April Randoms

April was a busy month! It's so great to be out and about again after a long winter.

The middle of April we had Adventurer weekend. The regular teacher was gone so I helped out with getting supplies and teaching the honors. Not sure how I get myself into these things but the honors for that weekend ended up being Insects and Zoo Animals - of all things. One activity was making a little terrarium for crickets to talk about where they live, what they eat, etc. The lady at Petsmart tried to talk me into keeping them for pets but the kids promptly released them in the church parking lot that afternoon. We also did some fun crafts like making a lion's mask and a lady bug from a rock.

The weather is suddenly nice - that means ice cream. We made our first trip to the local ice cream shop and made a complete mess of things, as usual. The girls' cousin had her 2nd birthday this month so we got to see more family. We miss that during the winter when everyone is in hibernation.

Maybury

Yay, Sunshine! It was a cool but sunny weekend so we had a family day and headed to a local state park to walk some trails, play, and visit animals at the farm. 

Visit to the Dentist

We're blessed with dentists in the family so I've been a little lazy in actually taking the girls to a dental office for a check-up.  We had been noticing an issue with Chloe's front tooth, though, and I felt like it needed to be officially checked out so I took both girls into my father-in-law's former dental practice.  We had done a lot of talking about the dentist and the special tools the staff could use so <fingers crossed> I was hoping the visit would go smoothly.  Both of the girls did so well! So proud of them :)

Chloe does need to go back to have her tooth fixed but I think she'll do great because she had such a good first experience. 

Canvas Painting

I found a set of four canvas boards at Michaels a few weeks ago and thought the girls would have fun painting. The colors actually matched their bedrooms so I thought if they turned out then we might hang them on their bedroom walls. For Chloe's room, I used the purple and green. She put her hand print on the purple canvas and used the green for painting. For Megan's room, I used pink (for her hand print) and yellow for painting. 

I was a little nervous doing this alone with them...it was kid-safe, washable paint but I had a feeling it wouldn't be as easy as it should be. I put the colors in separate bowls, put a paint brush in each cup, had two water cups for cleaning brushes, and even brought out a bucket of water so the girls could wash their hands. I thought I was golden. 

I started off by painting their palms and placing their hand prints on the purple and pink canvas boards. That turned out really well. Then I let them do their own thing with the painting.  Overall, they did a pretty decent job with some exceptions. They seemed to like painting their hands and washing them off...and they liked painting the deck.  I kept thinking, "Wow, I didn't think it would be this hard to have kids paint on a piece of canvas sitting right in front of them!"  With some prompting they periodically strayed back on task.  The results were actually fairly good. Chloe's painting had a very "Monet Water Lillies" feel to it, while Megan's was basically blobs of paint with lines. They had fun and seemed happy with how their masterpieces turned out. 

 

Easter!

Nothing like a beautiful Easter weekend to really welcome Spring. Saturday night we let the girls decorate cookies for our party the next day. The sprinkles were plentiful and all over the floor but that just made it more fun. (For them.)

Easter Sunday was gorgeous - sunny and 70 degrees. The girls were up early so we gave them their Easter baskets. They loved it like Christmas. 

We had invited Nathan's family over for breakfast and got started early. Nathan made a stuffed French Toast (with cream cheese and strawberry filling) and I made the potatoes (hashbrown casserole) and the eggs (biscuit, egg, and cheese casserole). My mother-in-law brought fake meat and fruit to round out the meal. The food was delish. 

My sister-in-law brought materials so the four kids could make Easter crafts. One was a lamb and the other was an Easter egg that they could decorate. They loved it.  Nathan and his brother had gone outside to hide eggs after breakfast and they kids kept trying to sneak a peek. During the craft they kept asking if they could go find the eggs. Finally after the crafts were done we let them loose. Of course they went crazy.  At the end of the day when I asked Chloe about her favorite part it was the egg hunt that won top prize. 

In hindsight, letting the kids dye eggs after ingesting sugar may not have been the best idea. Between the eggs and cups filled with dye, it was a little nerve-wracking for the moms. We were successful - only one egg dropped on the floor and none of the dye spilled. They thought it was pretty cool so we'll have to do it again next year. 

After a short trip to the playground down the road, the family had to head home.  After everyone left, the girls played with their sidewalk chalk outside and got their "Egg Plants" started with Daddy. It was such a fun day!