Other April

A few months ago Katie took me by surprise by full on reading something out loud.  She’s known all her letter sounds for quite a while and I knew she could sound out simple words, but surprise!.. Katie can actually read!  Shortly afterward her preschool teacher started sending home little books for her to pass off – four kids down, one to go!

Just a cute picture of my three youngest with their Dad 

Grandma Fletcher treated the kids and I to a movie during spring break – pretty sure this was Drew’s first time in a theatre (at least since infanthood).  We saw “Home” – the kids enjoyed it, but as I suspected it didn’t quite capture Drew’s full attention and I ended up spending the last 10 minutes standing by the entrance with him.  A fun outing though and we enjoyed sharing a few MOD pizzas afterward.

I had a few friends celebrate birthdays this month that went all out on the celebrations.  The first was for crazy, fun Laura who loves to be celebrated and in the spotlight.  We (she) planned a ladies night downtown consisting of dinner and karaoke.  I played around with the idea of wearing Abigail’s hot pink skinny pants and jean jacket.

Jason and Katie got in on the fun posing too.

I opted for something a little less flashy though in hindsight the pink hot pants and heels would have fit the evening perfectly.

Another friend, Jen, celebrated her 40th with a surprise lunch at Maggiano’s in Bellevue.  There’s no way I was going to miss out on this party so I hired a nanny through Justin’s work and made a whole day of it.

Lunch was delicious, the company hilarious, and there was even a personal visit from none other than Elvis!

It’s always a bit crazy getting ready for a trip.  Getting ready to leave the kids with a sitter while Justin and I went Portland was no exception.  It’s those kind of days you just throw on a pair of shoes and go with it.

Drew looked so cute toddling off in his pjs to walk Katie to preschool that I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures and even a video.  Sure love that kid!

Sunday, April 19th was Drew’s lucky day.  As we were heading out to the car after church he found himself an unopened package of fruit snacks on the ground.  Since we always tend to be waiting for Justin to find his way out of church we had plenty of time for him to sit down and enjoy his treasure (with a little sisterly help).

Katie actually took this next picture on my iPad that same Sunday.  Abigail was hard at work making two desserts that afternoon so we could invite some families over to help us eat them.  

This is the first term all year that Abigail hasn’t had to stay after school for sports practices.  It’s been so nice to have her home at 3pm everyday.  With that extra time, she’s been practicing her culinary skills by cooking a dinner of her choosing each week.  We’ve missed a few weeks, but it’s been great when we’ve been able to make it happen.

Justin and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on April 21st.  I use the word “celebrated” loosely as we spent the evening running the lacrosse carpool, taking Jason to baseball practice and getting Abigail off to youth.  We did squeeze a little TV time that evening to catch up on our favorite show.  Just another day in the life of our crazy, busy and wonderful family.  I think we’re pretty blessed.

As a joke I sent Justin a tacky, little collage of pictures from our wedding day.  

Ahh, aren’t we the cutest?!? ;)