April 2013 Activities

April 2013 was a busy month. We started off with a preschool field trip to a local bakery where the kids get to see the kitchen, freezer, giant stone oven... eat a fresh cookie and then make their own custom bread!

Here are the cuties!

These two were excited to attend also, though they were older than the others. Food inspires them.

We are frequent visitors of the library, here are three of them reading. I just love that Little Guy has learned how to "read" and act at the library and we're past the shelf clearing stage.

We did still life drawings for art this month, trying to focus on learning to draw objects behind other objects as well as details.                                Here is Dinoguy's drawing.

Here is Trainboy's drawing.

Here is Princess' drawing. She loves art!

                                      And here is Little Guy showing off his drawing.

Princess was given a butterfly kit for her birthday in December. We ordered the larvae and they were delivered at the end of March. She really enjoyed watching them grow from tiny larvae to large caterpillars in their jar and then they made chrysalis and we transferred them to the mesh observation cage. After watching them hatch and feeding them for several days, the weather was warm and it was time to let them go free.

She really liked watching them, it was fascinating to see their tongues unroll and roll up.

However, she would NOT hold them! Here is Trainboy holding one to give her, she says NO!

Here is Trainboy observing them. He really liked holding them!

Now Mom holds one close to her, but she still does not want to hold it herself.

General Conference came at the beginning of April and we had fun watching it and coloring pictures/taking notes.

Chocolate waffles with whipped cream and strawberries! Happy Conference breakfast!

We discovered these eggs inside a pocket of the jogging stroller I hadn't zipped up. I carefully transferred the nest to a gardening pot and we watched and waited. We never saw a mama bird and the eggs never hatched. I think they were laid too early in the spring and a cold spell had doomed them.

Princess lost her bathing suit last fall at the pool so we needed a new one. She chose this one out of the catalog and was very excited when it arrived. (Mom was happy because it was very discounted and affordable!)

We celebrated Mom & Dad's birthdays, here I am with the presents the kids chose for me.

And here is Fixitman with his cake.

                                         Here is Little Guy helping blow out the candles.

My sister came to visit after her semester ended. The kids LOVED playing with their aunt! They showered her with affection.Here she is experiencing three hugs at once with a fight.

We visited the local museum that had an interactive DNA exhibit that was quite fun. The kids didn't want to leave!

We took Auntie to the beach of course!

I found this fly swatter gun at the dollar store and it reminded me of one from my childhood. Little Guy thought it was the best toy ever.

Playing at the park with Auntie before she flew home.

Sisters

Well there is a whirlwind tour of highlights from April 2013 here! Hope you had a fabulous April also.

Other March activities 2013

A quick run through the rest of March 2013 (if you can think back that long ago!)

We made kites at the library. Little guy loved making the kite but did NOT want to fly them. I think he may have just been tired. The other kids had a blast running around trying to get their kites in the air. 

Little Guy is screaming here about his kite while all the other kids are at the far end of the field.

A brief period of time where Trainboy was nearby 

I got a haircut. I learned to always have them style my hair straight because I had an extra long section at the back of my head that I didn't find until later plus she styled my hair pretty big and frizzy for my tastes.

It's amazing what taking a few inches off can do

We baked yummy treats of course, here is one from a cookbook Dinoguy was given called Monster Treats.

Princess and Little Guy loved picking carrots fresh from the neighbors' garden (with his permission).

They took naturally to acting like Bugs Bunny, though they refer to it more as being like Beaver on "Peep and the Big Wide World"

We made clay pinch pots from air dry clay and painted them. 

Painting their pots

Paintings made by Princess after she finished her pot. She likes art!

Princess' pinch pot, finished well before her brothers. Mom may have helped in the shaping of it.

 Princess found the tigger costume fit her just right and put it on occasionally to hop around the house.

The older boys participated in the Pinewood Derby with scouts. Lots of fun was had, they both did respectably, but did not have the top cars this year. Each chose an interesting shape for carving this year, Trainboy's looked like a bullet, while Dinoguy's looked kind of like an arrow.

Princess watching the races and eating hotdogs

Little Guy wandered around barefoot 

Boys racing got front row seats

Very excited for his first races!

 Dinoguy's car came in fourth place and Trainboy's came in thirteenth (out of maybe 25 cars).  Both boys were third place in their respective dens. Trainboy's overall would have placed higher but one of his wheels broke off at the end of the third run where he won the heat but unfortunately the computer didn't register it correctly and he had to re-race it before we had the wheel fixed...it was a traumatic event for him not to win the heat ribbon due to the re-race (and Fixitman had already left to go back to school to finish a project and wasn't there to do his expert awesome dad repairs). 

We participated in an Easter egg hunt with church friends and dyed Easter eggs at home for fun. The kids were exceptionally cute as we held our own egg hunt in the back yard and they consumed loads of candy.

I took Easter Sunday pictures of the kids after church because we have early 9 am church this year and I opted for being on time over taking pictures beforehand. This means they weren't super thrilled about pictures. But at least I have pictures!

 I made all the Easter Sunday brunch recipes from Southern Living magazine for dinner this year, just for fun. It sounded like a healthy delicious meal and it is always fun to dream of making the whole meal they present in the issue. From now on though I have decided to stick to making only recipes that really jump out and "speak" to me as being delicious in the future, most of these had too many elements going on to be awesome and simpler would have been better. 

Our Southern Living East Brunch/Dinner - left to right we have Cornmeal Chive Biscuits, Scalloped Potato and Herb tart, Pepper Jelly and ginger glazed ham, Watercress buttermilk soup (a chilled soup), Asparagus, Orange and Lentil salad and the deviled eggs which were Fixitman's addition/request. I also made the Jasmine-Buttermilk Panna Cotta with berry sauce for dessert (see March 2013 issue). 

The ham was pretty good, but I don't think we'll make any of the recipes again. Overall I was disappointed with the food flavors. Even the dessert was only so-so.

Typical kids fighting over chairs before eating