Thursday, April 30, 2015

April Happenings

Here is some more of what happened in April.

I taught the boys the French tradition of the poisson d’avril, and they had fun coloring fish and sneaking them on each other’s backs.  I found a few on the car the next morning when I left to run some errands.  (The marks on the pictures of the car are from my camera lens, not actually on the car).

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April always means it’s time for me to go to work at the FBLA conference for two days.  My mom came up and was a great fill-in at home for me while I was gone.  I am always so grateful she is willing to do this.  It’s hard  to leave your kiddos for a few days when you’re normally home with them all day, but I don’t worry when they’re being well taken care of by grandma.  We did a little shopping down at the outlets when she first came up, and the boys had fun pretending to be mannequins in the stores.  While she was here, the boys especially got interested in Pokemon cards, and they printed up a ton of them to play with.  She was also her usual laundry machine, washing, folding, and putting away several batches of laundry while she was here.  I wish I had her laundry motivation!

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That week, Davis also had his first grade music concert.  His teacher asked him if he wanted to help perform the “Robot Boy” song their class was singing by dressing up in his Halloween costume.  I thought he would be nervous, but he was a great performer, and we are all still singing “Robot Boy” around our house.

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Asher was all wrapped up in a blanket one day, and we love our neighborhood baseball games.

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The boys went all out on the bring-your-own-slurpee-cup day, and Asher’s always glad when daddy comes home.  “Dad, play cars me?” he asks.

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Davis started playing baseball, so that means nights outside hanging out at the park.  Luckily, April had some beautiful spring weather.

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The weather has been so nice that James asked to have a picnic lunch in the playhouse.  He even wanted to take his nap out there.  I didn’t think he would, but he stayed out there and fell asleep (after I killed the spider).  We even got to have some of Shane’s specialty blueberry milkshakes outside for Family Home Evening treats one night.

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James wanted to get the Madeline book from the library, and we went suit shopping for Shane one Saturday night with the boys.  We kept them pretty entertained on these couches outside the waiting room for almost an hour with electronic devices, but by the end of the hour, they were starting to go pretty stir crazy.  Luckily, Shane had chosen his suit by then and just had to pay for it, so I made a quick escape with the boys before things got really out of hand.

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We had our ultrasound for baby Madeleine!  Everything looked great, and we were happy to see it was still a girl :)  I guess it’s official now!

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Running errands and shopping with boys in tow is not my favorite activity, but sometimes you have to do it.  Asher and I spent some time at the DMV, and Asher kept saying, “All done!” hoping that meant we could leave.  Another day, James, Asher and I made a trip to the Nike outlet for some shopping.  It was super busy in there because of a sale going on, but the boys were good, and they were excited to sit on the race car and the Ninja Turtle car when we were done.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015

Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

Every year since we first moved to Oregon, we’ve gone to the tulip festival in Woodburn.  The first year I went, Landon wasn’t even quite two years old.  The festival has grown a lot busier over the years, but it is still one of my favorite outings of the year.  Sometimes I go during the week when it is less busy, but then Shane doesn’t get to join us.  He wanted to come along this year, so we went on a Saturday.  The weather was beautiful, which made for lots of people, but it when you’re out walking through the tulips it is hardly noticeable. 

We started out with the usual activities – racing ducks, swinging on the horses, and riding down the bumpy slide. 

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After the games, we rode the tractor over to the tulips and enjoyed walking through them.  Every year I am once again amazed at how beautiful they are.  Tulips are definitely my favorite.

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Photos with all the boys looking at the camera were pretty much impossible.  We had bought a bag of kettle corn which helped keep Asher distracted and at least sitting with the boys in the pictures. 

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Asher really liked all of the tractors, especially this small kid-sized one.  Photo credit goes to Shane on this one.

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I had Landon take a picture of Shane and I together to show we were there too. 

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We always look at the names of the tulips, the colors, and smell them to choose our favorites.  Asher’s “smelling” was actually him blowing on the tulips, but he had fun joining in.

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Until next year . . .

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