Is It Naptime Yet

What takes 3 days and 8 hours to create?

The best home made Finding Nemo Pinata ever! I think it’s the best anyways.

It took 2 days to do two layers of papier mache. The first taking about 1 1/2 hours and the second taking 1 hour, each with 24 hours to dry.

Then I also had to make the fins, which took about 30 minutes to cut out and figure a way to attach to the balloon covered in papier mache. (Painters tape works well, not plastic packing tape.)

I spent about 4 hours decorating it.

This is one of those times being a perfectionist is not good.

And I could have bought this one for $10 on sale at Target, but why spend $10 to break something if you have yourself and time to kill.  (Really I was just being cheap.)

My aching back is telling me the moral of the story is $10 on sale or even $12 full price is so worth it for a pinata.

In April we went up to Utah for my cousins wedding.

Here’s when we saw Zarina before the wedding.

The girls love her and had so much fun rubbing her head, holding her hands, letting her touch them and touch their soft dresses.
It was too cute and that is why I have a lot of pictures from it and a video.

I love the last two because of Lilah’s smile and then in the last one you, or at least I, can tell that Eden has a smile on her face.

Here’s how cousins interact when one’s a baby and the other two love her.

This is going to be the birthday post for May. Jon and I both had our birthdays so here’s what we did.

Jon didn’t like my idea of bowling so we went to the Springs Preserve for his birthday. Lilah had gone earlier in the week with Britta so she was a pro at showing us around.

 

Getting ready to hit the road.

 

Posing for a picture in the “canyons”.

The lizards were fascinating.

Jon was looking at Eden for this shot and Lilah was looking at me.

 

Jon likes stopping and moving the stone.

I’m tired of walking.

I’m happy to walk.

In the garden demonstration area.

Playing with the oranges in the trash place. (This was Lilah’s favorite and we didn’t find it until on our way back from the gardens. It was about recycling and energy use.)

We spent most of the day at the Springs Preserve and the girls and I got Jon’s cake in the oven after we came home.

Lilah choose the blue sprinkles and Eden choose the orange.

Happy Birthday Honey!

For my birthday we went bowling. They didn’t have a shoe for Eden in her size, the smallest size they had for children was 9 and Eden wears a 6 1/2. Eden started crying and the nice attendant let us use a size 9 on Eden free of charge. She did wear them even though I was sure she was going to trip and fall a few times, but she always caught herself.

The battery went low after I caught these few shoots.

 Lilah had a blast.

Even before we left she was talking about how much she was gonna love bowling.

I don’t remember the scores but Eden and Jon actually got a strike and I’m pretty sure Eden’s score was higher than mine and Jon’s was the highest.

After bowling Jon and the girls baked my cake and I took a nap.

Then for dinner I picked us up a pizza, that’s what’s on Lilah’s face.

It was a fun birthday.

I’ve finished painting. One coat of primer and two coats of paint and I’m done.

My muscles are killing me. KILLING I said.

I like latex paint much better. It rinses out nicely with water.

I also had the right tools for the color coats and it went much smoother. ( For edging I used a roller that had a special head and it was  soo much easier than than using a paint brush for edging. )
I am pleased and if I use latex paint and the right tools it makes it all worth it. I also think I lost 5 pounds from good old hard work and lots of sweat, but I’ve gained two monstrous zits just in time for my 25th birthday.

I’m going to go lay down and I know I will awake with a lot of pain tomorrow.

Before

After

P.S. The cat came by while I was painting today and went to come in, but I was on the step stool in front of the door and yelled at him. He is crazy.

I had Jon take a picture of my scar after my shower this morning.

I didn’t measure it, but I’m sure it’s over an inch in length.

Here’s a close up.

You can see how it looks like I have a mole within that smaller scar to the bottom left and I do, hence the surgery coming up.

I just hate not being able to do anything for four weeks. (I know I have some family members who are in worse situations than me or similar because they can’t do things they wish, but it’s constant and not for just four weeks, but for years.)

If I don’t want to do anything I like it to be because of my own laziness and not because of a surgery.

I also remember how frustrating it was to depend on people since Eden was only a year old and still needed to be lifted in and out of her crib and into the high chair, handed to me to nurse, and changed.

