Is It Naptime Yet

So I’m getting around to picture posts again. I guess not being able to talk from a sore throat and having two sick girls who are just watching TV helps.

Lilah’s birthday fell on family night, or our first performance with an audience, during the play. With all the craziness we opted not to give her a birthday party, plus we like to give only one big birthday party a year and it was Eden’s turn this year.

For her birthday we went to Chuck E’ Cheese, something we do every year for each girl. Lilah wore her curlers while there and I think she was pretty dang cute. (Funny thing: This night we were not being feed, so we stopped by McDonald’s on our way to the theater and the attendant who gave us our food smiled when she saw Lilah in her curlers.)

Lilah’s friend Britta and her mom Sam joined us, as well as Auntie Carolyn.

We had a fun morning just playing games and eating.

That night the women of the play sang Happy Birthday to her while we were getting ready. (I still think she was the cutest munchkin, though I  am highly bias.)

I forgot our camera, but Carolyn brought one from work and we snapped just a few pictures.

Lilah and Britta playing air hockey.
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Lilah with her cupcakes.
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Lilah decorating her cupcake.

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Lilah also opened her presents earlier that morning. Jon didn’t use the flash so they’re slightly fuzzy.

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It’s so weird to look back and see her with long hair, or is that just me?

Also Lilah has wanted a certain kind of bug catcher from Target for like two years. She’s received around three or four other kinds, but not this one, so she was so happy to finally get it.

So here are the anticipated pictures from our Ely trip. Well, maybe not anticipated, but fun.

Friday at Ely

The girls were blowing bubbles outside.

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Lilah was playing fetch with Jack.

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Zarina wanted to wear a backpack like Lilah.

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It was pretty chilly as night settled.

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Carolyn must have had the camera.

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Saturday at Ely and Cave Lake

How many Blake’s can you fit into a sleeping bag?

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Brien and Andrea taking the girls out for the first time.

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Some ducks I noticed while waiting for them.

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They decided to come up on the shore near me.

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This was later in the day. The girls started putting their hands in the water.

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Sunday at Leeman’s Cave inside Great Basin National Park

Lilah crawling through the hole that was about the size Mr. Leeman crawled through and then discovered the caves.

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Jonathan was a good sport and was the first adult to crawl through.

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Us a the beginning of the tour, soon after we were separated and the girls were up front with the ranger/guide.

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Aunt Carolyn with me and the girls.

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Lilah was taking pictures of Carolyn as we walked out.

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The girls with the cave cadet pins they earned.

Ely Trip 2009

A while back when I was at Costco binging on school stuff I noticed they had various classroom sized maps. I was already spending a lot of money so I opted not to buy one even though I thought they were cool.

I didn’t tell Jon about the maps that day but about a week ago we were talking about something and having a map came up. I told Jon about the ones a Costco and he mentioned that a world map would be cool. (I would have bought just a United States one at the time, so I’m happy I didn’t that day, but what really stopped me from buying one was how big the maps are.)

So these maps are big. I didn’t know how big, but I knew they would be large and I knew that we didn’t have anywhere to put it. Jon said a map would be a good teaching tool, and of course I agreed, and we decided that I would buy a world map the next time I was at Costco and maybe hang it in our hallway.

I saw them and knew immediately that it wouldn’t fit on our hallway wall with what he measured, but with Costco they change what they have so I knew I needed to buy it now anyways, so I did. Jon, being the lover of knowledge he is, decided to hang it on our bedroom wall since it was the only place large enough.

Just looking at the map made me feel smarter. I didn’t feel smarter because I knew so much already, but because what I had learned about different countries in the world had faded and I enjoyed reading over it again and relearning things. I’m so happy that Jon had me buy the world map because the world is such an interesting place and I think I get caught up in knowing just about the United States when teaching the girls, but there is so much more.

I think it goes rather nicely with our blue wall and nothing matches decor. Maybe we’ll put it in the girl’s room when we finally get around to moving the bunk bed around.

Like I said, it only costs $6.59 at Costco and I think might be one of my better home school buys.

I feel smarter already and I know my girls will learn from it too.

Hello there, this is Lilah. Well, I’m just letting you know that I’m selling bookmarks.
They’re $.50 each or three for $1.25.

I’m selling the bookmarks to get a Nature Set and I’m also going to donate 1/3 of the money I make to a charity.
Please let me know if you want any of my bookmarks.
I’ll be calling you soon to see if you want any bookmarks.
Please tell any of your friends who might be interested.

