April Showers, April Birthdays

April....the best month of the year. Why, do you ask? Because there's singing in the rain.....

 And because there's my birthday (and William's too, but we'll get to that in a minute)!  We actually did not get one picture of my birthday this year. I promise....it happened.....I got older even though there is no documentation of it. It was a great day though. Trav was actually out of town to Boise that week so I knew he would miss my birthday. (He also missed the power outage the night before, I might add). He told the kids to take care of me, and take care of me they did!

I first woke up to Josh asking me what I wanted for breakfast and that I needed to stay in bed. I was getting breakfast in bed! I requested toast and an orange, but as they were getting it ready it sounded like a lot more was going on than just toast. A few minutes later Rach came in and said..."Ummm....I wanted to make you orange julius, but I accidentally put in 1/2 cup of vanilla. Should I just start over?" It was hilarious and it was very fun. The kids are so good to me....and the 2nd batch of orange julius was delicious.

Kate, Will and I went to playgroup, then out to lunch with some friends. I told the kids that we were being 100% lazy the rest of the day (and since it was the only snowstorm of the season....it was easy to do) We ate cracker sandwiches for dinner then watched The Princess Bride. We went in the living room and started reading scriptures when Trav called. We usually call him for family prayer when he's gone...we just weren't to that point yet. He said "Hey, so I've got a surprise for you on the back deck. Go see."  So we all went to look at the back door and there were 33 candles outside the door along with an ice cream cake! We were all so surprised! But what we didn't see at first was that Trav was there too! He wasn't supposed to come home until the next day but sneakily took an early flight home so he could be home for my birthday.

We all stayed up late eating ice cream cake. He's a keeper!

Then a few days later....we celebrated William's birthday! This little man is officially 2 years old now! His birthday fell on a Sunday. We let him open 1 present before our 9am church.

 

It was a farm set from sweet Kate.

 After church he couldn't handle it (or should I say "Rachel, Josh and Kate couldn't handle it.") and opened another present...

 A new shovel for the sand box!

 That night we had the real birthday party when grandparents came over for dinner. Then he FINALLY could open the rest of his gifts.

  A new beach towel! One that's not pink stripes.

 It's good he has lots of helpers.

 Instead of a cake this year I decided to make dirt dessert. One of the favorites at our house. Of course you have to have some tractors!

 Here's the wild, raging party....

 I kept trying to get pictures of Will with his cake but he couldn't help but pose with Kate.

 It tastes as good as it looks!

 And these 3 monkeys were just being silly today during lunch so I took some pictures of them. Erika is Kate's BFF, but William thinks she's pretty awesome too. What cute friends!

 I know the pictures look kind of weird but they were making all kinds of funny faces and noises. Of course, Will was the leader of the pack.

 Bunny ears and bunny ears.

 And look at these pearly whites! Kate got her cavities filled yesterday. I'm glad they look pretty because they cost us an arm and a leg! Keep smilin' Kate! (and maybe brush a little longer next time)

Easter-ness

I used to not really care for April Fools Day but I'm actually really loving it now that my kids are old enough to appreciate it. We don't do anything big or fancy but enough to ruffle some feathers.

It was funny  because that morning I heard Kate wake up and I could hear her walking around a bit before she came into my room. When she came in she said, "What day is this?" She knew something was up but didn't know it was a holiday.

This is what she saw.....some of the furniture mixed around.

 Toilet papered stairs....

 Toilet papered doors....

 Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

 

We also mixed the cereal boxes up with different cereals, put them on the book shelf and books in the cupboard, mixed up their carseats, had purple milk, and Trav took the door off the bathroom.

The kids attempt at getting me back was to lock me in the bathroom. I was IN the bathroom and this is what I came out too....I had sneak through it so I could take a picture.

 Little stinkers....

 

William loves to play in our mirrors and I think he's cute.

 Then for the tail-end of Spring break we went up to the cabin. How we love the cabin!

 Well....most of us love the cabin.....

 There was a little bit of snow up there but we didn't bring any snow stuff. The kids didn't seem to mind and played in it anyway.

 50% were having a good time. Can you guess who was not?

 The first night it was just me and the kids. But the second day my sister, Aimee, came up with her kids, my mom and dad, and Trav all made it.

 William was trying out his mad snowboarding skills.

 We attempted to listen to conference. The kids were so good at coloring their packets and playing bingo.

 It was kind of hard to listen with all the commotion going on and this happening......

 We had a really good time at the cabin though. We rushed home in time for Trav to go to Priesthood meeting, the kids and I cleaned up and dyed eggs....just in the nick of time for Easter.

 "Don't you love my beautiful hair?"

 Here's their favorite eggs they decorated.

 Cheeseball.

 Early Sunday morning we woke up and the Easter bunny had struck!

 It was a mad dash to find all the eggs.

 Rachel totally biffed it and her basket went flying. She was ticked but it was kind of funny. She only had one casualty of an egg of jellybeans. She put the jellybeans on that little wall because she couldn't possibly eat them now.

 "Hmmmm....what do we have here? Jellybeans?"

 Finders keepers!

 I like the sorting and trading of loot.

 These next few pictures I call "The demise of a Peep"

 He was not happy when we pried his basket from his sticky little hands and put it away.

 We then listened to Conference, which was amazing as usual. Between sessions we knew we needed to work some sugar off so to the Pond's we went!

 Will always requests for "Hood on"

 You can't walk past a park and not stop to play.

What a perfectly lovely Easter day! We topped it off with a yummy turkey dinner that nobody ate because they were all too full of candy, and a visit with Grandma Maughan with Easter Bingo. Easter-licious!