The Month of April

OK, so I know it's almost June, but I wanted to show you what we were up to during the month of April. It flew by, but we were having a lot of fun!

Easter weekend was phase two of painting the kitchen- we painted the cupboards. I am going to post pictures, but that will have to wait. We're finally done with it all but I need to clean my kitchen so I can take the "after" photos.

Easter was spent with family and the kids had a blast with their cousins. There were eggs to decorate, sugar cookies to slather icing on and immediately devour, easter baskets to open and delight over, eggs to hunt, and a bunch of running around and screaming outside.












Peyton would stuff his cheeks full of jelly beans as soon as he'd find an egg. It was hysterical!


Love this face. It's like, Look how AWESOME my stash is!


After Easter, we had a very busy week- four days at History Camp. It was really interesting and fun, but exhausting too. There were all sorts of stations where we learned about what it was like to live during the Pioneer times. I have a lot more photos that I posted on Facebook that I'm sure most of you have already seen. Here are just some of the pictures.

grinding corn

After the first day, I completely regretted not putting sunscreen on us. Nathan and I have very sensitive skin and we were burned. I felt terrible in many respects- for being a negligent mother and physically terrible and exhausted from the sunburn!

Nathan's rosy face. He wanted to show off the gum in his mouth....



Scary metal shop session.... Fifteen or so kindy and first grade students working around a hot forge to make 's' shaped hooks.












After being at the local museum for four straight days, you'd think we wouldn't be back anytime soon. Well, we were invited to go to my father-in-law's company picnic held that Saturday at, you guessed it, the museum. We had a really nice catered lunch, and then got to explore the many offerings provided. There was a petting zoo, bounce houses, carriage rides, games, crafts, food, ice cream, cotton candy and more!

Jonah did really well at this game!

Collecting his prizes!

We ended our day at the museum with a carriage ride. And another sunburn for me. :s
The month of April was also the boys' very first trip to the dentist. Did I take pictures? No, because I was really embarrassed that I had never taken them before! I prayed the entire morning that the news wouldn't be bad. I felt like the worst mother ever for allowing my 6 year old to never have been to the dentist before. We've never had dental insurance, and we still don't, but we do have a Health Savings Account that we could use to pay for dental visits. Thankfully Nathan's teeth checked out just fine. Jonah did have 1 cavity, but it was very small and they filled it easily a couple of days later. He was a star patient and after telling him that if he was very good and calm and listened to the doctor, I'd let him pick out a small treat after the appointment. He was very happy to go home with a small Lego set. I was grateful that he did so well and wasn't afraid of the dentist after it was all said and done!

Jonah was able to participate in a couple of free tennis lessons through the charter school we are part of as homeschoolers. It was pretty funny to see my quiet, non-athletic son attempting to play tennis!

Nathan loved running after stray balls and collecting them.



We might be signing up for more lessons in the fall. I think it would be so good for Jonah to learn to be willing to try new things, even if he doesn't think he wants to.

And to end the month, we had a field trip to our local ice cream shop where we got to see how they make their candy chews and ice cream!



It was the best chew I'd ever had, it was so soft! We watched it as it was made and got a piece seconds after it came out of the wrapping machine!
Once we learned about how they made everything, we got to enjoy a scoop of ice cream. :)
I also had my own trip to the dentist and found out I needed a bunch of cavities filled. Bleh. But thankfully as I write this, I've had all the work I needed done.

April was also the month I really got serious about cleaning out and organizing our house- the kitchen, the toy room, and our garage. We made several trips to Goodwill and weeded out a bunch of junk! It feels so good to have it gone. There is still more to be done, but I'm happy with the progress we've made! The kids complained about cleaning up the toy room so we went through their toys not once, but twice, in an effort to get rid of a lot of the toys. It still hasn't completely stopped the whining when I tell them to clean up, but it has made the effort much quicker. We may get rid of more someday!

So that was our month! Now to talk about May. :)