I had some great friends who helped me and my mom came by when she could.

This time I have two older girls who don’t need lifted, except the toilet when we’re out and about and if Lilah’s already using the girl’s bathroom Eden needs help with our toilet. Also I’ll just have to get up earlier to allow the time it takes for them to do things on there own and leave a few minutes earlier so I can let Eden get into her seat by herself, instead of rushing her.

I only see time out being a problem. Kids never want to go to time out and mine are no different. I often have to carry them there or push them along by there back while they walk.

Plus it wasn’t just depending on others to help with the girls, it was not being able to do as much around the house and having to leave it for Jon that was also hard.

Patience. Pray for me to have patience.

So I finished my last batch of truffles last night. I made around 350, but I learned that there will be couple from each batch that crack or don’t turn out so they have 330.

I am so relieved.

Here are some close ups of the truffles though, I plan on taking some nice pictures of them individually packaged also.

But first I have to explain that the silver accent was so frustrating and on accident I found a way to use it and like it completely. I just wasn’t feeling what I thought would look nice. So I say if you want a silver accent beware that it’s frustrating unless you have time to figure out the design. I should have tried it a couple different designs but I didn’t have time, and the two ways I did the silver look OK but I found the way I loved it on the last batch on the tenth from the last truffle and completely on accident.

The first design. I think it looks better in the picture than it did in real light. I also did lighter silver accents which you see in the one with lots of truffles.

What my counter looked liked for four nights, with a brief pause for Sunday.

The accidental truffle is on the left, the second design is on the right. (I also want to say these are also examples of the largest truffles I would make an the smallest. Most of my truffles were in between these two sizes. )

I was going for contrast so I never thought to have the silver in line with the Z. It looks so obvious now that it would look better, but I’m not a creative person.

I made three batches the first day and then four batches for the other three days , or around 80- 100 truffles depending on the size. I got pretty good at getting exactly 25 per batch by the third day. I was going for slow and steady since I had other things to do in the mornings and couldn’t devote the my whole day to truffle making.

In fact I had other things to do like grocery shopping, but I didn’t have time to put the groceries away, except the frozen and cold items.

My house while making truffles. It was only like this one day though.

I wasn’t sure if I enjoyed making these truffles at first.

To tell the truth I think the fact that they’re weren’t turning out as nice as I liked made the task harder and less rewarding. To see one truffle that I was completely happy with was a big relief and actually made me say ‘I wonder if I could market these’. The one problem being is they are so time intensive and I’d have to sell them for at least $1 a truffle and to me that’s a little steep if you’re wanting to buy 300 for a wedding and I’m not sure I want to do small orders, like boxes of truffles.

Friday the 21st.

The girls loved dying eggs at Grandma Harvey’s house. Unfortunately I was the only one there so I only got the following two pictures.

Eden patiently waiting to begin dying eggs.

I was patient and let Lilah handle getting eggs out of the cups.

After dying eggs we were off to Aunt Carolyn’s work for their Easter Party.

They decorated cupcakes and made bunny ears plus had an egg hunt.

Eden

Lilah

Sunday the 23rd- Easter Morning

I had the gate up so the girls would come into our room to get us up and so I could get pictures.

Coming out Easter morning.

Yes that is Eden’s hair sticking up in the back. I think she could be a who from Dr. Suess.

Checking out the merchandise.

What they saw. (Hello Kitty was my accidental theme.)

Here’s a short video of their reactions.

The sunglasses.

Jon took some pictures before church, but while they were watching TV.

They turned and gave him the same smile at the exact moment.

After Church

Waiting to get started on our backyard egg hunt.

Let the fun begin!

(Please ignore the messy backyard in the following pictures and video.)

I told them they could find 8 eggs each, in which I had miss counted and they could find 9 eggs each.

Another video.

The final kill.

Later that day.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Harvey’s for another egg hunt with some of the cousins and to have dinner.

Eden finding a real egg.

Katy and Lilah hunting for eggs.

Katy, Eden, Lilah, Adrienne, and Howie.

