The quote of the month comes from Eleanor, who after being taken out to eat a surprising amount of times in a short period of time (which never happens) said, "It turns out money CAN buy love!"
Look at how cute and pathetic Callie is.
Sookie and her beloved heated blanket
Juliet decided to wear her Great Wolf Lodge ears to school. And she found a dandelion! She's been loving scooting to school, it's been very fun.
Eleanor remains amazing at rock climbing
Nathan and I went shopping and Juliet kept texting us while we were out at the store so we sent her a photo for proof of our survival
Nathan took the kids out to see the new Mario movie. I was so happy I didn't have to go.
Easter Sunday fit for Patrick
Family photo at church! Eleanor had to wear my clothes because she doesn't have any dresses that fit her. We really need to take her shopping but she is very unenthusiastic. I just don't understand. At least she looks good in my clothes!
For Easter this year we were amazing and decided no more candy in Easter eggs, instead it was like a scavenger hunt for eggs with clues inside of them that lead the kids to their big Easter baskets.
One of Juliet's clues was actually in the pool and we never found one of Bradley's but it worked out!
We had a little sentence telling the kids where to look, numbered each word, then cut it up and they got to reassemble the sentence. It worked really well!
Bradley's basket was hidden inside the cupboard where we keep plastic bags. Patrick's was inside the ottoman up in the library. And Juliet's was inside the dryer.
Eleanor's was my greatest achievement - she had to get out a ladder to get up into the crawl space in the garage.
Patrick wanted to check out the crawl space too
I love the kids all being in on the Easter candy selection. Bradley picked out a chocolate dinosaur for himself and was very pleased about it. We still have some surprises but it's fun for the kids to be in on some of the action and get to help picking things out.
And the next day we got to take Bradley to the DMV to get his official drivers permit! I still find it rather incredible that the driving age in Kansas is 14. He took a full day class at a driving school to learn basic rules of the road and I've taken him driving at the middle school parking lot one afternoon. He did really well!
He also continues to go to the driving range with Nathan. He's getting pretty good!
We had our friends the Burnhams come over one afternoon and Zach played Yu-Gi-Oh with a delighted Bradley. We like our new church but we very much miss the Burnhams being the Sunday school teacher for Bradley and Eleanor.
We've been trying to do more Bradley activities - we took him to a Pokemon card swap event. He had a blast!
Juliet's friend came over and everyone but Bradley joined her in playing Mario Party. They were so cute.
Then Addie got to hang out for opening presents for Patrick's birthday
She was willing to go along with us to Dairy Queen but that is where I said it was a family only outing
And then he got to go to swim with his friend Chandler
Girl Scouts! We had a board game creation day. I've been enlisting 5th grade Girl Scouts to come help out, it's been rather delightful for all involved.
Our pet ducks that have been visiting our pool on a fairly regular basis. Callie wants to be friends with them, despite Nathan's efforts to have her chase them away.
Nathan and Juliet went on a trip to Boise to see his family. She was delighted, it was her first time getting to go on a solo trip with a parent.
She rather enjoyed the Delta sky club
Small amount of Mentos for the flight
Grandpa Dan got her a ridiculous amount of 3d dragons. There was much joy.
And Juliet got to show off her reading skills quite a bit.
Nathan coordinated a family reunion the first night they were there! I was quite impressed.
It was a love fest for Juliet and the older cousins. She enjoyed the younger cousins as well but they weren't as good as catering to her every whim.
More reading!
She got to go to cousin Connor's swim meet
Park time!
Meanwhile, my sister's boys came into town and I got to watch many children climb into trees.
Meanwhile Juliet was enjoying all the fuss being made over her
They sent me cute videos to say hi and check in
Aunt Amber was called into action to help braid Juliet's hair
Top golf! Juliet was opinionated and had a great time
Cousin Logan was not harmed in the making of this video
Dave n Busters with younger cousins
So much cozy time
Many thanks to Uncle Jake for making Juliet the fox keychain that immediately became her new precious.
Meanwhile Eleanor and I had brunch together
We also went to Dave n Busters with lots of cousins
Eleanor talked me into going to her friend Maya's bell choir performance. It is so pretty but it's far away and is quite a long performance and as I often say, I just want to stay at home and read with cats. But this was worth the outing, it was a very fun performance and Maya was delighted that Eleanor came.
Afterwards I took Eleanor out for Jinya Ramen - it was so strange but really fun to go out to eat for just the two of us.
The next day she had a dentist appointment and I had gotten talked into visiting a friend of hers 30 minutes away and I was starving so I asked her if she minded if we stopped by Smoothie King before driving over. Eleanor was beyond delighted and said her thing about money buying love. I'll take it at this point!
Bradley had a belated birthday party with cousins at Top Golf. All his driving range practice paid off, the cousins were all dazzled by his skills.
It was really good Nathan was there, he helped coach all the kids who hadn't golfed before.
The birthday crew! Eleanor didn't think it was worth missing school for this. The other three kids had no problem with it.
We went to Activate the next day and this was what goodbye in the parking lot looked like.
Then I raced back to the school in time for Girl Scouts. We did origami with the help of our 5th grade friends - it was very cute.
And the next day Juliet had her 1st grade musical. She was a clown fish.
She was a very good clownfish
It was actually a very cute performance. Grandparents had fun watching it!
And parents!
She has a dance recital coming up. She complains about going to dance every week and clearly doesn't care about actually learning the dance but we're going to grit our teeth and make it to the recital. At least she's cute!
Patrick got in some tennis time at the Lionsgate courts with his buddy Ethan
He has such a fun time at lessons and playing games at his academy classes
And then he had his first tennis tournament. He did really well and won two out of his three matches, included a tight tie-breaker victory in his third match!
Bradley reading good literature
And Nathan and I got to go away to his work conference in Carlsbad for a few days! We are very grateful to grandparents for watching the kids so I could join Nathan. He has these conferences twice per year and this is the second time I've ever gotten to attend, it was quite the treat.
I made it my mission to eat as many tacos as possible on this trip
The resort had clay tennis courts! I was so excited to check them out. I played tennis each of the three days we were there and got a private lesson on clay where the pro told me what was wrong with my serve (everything).
We had so many fancy dinners out and it turns out we love taking heart hand pics
We are CUTE
The next night, another cute sunset dinner pic
I played tennis and read books and hung out by the pool. I also got my first pedicure in 8 years at the overpriced spa. We were treating this like our 15th anniversary trip so Nathan got fancy with resort credits.
Woo quiet pool time. There were very aggressive birds that attacked any food that was left out, it was amusing to watch.
I did touch the water, albeit briefly
Final dinner out. Fancy yet again!
I came home and immediately had a tennis match so Nathan got to take Eleanor to bath and bodyworks to buy a birthday present for her friend.
Sunset at the KU tennis courts - so pretty. I had my toughest match yet against a woman who was definitely better than me but I somehow pulled out the victory in a tie breaker. I'm currently the #2 woman's singles 3.0 tennis player in my district, which includes Wichita and Lawrence so I guess it's a pretty big district. I'm undefeated in my USTA singles matches and am currently on a streak of 7 wins. That said, Patrick beat me when we played each other the other weekend so I'm on a quest to improve. Really the only stat I care about is beating one particular 11 year old boy ...
And Juliet likes recording videos of herself - I'm a fan as well!
