Just Another Day in Paradise: April Showers bring chalk trains, ice cream, and Birthdays

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

April Showers bring chalk trains, ice cream, and Birthdays

April recap:

The first weekend in April was Conference Weekend. Even though I don't get a chance to watch all of General Conference, I love listening to the speakers (often in the background as I attend to the kids) and feeling the spirit it brings into our home.

Scott, Abbey, and Lance were out of town for Spring Break, so we were watching Falcon. This was my view Sunday afternoon as I sat and listened to Conference:

Raven (our neighbor's dog that squeezes under the fence to come visit on an almost daily basis), Falcon, and Bender.

What do the kids do while I'm trying to listen to the talks from Conference?

Draw glasses on their faces, apparently.

I thought they were coloring quietly until I walked in and saw them doing this:

They both thought they were hysterical. Lily walked around talking about her "glasses" all night. Good thing they used the washable markers.

George was in Chicago April 8th-10th taking the Oral part of his Boards. His first night there, I got this picture texted to me:

So jealous! This Chicago-style pizza was one of my favorite things from my short time in Hyde Park. While he didn't care a bit for the city and his Boards were stressful, George admitted the pizza was worth the trip (and the self-induced pizza coma from eating the whole pie over the course of 24 hours).

Soccer continued for Jude and we were there every week, even though some Saturday mornings were wet and very, VERY cold. The kids were troopers and cheered Jude on from the sidelines.

Cole is becoming very creative in his train track building. He made a river with his blue blanket (see the submarine?) under the bridge. This kid is very adept at building and figuring out how things go together. I want to start building Legos with him. He will make his own Lego creations, but I think he could get the hang of putting together the sets.

Common scene in the boys' room. We try to clean up every night, but we usually leave out the track.

Cole has started drawing trains. A lot.

We got the kids a huge bucket of sidewalk chalk that Cole quickly claimed as his own and proceeded to decorate our entire driveway and cul-de-sac with pictures of trains.

Every day, Cole spends a good chunk of time outside drawing his trains.

Love, love, love this messy, crazy, sweet, emotional, creative, kind boy.

Because, you know, our driveway isn't big enough.

Lily continues to be our bug and animal whisperer. She loves our neighbor's dog Boone and visits him on the daily. He's a sweet older beagle and has fallen in love with Lily.

April 12th, we stopped and got Duck Donuts on our way to one of my doctor's appointments.

We miss having Lance and Jude around during the day, but it's been fun spending the school days with these two munchkins. They have become great friends and even though there is often squabbling and tears between them, more often there is laughter and smiles.

Caterpillar at the bus stop. Lily had to hold it, of course.

My little errand-runner. She found a comfy spot at Costco while we were out one day. This girl is a hoot.

April 14th was 5 cent cone day at Kohr's Bros., a local ice cream shop. We picked up a couple friends after school and went to wait in line. One of the local radio stations was handing out nickels to all the kids.

Lily saw the older kids trying to be "pirates" with their coins and had to try it:

I was impressed! She actually got it to stay for a few seconds.

Each of the kids picked two flavors (hey, for 5 cents, why not?).

Killian and Kendall. We don't see them as much anymore since we live farther apart, but it's always wonderful to get together with them. Lance misses them a lot.