April was a fun month! The weather was (mostly) beautiful, and so we spent LOTS and LOTS of time outside which really makes everyone the happiest!
Kind of a random picture, but I walked into the kitchen one morning when the kids hadn't been awake too long and found Clayton on the counter like this! His explanation was that he was talking to Alexa. Upon further clarification he was telling her to play Crazy Train! Haha
He LOVES dancing and singing to anything and everything!
We polish Nora Kate's nails about once a week, and Clayton wants to be in on the fun, so he always requests his thumbs to be blue. I'm sure this won't last forever, so I polish his little thumbnails blue.
Our neighborhood has great fishing, but we tried fishing a new spot for the second time. It's on the Tennessee River. They didn't catch much, but it's so pretty!
Clayton was excited to get to fish!
One Saturday we had several fun events-John unfortunately had to work for a little bit, so the kids and I went and had a blast! First up was the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. They had this cute photo opp set up!
And Easter Egg Hunts! There's Clayton in the blue shirt. He even found a prize egg and got color wonder markers and a paw patrol coloring book which was perfect.
Here are the big three with one of their neighbor friends. Checking out the candy loot!
The neighborhood party also had cookie decorating complete with frosting and sprinkles AND tattoos that NK is showing off here.
We biked/scootered/wagoned up to the clubhouse for the egg hunt and then returned home the same way. The kids love biking TO something/somewhere.
Next fun activity of the day was our church's Spring Festival. They had a ton of HUGE inflatables, games, food, the big green bus, etc. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures, but they all had a great time (even in the sweltering heat).
Nora Kate requested I take her picture before church one Sunday in her new summer wedges. Look how big she looks!?
After church we headed to the Botanical Gardens which is always a hit! The kids were excited to show John everything on display for the Chinese Lantern Festival and enjoy being outdoors!
Carter was in birthday countdown this month. When his present from Aunt Emily, Eric, Zoe, Zachary came before his birthday he was beside himself and ready to open it, so we said go ahead!
They gave him a tennis racket and he is SO excited to have one of his own. I've been teaching the big 3 to play tennis on our neighborhood courts using my old racket which are too big for him and have honestly seen better days, so this brought much excitement!
Nora Kate's friend Heather came to play one morning!
Nora Kate at the school she will attend next year. This was after taking the kindergarten assessment.
She requested I take her picture here with her looking this way too. She loved being the big kid doing a school "thing" for once!
Carter enjoying a muffin for breakfast on his birthday!
Since Carter's birthday was on a Saturday, we went to eat lunch with him at school the day before.
And delivered brownies for his class to celebrate him!
I helped put together a silent auction basket for the boys school this month.
I was so pleased with how it turned out! Who wouldn't want to bid on a firepit basket?!
On Carter's actual birthday we started our day with a trip to the Space and Rocket Center.
Here Carter and Dawson are climbing the rock wall.
And it was a very special day at the Rocket Center because it was the 25th annual moonrover challenge. This was SO fun to watch! I think I've convinced the boys they should do this when they're older! We couldn't believe that people from ALL over the US and even other countries came to compete in this. We got cow bells and shakers and clappers from the members tents and cheered them on!
Then we went to downtown to a cool and interesting place we had been once before for lunch. They have all these old video games, think Mrs. Pac Man, Fix it Felix, Pac Man, etc. So we ate and played games there to celebrate our birthday boy!
When we moved in the new house all the kids wanted to take baths in the master bath and we said how about on your birthdays?! Well, guess who remembered that?! Carter wanted candles and a huge bubble bath in the tub with the jets on! Talk about a relaxing way to end a 7th birthday! Haha
That night was not as relaxing though as we had tornado sirens going off and John was up a lot tracking the storm, but fortunately nothing came through our area. The kids, however, slept through the sirens and all after our busy/fun day!
The next morning was a busy one. John and I were teaching 3rd grade Sunday School, both big boys were singing in choir, and it was Palm Sunday.
Then after church, LOLLY arrived! They were so excited!
