girls made bird feeders with pine cones and the adults talked. It was a fun afternoon and not too hot and we left around 2:30.

I gave Eden a quick bath once home to get sand out of her hair. It has a tendency to stick to children’s sweaty heads and I didn’t want sand coming off on my couch or floor as she cooled off. I then took a nap with Eden and woke up hearing Lilah say “Daddy you’re home.” I was hoping Jon was home early, but no, it was 6:16 and I had slept heavily since 3:45 when we laid down.

We ate pizza to finish Earth Day and Lilah and Eden both spoke on keeping the Earth clean at dinnertime, though I heard it all day long so I may be just making it up about dinnertime.

We hope the Earth has a long healthy life and we’re trying to be the best caretakers we can be.

Here are a few pictures I snapped since I was the one helping with the slushy and busy while the girls had their fun.

Lilah walking with her bird feeder. She wanted to hang it at the park for the birds.

Eden with her bird feeder.

Lilah and Eden with bird seed pouches. These might look familiar if you came to our wedding. They’re from our wedding and I finally found a use for the birdseed. (I need to  be more creative if I’m gonna do this home school thing. )

Yesterday Carolyn’s co-worker mentioned how the Post Office was giving free tickets to the Shark Reef if you mailed your taxes at Mandalay Bay. She remembered that the Shark Reef field trip was canceled on us last month and thought maybe I’d want to mail her taxes for her and get the free tickets. Even though it was a crazy day both weather wise and I had lots I needed to do, I wanted to seize the opportunity to get free tickets, or ticket really, so I could take the girls there. ( The person who organized the Shark Reef trip has since left the group and I’m pretty sure we’re not going in the foreseeable future and the girls desperately wanted to go.)

Luckily it was so easy to get the ticket. I expected it to be harder. I just parked and then went up to the mobile post office and had them weigh the mail to make sure it had the correct postage, it was 33 cents short so Carolyn should be thankful I did have them weigh it, though it was more that I didn’t know if they were giving the tickets at the drop boxes so I went to the main truck. Then they gave me a ticket per return. I wish I had taken my dad’s return with me too so I could have gotten two and then we could have gone as a family. At least now it will only cost me $10.95 to go to the Shark Reef instead of $27.90 to take the girls there.

It sounds like they did this last year too, so if you owe money next year this might be a fun reason to hold off mailing your taxes till April 15th.

I hope you had a happy tax day, because I did.

We had Easter dinner at my parent’s house. My mom was out of town so my sister Kristi did most of the work. My dad cooked the ham, I brought dessert and Glenn and AnneMarie brought salad.

We had the Easter egg hunt first so Carolyn could be there before she went off to her in-laws house.

Adrienne’s pretty cute when she’s awake.

The kids looking for eggs.

Eden didn’t want to pick up the real egg, she only wanted the candy filled ones.

A few minutes later of Lilah and the real egg is still in it’s spot (upper right hand of the picture). It wasn’t till towards the end of the hunt that we convinced Eden to take it.  (I also just thought this was a fun shot. )

More eggs.

The kids after the egg hunt. (Kaitlyn, Howie, Adrienne, Eden, and Lilah.)

I just wanted to zoom in and show you how cute Eden’s smile was.

At one point before dinner I found Eden up on the balcony eating candy. I’m not sure how much she ate before dinner. We had a fun egg hunt and relaxing dinner with my family before we headed home later that night.

Our Easter Baskets and my mom’s sewing machine.

The girls woke up before their mom on Easter morn, so they had to come get me before they inspected their baskets.

I don’t really give the girls candy because they get so much elsewhere. I did put some peanut butter M&M’s in the baskets though.

I’m still sleepy, but I’m ready to eat candy!

Before we left for church I asked Jon to take a few pictures of the girls. Here are a couple of them. They are so loving at times.

After church and a late lunch we had our Easter egg hunt!

The girls waiting outside my room. (Our room has the back door in it.)

Going for the same egg.

The kill.

Lilah couldn’t wait to see what was inside. (money, raisins and craisins.)

Here’s the video of the egg hunt.

On Friday night we we dyed eggs over at my parents house. My mom was out of town and we felt that my dad needed company and dinner since I brought over pizza. (Really their house is the biggest and just the easiest to fit in and we wanted to give my dad some company and make sure he didn’t have too quiet of a weekend without my mom. )

Lilah was so excited to dye eggs.

Lilah like coloring the eggs and then dying them.

Carolyn and Eden were making an egg for Zarina just to say they were thinking of her.

Some of the dyed eggs.

Howie and Kaitlyn, Eden had already dyed all her eggs and was watching longingly.

My niece Addrienne slept through the whole thing.

Yesterday there was Earth Hour. Cities all over the world turned out lights and encouraged the regular people to do so also from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. My husband being the supportive green person he is, at least in our small way we try to be more green, thought Earth Hour would be fun and educational for our girls. Jon took down a few candles and lit them and made me turn off the movie I was watching on TV. The girls were fascinated with the candles and Lilah nearly burned her eyebrows off looking at one. (I light candles we just don’t have them lit very often at nighttime.)

We spent some time helping the girls clean their room by candle light, outside looking at the stars, in which having the  lights to the Strip turned off made no difference since it’s the actual city lights that cause most of our light pollution. Then the girls and Jon huddled around the candles at the table to read a chapter from The Mouse and the Motorcycle, the current book Jon’s reading to them at bedtime. Then we sat on the couch telling stories. Eden likes to tell stories to herself while on the toilet about Aladdin, the ones she tells herself seem a lot longer than what she told us last night. (My children are a little strange, they like to talk to themselves while in the bathroom.)

It was fun to be with my family in quiet. We’ll need to turn the lights off and light candles more often.

Last week Andrea and Brien came to town to see Scot and Fallon. Since they live in Ely and Ely has no large restaurant chains, besides McDonald’s and Subway, which are fast food, they like to go out to eat to at least one of their favorite restaurants. We choose Olive Garden and it was basically those who were at my parents house that came. Carolyn called me while I was driving there so she she came along after work.

I got some cute pictures of the little girls there and some adults and a video of Zarina. I warn you that my finger was over the mic at first so don’t turn the volume up too loud because I uncover it later.

Cute Zarina, even with a mouth full of bread. She was on an all carbs diet.

Eden was all smiles for the camera.

Lilah was bashful for some reason.

I guess she wanted to take the pictures rather than be in them. She took this one of Brien.

Scott and Fallon talking to my parents.

Grumpy grandpa getting a bite of Lilah’s sundae.

I had my first practice for the  play last night. (Lilah’s first practice is Saturday and we’ll find out her parts after that.) I was excited and poor Kenzie who rode with me had to leave and show up majorly early so we weren’t late. I did not want to be late so I left with plenty of time to get there. Now we know we can leave at least 10 to 15 minutes later and still be early.

The practice was fun and hopefully I can get my alto parts down. Most of them are pretty simple and easy to hear so I just need to rehearse.

I got an e-mail today telling us our other parts, besides being an Ozian I am a Jitterbug and a Winkie. I was afraid I would get a Jitterbug part. You need rhythm and  high energy and I have neither. I’m not sure if the director was really watching during tryouts and if she got the memo about me never dancing, which wasn’t so much a memo but something I filled out on the try-outs application. Oh well. I have begun working out this week as to get more in shape and ready for when the choreography is shown to us in April and hopefully it will pay off after four weeks.

If you do come to the play please don’t laugh at me for not having any rhythm during the Jitterbug sequence. Maybe I can fake rhythm, ’cause this white girl can’t dance.