Soooooo... April

This month has been full of non-stop, action-packed excitement.  I don't know how any of the other months will even come close until the holidays roll around, because this one had real princesses at Disneyland, a trip to visit grandparents and cousins, baby animal cuddling, pony rides, Easter, two birthdays, a dance recital, Kael beginning to talk, and finally getting our long and eagerly awaited pet Nemos.

I'm thinking photo captions... I'm honestly too tired to do much more. :)

April 3rd- Disneyland

We got to see and do quite a lot in one day- it really did seem kind of magical.  Kael was feverish the day before, and didn't want to do much more than be held by Mommy the whole day, so it was really handy to find out they had professional photographers with almost all of the characters we met who would put photos on a card and let us order the digital copies off the internet. 

Meeting the princesses was definitely worth the wait in line.  All of them were so careful to make everyone feel special- even the grumpy baby.  We had a hard time pulling Bree from place to place because she would strike up conversations with each character and usually had more to say than time allowed. They'd smile and nod so sweetly- I was so grateful and impressed at the awesome attitudes they had.  I'd been wondering if one day would be enough, but we were all so happy and exhaused by the end of the day, I was relieved we hadn't planned to stay longer.

We drove straight from the Disneyland parking lot four hours to home that night.  When we woke up the kids, Mia was amazed at how close our house is to Disneyland.  I just chuckled and thought how awesome it is to be "the kid" sometimes.  The next morning we re-packed and headed to Utah.

We got to see the grandmas who took us to This is the Place Park during the "Baby Animal Days" of a fun Easter festival.

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

It was quite chilly that day- probably high 50's at one point, so when the baby animals weren't getting snuggled by kids, they were under heat lamps.  Anya pretty much looked like this for a couple of hours.  It was hard to pull her away.  She was so unhappy when we started to leave, I actually let her sit back down with her precious chick and let her finish loving the thing.  When she had somehow filled her chick holding time quota, she happily said good-bye and beamed as she said it was the best day ever.

We got to see Aunt Nog's new house that she will live in with her future hubby!

Kael got to hang out with his cuz.

These guys played so well with each other, I think they're pretty good buddies.

We got home the night before Easter Sunday, because Zach had to get up early to work.
We wrote a letter to the Easter bunny and asked if he wouldn't mind coming to hide the eggs later when Daddy got home.  After church we went upstairs and sure enough, the bunny came right before Zach arrived to tell us it was safe to come down.

Kael's first egg hunt.

I didn't have enough light by the time we were ready to take pictures of them all together, so we did retakes later. :)

The twins turned 5!  They had a left-over birthday party.  I used all the birthday supplies I've bought over the last 5 years, so they had a Barbie, princess, Build-A-Bear, My Little Pony party.  It turned out very pink.  We finally laid the pony pinata to rest after it's third and final beating.

The bears were from a kit I got at Costco years ago.  I had no idea the bodies needed to be sewn, and did it ahead of time.  Good thing, too- that party would have taken days had I let them try to do it.

That evening we went to the fish store and FINALLY got our pet clown fish.  Zach has had this tank running for months.  He couldn't figure out why his ammonia levels weren't dropping because it had done it's nitrite spike and was supposed to be done cycling within a week.  He figured out a month or so later that because he'd been storing his ammonia in the same container as the test tubes, they were always coated with an ammonia film and were giving off bunk readings.  After that dawned on him, we had our accurate tank tests and fish within a few days.  I think having five minutes of free time per day is getting to him... *frownsmile*

Mr. Kaelywoggins is finally starting to figure out how to use his mouth for more than kisses.  Just a couple of days after I told the pediatrician that no, he wasn't using even close to 20 small words, he started using about 20 small words.  (Ohhh that trip to the doc was also worth mentioning.  Anya and Bree and Kael each needed four shots.  I was stupid enough to tell them what was coming a day before, so Anya especially was good and worked up come needle time.  I had to hold her on my lap with my legs around hers and my arms around hers and hope not to get head butted while Kael cried to be comforted from the pokes he'd just gotten.)

Anyway.  Here's his portfolio so far: Mommy, Daddy, Mimi, Bee (Bree), ba (ball), ju (juice), mo (more), ba (bath), no, raaar (it's a sound effect, but I'm counting it,) dis (this), be (me), cars, ow, and a couple more I have yet to decipher, but are consistently uttered in the same situations.  My favorite kind of puzzle. :)




The twins last day of dance class couldn't come soon enough.  For them, at least.  I can't believe how sad it is- we finally found an awesome teacher and a nice place that doesn't cost much at all, and they're sick of "ballallay" because they hate stretching their legs in splits.  So here they are during their last dance recital.  :b  Now we're doing ice skating.  Which, of course, costs three times as much.  We'll see how long that lasts.

So there's April.  And this post took me so long to write... it is now May.