April

Yay me! Keeping on top of it! Only because Ryan asked me if I'd updated the blog lately. Okay, we left off in mid-March...

Ah, snakes. This is Sweetie Pie and Bella is (was) in love.

 Having been to an Indians game several times, a Colts game in September and then a Pacers game, we figured we'd round out the sports games to include hockey. We had great seats!

Little Man posing rink side.

This giant thing roamed the stadium between periods. Bella waved and screamed like a maniac trying to get it to come over.

It worked!

She was so excited about that.

 After the game they opened up the rink to everyone so the kids got to skate with the players! We have no idea who any of them are, but they can still say they skated with the Indiana Fuel!

 Just two short weeks after we got Sweetie Pie, she died unexpectedly. Bella was heartbroken. We had a funeral, and we buried her in one of the vegetable gardens. We're going to buy flowers so that Sweetie Pie can fertilize "Sweetie Pie's Flower Garden." Bella seemed okay with that.

Her BFF Bailey was there to console her (she was fake crying here).

 The musical! After MONTHS of 7:00 a.m. practices and a few after school practices, the big day arrived. Bella did great and she's looking forward to being in the musical next year!

This girl. Wearing bunny ears, piling mac and cheese onto a roll to make a sandwich.

Lunch at IKEA on Spring Break. Six thumbs up for their meatballs!

 Easter! Every year it seems our church takes it up a notch. This year they hosted "Easter Eve" where we got to decorate the church. We had a blast.

This is Bella's masterpiece.

I had such fun doing this!

We decorated signs to wave in celebration.

And - miracle! - all four of us were at church!

Yearly Easter egg dyeing. The kids are so good at it, and I always love opening the egg carton and seeing all the pretty colors!

 And when you spring your THIRD leak in the slab in four years, doing dishes in cold water doesn't work. So you use it as an excuse to eat out a lot until the plumbers can fix it.

At a restaurant and this girl is reading.

Joshua and Ryan play an intense game of TicTacToe.

 And when you randomly come across a two-week old pygmy goat in footie pajamas at your car dealership, you stop everything to ooh and aah appropriately. I'm hoping to get one for Mother's Day but Joshua doesn't seem on board. It's a baby goat! In pajamas!! How can that possibly be a bad thing?!?!

So for Spring Break we took a leisurely drive to the Ark Encounter. We drove through Cincinnati just to see what it was all about, and stopped at a hole in the wall for BBQ. 

Howdy, Partner!

This girl is always in a good mood.

The kids played "Don't Break the Ice" while waiting for the food. We used to have this game when they were little, and I loved that it didn't involve pulling out a screen!

The black thing is Fred. We're snuggling in the hotel post-swim.

Pizza and movies on cable!

In Florence, y'all!

Ready to go!

The thing is huge. Just huge. No wonder it took so long to build!

This doesn't even do it justice. You just have to go.

Seriously. Why they didn't load us up the ramp and into this door to enter is beyond me.

Those tiny things? Those are the kids. Huge, I tell you! The thing is huge!

Since Bella's already ridden an elephant and a camel, this was the best she could do. Although those ostriches would've been a fun ride!

 

 

 

 

 

Snake ownership, part 2. Candy Corn lasted just under a week before she escaped. We found her. She escaped again. She's now named Bandit, and is living SOMEWHERE in our house. No lie. She's out there somewhere *shivers*.

We had more fun playing with the food than the snake! "Micestro" was so sweet, we almost hated to feed her to Candy Corn.

We're considering a baby mouse as a pet now...

Because sometimes you just need an Indian headdress to go to bed.

 This was right before Bella left for camp for the weekend. I just wanted a picture with my sweet kiddos, because in the rush of the school bus, back packs, homework, troop meetings, and everything else, it's good to stop once in a while and just snap a picture. They'll be in college next week.

 While Bella was away, Ryan and I had the place to ourselves! We went to some garage sales, a few stores, McDonald's for breakfast (his choice, obviously!), and he finally settled on bowling. The little bird legs in bowling shoes get me every time. I'm also including a video of him trying to coax the ball to the left so it will knock his pins down.