Well this should have been posted ages ago!! Oops! Happy WAY belated birthday to my double digits girl. I know I shared this on Instagram and Facebook but the blog must share as well!

On April 26th Trinity turned 10! Where has the time gone? We got her a rather funky and fun cup cake and cake Hello Kitty cake.

It matched perfectly with many of her Hello Kitty themed presents. Including some rather sweet doll furniture from her Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie. Don’t forget the grandparent phone calls. Lucky girl.

She chose her own outfit. Pink, pink and more pink!

Though she later changed into her new (Hello Kitty themed) sweater and we walked down the street for some fun 5 kid pictures. Boy are they growing up!

Youngest to oldest

Trinity was over the moon. This year her birthday fell on a Thursday so she also got to go to karate for her birthday!

For dinner we take the birthday kid (or kids if it is the twins) to a mom and dad only dinner. This year Trinity went big with a fancy burger at the Tavern!

Good food takes time, so we brought her DS and her new game!

The next day Renee and I took the two girls on a girls only adventure. 5 Guys for lunch.

Then off to an accessory store for some serious browsing and shopping, all finished up at a rather fancy cupcake store.

Trinity told me it was a pretty amazing birthday. Double digits sure looks good on this girl! She is growing up so fast! Happy Birthday revisited darling girl!

I am firmly remind that as the months pass so the kids grow. Where did baby Echo go? And when did Trinity all of a sudden mature? Don’t even get me started in regards to the boys… seriously SLOW DOWN WORLD!

Anyway… April… Easter you can check out HERE with a brief foray into the images and simple day we had. Traditions upheld of course.

Hello Cookie meet your predecessor Fat Sheep and live in fear of the love of Echo!

Trinity’s birthday is ALSO in April… You can read more about her special moments HERE.

Of course we must draw attention to the slick hair cut Mr. Emanuel sported over April as well! His curls… all gone. Not sure if I should be sad or impressed at how mature he looks?

Miss Echo spent some of her April educating her Baba on all the current card shark techniques…

And spent plenty of time introducing Hugo Bear Dog (otherwise known as Bear Dog) to her teddies, her night time routine and her life in general.

We had nature walks in the lovely spring weather…

And made sure to make use of not only our playset in the backyard, but the sport equipment set Gammie gifted the kids. Once spring is here and light sweater weather is on… we just have to grab those moments and get outside!

We had a bit of a religious/faith landmark reached for the 3 boys as well… at this Lutheran church which is ELCIA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of American) instead of ELCIC (in Canada) they do first communion at an earlier age with a one night special class for the kids and parents. We got to make the bread for communion and learn about about the Jewish roots of the service. We then came to the Ash Wednesday service for Communion. It was an interesting class and I think the boys got something out of it. Still very different for me as all this was part of Confirmation growing up! I am still muddling through how I feel about these little and big changes in our faith system being in the States instead of Canada. 

We have continued out swimming lessons with great results. 

We have been having tea time as often as possible… tea, snacks and good books read together. anything increase our interest in reading right? 

Made kites and actually did a whole study on different kinds of kites and things as well as covered a few scout requirements in the making! HERE

April was my stash busting month… everything I made was made out of yarn I had on hand! Here are a few finished pieces!

We even snuck out and took just the boys out for Taco Bell! I think we did rather good with our April…

And now for the rest of our spring fun… scout activites, backyard fun… a wee bit of green and some dress up. Spring is sprung! 

Checking out the dishwasher with Baba

Batgirl in disguise… Mustache style.. thanks Alex!

We even wore them out a few times!

I don’t know why but whenever Easter falls right  the beginning of the month of April (this year the 5th) it always feels like the rest of the month is on FAST FORWARD! Of course, we made sure to follow our family traditions… pictures of the family together, girls in pretty dresses and new hats, the bunny ears (though those are getting too small for the available heads). Now that we are set in our home church we also went to Easter Sunday Service. Add in some decent spring weather and dying of eggs and I figure we did it up right.

The girls did classic egg dying… messy but fun!

Ken and the boys tried something we saw on Facebook… rice and food colouring in a cup then shake… it worked!

Although, I must admit the BETTER pictures were taken a week later in the same outfits (for the kids) in a shadier spot. The original picture was taken in front of the small Catholic church at the end of the street (they have a larger building behind they now use but it is less aesthetic). Sun was not our friend and the camera battery our mortal enemy!

Of course I also took pictures in the church…

The following weekend…

I actually spent much of my month before creating baskets for each of the kids. I could not resist this crochet pattern and was able to embellish it as I wanted. Add in some presents from Mom and Dad and Gammie and I think it was rather fun! You can find the pattern HERE.

Of course we had to take a picture with our new FAT SHEEP… well Echo named her Cookie the Sheep… she was a lovely gift from Sharon back in Canada… our predecessor had been loved flat by Miss Echo so Cookie lives OUTSIDE the bedroom. (New Easter hats as usual too!)

So a very happy belated Easter… CHRIST IS RISEN… HE IS RISEN INDEED… HALLELUJAH!

And us

Our Easter stained glass windows.

And just a couple more images… there is something special at looking back at these days and pictures that reminds me how precious this year has been!