FOOLS in April

Be ready for a very long update with many, many pictures. We had a grand time this April and here's the proof!

HUNTIN' FOR WABBITS!

The boys attended the HOA's easter egg hunt and came home with baskets full of candy filled eggs.  The rain was nice enough to let up for a bit while they sloshed around in their puddle jumping boots. 

This was as close as they would get to the Easter Bunny. Just a couple of real tough guys.

Easter Traditions

One of my absolute favorite Easter traditions is the coloring of the boiled eggs. I've done it every year I can remember. Even when I was in college and in our early years of marriage. I have discovered though, that if I want a chance at dipping more then one egg I need to boil more than 2 dozen because we have some real dipping machines over here, M included. I also think this was the first year that we ate every single egg before they went bad. D is a huge fan of deviled eggs!

D enjoyed dipping his hands more than his eggs. He was a nice greenish-brown color for a day or two almost all the way up to his elbows. This picture doesn't even do it justice. What a scary monster!

GROWING PAINS

As a mom, I'm always so wrapped up in my kids and all the day-to-day stuff that have to force myself to step back and take a look at the beautiful little beings in my presence and see how much they are maturing and growing, and not how big their messes can be and how loud they can yell. I had a couple of those moments with E. At the beginning of this year he was just barely reading, and struggling quite a bit getting through a book. Now the kid just plops down with his little brother and whips through them with ease. It makes all the messes worth it to capture these special moments with these rascals. 

Another big event in his life is a visit from the Tooth Fairy. E finally lost his very first tooth. He was so excited and scared at the same time. He's a gusher when it comes to blood and he is pretty sure he is going to bleed to death one of these days, so he always gets a bit nervous. It was pretty exciting and we have a nice juicy pear to thank for the extraction. Take note at the way this kid eats a pear. He does these tiny nibble all the way around like it's a cob of corn and continues until it's gone.This kid eats with style!

BIG D is the BIG 4
That's right, we celebrated D's 4th birthday and it was quite the celebration.  The poor kid though, we celebrated it on the 14th instead of the 13th because on Tuesdays Matthew works until really late and we didn't want to party without him. So we made a big to-do on Wednesday.  After E got home from school we headed to Out of This World - Pizza and Play, and play they surely did.  It was D's first time there and he LOVED it! The only way it could have been better was if they had a giant trampoline. The kid loves to jump!

 Afterward, he ripped open his presents and dove into his cake and ice-cream.

Right behind his love for jumping is his love for lego minifigs. The boys will spend hours in their playroom with the legos, but while E is creating lightning fast space ships Dallin is switching all the heads, shirts, pants and even the hands of all the minifigs. So naturally, that's what we gave him for his birthday. D is now the proud owner of at least 25 new lego men.  He's in heaven!

When he opened the first box of minifigs they were in a soap box. He didn't even bat an eye, he said, "OH, soap!" and continued on to the next one. Guess he would have just been happy with a little Irish Spring.

 D had a hard time deciding on what he wanted for a birthday cake, but he finally came up with quite the concoction all on his own. He wanted a strawberry ice-cream cake with whipped cream frosting. So that is exactly what he got and it was oh so delicious!

 He also wanted cotton candy so we made sure there was more than enough for any little 4 yr-old.

Of course we had to make the trek to Benihana's for some good grub and entertainment, so on Saturday we kept the partying going. The boys just love that place, and this time D got to come home with his very own Ninja mug. So cool! 

We stopped off to snag some pictures of the birthday boy now that he's so old. After quite a few ninja shots  we finally snagged ourselves a real winner of our handsome little beast!

We also snagged a picture of this crazy bum we saw sleeping on a bench nearby. Help this poor man!

Speaking of bums, here's the cutest bum you ever saw!

 Just Say No to lego crack!

SPRING BURST RUN

I spent a Saturday morning running in a little race. I had ran in it last year and enjoyed it so much I guess I wanted to do it again. I beat my time and got my first in my age group so that was fun.

BIGGEST NEWS OF ALL

This is old news to most, but we got chosen by a sweet couple to adopt their baby boy who is due in August. These boys can hardly wait for the little guy to come. They talk about him all the time and what they are going to do with him. It's so sweet and they are both going to be super big brothers!

Don't you think so?!