Easter

Why schools can't make the Monday after Easter a holiday I don't know, but it sure would have been nice. As it was, Easter was the last day of our lovely week of spring break, so we had to pack it up at my folks' house and head home that afternoon. Boo. But it was a lovely day just the same. Gorgeous weather, almost a bit too warm and the smaller two people got a little wilty in the stuffy church and we had to resort to Nilla wafers outside to revive the troops. 

Back at the ranch, everybody was super excited to hunt eggs outside. 

And M happily collected the "ball-balls"

Don't know about the secret service guy here...

We had brunch with some extended family before departing, too. After the two hour drive back home I wasn't about to go to the grocery store, so in addition to the hard boiled eggs my mom sent home with us I heated up chicken tenders and mac and cheese and served it all on the very cute bunny plates I bought at Michaels, and it was all very festive. Except that I discovered, upon making deviled eggs, that I had not bought paprika again after we moved here (spices being one of the categories of things that usually get pitched between houses). So my eggs were naked. 

And after that we jumped right back into the school routine on Monday and I hit he ground running with fresh home-improvement inspiration. More on that next! 

Spring Break

Spring break was a simple but fabulous one. All we had to do was drive two hours over to my parents' house for the week and it was as good a change of scenery as any plane ticket could buy. The weather was delightful, and spring was springing everywhere. 

The kids played outside endlessly and cooked up all sorts of games together. 

We went shopping and got some warm-weather clothes for Matthew. 

He can now ride the little bug scooter which we bought for C less than two years ago. Crazy! We also made a trip to the park on what ended up being a relatively chilly day. Still lovely though. 

Oh and Spencer wanted to say hi, remember him?

Spencer was our "extra" kitty we acquired by way of a long story, who ended up staying with my parents when we moved to Oregon. He's happy as a clam and now currently the only feline in residence as Salem, my folks' 17-year-old cat, crossed the Rainbow Bridge in late March. Sigh. 

What else? Oh yes, Mom and I took the kids furniture shopping, and they might tell you it was the highlight of the week. We all had lots of fun on that adventure. 

Amy took charge of the Easter egg dyeing project and she and C accomplished that with little help from me. I also spent some time during the week helping my dad with his garden. It really was a fantastic week capped off with Easter weekend - pictures from that next. Till then! 

Catching Up with April, part 1

Whoa, hello neglected blog! Sorry for the silence. This has been a quick but full month; I'm going to attempt to catch up a bit here before it's over. Let's go week by week, shall we? The first week of April consisted of a bit of this: 

Throwing rocks in the puddle while waiting for A at dance class. M just laughed and laughed, it was the cutest thing. 

More cute things...

My big boy got an aquarium field trip which he was SO excited about:

C and I made chalk drawings and talked about Mary Poppins

I found this in W's notebook and my heart about popped. This is a favorite line of ours from Elephant and Piggie:

And also found this grown-up girl's selfie on my phone:

Then we went to my folks' for spring break. More on that in my next installment!