Sunday, May 15, 2016

April 2016

We started out our month of April with a visit from our dear friends - The Getty family.  The best part about their visits is the fact that we do nothing.  We simply hang out and enjoy each other's company with good food, drinks, and this time - POKER :)  The kids pick up right where they left off and it makes for an even more relaxing time for the adults.

Here are pictures from their visit:





April 5th is my dad's birthday and recently we started doing a balloon release on his birthday.  To my surprise, Pete had a birthday "cake" with 66 candles on it (for how old my dad would have been) and we sang "Happy Birthday" and the kids blew out his candles.  Then they released the balloons that had hand-written messages on them.  It was awfully cold this year and the balloons didn't go as high as they usually would and Grace pointed out "I don't think that's high enough to get to Grandpa in heaven..."  I said that it absolutely was high enough but then quickly escorted the kids inside because the balloons were slowly sinking in the cold air :)

Balloon Release/Dad Birthday Celebration Pictures:







Claire had her first dramatic role (aside from her every day life of an 8 year old girl) in "Suessical the Musical" - the kids did a great job and it was really cute.  She had one line and she nailed it! :)


Our least-athletic child tried aerial yoga with her Girl Scout troop - here she is in all her glory 

We did a 1-mile "Viking Victory Run" to help raise money for local city schools.  I stayed back with Grace and Jake and I did my best to run the whole thing - with Grace on my back for about 75% of the run.  I couldn't help but think about how much I used to weigh...

The girls dressed in their favorite book characters one day in April - Claire is from "The Descendants" and Grace is from "If you give a Mouse a Cupcake"

Grace had minor surgery at our house...Our silent Grace kept putting a bandaid on her toe and after about 6 days it fell off.  When I looked at it - it was a grossly infected ingrown toenail.  Pete thankfully knew a podiatrist through soccer who was kind enough to come over on a Saturday morning.  He was wonderful with her and after the lidocaine shot - she read me a book while he dug into her foot to fix the problem.  Today - its good as new :)

Jake and Claire started their soccer seasons - Grace is still in debates if she wants to try.  Jake is obsessed and Pete is one proud papa.  Jake scores multiple goals in the games and has quite the celebration after.  His first game, after each goal, he ran over to his sisters and Claire would lift him up in celebration.  The crowd just laughed as this was par for the course with each kid that scored.

We had a night out with Bob and Karen to help raise money for Karen's Dragonboat Team.  This is a group of women that have fought or are still fighting breast cancer.  We had a great time and came home with a couple of fun baskets.

One Saturday it decided to be summer so we got out our inflatable pool and bounce house and had a very relaxing and wonderful Sunday.

We are blessed with many wonderful neighbors - our nightly routine during good weather is to gather in somebody's backyard and the kids play and adults hang out.  We love it!

We ended the month of April with Claire's First Communion.  Many wonderful and supportive family and friends attended and we felt so blessed to have everyone around for her special day.




Claire with her wonderful Godparents



Great Grandma and Great Grandpa came for her big day


Grammy and Opa (above) and Grandma (below) also came to celebrate


My fantastic aunt and uncle came from Indianapolis and we were so grateful to have them visit

That pretty much sums up our April :)

Looking forward to what May brings and ending another school year!

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