Amazing April (Part II)

April in Ashland - sometimes it seems like spring is just around the corner and sometimes it seems like winter is hanging on like a bad cough. The girls (and us) are eager to get the spring and summer toys out, despite the giant piles of snow all around.

And finally, Greta's birthday! The big three! Honestly I don't remember much except she was excited and that she had a great time opening presents and having cupcakes.

Greta spoke often about having her own birthday party. We didn't really want to throw her a party, but having a sister who had a party just a few months ago, we were open to the idea. But we just let time slip and the idea went away.

Earlier, I shared the photos then from the giant blizzard that came through town.

Before

After

Vacuuming has become a job the girls enjoy, Lilly needs to wear headphones in order to get the job done though.

Working on tying shoes

Every year I grow a boatload of tomatoes. I just stick them in gallon ziplock bags, freeze them, and deal with them when I get around to it. I decided with spring around the corner, I should take the tomatoes still left from last summer and deal with them. While I didn't process all of them, I did make a lot of salsa.

The giant hole that Nick dug for the girls in the giant snowbanks.

Now you see her

Now you don't!

Some miscellaneous cuteness from before going to daycare:

We really enjoy grilling pizza, and finally had the chance to do it!

For her birthday, Greta got a subscription to Koala Crate, which has different STEAM projects each month. It is pretty cool and the girls work well together on the projects. The first kit was a rainbow kit.

As we all know by now, Nick is quite the fan of paddle boarding. Luckily he has a few friends who are as crazy as he is and are willing to go paddling when there is still ice on the lake.

We also took a hike at Houghton Falls near the end of April.

I am fairly sure this is the hike where a tree nearly fell down on Greta and me. We were walking down the trail, heard a loud crack, and then about 50-100 feet in front of us, the top half of a birch tree came crashing down. Dust from the tree bits floated down and loaded on us. Greta later told me, "that creeped me out!". Me too kid!

Something that keeps the girls entertained for an incredibly long time is pretending to drive the car. They also like to play school on the driveway.

De-winterizing the van

Both of the girls have a tendency to leave their bike helmets on when they are done riding bikes or scootering when they move on to the next activity. Clearly, baking brownies can be a dangerous activity.

We read the book, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park in English 9. The book connects well to the 9th grade social studies curriculum and raises awareness both about the civil war in Sudan in the 1980s and the current water crisis. We coordinated with students and the open house for the new field house and hosted a walk-a-thon. We ended up raising over $800 to help build a well in South Sudan. Here is our moment of fame in the local paper.

Finally, my parents also came up to visit. My guess is Nick and I both went into work for a few hours and then had a nice dinner date. On their way out of town, we went to Prentice Park and walked around, played at the playground, watched the birds, and filled water bottles at the artesian well.