April holds Trinity’s birthday. And spring. Both worth celebrating. Don’t forget Easter and sunshine and Grandma’s visit. Wow was April ever a fun one! AND a lot of it you already know… Click on the words above that will bring you to each event.

Easter display at church

Trinity had her first Communion class.

We had a super special opportunity to try out a local put put golf place that was closing down after decades of service. Renee and Christopher had gone there, and I think Ken as a child. So it was a fun way to get our kids in on something they remembered. Even though it was rather cold. 

Renee lining up her shot.

Jeffrey

We went from the golf course to a soda shop. Not just any soda shop: Blue Sun Soda & Sweets where Renee spoiled the kids with letting them chose one soda each!!

CLEARLY CANADIAN!!!

And then time to hang out at the Schwartz’s. With Mystro and all!

With their sodas!

We have been trying really hard to make Friday night a weekly date night for Ken and myself. Not only to get out for a nice and quiet meal, but to spend quality time on us. This is AFTER my Friday night workout class, so it has been fun to work really hard and then shower and come out pretty and ready for fun.

Ready for class

Noms!

We have taken full advantage of our time at the YMCA as usual.

And continued our trend of watching our godson kick butt in soccer on weekends.

Trinity has been playing with her camera, and other lovely gifts.

April has been a regular month of school, of course. With lots of completions to celebrate. 

By Echo

Aimee (fellow homeschool mom) and I made it out to a major textile garage sale and found some gems.

We rode bikes and visited the local park.


Found some early spring flowers.

Of course I snuck in some crafty time.

Crafting in the sunshine

A good and busy month.

Putting a state study together (Gavin)

A new tack board!

Grocery shopping!

Learning in the sunroom

Another view of the crew

Yup slowly but surely we are working our way to current life… it has just seemed like the year has slipped away before we could truly grasp it! But on I go… May…

Well, what happens in May? Mother’s Day… that is the big one.

Mother’s Day dinner with Nana and Baba

But we had so much more going on… Spring means sunshine and park days! We do have a couple nearby.

It also means (in Texas), roses are big, gorgeous and mailable… Gammie has always sent us beautiful blooms from her garden that seem to make it in record time for the most part, smell and petals intact!

Garage sales have started back up as well. A goldmine for books, toys and the odd piece of clothing… especially when they are walking distance.

The hot find for this year – LITTLEST PET SHOP pieces! Trinity and Echo are now addicted to them. Odd little bobble head things.

Miss Trinity completed a couple workbooks, as did Emanuel.

We dressed up fancy for church, especially when there was singing to be done for the Cherub Choir!

Scouts figured highly in our activities around the month of May… anything to fulfill Emanuel’s arrow points. This is a game where you throw washers into a pie plate. All the kids enjoyed that one! Noisy though.

One of Trinity’s birthday presents was a knot it yourself fleece blanket with a Hello Kitty theme. Trinity was such a go getter with this one – her goal was to finish in time for the Family Night movie at the YMCA… she made it!

Miss Echo was gifted a lovely selection of shoes thanks to the Schwartz family’s neighbour! What a blessing!!

We took the whole family for a special outing to the carousal at one of the smaller malls.

The kids rescued some free chairs from the end of the neighbour’s drive as well. Decent condition and rather comfy!

May also marked the beginning of this year’s straw bale garden. Nana and Baba are gone so much now they figured they would set it up and let the boys go with it. The results were… varied… but they did enjoy the process of setting things up, planting and such.

It is surprising how quickly winter melts away around here. The kids are always quick to embrace that change, really they are quick to embrace each and every season with a great deal of enthusiasm.

Cousin Robbie even found the time for a visit! A college student now we see a lot less of him but the visits we do have are terrific!

We ended the month with a trip to the zoo (Como) with Aunty Shandai and Uncle Ravyn. Sometimes a place takes on a whole new experience just by adding some amazing company. So sit back and enjoy the inevitable photo overflow!!!! Happy May!!! (belatedly!)

We picked a busy day and had to park away and take the shuttle which the kids LOVED

Sea Lion

this little guy was all over the place within arm’s reach!

Bonsai!!!

You can find the rest of the month’s images (many from the zoo) HERE. Can’t resist sharing these!!!

And of course we spent a lot of time with the Schwartz family! Even met the neighbour’s baby.  Now that we have snow it is fun to look back at all this green warm sunshine!

Don’t forget Home Depot with Daddy and Baba!

And our time with Kites and the Wind (resources HERE).

And tons more but instead… a few more pics and then bop up to that link at the zoo section and see the overflow! Bask in the warm images with our cold winter just beginning!

Trinity’s birthday party (note Novak boys)

Two new blue bracelets!

Feeding the Starving Children with Scouts

Easter shoes thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Mike!

Well we are still trucking along on the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Book number 4 or Mystery Ranch was a lucky garage sale find for us… we had it on hand and everything! So as soon as we got done our book 3 review (HERE) we moved onto this one. So please enjoy our review. As always, be aware that Gavin CAN let spoilers slip. I do not censor him when I type up his review.

I actually read this book in one sitting at the hair salon. It was a nice escape from the noise while I was stuck sitting down. I would say this is the shortest read (for me) so far. But the story is no less entertaining. There is the usual mystery, a new location and interesting characters to meet as well as the same basic 4 children and dog with their loving grandfather.

I think this is the first time I had Gavin question what something was listed in the book. An ore that came up had to be discussed but as usual the illustrations were fun (though our cover was more modern the illustrations inside were not and a lot more interesting.). I can honestly say it is not a hardship to be required to read this and have a discussion with Gavin. I am also looking forward to book 5 which we could only find on ebook form at our local library.

Now for Gavin’s opinion:

GAVIN

It is a really good book because they put a lot of effort into the mystery. I would read this book again. I did not know the answer to the mystery until I got to the last bit of the book. I like this series. I still enjoyed the second book (HERE) the most. My favourite character in this book was Benny with his dog (Watch) because Benny is funny and Watch is cute.