April-What a Month

Whew! It's been a whirlwind around here.

At the start of the month, Grandpa Don and Grandma Sue came to visit with Haydn. We had fun going to the zoo, playing at the park, bowling, visiting the sounds in Edmonds, eating out, and just spending time together. The week went very quickly.

We were hoping to go see the Tulips, but they are late coming out this year, so they didn't arrive in time. We'll be doing that at Easter this year.   After Mom and Dad headed home, I had class all day Saturday and then we did Jackson's birthday party on Sunday.

It was quite the hit.  It was a Fire Station party, with a little bit of Stars Wars thrown in to suit Jack. After a little rocky start (we arrived at the fire station and they weren't expect us because our host forgot to look at his schedule), it all worked out really amazingly. We started with making some storm trooper masks while we waited for everyone to arrive, then had a pizza lunch. Then, the firemen took the kids on a tour of the station. They got to climb into the ambulance and fire truck, see the firemen's gear, try out the heat seeking sensors and the fire hose, and check out all the equipment. It was a really great tour. All the kids were loving it except Jackson. He liked the first part and the fire hose, but for half of it, he was complaining that he wanted to go back inside and do cake and a little star wars game we had made.  Sometimes your own child is having the least fun at the party. But, overall it was a really great party, and he did have lots of fun! He had 10 kids from his Kindergarten class attend plus his cousins, so it was a great turn out.

 How many 5-6 year olds can you fit in an ambulance? Turns out about 12...and two firemen.

 By the picture time, Jack was in a bit of a funk, wanting to go back inside.

 On Monday, break was over and Jack headed back to school.  His actual birthday was on Tuesday, which after work/school is swimming lessons, so we had a quick birthday donut and presents after.

Grandma Marie and Papa Tom sent Jack a ToysRUS gift card, which burned a hole in his pocket until we took him to shop with it the next night...where he got another nerf gun and more Legos but not without spending an hour in the store carefully considering all his options! His first nerf gun came from Grandpa Don and Grandma Sue early while they were visiting. He got a fun monster truck from Papa Jefe and Gram Fran, and more legos from Mom and Dad. Plus lots of Legos, a kite, and a light saber from his friends, so he made out well.

Last night, we dyed some Easter Eggs so we are ready for the weekend too. Mike's heading to Italy for work on Sunday morning, so we'll mostly celebrate today.

And, of course, we had to take our annual Easter/Birthday bunny and family pictures.  Jack has become quite the ham...Look at these expressions!  Presenting pictures #7 (Can you believe it!) with the bunny:

Then, we tried the family picture, again to get lots of funny pictures with Jackson. He can't hold still and has all sorts of poses and faces:

 After asking him to hold still and stand up straight once more, we managed two relatively normal pics, but they are all cute!

 And a few more bunny pics for good measure...