April 2015

What a month!  Lots of fun!

The littles (Carter and Nora Kate) and I continued our tradition of picnics and playing in the park one day a week before walking up the street to pick Dawson up from school.  Here's Carter enjoying a pear on our picnic one day!

Carter told me once, "I love you the most when you take me to the park, Mommy!"

I love seeing these two together!

Carter taking little sis on a Gator ride!

Dawson and I have been doing a lot of school work lately.  He gets to skip nap three days a week now, and during the time Carter and Nora Kate nap we do school.  He is catching on to math SO quickly-it's amazing to me really!  He was so proud of this math worksheet we made and he completed on his own!

We LOVE chalk!

On Good Friday we got "egged" by our friends, the Myers.

The kids loved finding all the Easter Eggs the Myers hid in our yard!

Ready for our church Easter egg hunt on Good Friday!

Egg hunt fun!

After the egg hunt they had inflatables set up.  The boys ran right to them...and so did Nora Kate without any fear!

The youth were so great to take the little kids up and down the slide.  I'm certain Nora Kate was the youngest kid doing the big slide! Look at that smile though...she LOVED it!

They took Carter down the first time until he told them he could do it on his own! That boy! He loves inflatables!

April meant lots of baseball...baseball practice and games.

Time to color Easter Eggs. We dyed the eggs on our patio with KoolAid this year. So fun and pretty!

John found these black chalkboard eggs the kids could color and they were a big hit!

After coloring eggs we enjoyed dinner on the patio followed by bunny cake!

Easter bunny loot!

The kids got candy, chalk, squirt guns, and Nora Kate's special item was a new swim suit, Carters was a pair of sunglasses, and Dawson's was a pair of sunglasses-specifically the same pair his friend Carson has that has been topic of many discussions lately! He had been wanting a pair just like Carson and that Easter bunny found some!!

The kids were excited to empty their baskets!

After Easter baskets we went to church then we went to Lolly and Pop's house for Easter lunch and egg hunting!

Nora Kate helping Pop and Bentley find eggs!

Easter 2015

I LOVE this picture!

Love my two sweet boys!

A friend who was volunteering in Carter's class at church snapped this sweet picture of Carter and his friend Harper reading together in Sunday School.  They are sweet little friends!

Dawson's readiness class has been talking about community helpers and different jobs people in the community have.  They've asked for any parent or grandparent volunteers to come in and talk to the class.  Dawson really wanted someone to come talk.  Thankfully Grandad worked it out to come talk to Dawson's class.  Dawson LOVED EVERY MINUTE!  Grandad talked to the class about banking.  The kids were all really into it.  Lots said they had piggy banks and were saving their money to buy cars!:)  It was cute.

At the end he gave each kid their own gold dollar and told them about how it equaled the same as a dollar bill.  They were SO excited to take home their gold coins!

Grandad with Dawson's class.

this boy sure loves his Grandad.

Nora Kate and Harper chillin' in the dugout...what feels like our second home right now! haha

Carter snuck his arm around Harper!

The boys always ride in the back of the van and Nora Kate rides in the middle row.  Here lately when they climb in the car she sneaks back and tries to get away with sitting calmly and quietly between the boys.  Finally I snapped a picture....before moving her into her carseat in the middle!

So the weekend we rented the BIG inflatable slide for Carter's birthday we played on it ALLLLL weekend!  We went over early Saturday morning to start playing on it!

Pop even took a few turns!

Then we had the party that afternoon, and Sunday we were back for more sliding!

Nora Kate LOVES being outside like her brothers!

Lolly took a few turns on the slide too!

Nana and Grandad gave Carter a wagon for his birthday, and he is REALLY loving riding in it!

The children's minister at our church started a new storytime at a local coffee shop this month, and it's SO fun!  Carter, Dawson, AND Nora Kate are all into it-which is pretty impressive to keep all three attention spans for almost an hour!

I think Nora Kate's favorite part of storytime is using the dry erase boards!

After storytime we usually take a short walk through the park.

Our neighbors gave us a fantastic new game!  HedBanz!  Dawson is loving this-especially for all the rainy afternoons we had in April.

One Friday evening we surprised the kids and took them to Steak n Shake for dinner in Turkey Creek followed by Putt Putt!  Carter keeps asking if we can go back!  All three really enjoyed it-but especially the boys!

John teaching Nora Kate to putt!  She kept calling the putter her "broom" though, so we've got some work to do!

And with no help-Dawson and Carter both got holes in one!!! And John got 3 holes in one!!  Guess who got NONE?!  Me and Nora Kate!

The next day after baseball practice we headed to the Knoxville Zoo for a birthday party for sweet Marshall who turned one!  It was so fun getting to see our friends the Whites who live in North Carolina and celebrate Marshall's big day!  The kids had a blast!

Petting a guinea pig!

The party favor bag contained these wild animal shades.  Nora Kate LOVES her new accessories!

Dawson had FIELD DAY at his school this month.  It was a blast!  Loved watching the kids have fun with the parachute and it brought back good elementary school gym class memories!

Obstacle course time!

These three are good buddies!  Unfortunately they will all three go to different schools next year, but they are SO loving playing together this year.

Evan, Dawson, and Carson.

All of Wesley Day School after Field Day.

After field day the kids could stay at school for an hour and eat lunch and play on the playground or we could take them home.  Carson's Mom and I decided to take the boys out for lunch.  They were excited to have this special time and acted SO big! Oh, and after all that FIELD DAY fun they were STARVING!

The last week of April meant ANOTHER field trip for Dawson.  His class had been learning all about bears, so we went on a field trip to Build a Bear.  It was a really cute field trip.  They did songs, each got to build a bear, did a little coloring sheet, then we had lunch in the food court of West Town Mall.  

Here are Dawson and Carson with the bears they made!