Random April Pics

Another month has come and gone. While we finally feel like spring has arrived, our average temperatures are still quite a bit below normal. And it has been raining a lot. I think were were able to spend time outside 3 days in April. The grass is nice and green though!

I don't have very many April pics that I haven't shared with you already, but here are a few.

Eva's new favorite activity is pulling all of the books off the bookshelf in the living room. She looks so proud of herself too! We spent lots of time this month walking over books because as soon as we would pick them all up, she would make a beeline to come pull them all off again. Finally Daddy got the great idea to tilt the shelf by putting one set of the pins that hold it up in a lower position that the others. So now the shelf angles down toward the back. She can still get books off it, but she can't pull them all of with one swipe like before.

Lena fell asleep on the couch a couple of times this month, which is unusual. Here she and Daddy fell asleep while watching a movie.

So cute!

Here she is showing off the "castle" she built.

What I woke up to on Monday, April 18, only 2 days before my birthday. Ugh! We got a couple of accumulating inches that morning, but the sun came out late in the afternoon and it was all gone by evening.

Another couch nap, this time her napping partner was Mia.

Looking forward to May!

Holy Week and Easter

Holy Week is always busy at our house, but this year it seemed especially so. Eva finally got her first tooth on Monday and the girls and I all had yucky colds all week. Jim was really fortunate not to have gotten it! The busy-ness was helped by the fact that Grandma Sheryl came up to stay with us for a few days. She drove up on Wednesday to celebrate my birthday with me and stayed through Easter day. It was so great to have her help. She stayed with the girls while I went to the late evening services at church and was a great help while I was getting food ready to take to the church breakfast and for our own Easter dinner.

Here are a few pics from the week.

The beautiful tulips my sweetie brought me on my birthday.

The girls dressed in black for Good Friday.

Lena and Grandma Sheryl cuddling on the couch.

The girls playing in the tent together.

Grandma reading to the girls.

Easter morning. Despite how bad the weather was the week before, it was really very nice on Easter day.

Checking out the red tulips.

Daddy and his girls.

Our little family.

Me and my girls.

"Take my picture, Grandma!"

Grandma and her girls.

My pretty little Eva on her first Easter.

Grandma and Eva.

Lena with the Easter lilies.

Sisters.

Grammy Tammy, Aunt Amy, and Uncle Frank brought Easter baskets for the girls and hid them outside our house.

Found it!

Eva wasn't quite old enough to participate, but she enjoyed watching Lena from Uncle Frank's shoulders.

Lunchtime!

Easter baskets from Mommy and Daddy.

Eva got some fun teething toys and bunny socks. Lena got an Elmo shirt and socks. And they both got some new books.

But the grass was the most fun to play with!

Lena showing off her shirt and socks. This is now her new favorite outfit. She threw a fit when Daddy took it off to put on her jammies.

Eva's bunny socks.

Thanks to Mom, Tammy, Amy, and Frank for helping us celebrate Easter. Holidays are always more special when you get to spend them with the people you love. And thanks, Mom, for all of your help throughout the week.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Summer in April

The weather has been so weird this spring. Up until yesterday it still felt like winter, with highs only in the 40s. Then yesterday we hit 85! It was so weird; like we completely skipped over spring and went straight to summer. We actually saw a girl using a slip & slide in her front lawn!

We took full advantage of the opportunity by walking on the trail for the first time this year and visiting our favorite ice cream shop, which just happened to open for the season a few days ago.

Excited to be outside without winter coats!

Lena enjoying her free ice cream. The church gives out free ice cream vouchers to the kids on their baptism birthdays. I'm guessing Lena was probably the first one to redeem hers this year!

It was getting close to Eva's naptime, so we reclined her seat so she could sleep if she wanted to. That's the way to go for a walk!

We ate our ice cream out on the back deck of The Scoop. They were playing music out there, so Lena decided to get up and dance.

She's got mad moves!

Oh yeah!

Then we walked down to the trail. The river is on one side and Mill Pond is on the other. Mill Pond is filled with beautiful swans this year.

Giving Daddy a high-five.

Getting some energy out. We love the trail because we can let Lena run free with no worry of her running into the street. However, yesterday was so nice that the trail was packed with people and we had to teach her to stay out of the way of bikers.

We counted at least 15 swans out there. I remember a few years ago there were only two or three.

Looking to see what there is to see in the river.

There's a turtle!

Didn't take Eva long to get all relaxed and fall asleep.

Lena kept taking her hat off and waving it around. I asked her what she was doing and she explained that her head was getting hot, so she was catching wind in her hat and then when she put her hat back on her head the "caught" wind would make her head cool. What a goof!

She claimed that this fence post was her best friend.

Taking a little break before heading home.

After we got home we had a nice dinner of steaks on the grill. A lovely end to a lovely day.

I'm sure some people complained yesterday that it was too hot, but we were just glad we could get out of the house and enjoy some sunshine. It's back into the low 50s today, and we have a chance of snow next weekend.