Pictures of April

The month started a little rough when Abby decided to try doing the "terrible two's" at age 5. She never really did this when she was younger. I guess she figured she'd missed out on something. We're working on nipping this in the bud. In fact, since I took these picture during her fit and then showed them to her, we haven't had another incident. We'll see if that did the trick.The McMullens, Manns, Ruths, and Verduins joined us for our annually Easter egg dying night. Sure to be messy, loud, and exhausting, but also a load of fun!
Some of the finished product. Way cool!
Easter Sunday was spent with our GCC family at the Volheims home - a tradition for many GCC staff families that we truly look forward to every year. Miss Claudia (Volheim) and Miss Sheila (in the photo) are Jacob's teachers in the Penguin room. He was thrilled that they sang Happy Birthday to him (along with everyone else present) in celebration of his birthday (the following day). I think he really believed we were all there just for his birthday! I hope he did.
Can you believe that all of these kids come from only 3 families??? Even better: we can only claim TWO! What a good-looking bunch of kids!!
The tree in front of our house is the subject of much debate around our house. I have to fight to keep it around. Adam claims that it's dead and the sourse of all big, black ants that keep invading our home each Spring. This photo is my proof that the tree is, in fact, not dead, and even if it is worthless the other 51 weeks of the year, the one week that it looks like THIS makes it completely worth keeping around.
Jacob, at his birthday dinner at the restaurant of his choosing - Applebee's. He ordered chicken fingers, but he really wanted to eat MY shrimp! His favorite part, no doubt, was the hot fudge sundae they brought him for dessert.
I don't know at what point during the day Jacob disappeared and changed into his Spiderman costume. All I know is that he was dressed normally one minute, and the next I realize he looks like this. That's my boy. He planned the entire party, from the guest list to the food to the activities. I think he really had a good time, and that's all that matters to me.
After the party, we noticed Abby and Allison in the backyard, exploring. Adorable girls in a beautiful, natural setting. Nevermind the fact that Abby happens to be wearing Jacob's new Batman swimming goggles. Why, you ask? Try WHY NOT??

Where to begin?

Seriously, I don't know. For Pete's sake, it's almost been a month. April highlights:

• Spring break
• Abby lost another tooth
• Easter weekend (and more than 10,000 people at church that weekend!)
• Our best friends sold a house and bought a house and then moved
• Jacob and Abby are using their new, big-kid bikes and we can now take family bike rides!
• Jacob turned 7 (wow, I'm old. the subject of a future post) and we had a cool Spiderman birthday party. Jacob would want me to mention that he got everything he wanted for his birthday, including a new bike, a desk, a tent, a HUGE spiderman, really cool Batman goggles and fins, a subscription to Spiderman the comic (he's been checking the mail daily!), and (possibly his favorite) a Target gift card, with which he picked out a Spiderman Lego set. Quite a haul for such a small person. The highlight of the day for me was cuddling with Jacob on the couch and watching the videos from the early months of his life. He was so enthralled with watching himself as a baby, and he got very emotional and cuddly with me while we watched it. It made me really miss those "baby days", but I have the best 7 year-old son in the world, so I wouldn't go back for anything!

Now the month is almost over. I also should mention that it's officially Spring and that the trees are budding, flowers are blooming, grass is green and there are twitterpated bunny rabbits taking over the neighborhood. There's nothing quite so funny as watching bunnies chasing each other around the back yard for hours on end. I love Spring.

It's official - he's a "BIG BOY!!"

Girls Day Out

Two weeks ago, the girls, Tammy, Jamie, Debbie and I got together for a day in Chicago in celebration of my birthday. The plan was to leave town by 9am and spend as long as it took to accomplish what we wanted to get done - a load of shopping and a day of relaxation with the girls. We left pretty close to on time, talked the entire 2.5 hours it took to get to Ikea, and then immediately headed upstairs for lunch in the cafe. A little more than SEVEN HOURS later, we loaded everything up in the back of the van and had a passerby snap this picture for us. I'm not going to rat out any particular individual - let me just say that our combined shopping total at this one location was more than $600!! We did what we had gone there to do, and only then did we leave. Mission accomplished. From Ikea we drove across the street to Woodfield Mall (with only a short stop at the Container Store) for - you guessed it - some more shopping! We hit NY & Co. pretty hard, swung into the Gap, stopped in a couple of other shops, talked to a guy at Caribou Coffee (rumor has it that one is on it's way to the Bend!) and then headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for a late dinner. It was around 10:00 by the time we sat down, and after 1AM before we finished our dessert (the whole point, isn't it??) and got back in the van for the trip home. I dropped each of the girls off and finally arrived home around 3:30 (yikes!) and crashed hard until around 10 the next morning. Now that's a good day!!

I can't tell you how much fun we had - and it wasn't because I dropped a load of money (though that didn't hurt!). It was because I spent the day with my best friends having some of the best, most honest conversation I've had in a while. I love doing life with these girls, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Thanks girls - I love you!!