Thanks,
Lilah Blake

Please leave a comment if you’re interested in purchasing some bookmarks from Lilah. She’s been wanting to make and sell these forever since she would like to earn money to purchase more things, and now to also help others.

Earlier last week my friend Beth asked if I could make chocolate covered strawberries for her daughter’s wedding which was Saturday. I had told her I’d never made them, but she had faith that I could if I said yes since I’ve made truffles. I told her I’d talk with Jon because I didn’t want to burden him or interrupt his plans since this would be our first Saturday where for most of the day we would be home in three weeks. At first he said he wasn’t comfortable with it, since he had a long list of things to do, so I told Beth I couldn’t. Then that night as I talked to Jon I guess he heard the excitement in my voice as I talked about the bride and groom berries that I had envisioned making for them before he had said he wasn’t comfortable with it. So he said that he thought I probably could make the chocolate covered strawberries for them. So I called Beth and asked if she had asked anyone else to make strawberries. She said no because she felt that I was the one person who would pay attention to the little details in such a way that only Lacey does. I was very flattered by the comment, especially since I do these things as a hobby and not professionally.

I did a little more research and made a sample plate just so they could decide if they really wanted me to make strawberries for the wedding since it was to be my first time working with berries. I thought they turned out alright, but I was working off of a very professional picture that was perfection, so I considered my amateur attempt so under par. They loved the berries I made for them. Since I made bride and groom berries without them asking Beth later told me that Kate had wanted bride and groom, but they had forgotten about them until right before they asked me and she didn’t want to ask me to make them since it was a favor, so when I brought over bride and groom berries it was just what Kate had wanted and they all loved them.

I think the faith and compliments that Beth gave me allowed me to see how cute the berries were that I had made. I was only looking at the imperfections and how amateurish they looked to me, but they loved them and appreciated my hard work. I do pay attention to detail, though I don’t profess to be good at all the little details. I try and over all it works out well.

So Saturday, after spending too much time at the temple after the wedding, I came home and started working on strawberries. It took me around 8 hours to produce the 80-90 bride and groom berries and around 100 of the regular decorated berries. I had to choose only the nicest berries, then rinse and dry them individually. Then the hard work of dipping and decorating began.

The girls were on their own for most of the day and I got the berries to the reception just half an hour before it started only because Jon helped me get half the strawberries in their paper holders and box. He was a good sport, even if I was “The crazy strawberry lady.” 😉

It was lots of fun making them and it was great to hear how much the guest loved them, but the only people I wanted to please was my good friend, her daughter the bride, and the groom.

I am pretty pleased with them myself, but I’m more pleased that they made them happy.

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I took these pictures towards the end to the night. The tuxedo ones went rather quickly.

I just want to note that it’s best to blog right after an event and not 3 months later. A mind becomes very foggy.

Jon had his birthday at the beginning of May. We celebrated by making homemade pizza and eating watermelon for dessert, though I think the girls and I enjoyed some ice cream after the watermelon. He is always striving to be healthy and isn’t the biggest fan of cake so that’s why we had no cake.

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My birthday was pretty regular. Jon had to work since we had just gone camping with Andrea and Brien and it was a three day weekend. I had a little meeting with someone on my birthday so I dropped the girls off with Jon at  his work then he picked up a frozen pizza, but it was a California Kitchen BBQ chicken pizza which we had never had and it was tasty, and frosting for the cake he had baked the day before. Lilah had play practice that night and I was going to go home and sew on the costumes, but decided to just hang out with Jon and Eden while we watched Lilah. Eden fell asleep on the way home so I was sung to the day after my birthday, but before Jon went to work.

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Also, I just wanted to include this picture of Lilah churning ice cream on Memorial Day. My dad has a cool ice cream maker that can be hand cranked, or cranked by a motor. It brought back lots of memories of watching my dad and brothers crank our old ice cream maker, which was very hard to crank. I tried but was always too weak.

pronounced: Jazz-me-den.

Here’s the “Jasmine” outfit I made for Eden. The official Jasmine pattern has been discontinued so I used a genie costume and made two changes. I lengthened the gold belly part by 1 inch. I guess I should have done two. I also widened the straps so it was a little more modest, but I figure it’s a dress up costume and I’m just letting her play so I’m not terribly concerned. I think she’s adorable.

Eden does not like to be called Jasmine when wearing it. She’s still Eden. So I just started calling her Jasmeden, which she still says “No, I’m Eden.”

In an effort to not get completely behind and post every picture post months after if happened, I’m posting pictures from Eden’s 4th Birthday Party.

We had the party at the Zurflueh’s house where Lilah’s was held last year.

We of course had a pinata.

