Did April Fly By in the Blink of an Eye??

After we got back from Utah, life got pretty busy...even busier than normal.  We went right into Easter with parties, egg hunts, egg decorating, and cascarones!  This year we celebrated with AM on the day before Easter and it was really nice.  We made the egg hunt a little too difficult so we had to provide lots of hints for the kids to complete it.  Lots of fun though!

Then we celebrated B's birthday!  It was mid-week so the celebration wasn't quite as elaborate, but he got a donut birthday breakfast cake, a yummy sushi dinner, and a scavenger hunt (made by Elina) for his gifts.

After that, we spent a lovely weekend at our favorite state park, Inks Lake.  We stayed in cabins with my good friend (Evie's 1st grade teacher) MV and her family.  It was such a great time.  The weather actually turned windy and cold on Saturday so we went to visit nearby Longhorn Cavern for some shelter.  It was an amazing cavern tour.  It's a cavern system that was formed by a river, so it's very different from the caverns we usually go to.  The tour guide had dry humor but was so knowledgeable.  We were always scared he would get upset with us (if we didn't go the right way or if we didn't stop at the right area), but we still had a great time.  Our favorite section was the dolomite area because it reminded us of the slot canyons in Arizona.  Just beautiful!  There was also a huge crystal area that the kids fell in love with.  Each kid whispered in my ear how much they wish they could hammer the crystals out to take home.  This was a really impressive cavern!

Besides that we hung out, biked, hiked, fished, and swam a bit.  The wildflowers were out so it was so pretty out there.  We can't wait to go back next year!  B's only request was that it not be on the weekend right after his birthday.  He'd prefer to sleep in and not pack up for camping for his birthday.  I guess...

This is still one of our favorite places to go to as a family...

Then we got back and it was time for Fiesta at school!  This meant crazy sock day...

crazy hair day...which was fun this year because we did the hair-coming-out-of-the-soda-bottle crazy 'do...Evie did it one day and then Eulee copied it the next day.  SO cute!

Fiesta also includes a parade, in which the 1st graders have to make a hat to commemorate a favorite book.  Evie did hers on The Day the Crayons Came Home.  Eli actually did the 1st book in this series when he was in 1st grade, so we just revamped his old hat and called it good.

After the parade, the 1st graders also performed a dance.  It was awesome because it was actually a NEW dance!  Discovery School rarely veers from tradition so this was a welcome sight.  The 1st graders did a wonderful job with this new dance.  And I learned that Evie (along with 2 other girls who take dance class) can really shake her hips!  She was awesome out there!  See if you can pick out the 3 dancers in our class when you watch the video.

  This was definitely a whirlwind of a month. I mean, when you have kids everything always seems to fly by, but after Spring Break time seems to go in fast forward every single year. Such good memories and such fun times! We are always so thankful we can have all these wonderful opportunities and experiences.  We love it all!!