April Fun

With weird weather and weird school closures, and Matt traveling, April was an unusual month for us!

Our public schools were closed for the first two weeks of April for a teacher walkout, so Nathan was out of school for those two weeks, but Samuel and Elisabeth still had school and all other normal activities. It was strange having Nathan out of school, but we made the best of it and made some fun memories. Wyatt got to spend the first day of the walkout with us after a fun sleepover. Those boys are the cutest. They have so much fun together and don't stop talking the whole time they're together.

On Thursday, both Samuel and Elisabeth were in school. This year Thursdays have been my day to run errands, clean, get projets done. By far, they are my most "productive" day of the week, but I laid my to do list aside and spent Thursday hanging out with Nathan. One of one time with that boy is rare and more important than anything on my to do list.
He's been playing Junior Catan for years now, and on that Thursday I taught him how to play the original Settlers of Catan, and he did great! We both had fun.

He also asked to eat lunch at Hideaway for our special day, so we did that too.

On Thursday night I got a chance for some one on one time with my other boy. He chose to eat dinner at Mcdonalds before his soccer practice. He takes his time when he eats, so I just watched him eat and we chatted for a long time.

He's excited to be playing soccer this year and couldn't wait for his first practice. He gets distracted easily, but he still has fun, ha!

His first game of the season it was 40 degrees. We all froze and it rained during his second game. Such a weird Spring! At least we've had nice weather for practice.

Samuel is such a creative little soul. I feel like if he can find someone to keep him on task, he can be some crazy successful entrepreneur when he grows up. He can come up with the ideas, and his brother can execute them and take care of the details. They'll change the world, those two :).

He made me a picture one day and said that it was a spider web that I could hang up so that the spiders would get confused and crawl onto the web he drew instead of crawling on me. I love that kid so much!

When Matt was out of town we had a movie night and watched Coco. The kids asked to have a picnic in the living room during the movie.

Elisabeth was ready for church on Sunday.

Sometimes she lets me have fun with her hair. She slept in braid on Saturday night so she could have curly hair for church.

And for a funny Elisabeth story- we went to sonic for dessert one night because Nathan's school was having a fundraiser. We got the kids ice cream and let them eat it in the car- we never let them eat ice cream in the car. I told them all to be very careful and not to spill anything. As we're pulling out of the parking lot, Elisabeth announces, "Uhh Mommy I have good news and bad news. I didn't spill all of my ice cream, but I did get some on my car seat buckle." Matt and I cracked up at her way of telling us. I'm still laughing about it.

When we had pretty weather in April (which wasn't very often), we went to the park and let Katherine swing for the first time. She loved it. She smiled and laughed the whole time. It was adorable.

I'm a sucker for matching outfits with the girls. Elisabeth is about to outgrow toddler sizes, so while it's easy to find matching things for them, I'm taking advantage of it. Elisabeth loves it when she matches her sister.

One day during the walk out Nathan's teacher invited all of her students to a picnic at the park. It was a beautiful day and we stayed for three hours playing and visiting. I thought it was so sweet for Mrs. Tucker to organize that for her kids. Nathan was so happy to see her and play with his friends.

Best biggest brother award goes to my first born.

 And this girl is growing into a great big sister.

We got this baby car toy out of the attic for Katherine and it has been a hit. Elisabeth loves it as much as Katherine does.

If you look closely at this picture, Samuel and Elisabeth are holding hands. They fight like crazy a lot of the time, but that Tuesday they played together so well all day long. I'm talking hours of playing together without fighting and then they held hands at gymnastics and cheered when they got to be in the same group with each other. Days like that make my mommy heart so happy.

Samuel had a fun pre k field trip to the aquarium. I had a special day with him and enjoyed some quality one on one time with my almost Kindergarten boy.

He has the greatest teachers and the sweet group of kids in his class. Pre-K has been so, so good for that boy. He loves his friends and his teachers and has learned so much!

We all drove separately from the school to the aquarium, and the kids were excited to be reunited after thirty minutes apart. They were all so excited to go on a field trip.

Samuel kept asking me to take pictures of him.

I had such a fun day with my boy. He's the coolest five year old I know.

The teachers gave the kids a scavenger hunt of things to find at the aquarium. They took it so seriously! Samuel jumped up and down when we found the last one on his paper (sea horse). I also let him feed the sting rays- something you can do with one kid, but not with all of them.

 Matt was sweet to take off work and watch the kids for me so I could to to a women's retreat at Falls Creek with our church. I had a great time with these ladies from my Sunday school class and got to hear from some amazing speakers. It was a fun, refreshing little getaway.