What Happened to April? (Playing Catch Up)

I can't believe it's May.  April just flew by, and I was realizing I never blogged about a couple of important things that happened.  First up, LL's birthday.  His birthday was the day after the zoo trip, and since we didn't get home until after 1:00am, I didn't end up making him the birthday cake I had intended.  Instead, we got an ice cream cake and celebrated with his family.

Collette didn't seem to mind. :)



 

 

She and Trey helped Daddy blow out his candles:

 

And Trey thought that ice cream cake was a pretty great invention.
(He would not accept any help eating his dessert, thankyouverymuch.)

 

 

Just a few days after LL's birthday, my parents came for a visit. We hadn't seen them since the kids' birthday party in November, so we were all pretty excited.  And we were pretty excited for another reason, too-- most of you know that my dad is retiring in June and they are moving to the house next door to us. Yes, next door.  The house actually came up for sale about 2 year ago, and they decided to buy it (sight unseen, since they were in WI and couldn't come out on such short notice.  I went and took pictures for them). Well, the renters have moved out and Mom and Dad had to come and make a million decisions about appliances, flooring, paint, renovations, pool maintenance, etc. And then they tried to get as much work as possible done to the house.  It was a whirlwind trip, with multiple trips to Lowe's, flooring stores, etc, and painting until midnight almost every night.

 

It was hard for the kids to understand why Mimi and Bumpa weren't there for their personal entertainment 24-7, but they had fun coming up to the house every day to check out the progress.

 





Collette even got to help paint a little bit in the kitchen:

 

And Trey was a big help to LL as he played the role of Mr. Fix-It and Painter Extraordinaire:

Mom and Dad also brought my entire childhood  with them... boxes and boxes and boxes for childhood toys, memorabilia, etc. I had no idea I still had so.much.stuff. at my parents' house.  Yikes.  We did have fun unearthing some favorites like Cabbage Patch Kids, Pound Puppies, Rainbow Brite, My Little Ponies, and Sylvanian Family Critters, Fisher Price toys, and a million Golden Books and Dr. Seuss books and Sesame Street books... the list could go on and on. 

Collette has been asking for some My Little Ponies, so she was thrilled when I gave her my pony stash. :)  It's amazing that the names of all of those ponies started coming back to me when I saw them. Ha!

And both kids have been having a great time with the Fisher Price house and Car Garage:

Most of the things I'm going to keep and pull out at a later date, when the the kids are a bit older.

We also celebrated my dad's birthday while they were here-- his birthday is exactly a week after LL's.  I made the salted caramel cake I was going to make for LL's birthday, and it was a hit.

That candle was sent from LL's brother in China. When it's lit, it lights up light a firecracker.  So cool.  I got a video of it, but I'm too technologically illiterate to figure out how to upload it. Sorry.

Collette is very into birthdays. :)  She was quite excited to help Bumpa open is present.

In between house projects, Mimi did manage to sneak in some quality time. :) This Thomas book was a huge hit with both kids, particularly Trey, our little train lover.

Usually saying good bye to Mimi and Bumpa is really hard, for Collette especially.  But this time, I told her she didn't need to be so sad, because they were only going home to pack up their whole house and come back and live next door to us! She keeps asking if they are packed yet. We are ready for our new neighbors to move in! :)