Bobble Bunny Heads and Other April Adventures

Today I wrote a check (not a very common occurrence...it was a little weird) and when I went to write the date, I realized I literally had NO IDEA what the date was. I knew it was Monday. I was pretty sure we were still in the month of April...but I didn't know if we were in the middle or at the end. Really. And when the school secretary told me it was APRIL 29th, I had a little anxiety attack. End of April? What happened to the middle of April? Was I awake for the whole thing? So I decided for the sake of making sure I really was present, I would document the event.

There was Easter...or was that in March? It was a wonderful day! Because we have 9:00 a.m. church, I made the kids wait until AFTER church to hunt for their baskets. I actually gave them their first clue after church and the "hunt" had clues that led them to different places between our church building and home. They finally found their baskets hidden by that sneaky bunny all over the yard! (Sidenote: This was the first year that my oldest son found this whole Easter basket hunting a little humiliating. It was a tragically sad moment for me that he is now too cool to appreciate big bunnies delivering baskets. It was bound to happen...next year he gets to write the clues and plan the "hunt"!)

And of course, within minutes of locating their baskets, a Peeps-on-a-stick sword fight ensued! With 3 boys, I really should have seen that coming!

My boys...they make me insanely happy...and sometimes just insane.

ALL my beautiful kids...my daughter also makes me insanely happy! Apparently getting ALL of them to cooperate and smile at the same time is still impossible. 

Darling baby boy + seersucker vest and pants + fedora + saddle shoes = Dreamy!

The boy has developed an intense style all his own over the last year...love it!

So grateful that my one girl is a "fancy" girl!

And my 12 year old...oh my 12 year old! Has learned to  "tie" his own tie and looks fabulous in a suit!

We interrupt this blog broadcast to sing a song. Baby will accompany us.

Later that night, we went to Aunt C. and Uncle J.'s house for a beautiful Easter dinner with family and friends. The food was amazing, the company divine, and the giant Easter Bunny frightening. Just how Easter should be...

Spencer was wildly uncertain about the big, white Easter bunny at the beginning of the night but later on when Hannah put the bobble head on, he couldn't get enough. He kept hugging and kissing it!

Hannah put on the big bunny head and then invited everyone to come "visit" the Easter Bunny and have their picture taken. Spencer was still hugging and kissing the bunny costume...

The moment when we looked over in the yard and had a Sasquatch/Bobble Head Easter Bunny sighting. 

The month of April also brought with it a newly sworn in American citizen! This picture was to document the last time that my brother would kiss his "full French citizen" wife. I hope he doesn't always kiss with his eyes open...

And of course, any good swearing in deserves a party afterwards. And any good party always ends with the whipped cream just being sprayed directly into your mouth...although I love that my nephew is about to get busted by his Mo standing in the background!

Let's see...what else did we do in April?

There was the night we went out to visit our wonderful friends and their new farm. Baby boy was in HEAVEN chasing goats and terrorizing baby chicks and Hannah lived every one of her "my little pony" dreams when she got to help take care of the horses. It made me feel so sorry for my poor city slicker kids and the fact that they will NEVER own goats or chicks or ponies. (Although once I pointed out to Hannah what pony poop looked like she backed down on wanting one a little bit!)

 There was the day during spring break that I took Hannah and Baby to the zoo and took exactly one darling picture before the batteries in my camera died.

 Or the day I looked in the backyard and witnessed my 10 year old trying to break every bone in his body. But he assured me he was just practicing his "bicycle" kick for soccer and that I didn't need to worry since he was professional. I patiently explained that David Beckham and Pele were professionals...he was a 10 year old boy who was going to get in big trouble if he broke anything...and then I went to get the camera to document the time when he didn't have broken bones.

And then there is EVERY day when Baby looks longingly out the big window at the trampoline and waits patiently for someone to take him out and bounce him like crazy and make him laugh his little guts out. 

Hannah wrote a stunning illustrated narrative for school on the ant. This was one of my favorite pages. It says, "After the males mate with the queen...They Die!" And that is a dead ant with a certain stench attracting flies. Nothing but quality stuff coming out of this house!

 Matthew and Hannah both participated in a HUGE production put on by lots and lots of schools in Utah called "Hope of America". They performed with their classes in the Marriott Center on BYU campus. Feast your eyes  on my 10 year old boy dressed as a Scottish dancer about to do the jig...

 Despite the instance that this was the most embarrassing, uncool thing he had ever been asked to do, he looked like he was having a pretty good time during the event!

 Hannah's class were Japanese dancers. She was stunning with her kimono and fan. I hope we made Sho, Hero, & Spencer proud!

Jacob and Hannah also performed in their school's annual production. This year they did a stage adaptation of Dr. Seuss' "If I Ran the Circus". Jacob played Mr. Sneelock and Hannah was a clown.

 Jacob in his Oscar award winning performance...sleeping and sneering. 

 We will be eternally grateful to our fans that always come out to support our local grass roots performances. 

 And I will never fail to be charmed by darling boys in matching sweaters.

 April marks the beginning of Matthew's eternal "warm" weather grass stained knees. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, plays harder than this child does every single day!

 Spencer adoring the neighbor's dog. I like the dog's very noble, stoic look as he lets the toddler yank and pull on him. We are so grateful Sugar!

 These 2 pictures show the daily occurrence of having a toddler in the house again. He can unroll toliet paper rolls in a flash, unload and climb into the tupperware drawer faster than I can brush my teeth, climb on the printer, shimmy up his high chair, climb down the stairs to the laundry room, and throw a bucket full of toys around a room like a real champion.

Luckily we have the giant box/play pen when things get too out of hand. Here he is playing with his toddler iPad...I'm not kidding...it is hilarious!

My goodness...I'm exhausted just thinking about April. Did I get everything? At least the parts I was awake for?

I think we did it! Thank you for relieving the April highlights with me. We now return you to your regular scheduled programming.