April Also Happened

Parker is totally into dinosaurs right now. He calls them 'dinosaurus'. It's a combination of dinosaur and Tyrannosaurus, his favorite.

Leah is six! What? In the past I've made a requested cake. It takes a lot of decorating skill that I don't really have, but I do it because it makes the kids happy. This year I ran out of time and brain power. I opted to go the store bought route. It was delicious, cute, exactly what Leah wanted, and only $8 for the perfect size for our family. I'm likely to rethink the whole, kill-yourself-for-a-cake-that-no-one-will-eat thing.

For Leah's birthday dinner, she chose Olive Garden. We also took Matt's parents along to thank them for helping us with an unexpected *bathroom 'remodel'. More on that later.

I found an idea on Pintrest and decided to grow our own Easter basket grass. It was really fun and cute. The kids were really invested in it and I was surprised at how quickly the grass grew. We bought 6 inch plastic soil trays, threw the grass in, watered like crazy and two week later had about 8 inches of beautiful green grass. Sad story: I put the baskets outside a few times during the two week period for them to get some good sun and warmth (when it was warm- wacky April weather). One day the wind was too big and it blew Parker's grass away. It hadn't grown yet, and trying to find a clump of dirt in our backyard proved to be impossible.

Happy Easter!

In the middle of the month I came down with something really nasty. I feel like it was symptomatic of Strep, although I never went in to be tested. I had major earaches and a killer sore throat, one night I had a fever and wanted to die a little bit (poor kids that have to go through this). It was a yucky three days for me, but the kids picked up on what made me feel better. I had taken to laying out this lovely electric blanket and just laying on it hour after hour after hour. Parker and Leah worked together to put this together for me at one point.

Parker has become super independent lately. This evening, Parker was thirsty so he brought Matt his cup and then the gallon of milk.

Leah went off track for most of April. During the last full week we decided to head up to Twin Falls, ID to visit my brother's family. I was very nervous to drive four hours with two kids in the car all by myself (Matt was working). Luckily the kids were amazing, we didn't even turn the DVD player on during the drive up, and I stayed awake!

I don't know how I didn't take any real pictures. We took a walk up to a waterfall, went to an indoor hot springs pool, and celebrated my niece, Claire's, birthday. Somehow, none of that has photographic evidence. So the words will have to suffice. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time.

Leah's birthday collage

Remember the black and white picture from this collage? I originally posted about a big Christmas surprise that Leah received. My sister-in-law thought I was pregnant. I'm not. Leah's big Christmas gift this year was a bedroom redo. It's been ugly and unfinished for three years now and she is over the ugly peach walls. I was over the weird sand texture that was on the walls (previous owners). We painted the ceiling (have you seen the ceiling paint that goes on purple and dries bright white? It's brilliant!) and walls (a lovely color that was supposed to be slightly purple, but is really pink), put in new baseboards, door trim, and trimmed out the closet. It looks SO much better and only took us THREE months to finish (can you sense my eyes rolling?). We've also decorated a little more than what is pictured.

*Wondering about that bathroom 'remodel'? One March morning, Leah walked downstairs to see a large crack in the ceiling above the dining room. It was filled with water. A few months prior Matt and I noticed the walls of the master bathroom shower were soft (it collapsed). He quickly caulked it and called it good until we could do a more permanent job. Back to March: apparently it didn't seal it completely (duh), because the water was coming directly from the master shower area. So, I guess that bathroom is off limits. We hunkered down and were all using the kid's bathroom. Fast forward to April 5th or so; Leah walks down to get breakfast and again notices a major ceiling bubble. This time, just beneath the kid's bathroom shower area. CRAP! Turns out the plumbing fitting were cracked and coming loose. Long story short we had to tear out the existing tub surround and replace it with a new one. The bad news is that we had to shower at our friend's house for three or four days. The good news is that it forced us to put aside our regular busyness (that kept us from fixing the master bath) to actually fix something and now we have a lovely shower to show for it.

We're all still using the kid's bathroom to shower in- I really miss my master shower- but I refuse to start that remodel until Leah is out of school and we have later hours to work on it. It's a much bigger problem. Matt is going to have to tear down the sheet rock all throughout the bathroom for starters. I'm also going to try to refinish the cabinets while it's out of there. We'll also need another new tub surround AND hopefully I'll get new flooring in there.