The Month of April

To say that April was a very wet month here is an understatement.  My flowers mostly bloomed and then rusted in the rain while the yard I affectionately refer to now as “the swamp” grew a foot and turned a technicolor green.  We took advantage of any outdoor time we could get, which really wasn’t a lot.  Kaitlyn got some good use of her brother’s outgrown Lego Rain boots.

We gained a wonderful surprise in April just in time for Easter.  Scruffles is easy to love.

We got into the farm for the month of April and made many stories for “Farmer Joe” and “Farmer Jack” as they took care of their animals.  And of course we read books about farm animals.

We played indoor ball games and practiced ROLLING the ball.  Outdoors we practiced playing catch.

The kids played with blocks and Legos.  Nathan can make a good stack now and is practicing counting.  He recognizes and correctly names the numeral “3” which about knocked Rick out of his seat at a concert when Nathan found seat number 3 all on his own and showed his Daddy.

We nested blocks and farm animals, decorated and undecorated for Easter over and over again, and sang the favorite “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” with felt puppets.

Every good farm is home to a cat or two (or four) and learns to earn his keep.  Scruffles practices the art of mouse catching with her catnip mouse while the other cats brought us three actual mice… very dramatic… especially in the middle of a Family Night game of “Pit” with every one seated on the living room floor!!!  Even city cats earn their keep.  Good Job!

More story time with sensory books.

We sang songs and did finger plays with finger puppets.

Again when the sun came out we grabbed the opportunity to go and see some real animals and eat oranges in the sunshine.

On take your sons and daughters to work day, Nathan found himself without his usual playmate (Rick still actually had a job to do so I kept Nathan… maybe next year).  So while Kaitlyn spent the day seeing what her Dad does all day Nathan decided to help me make dinner.  He put the mitts on himself but watch him!  He tries to open the oven on his own with them on!  He also tried to reach the stove knobs from standing next to the oven now.  What an age!

We cheered for brothers and sisters in their athletic endeavors …. and clapped for them at various concerts too.  April and May are both very busy with evening/weekend school events.

Lindsay went to a “Hoe Down”; a Daddy Daughter Dance at school and had a blast with her friends.  Her Dad is a lot of fun to be with at social events.

And last but not least, we found a bright and beautiful double rainbow in the sky after one of many rainstorms as we set the table for dinner one evening.