Earlier today our neighbor from next door came by to ask for another neighbor boy’s glove that had been tossed over into our side yard.

This sparked the girls interest to play outside so I had them put on their shoes and I brought some side-walk chalk out for them to play with.

We had about 4 neighbor girls playing outside with them all writing on our driveway/ front yard.

At one point I brought out the diaper wipes to clean up Eden. She was enjoying laying on the drive way and her legs had turned black since our drive way is very dirty.

The other girls were wanting to clean off their hands so I obliged them to the wipes a couple of times.

One neighbor girl would write with the chalk and want a wipe, and then write with the chalk and want a wipe. After 3 or 4 wipes I cut her off and kept telling her to go wash her hands, or ask her mom. She’s about 3 turning 4 and speaks very little English due to not being in school, so I’m sure she had no idea what I was saying, especially since she kept coming back.

She also kept coming into the house, and I would ask her to stay outside, but she continued to walk inside. I didn’t mind, but since her mother and I don’t know one another, except the few words we shared last week, I wanted to keep her outside.

Earlier Lilah wanted them to come in, so I had the oldest daughter ask if they could come inside to play. She came back grinning and saying yes, but I was pretty sure she was lying. I asked her to have her mom come talk to me, and she then revealed her mom had said no.
I wasn’t surprised, since she hasn’t been inside my house and at the moment was with another neighbor inside.

Eden was being a little daring and going outside our driveway, but I think she was mostly following the example of the older kids who would walk slightly into the street and back to their house next store. I threaten that she’d have to come inside if she went farther then our drive way, so she then stayed where she was suppose to. (She knows not to go into the street but she was testing the boundaries by being on the edge of the sidewalk and into the gutter.)

I think the girls had lots of fun. We had three Hispanic neighbor girls, about 5, 5, and 3 then one girl who is the granddaughter to the people across the street and I think is around 3 or 4.
Our drive way is covered in pictures, the ABC’s, and the name of one neighbor girls. We also have maybe 1/4 of the chalk we had left.

Saturday our ward did an Easter egg hunt.

Lilah had been dying to go since we’ve heard about it and was so excited.

They had the kids 2 and under go first, but their eggs were just tossed on the floor in the middle of a room. They did turn off the lights so they had to use the flashlights. Eden enjoyed it, but I kept thinking she was three, and not still two.

Then they had the 3-7 or so age go out into the building. Lilah actually was just hitting up the eggs that were left from the little kids in the middle of the floor, but I convinced her to go into the hall way. They each had a maximum number of eggs and I had to keep taking eggs out of Eden’s basket as she found more than her share during Lilah’s egg hunt.

They had ostrich eggs, that had been drained, hidden around the building and Britta’s dad found her one. At the end those who found the ostrich eggs got to choose a prize.

Their was also a pinata, but that was for the older kids to hit that may not have found a lot of eggs.

Waiting for the fun to begin.

Britta, Lilah, and Eden. Lilah totally reminds me of her cousin Katy because that is totally a stance and smile Katy gives.

Eden.

Showing off their baskets.

It was a crazy, but fun, night. I have too much Easter candy already, and we have one more egg hunt to go. I think I’ll reuse the candy.

The eggs we hide will probably contain some raisins and coins, like last years. The girls love raisins and coins.

When does the candy stop? I don’t have to ever buy candy because it seems like we always have some form the previous holiday.

Second part to our Easter fun.

Yesterday, or Tuesday, we had Sam and Britta over for lunch and making cookies. The girls had a blast and Eden was obsessed with the flour.

Cutting out cookies.

Eden loved playing in the flour container.

Britta was being bashful.

She called the egg cut out a rotten egg.

Frosting the cookies.

Britta liked a lot of frosting on her cookies.

Reaping their reward.

I had the girls wear their green shirts today.

Take one.

Take two.

Take three.

I’ve been at my BIL Rawlin’s house helping him organize and put up dry wall so I am exhausted and have basically been gone all day.

Day Light Savings is kicking my butt. I’m so tired all the time. I could really use a nap right now, but I’m afraid if I go to sleep I’m not going to wake up till Jon gets home and then I’ll have nothing made for dinner and the sink will still be full of dishes.