What we've been up to...

1. Yard improvement projects.
Over the course of the last few weeks we've been slowly getting an apple tree planted and trained in the front yard.  We also planted some grapes in the spot we originally intended the apple tree to go.
Very happy with the results and we'll look forward to fruit in a few years!

Apples!

Grapes!  They are pretty tiny right now!

2. Celebrating (belated) Earth Day.
I signed us up for a SOLVE event at Gabriel Park on Saturday.  We got there at 9am to clear out invasive plants.  At 9:15 Levi was ready to leave.  We got him to stick it out for a bit longer and by the time we left at 10:45, I felt like we cleared a pretty good section.  Maybe next year I can let Levi pick the project so that he's a bit more excited about it!
We were part of a good thing…
I got this in an email from SOLVE on Saturday night:
We are currently estimating that 6,589 volunteers collected 61 tons of trash and debris from more than 175 project sites. Over 28 total acres of land was cleared of invasive plants and 2,651 native trees and shrubs were planted.

3. Levi is all registered to start kindergarten in September!

And it's almost MAY!

Happy Easter

We started our Easter 2014 celebration on Saturday by putting on our raincoats and walking up to the dairy egg hunt.  We braved a downpour, winds and thousands of people to let Levi pick up chocolate eggs.

Some of the eggs had orange stickers on them and could be traded in for prizes.
Levi's favorite part of Easter?
This sword he got as a prize...actually he got two!

I also baked up a storm on Saturday.  Made this Greek Easter bread.  It was good and turned into really great french toast for Easter breakfast.  I also made rolls and a cheesecake to take for Easter dinner at my parent's house.  I'm really following through on that goal to bake from scratch more.  Although...I think it was actually Gabe's goal.  We did our own little Easter eve dinner and Gabe made a bourbon brown sugar glazed ham.  It was soooo yummy!  I think the oven was only off for the two hours I went and met my sister for sushi lunch.

Of course I can't leave out the dyeing of our eggs!  Levi did a great job.  The only egg that was cracked was cracked by yours truly.  This kid has a steady hand.

I think the Easter bunny might have woken Levi up when he was hiding eggs Easter morning.  Notice the time in this picture?

 He was up before 6am.  This was after we convinced him to just lay in bed with us for a few moments.  He then proceeded to guilt us into getting up because he was so excited.

The Easter bunny hid the eggs we dyed all over the house.

And he even hid some eggs with treats inside out in the front yard!

We spent the rest of our Easter Sunday with family.  First at church...and then at my parent's house.  Elijah's favorite part of his first Easter was the "grass" in his basket.  And the noise the plastic eggs made in the basket.  Levi was pretty excited about the Easter bunny leaving money in the eggs at Grandma and Grandpa G's house!

Happy Easter!

Volcano

I TOOK THIS PICTURE OF VOLCANO.

LEVI
(Written and typed by Levi with spelling help from Mom)

It was V week at school and Levi was really excited about the volcano they made in the touch table.  He wanted to take his camera to capture the eruption.  Levi got to touch the "lava" with his finger!  And he wanted the "lava" to run over the dinosaurs.

Happiness: April

This month's happiness focus will be on parenthood.
My overall resolution this month will be to remember more often that "the days are long, but the years are short".  Some things I want to do this month to be a happier parent are:

• Take time for projects.  I think overall this is something I enjoy doing but since work/weeknights are so busy...and then weekends are busy with things that don't get done during the week...I'm not intentional about doing "projects" with Levi.  So we're going to have more fun this month creating things together.
• Disconnect from technology between 5 and 8pm.  We have so little time with Levi during the week, I want to be present for him each evening.  And I don't need to check my email or Facebook.
• Read these two parenting books that I've been wanting to get around to but haven't made it a big enough priority.  (The first one might be helpful at work too!)
• Encouraging morning greeting!  Levi is not a morning kid and he's a very slow mover.  So, I want to start the day off right by having the first thing I say to him each morning be positive.  It might end up being the same phrase or little song...I'll have to try a few things out and figure out what helps us start off our day on the right foot.
• Start the month with a silly April Fool's joke. 

Anyone want some juice?