Random March April and May

Here are some random pictures from March:

Brooklyn was playing with a stress ball and it broke.  Apparently it was full of flour, because I found flour everywhere:

I think she was holding it close to her face when it exploded:

Brooklyn and Micah worked together to build this cool castle:

Another one of their creations:

Alan qualified for an elementary school track meet thing.  Elementary schools from around town sent their 4th, 5th and 6th graders to compete.  Alan did sit-ups.  It was pretty chaotic when we first got there:

Then they started some music and led the kids in some warm ups.  It looked pretty cool to see all those kids moving in unison:

Alan enjoyed the experience and he had fun cheering on his friends.

On St. Patrick's day we had green waffles with green whip cream for breakfast:

The kids all dressed in green:

 

Alan and Conner went through a phase where they really liked the create things with dominoes:

Brooklyn likes to have her picture taken:

Conner building a tower:

 Alan finished his Bear requirements for Cubs:

 

 He was supposed to give me a hug and kiss for helping him but he was too shy - good thing I'm not!:

For April Fool's day I copied an idea from Shelly and packed a funny lunch for the kids.  First I opened all of the packages and took out everything.  Then I filled the water bottle up with sprite, I put pretzels in the granola bar wrapper, and popcorn in one of the chip bags.  I think I put grapes or apples in the other chip bag and I think I put fruit snacks in the raisin box.  Then I closed everything up and did my best to make it look normal.  I told the kids they had to try everything in their lunch that day.  They were puzzled but agreed.  I wish I could have watched them open their lunch!  When they came home they wanted to know what I did with the real chips and granola bar - haha!  It was a lot of fun:

Brooklyn telling me she wants to go swimming.  She insisted that she needed water wings on her legs:

Brooklyn being silly with underwear on her head:

We had a random snow storm in the middle of April so the kids decided to build a snowman:

I had to laugh at Brooklyn's choice of clothes: her hat, her backpack, her tu-tu, and her boots were necessities but her coat was not:

Alan and Conner:

The same month, but his time playing at the park without coats.  

Reed took a leadership class in our community and as part of it he got to go around and visit important parts of our city.  Here he is in the cockpit of a helicopter:

Brooklyn found our pack and play in her closet and wanted it set up.  To her it was the greatest toy ever.  She spent many hours playing in it:

She told Micah about her amazing find and he joined her.  They both loved playing in the "crib":

 

Conner finally lost his other front tooth in the middle of May:

Brooklyn and Micah cuddled up watching something on the Ipad:

Drew's Grad trip

In April we drove down to Utah to watch my brother Drew graduate from BYU.  Way to go Drew!  Ironically I don't have any pictures of that event, but I do have lots of other pictures from the trip.
We caught up with our friends, the Middlemiss family.  It was great to see them again!  We met at a park, although I didn't get any pictures with them:

This thing spun around so we were trying to brace Conner in it so that we could spin him all the way around:

Success!:

Then we went to Scheels with Drew and Brittany and Grandma and Grandpa P. 

Alan posing with the bear:

Brittany and Alan having fun on the ferris wheel:

Grandma and Grandpa and Micah.  Micah had a knuckle-white grip on that bar:

Love this picture!:

 

Micah let go long enough to give a small wave:

 

One of the mornings when we came down for breakfast there was a man there making balloon animals for the kids.  He made some really incredible things:

Alan got a sword and sword holder:

Conner got a Santa hat and a dragon (I have never seen such detailed balloon animals):

It started as a crocodile and then, because there were no other kids, and my kids were absolutely enthralled, he took it back and added to it to make the dragon:

Micah didn't request anything in particular so the guy first made him a cool hat.  Then he told Micah he had something else for him and just started to make it without telling Micah what it was going to be.  Well, Micah watched very intently until suddenly he yelled in amazement "It's a dragonfly!"  The guy got a big smile on his face, when Micah recognized it.

Side view:

Brooklyn requested a pink and purple butterfly and then the guy added a cute little penguin:

 

A few other tidbits about the trip:

- we enjoyed the hotel pool at lot and went swimming a few times

- we went to eat at an Indian Restaurant and it was delicious!

- after we went swimming one time I brought Micah and Brooklyn back to our hotel room to get showered.  I got Brooklyn's swimming suit off and then she got really mad at me (can't remember why).  I walked into the bathroom to start the water and I heard Micah yell "Mom, Brooklyn ran outside!"  Yup, she sprinted up the hallway in her birthday suit and I went chasing after her, yelling at her to come back.  That just made her run faster and she made it around the corner and almost all the way to the end of the hall before I caught her.  Luckily there was only one guy in the hall and he looked pretty amused. 

- Reed and Conner met us down there the next day.  Actually they drove through the night and made it to the hotel around 4 am.  I think Reed was trying to match my crazy stunt from a month earlier.  When I went to my Grandma's funeral on Easter weekend we looked up flights and found a cheap flight but the catch was it didn't tell you the times of your flights.  So my return trip flight landed me in Billings at 1 in the morning.  I had to make it home that night so that Reed could go to work so I drove home that night and made it home by 5 am.  Then I slept for a couple of hours and got up for the day.

- the morning after Reed got there we both woke up around 7 and when I looked over at the bed next to me I realized Brooklyn was gone.  Wow, talk about a way to get your heart pumping in the morning!  I jumped out of bed but she wasn't anywhere in our hotel room.  So I ran into the hall and luckily I saw her down the hall, talking to a lady.  Aaahh, so scary!  So after that we made sure we talked to her about staying in our hotel room and put the safety lock on the door at night (I think she could still open it but at least it would slow her down).  So that was our fun, crazy weekend!