April, in Summary

I love cute, random pictures of my family:).

 

Who would have thought the first morning of Spring Break my kids could make a snowman?!  It was the perfect, wet, dense snow that sticks together so well.  So much for all the snow gear being put away for the winter.  So much for trying to get the house organized the day before family arrives!  I was a bit worried we wouldn't be able to do our much anticipated yard work while everyone was here.  But, never fear, it was all melted by the following morning and the rest of the week was in the 50s and 60s.  Awesome!

 Following Spencer's baptism and a barbecue at our house, my side of the family all headed back to Oregon.  The Mudaliar's and Kyle's parents stayed another day.  Yay!  The kids continued to play hard, and the adults had a great time visiting, playing cards, and going out on a triple date!  The guys suggested we go out to dinner Saturday night.  I wasn't too sure about the idea until I realized Alohi (my niece) could babysit, and this was for adults only!  I was definitely "in"!  We went and saw Spokane Falls (really high this time of year; so powerful) then had dinner overlooking the falls at Athony's Seafood Restaurant.  It was a beautiful evening.  The kids had mac and cheese (our "babysitter food"), watched "Bed Knobs and Broomsticks", and loved it. 

April was "Art through Science" Night at Snowdon.  It was amazingly well done and attended.  Every classroom had a different science or art exhibit, with different organizations from all over our area there to present/display.  They had the Science guy, Reptile Man, a rock club, the WSU Pharmacy school making lip balm, dissecting squid, a train engineer, Inland Power, an Astronomy group, different animal groups, a heart-friendly obstacle course in the gym, the Fire Department, Department of Fish & Wildlife and tons more. We really couldn't get to everything in the two hours.  Skyler, Kylene, Spencer and I dissected our first squid, Kyle loved playing with the reptiles, and more.  They came home with all kinds of little "gimmes".  It was a great evening.  I hope they'll do it again every year!

 Kylene participated in her first "Math is Cool" competition.  The Fourth Graders competed at Whitworth University this year and Snowdon ended up placing FOURTH as a team!  Kylene was totally surprised and elated.  Her classroom teacher, Mrs. Ayersman, was the coach, and her and her friends had a blast together.

Spencer earned his Cub Scout Bobcat award!  Woot, woot!  It is still a bit strange to officially have a cub scout.  When Kylene was a baby, I was called as a Cub Scout Den Leader; it was hard to imagine actually having a cub scout back then:).  I'm so glad I got familiar with the program in preparation for helping my three boys!  We have lots of years of Scouting ahead of us.  Way to go, Spencer!

And the last weekend of April, I had my big get-away to Palmyra, New York, to visit Susan.  What a great experience that was. Pictures and details forthcoming!

(Yard) Work in Progress

Our yard continues to take shape.  I was so excited for the weather to get nicer again and be able to get out there and back to work.  We got a few things done here and there...and then--wham--my family came to town for Spring Break and Spencer's baptism and we did three month's worth of work in a few days!  It is incredible what we got done.  We focused on the two large bed areas on the east side of the house, in the front and back yard.  The backyard area is what we are calling, "Anneca's garden."  We made a mound with a beautiful Japanese Laceleaf Maple on it which is "Anneca's tree."  It will have flowers and grasses around it with her stone my family had made for us last year.  There is a beautiful bench and patio area near there to sit.  It is so quiet and serene and we have already been enjoying it.

My dad is the great landscape architect with amazing vision!  The first day or so they were here, we went to so many nursery and landscape places.  I was overwhelmed with everything we were buying and thought we'd never get it all planted.  We got trailer loads of mulch, rocks, and plants, and then....we put everyone to work!  And they did not disappoint!  We got everything planted and the mulch spread and rocks in place.  It was incredible.  I could not believe what hard workers Alva and Wendy's kids are (my nieces and nephews).  They definitely motivated my kids to help as well, and Jana and her kids helped, and we had such a great time working hard together.

Don't worry, they also played very hard.  The kids were jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, playing games inside and out and eating their hearts out.  We went to a friend's family farm and saw all the babies born this time of year (pigs, lambs, chicks).  Kyle treated everyone to Schwan's ice cream cones (he even chased down the Schwan's truck....it was quite the sight!) one night and Grandpa treated everyone to ice cream another night, so everyone was happy.  It was such a fun week and SO appreciated.  I was in complete shock---and thrilled---with everything we got done.  It is looking beautiful out there!

I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few....
Bottom left: these ladies unloaded an entire trailer of mulch.  Muscle women!
Bottom right: the men hefting off one of the larger stepping stones we added.  Good thing rock is so cheap around these parts: we paid only $21 for 1,000 pounds of granite!  (It's cheap because it is EVERYWHERE, even in my yard.  Even though it's beautiful, it was still hard to spend money on more rock:)!)

 The kids got very good at digging holes for the plants!  Sam and Skyler worked so hard on this hole.  Sam loved using the pick axe, but still thought our soil was very hard.  And all that digging only led to one (more) broken sprinkler line.  I think we were lucky:).

Here are a few pictures visiting the baby farm animal's at the Cowan's.

We loved, loved, loved having so much family here for Spring Break (and wish more could have come) and were so grateful for their service.  We loved having our house full of people, noise, and laughter.