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I made the pinata this year, like I did last year, but since I painted it it didn’t take me 8 hours to decorate. Just $4 for spray paint and half an hour. It’s the only way to make a homemade pinata.
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This is the cake I made, sorry it’s dark but it looks better since you see less of it’s imperfections. I drafted a slightly bigger genie since I decided 8×10 would not be big enough for the sheet cake my mom baked for me.

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We did pin the lamp on the genie. The genie was drawn by my wonderful friend Anna. I painted it.

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This is my niece Adrienne, with her big sister behind helping to hold up the blindfold that I did not securely tie. The funny thing is my niece is far sighted.

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Judging who won.

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We enjoyed some Otter pops and then it was pinata time.

Eden the birthday girl was first.

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Gracie got a really good hit in. I think next year I will make the pinata three layers again and maybe blindfold the kids.

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Josh is in Eden’s church class and lives down the street from us.

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Some of the kids close their eyes when hitting the pinata anyways.

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Christina, Josh’s older sister, broke the pinata on her third hit, but it wasn’t quite spilling the candy yet.

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Her sister finished it off for us.

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We then sang Happy Birthday.  Lilah is such a wonderful big sister. I think everyone needs a big sister.

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I just thought that this was a funny picture.

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We opened presents and then it was time for swimming!!!

The Spencer family.

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Elona Spencer with mommy and sisters behind her.

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Lilah looks like she’s waiting for a swim meet.

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And she’s off!

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Eden swimming with Jon. I think they’re so cute.

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Cute Eden.

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Sam with Britta and baby Matilda.

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Carolyn with Adrienne.

It was a fun enjoyable party and we thank everyone who helped and was able to celebrate with us.

I posted pictures of the two reusable bags I’ve made on Facebook. I also created an album of things I’ve sewn, but it’s not really that exciting.

These bags are, and they were fun to make, kinda, in a why do they take so long kind of way? Oh, because I want to reinforce them and make sure Jon can haul home a watermelon week after week kind of way.

This is a bag I made for Jon. It’s a little funky and fun, though slightly girly, but he doesn’t mind.

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This bag I gave as a gift to the same bride I made the apron for.

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I bought the material thinking I would only get one bag out of each fabric, but I decided to just use white, since they had no off white canvass, for the inside I’ll be able to make two from each fabric and why I was OK making and giving the to be bride the blue and brown bag. I love the fabric and I want to go buy all they have left and make bags for people I know as gifts, but keep one for myself.

I’m thinking of selling them, though they take way too long to make at this point. I’d need to perfect them and possibly get ride of the bottom contrast fabric to shed time off, though I really like it.

What do you think?

How much would you pay for a bag like this? It’s larger than the regular fabric shopping bags and I think a lot more sturdier. On Etsy I see them priced around $35-$45, but I’m not sure if they’re made of cotton or canvass, which mine are.

Any thoughts?

On May 29th the girls, Hannah, and I went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. I had a free ticket for me, Eden was free and Lilah was just $8.50, and so was Hannah even though they first wanted to charge her as an adult.

They gave us these hand held devises that we would punch in the correlating code and then listen to information on the animal or animals we were looking at. Apparently if you don’t pay for that child they don’t need to listen, so they only gave us three things for the four of us. I gave Eden mine, and then Hannah let me use hers for most of the time, she had been before and apparently knew that the information was only somewhat interesting. Lilah was very intent on listening to each little recording, but towards the end, at like 32 of 36, she stopped. Eden gave up a little sooner, but still listened to most of them.

We saw so many interesting fish and the girls loved petting the sting rays. Hannah was a nice help and hopefully she had fun too.
We watched two divers cleaning one of the tanks and one even put his hand to the glass to “high five” the girls. We also saw some bait for some fish, but they must not have been hungry because they didn’t even notice it for the 5-10 minutes we watched and waited to see if they would eat it.

I don’t have too many pictures because it was not the most ideal setting. Most of the time if was too dark and then the flash would wash everything out. It was still fun and I will try to get a free ticket next tax season so we can go again.

Some giant fish from the Amazon.

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Eden watching another giant fish from the Amazon.

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Lilah is listening to the recording about the giant fish from the Amazon.

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Learning about the piranhas. They had a staff member stationed at the tank. No doubt to keep idiots from putting things, or there own hands, in the tank.

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Hannah helping Lilah pet a sting ray.

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Gross fish water!

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Eden’s turn to pet the sting ray. Hannah actually had to pull her arm down so she could reach.

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I thought this was a tiger fish, but it’s actually a lion fish.

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Lilah looking at the jellyfish.

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Eden ready to go home.