april in review

I realize I haven't been very diligent in keeping the blog up to date. Here's my attempt to get caught up on April...
Happy Birthday Annette (Mom/Gramma)!
This year was Annette's 60th birthday. We decided to make an entire weekend out of it.

Friday - The kids and I picked her up at work went out for lunch. It turned out to be a beautiful spring day. We ate down by the water in Tacoma and the view was gorgeous. The water was pretty too, but do you see those ice-cream cupcakes???

Saturday - Ava and I attended cousin Tori's baby shower but left Noah with Grampa. He had some baking to do. We stayed for dinner (and more CAKE!) and celebrated with the kids who gave her homemade stepping stones. And yes...that will happen to you too if you have too much chocolate cake.




Sunday (actual birthday) - Just the "big kids" went out to dinner in Seattle. I think the highlight for Brian was seeing Edgar Martinez, but the rest of us had a great meal and shared what else....more CAKE! (Mike is playing his own game of pin the fork on the cake).


Awana - Carnival Night
Ava looks forward to this pretty much all year. She loves the carnival night they put on at her Awana. It's in the gym and they play little games and get prizes. Noah loves it because he finally gets to go to Awana! As you can see, he runs with a little tougher crowd.


Family Movie Night
This was our first ever family movie night. Feature? Toy Story 3. The kids loved it...okay, we loved it too. Noah went for over half the movie and never got a piece of popcorn in his mouth. He picked it up...but it never quite made it. There was a sea of popcorn surrounding him by the end of the movie.
and finally...Easter Celebration!
He is risen! We had a really great Easter this year. At the Arnold's we enjoyed our Seder meal tradition. Our group of cousins is growing and I look forward to seeing all the little ones in the years to come. This year we were joined by newcomer Lael, cute as ever, and Tori was in labor! She ended up having Gwenna the next day. Bring on the babies!
As usual I waited til the last minute and tried to get that award winning Annie Leibovitz pose from my children. Nailed it.