The month that went by in a blur

April.  April in Yuma is still a fairly pleasant month.  The evenings and mornings have a slight chill in the air, but you have definitely packed away your more wintry clothing.  In other words it is pretty much perfect weather.  You may never hear me say another comment that nice about Yuma, so soak it up.

On the last day of March I took the kids to the Yuma Fair.  We had the week off from school and were trying to figure of when would be the best time to go and decided we just need to do it.  Jim was not able to join us for the fun since he was working.  Poor Daddy!

The second week of April Lucy and Ben had school while Lilly had a second whole week out of school for spring break!  Crazy!! Next year they will all be at the same school and we will have to skip town for sure!!!  So while two of the kids were in school, Lilly and I did some shopping, cleaning and studying.  She was a big big help!  I love it when the children use their powers for good rather then evil.  Since she was being such a great help, we had a couple of lunch dates.  One was at a sushi place.  That girl LOVES sushi.  Her chop stick skills need some work however. 

Jim has been wanting to join the country club since we got here last year.  He finally broke down and did it.  He and Ben are taking lessons and going to the driving range as much as they can.  The girls and I are practicing our tennis while the boys are on the links.  Not exactly FFF (forced family fun) but pretty close.

Finally it is Lucy's turn to acolyte!  I actually got to see it!  Unfortunately the Hand Bell Choir was performing so she went down the side aisle and I was not able to get a closer picture.  But the important thing is I got to see it first hand! Yeah!!

While I had Ben and Lucy at church, Jim and Lilly had a play date at the fair. After hearing us talk about all the interesting husbandry/4H animals and exhibits, Jim decided he needed to check it out.  Lilly was only too happy to show him around.  The other two were not happy to miss it - SHOCK!

I finally finished restoring my "reclaimed" bench.  The kids made fun of me when I pulled it off the curb during the neighborhood cleanup trash day.  I just knew I could fix it and I did!  Look how nice! Just need one more pillow. 

Soccer season is winding to a close.  So far Lilly's team is undefeated and Lucy and Ben's team have only lost one game (which happened to be the one we missed.  Coincidence? I think not).  We have been doing well avoiding injuries until one night at practice Lilly caught a shot to the face.  We had JUST gotten her new glasses and I will admit I was almost more worried about them then her nose. By the time I got off the bleachers and over to her she had already stopped crying and was stressing about getting blood on her shirt.  She is such a trooper!

Lilly's team was undefeated in the regular season!!  They really played well as a team and Lilly was able to improve her skills.  Maybe next year we will try playing out in town.

Lucy and Ben's team also did really well on their last game with a tie at 1-1. The team they played was super aggressive and even though we were a man down the entire game we still tied.  More importantly, they had a blast!

Later on that weekend we were invited to a block birthday party of sorts complete with a GIANT water slide.  The kids wore themselves out even though the wind was blowing a gale and the water was not anywhere close to being warm.  It was so much fun we went back the next day too!  

The very next weekend our swim team had a intra-squad meet to give everyone a sense of what swim meets are like.  Even the adults got into the action by learning to call events and time lanes.  The kids did super well.  Improving their times since the Polar Plunge in January.  

I love this photo because the first three swimmers are Lilly, then Lucy's friend Amber, then Lucy, then Amber's sister Brooke and if you look really hard the farthest swimmer is Ben! 

Yuma HEAT!!

Of course we can't just do one event on this day, we felt the need to cram 3 into it.  While the swim meet was going on, Ben's cub scout den was doing some activities to earn the Spirit of the Water Badge at the same pool.  Thankfully Ben and several other swimmers were able to knock out two birds with one stone.

Afterward we all headed over the base to go to the end of the soccer season pool party!  It was a little bit of a goat rope in that they only fed the participants and not the parents or any siblings and it was not really kid friendly food (carne asada and beans).  Not sure what happened to the original menu of hot dogs, mac and cheese and chicken tenders.  Oh well, I ate some of the kids food.  It is really too hot to eat.

Chilling at the pool

The last family event of the month is the Evening of the Arts Celebration (or something like that) held at Lucy and Ben's school.  I am not really sure why they billed it like that, since not every student had art exhibited or performed. This is the first year the school has attempted anything like this, so maybe next year's event will be more well rounded.   I think it should have been called and Evening of Lucy's Art.  She was slated to play the piano, read a poem and perform with the Chorus!  Crazy!

Lucy reading her poem.  She sped through it so fast we couldn't even hear her!

The very last thing for the month of April is not related to our family at all. There is a momma birdKilldeer protecting her nest of eggs that is camouflaged as a group of rocks on the ground.  We stumbled upon her on one of our runs earlier this month.  Here she is exhibiting the trait of playing hurt to lure the predator (you) away from her eggs.  It is pretty impressive.  Unfortunately, my kids are wise to her act but still make her perform it EVERY time we go by the nest.  Poor Momma.  I am sure she can't wait for the babies to hatch.