We enjoyed just visiting and playing while she was here.
She brought some of my old toys, including my old Barbies...NK has had a blast discussing the hair and fashion trends of my old Barbies!
Nora Kate helped me start our garden. We are going small this year, and then next year hopefully larger! I felt guilty ripping up too much new sod for the garden, so we will slowly grow it.
She had fun helping me do this though!
Nora Kate and I also decided we needed a flower garden in the back of the house near the patio. We wanted to plant the lilac that I have managed to keep alive despite rough transplanting situations since we moved from Tennessee last summer, and we wanted flowers we could cut from to put in vases inside. We decided this would be the perfect spot. Nora Kate LOVED being a part of all of this.
First I tore up the sod, put in the stone edging pavers, dug and planted the lilac, spread mulch...and Nora Kate helped.
Then she helped me add flowers.
She wanted some pink flowers (ok, I did too), so we bough these pink lilys. They looked like this when we planted.
These are more pink flowers. Pink Drift
Spanish Lavender
Nora Kate has been quiet the little gardener always remembering to water them.
She is really enjoying taking care of them!
Our yellows
By week two everything was starting to bloom!
Talk about almost instant gratification...this has been super exciting for NK.
These are her favorite and we had these three big flowers blooming by week two.
On the Saturday before Easter we colored easter eggs and made Peter Rabit cupcakes!
Easter Sunday
I ordered the dress that Nora Kate modeled for Strasburg Children back in February for it to be her Easter dress..I couldn't resist!
The Easter bunny came!
The last weekend of April was another fun one!
John and I headed to Nashville Friday through Sunday morning.
Here we are in enroute-looking relaxed already, huh?!
The main reason we went to Nashville was for me to run the Nashville Rock n Roll Half Marathon.
Here we are at 4something in the morning before heading out to the race.
Still dark as we were arriving and walking around downtown before the race.
Normally all the art in the city has lines for people to take their pictures, but apparently when it's not even 6am, there are no lines...so we had to take advantage!
And this is the one where just last week Taylor Swift announced her next album.
The race was AMAZING!
13.1 miles in 2 hours 32 minutes
This was a personal record for me.
Honestly, if it had been less crowded I could have shaved a couple more minutes off there, but the crowd was a fun atmosphere to run in! This picture was just after crossing the finish line! John cheered me on the whole way...I actually got to see him at 3 different spots (thanks to the run tracker app) along the course and then at the finish line! It was so great to see him cheering me on!
I had so much fun running this race, and I've now been scouring race lists trying to figure out what I'm going to run next. The race atmosphere was SO fun that John even said he might want to run this one with me next year! The 13.1 miles went through downtown, over the interstate, through some beautiful, historic areas, Belmont's campus, back downtown, and ended at the Nissan Stadium. The course was hillier than I expected, but not unmanageable. I ran the whole time without stopping which was my mail goal, and I beat my time of the Knoxville Half which was my second goal.
After the race, a big meal, a shower, and a nap, we got ready for Jimmy Buffett. Back when I registered for the race, I saw that Jimmy Buffett was performing in Nashville the same day as my race. I'm not a huge concert person, but I've always wanted to see Jimmy. This was too perfect to miss. SO John got us ticket and we went!
Before Jimmy Buffett we were downtown (which was crazy because the NFL Draft was in downtown this weekend too...seriously CRAZY CROWDED weekend in Nashville), but I ran into my favorite Tennessee Titans cheerleader and sorority sister, so we got a picture!
The concert was AWESOME!!
We had such a great getaway weekend!
Nana and Grandad stayed with the kids at our house while we were away. The kids had SO much fun! They loved being able to show them all their things, play with them, etc.
We were so thankful that Nana and Grandad came to stay with the kids and that everyone had so much fun!
Amongst many things, the kids LOVED making these fairy gardens with Nana and Grandad. Nora Kate has been making up stories about the fairies that live there all week.
This picture is out of order but this was in downtown before heading to the concert!
What a fun month!
