Birthday Girl Elise

 We celebrated Elise's 7th birthday all weekend long.  Here, the girls are playing at the park.

Since Elise's birthday was so close to Easter this year, she got an Easter-themed cake.  It was a funfetti cake, surrounded in marshmallow Peeps, adorned with Cadbury Eggs, and topped with the Easter Bunny himself! You can't get much more Easter-ish than that!

Elise's favorite present was this DORA the EXPLORER microphone, which played Dora songs.  She is having to fight off her little sister for rights to this one......Good thing Erica's birthday is coming up soon too!

Eggrolls for Cambodia

There is a woman in our Ward, Tevy, who is originally from Cambodia.  She grew up during years of great turmoil and social unrest in their country.  As a teenager, her father was killed because he was educated, and the family was forced to evacuate and walk hundreds of miles to a refugee camp.  There, conditions were terrible, with little food, and no medical attention.  Eventually they were able to flee to Vietnam, then later on to the United States.  Her story is truly remarkable.

Because of her history and connection to Cambodia, Tevy has remained in contact with family members and friends who still live there.  She has started to sponser a village, called Siem Riep, which is in desperate poverty.  Many are members of the church, who continually sacrifice greatly for their faith, and she has made it her mission to help the people of this village.

Tevy teaches Asian cooking classes, with all the profits going to this village.  She is a fantastic cook, and I have taken classes from her before.

These are some villagers after receiving bags of rice which Tevy's
donations from her cooking classes provided.  Amazingly, each bag
 of rice costs them about one month salary.

My Beehive class wanted to do a service project, and my friend Stephanie Johnson, who also teaches with me, came up the idea to make and sell Tevy's eggrolls as a fundraiser, with all profits to go to her village.

Stephanie with some of our Beehives.

Here, Tevy is showing the girls how to make the eggrolls.

 
We invited the Beehives, their mothers, and anyone else who was willing, to help out in rolling the eggrolls.  We had a fantastic turnout!  In total, we ended out selling aroung 1500 eggrolls, and made over $1000 to send to Siem Riep!  We are so excited about what this village can do with all that money!  Our original goal was to earn $500.  It has been a wonderful testimony-builder, reminding me that our Father in Heaven loves ALL his children.  As Stephanie was purchasing supplies and ingredients, things just kept falling into place, which allowed for her to save more money, freeing up more of it to go directly to Cambodia.  It just felt that this was something our Father in Heaven wanted to happen, and happen in a BIG way!

Happy Golden Birthday!

 Today was Heidi's "Golden Birthday," meaning her birthdate and age are the same number.  Big Fifteen!!

How has the time flown by so quickly?  This year she will be starting up Driver's Training and she will have completed her first year of high school.  Next year she will start to date!!!  Eeeeek!!!

 Of course, even when you are a kid, the world can't stand still just because it is your birthday, even though as parents we sure try to make it happen!  Heidi had a band concert tonight, so we were a little rushed doing dinner before, then a little rushed doing the party after because it was getting late.

 A few weeks ago I got a cake from Costco that we all really loved.  It was a rich dark chocolate, with a raspberry filling, and a chocolate ganache icing.  Heidi requested to have that cake for her birthday.  I didn't want to buy one, though, so I came up with my own concoction......It turned out delicious!!!

 It's a four-layer double chocolate cake, with raspberry filling, rich chocolate frosting, and crushed raspberries between the layers.  Then the outside is covered with a creamy chocolate mousse icing.  Even the kids said it beat Costco's cake, hands down!!

As for gifts, Heidi got what Ethan called "old lady gifts," but she was happy with them!  We got her a really nice memory foam topper for her bed, which she was thrilled about.  She also got a heating pad (don't worry, it was a request), and an IPod docking alarm clock.

Overall, it was a pretty fun party.  Ethan even helped Heidi to remake her bed with her new mattress pad.  She told me that he was wishing that he could get one too, because she is going to have the softest bed in the house.  When she suggested he ask for one for his birthday, he said he wouldn't want to waste a birthday gift on that.  It could wait until Christmas, ha ha!!

Losing Teeth

Elise "lost" her front tooth this weekend, and by lost I mean that I pulled it. It was hanging low, turning purple, and she was refusing to eat. So out comes my secret stash of topical anesthetic from dental hygiene school and a few Q-tips!

*******

Ethan was watching as I was performing the delicate procedure. Then as I was doing the final twist (you must do this part quick, with no hesitation!), he started turning green. I then asked him if he wanted to be next, since he has a leftover tooth just begging to be released and it is bothering him. He quickly darted out of reach and clamped his mouth shut. There would be only one tooth pulled today!!

*******

Of course, then Heidi and Ethan bemoaned the fact that I "always" pull their teeth and I am so mean. They were also adamant about how the "topical doesn't work, anyway!" Sorry, but I just can't stand seeing these dead little things flapping in the breeze! They hang on to them until they could be sneezed out!

Besides, isn't her grin super cute now?!


I wonder what she will spend her tooth fairy dollar on....

My Dream Bedroom

If I had a bedroom like this, I would never need to go on vacation!

Ahhh, the quiet bliss.......

Murder Among the Mateys!

On Friday night we went to a Murder Mystery dinner put on by our friends the Howells. It was based in a pirate port, and the mix of people associated there. Each of us were assigned a specific character to play, along with information that only we knew and instructions on what we need to tell people. Through the course of the evening, we had to figure out who the murderer was! It was so fun!!!
Eric was Governor Napier. This is an unusual site for him to be seen covorting with a pirate!!

Our esteemed Commodore Clearing, played by John Thompson, with another misdemeanor of fraternizing with the enemy!

On the right, our lovely hostess, Mad Rose, the Tavern Wench.

Our host, and unfortunate murder victim, First Mate Morgan.

Captain Redbeard and One-Eyed Wanda.

Our esteemed Governor in full apparel!! Eric took the prize for the best costume!!
I thought he could pass as a pretty good George Washington too, ha ha!!

Governor Napier and his lovely wife Juliana. Just like a time warp, isn't it?!

Thanks to Lincoln and Carrie for such a fun evening!!!

Lia Sophia

Since I don't think my life is quite busy enough, I have decided to start a little side-business. I am now an "Advisor" for Lia Sophia jewelry, or in other words, I can come to your home and show some beautiful and fun jewelry to all your friends. I already have four shows lined up, and am super excited about it!

Please contact me if you are interested in hosting a show. There is no pressure to buy, just have a lot of fun with all the girls! And there are always lots of perks to being a hostess, like earning free credit toward jewelry purchases, and buying at discounted prices! You can check out the current Lia Sophia catalog on my new site.

Welcome to Your Own Private Island!

Ethan just participated in the annual Cub Scout Cake Bake Auction! The theme this year was "Oh, the places you'll go!" Eric and Ethan schemed together to create this year's masterpiece:

"Welcome to your own private island! Where the sun always shines and the water is crystal clear! The island is made of extra-dark chocolate cake, made from scratch, covered in a layer of pecan and coconut icing. Soak some rays on the lovely sandy beach. Or hang ten on a white-chocolate surfboard in the pina colada-flavored waters of a sugar-candy ocean. Whatever you choose, you will be sure to have a delicious adventure!!"