Busy April--The Rest of the Month

The day after Easter we joined some friends from MBA days at their beach house in Ventura.  They've had two more kids since we lived around the corner from each other and all 4 of their kids are so cute!

Emily got some great shots of the kids throughout the day.  She has a thing for little boys with buckets.

This kid loved his bucket and shovel and the sand.  The water was a little too cold for him to get in but he didn't seem to mind.

The adorable Ruby had so much fun making faces at and getting reactions from Will.

Avery and Ruby both have naturally curly hair, but at the beach it was out of control curly, especially Ruby's.  Aren't they cute, though?

The water was really cold but that didn't stop Joseph from getting some boogie boarding in.  He had a blast and stayed out for much longer than I could've ever lasted!

The other guys went out a little later as well.  They were smart to wear wet suits, even if one wasn't necessarily worn properly. :)

Sophie thought this was a fantastic use for the boogie board.  Joseph pulled her all over the wet sand on it.

What a ride!

This day also marked one of our favorite holidays, a national waterfight day we honor every year.  Borrowed from Poland it's called Smingus Dingus, and we love getting each other wet to commemorate it.  What better place to do that than on the beach?

We never take pictures of just the two of us, so I'm so glad we actually remembered to once.

So at home at the beach.

Joseph and the girls built this sandcastle kingdom that looked like Rapunzel's kingdom.

Hooray for sandcastles

Still dragging that bucket.

Their beach house was literally right on the beach.  You'd walk out onto the balcony and immediately run into stairs taking you down to the sand.  It was awesome.

Thanks for a very fun day, Widdisons!  It was great seeing you again!

Our backyard is in full bloom right now and it's so awesome.  These roses I call Metzli's roses because my sweet little Young Woman Metzli gave them to me a year ago and I immediately planted them at our new home and they have bloomed so beautifully.

These were also a gift from my mom that she dug out of her garden because they weren't getting any sun.  We thought they were tulip bulbs we were give so we were surprised when irises began to bloom.  They were beautiful but didn't last long; I think they're having the opposite problem now and getting too much sun.

Just like his sisters, this boy is a true water baby.  He loves his baths, and I love snuggling him in his towel after.  My cute little monster.

Sophie loves dressing up her stuffed animals and mommying them.  What a tender heart she is.  Love this girl!

Here's a cake I made for a baby shower in April.  Fondant's fun to play with, that's for sure.

Oh, I love this little guy, too!

And I love this girl so much!  She makes me laugh every single day.  It's always something new, too, and she never means to be funny which is why it's so much funnier.  This day she decided to put cones on her feet and walk in them.

I couldn't believe she could actually manage it, but she walked all over the room in these.  Maybe we'll see her in pointe shoes someday!