April Flowers

April was pretty quiet for us, which was nice. Owen took a break from organized sports (though he's been working on his <6.5-minute miles in PE!), and Hadley is still doing gymnastics every week, but there are no more meets planned this year, so it's just conditioning and skills practice. We've been trying to enjoy the spring weather, which has been really pleasant this month. We volunteered to help with spring planting at the church. The kids worked on this cross of sweet alyssum, made up of hundreds of tiny plants, with a couple of other volunteers, while I worked on some neighboring flower beds. I'm happy to report that most of our plantings are still alive, several weeks later, and that we saved the church $6k by not hiring landscapers!

I took the kids to check out Matilda, Jr., put on by the Junior High Theatre students. A couple of Owen's good friends were on stage, and all of the kids did such a great job! The students did everything from publicity, lighting, and costumes to stage set design and acting. Plus, it was a musical, and Owen had no idea that his friend would be singing a solo! During intermission, we went to see a 3D, black light art exhibit, done by the art students. It was also excellent! So glad their school has a strong fine arts program!

April is synonymous with the ranch for me. It's a beautiful time of year weather-wise, there are tons of wildflowers (bluebonnets!) to see on the drive up, and we celebrate Grandad's birthday and Granna and Grandad's anniversary on April 16. That happened to be a Saturday this year, so it worked out perfectly. I wish I'd gotten a picture of them, but we got Grandad a puzzle and spent most of the afternoon helping him with it. I had no idea the pieces would be so small! But we got it finished and went for a walk. Some of the flowers/weeds are almost as tall as Hadley! 

The following day was Easter! I got a picture of the kids with their baskets, but they wouldn't humor me with a picture in their Sunday finest at church later. We did several egg hunts throughout the house and ate lots of candy. They got a 4-day weekend off of school, but some of us still had to work, unfortunately.

Finally, we took in the last regular season game for the kids' future high school. Our neighbor is the catcher on the varsity team, so we wanted to show our support. It was a gorgeous evening for a baseball game, but sadly, our team lost. We accidentally sat in the visitors' section, and some of the visiting parents were less than exemplary spectators. All I can say is, I hope we beat them in the playoffs! And, "go Pete!" (our neighbor shares John's high school nickname) 😎