Some April Fun

April was a very long, difficult month for me, and I am not sad that it has passed.  Through the long days, I learned quite a few things about myself, managed to create some fun memories, and found joy in the small things.  Here are a few pics from the month:

 Yea for special friends (and husbands who keep our kids)!  

My closest girls and I spent a night away at a hotel one evening.

We had dinner at Cheesecake Factory, painted our nails, and stayed up way too late talking.

  

Caleb's preschool class had a field trip to Earl May Nursery to learn about plants.  

Of course, they followed up with the classic "dirt and worms" snack

 made with pudding, oreos, and gummy worms.  

Not sure what Tim is doing on the tablet, but the boys were entranced.  

Boys and technology . . .

Levi's favorite activity is playing with balls.  He sits and bounces them over and over and over and over.

Josiah got a new umbrella!  

We had way too many opportunities to try it out this month with all the rain we have had.

I love these pictures of the boys all reading their books.  

Joel and Caleb have really taken off in their reading skills lately.  Joel was even reading the signs on the stores while we were driving the other day.  (Which means Tim and I can no longer spell things out to each other . . . "Do you want to have i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m after the boys go to bed?") 

 Josiah likes to pretend to read too and has great descriptions of what he is "reading" about.

The boys found a fake plant on one of our walks/bike rides around the block.  Joel attached it to his bike for the rest of his ride and then they "planted" it in our back yard afterwards.  The rocks near it are a "home" for all the rolli-pollies Josiah collected.  Not sure what the goggles are for, but I am sure they were necessary for the planting process.

Old brother/Young brother.  Not sure what we were doing . . . but I'm sure it was fun.  :)

Pre-Warrior Dash picture.  We look so clean and fresh here.

We had such a good time running this race.  It was freezing cold, but well worth it!

On one of the very, very few nice days of weather, we went to Deanna Rose.  The boys petted goats, road the tractors, watched the dairy movie, had a picnic, and played on the playground.  

Dinner on the deck.  I love when we can do this - not only does it save me clean-up time, but the boys manage to have so much fun while they are outside.  They all had the giggles this night, 

and we were able to catch some great videos of them being so silly together. 

 Maybe one day I will figure out how to post those. :)