April Recap

Well, it's almost mid-May and I haven't updated our blog for over a month. Since April was such a busy month I will just talk about the highlights.

Both kids celebrated birthdays in April. Claire turned 1 on April 10th and to celebrate I took her to Starbucks for a piece of cake. She didn't seem to care for it much (probably b/c it wasn't chocolate and didn't have frosting!) so I ended up eating most of it. I made spaghetti for dinner and grandma and grandpa came over to celebrate. After dinner we opened presents we had cake. Claire loved her first experience with chocolate and frosting! She was a mess!

The Monday after Claire's birthday we hosted playgroup at our house and had cupcakes and sang to Claire. Sam and Claire loved eating their cupcakes and since it was a nice day we were able to eat them outside to cut down on the mess.

On the 15th, Mimi and Pappy came to visit for a week and to be here for Sam's birthday. While they were here we celebrated Claire's birthday again with more cake and presents.

On Friday the 18th Bill, Pappy and Grandpa spent all day building Sam's play structure. The weather fortunately cooperated and they were able to get a lot of work done. They weren't able to finish it so Saturday morning was spent completing it. Sam was so excited and wanted to help with the building process and when it was finally finished he had fun climbing up the ladder and going down the slide.

On the 19th Sam had his birthday party at the Little Gym where he goes for gymnastics every week. There were about 12 kids and they all had a blast! Sam had so much fun with the parachute, hula hoops and just running around with his friends. We took a break to have cake and ice cream but then went right back to playing until it was time to go home. After the party we went out for hamburgers with Mimi, Pappy, Grandma and Grandpa. After dinner we went home and Sam got to open all of his presents from his party. He has had a great time playing with everything he got.

On Sunday the 20th Pappy took Sam fishing for the first time. Sam was a little distracted and didn't really understand what he was supposed to do but Pappy helped him and they caught a fish! The fishing experience only lasted maybe 45 minutes but Sam still talks about it and wants to go fishing with Pappy again.

Monday the 21st was Sam's 3rd birthday. We spent the morning playing outside with Mimi and Pappy and after lunch I took Sam to Starbucks for "coffee" which was just a non-coffee frappucino. He looked so grown up drinking his drink in one of the big chairs and had so much fun. It was a great treat for the both of us. Mimi, Pappy, Claire, Sam and I went to the park to play for awhile before meeting Grandma, Grandpa and Daddy at Peter Piper Pizza for dinner. There are lots of fun games to play at Peter Piper Pizza and Sam enjoyed playing skeet ball and riding in the ice cream truck. After dinner we came home and opened presents and had cake.

Tuesday the 22nd Mimi, Pappy and I dropped Sam off at school and then I took them to the airport. We had a great visit and were glad that they could be here for Sam's birthday.

Wednesday the 23rd Claire finally decided that it was time to walk on her own. Bill and I forced her to walk between us and kept backing away so that she had to keep walking. She laughed and laughed and was so proud of herself. The next day she seemed to have forgotten that she could walk without assistance so I had to make her walk on her own again and she hasn't looked back. She is much more confident than Sam ever was at this stage of walking and had great balance. It's nice to not have to carry her every where but in exchange I have to keep an eye on her b/c she can get into trouble very quickly!

Well, that sums up the highlights of our month. I'll try to be better about keeping this update.