Public radio, Earth cake and Easter

April started out with a bad joke.

The boys didn't think brussel sprouts served up for breakfast was very funny.

April also started off with a lot of sunshine! We finally started going back to the park, even on days it was still in the 30s.  We're just that desperate. 

Testing out Eliot's birthday dragon kite. 

With the warmth, Ira's became the household rolly polly/potato bug catcher.  For some reason they love our house. 

Mid-month April snow showers.

 Eliot turned 2 this month!  And since he's still not talking much, I took the liberty of choosing the theme.  We had an Earthday-Birthday party. 

We bounced this thing around, picked up "litter" in the basement and sorted recyclables.  The party favor/activity was planting flower seeds to take home.

Picnic eating arrangement.  Chairs Shmairs.

Easter!

The boys helped me make some decorations for the house by blowing and decorating some eggs.  I know, a little risky.  There were a few times I caught the egg whites going up the straw, almost to Eliot's lips before I stopped him.  They did a great job though and I'm happy to say we're salmonella free.

 For Easter, cousin James came over for a mini-feast.  It's so fun to have at least one relative around. 

Ira's Larry King pose.

Candy!

 We unfortunately had some dear friends, the Jensens, move in April.  Here's Eliot watching a movie with his Jensen friend. 

 Marianne and I threw Mandy's family a party with the Ypsilanti ward invited to attend.  It's so fun to live close enough to our last ward to hang out often. 

The Beehive state will bee lucky to have them.

Anthony's been working hard on the garden.  We're hoping this is our year. :)

We got a rockin' tour of the Michigan Radio station and got to eat snacks with some of the state's public radio stars.  Zoe Clark was really nice and spent a substantial amount of time talking with us.  It was really cool to have a chance to talk with the journalists, and reminded me that in highschool I wanted to grow up to be a muckraker.  Maybe someday. :)

In other news, we've started working on the house again now that it's getting warm.  Anthony's been biking to work like a superstar, and I've gotten better (not faster) at running.

Ira is drawing more, and is getting more interested in music, and enjoys being a helper when he's not giving his brother bruises. 

Both boys have been spending a lot of time on these puppies.

Eliot is full of kisses and hugs and is picking up new words here and there.  His latest favorite word is "button."  He's inherited Anthony's love of technology...or at least wires and buttons and outlets. 

So, that's us.  Happy Cinco de Mayo! 

Beatnik party and other March marvels

April has already been so busy, March seems like a distant memory.  But here it goes. March! 

The month started out with a field trip to the Fire station.

While we were wrapping things up, the fire fighters got called out, which was pretty awesome to watch. 

Fun hand-me down sweater vests.

Eliot's getting pretty good at dressing himself. 

It's sort of the year of the wreath at our place, so here are my St. Patrick's results. 

The boys are hopping on the band wagon as well. 

Those little rectangles are dragons.  Surprise surprise. 

Even though it's still pretty chilly, the boys love running around "naked."  They keep their under pants on fortunately.

Then we threw our 2nd annual Beatnik party.

Here were some of the treats.

(Po)lickable Cookies

inspired by Jackson Pollock's Convergence 

Ellsworth Jelly

Jell-o inspired by Ellsworth Kelly's Blue/Yellow/Red

Candy Warhol

Candy inspired by Andy Warhol's Banana

I forgot to get a pic of our Hot Rothkoco, Hot Chocolate inspired by Mark Rothko's Violet, Green, and Red.  It was hot chocolate with Mint Ice cream, and whipped cream on top of that.  Mmmmm...

The poetry slam was way better than the food though.  Here are some of our poets and performers.

I look pregnant here, but I'm not. :)

Us looking contemplative...

And relatively normal.

The boys had a pretty intense stomach bug, but fortunately the throwing up only lasted about 12 hours, and stopped right before Anthony had to leave on a 4 day business trip.  Huge blessing!

And finally, I had a pretty rough week mid-March and the boys went out of their way to arrange some cupcakes we made to let me know that I'm extra ordinary. Ha!  There are worse things to be.  

Alright, we're off to go watch a session of General Conference at the church.  Happy April everyone!

February. So short, yet so, so full.

Ah, February.  It's been a month full of....

Valentine's Morning.  The boys were thrilled to find chocolates at their seats and some home made valentine's. 

Ira coloring a valentine from Grandma Quinn. 

A party with our Ypsi friends. 

Ira was very enthusiastic about his pre-school party as well, along with a little girl named Abigail who's been giving him lots of attention. :)

 It's also been a month of repairs, service opportunities, babies, and snow.  Lots and lots of snow.

This is what our house has looked like most of the Winter.  Our little tree is disappearing. 

Ant and the boys made a couple of really fancy snow caves. 

 Eliot: We got his hearing tested and all seems fine.  His speech is relatively behind, but the day after we got him tested he started experimenting with new words.  We're not too worried, but it would be really convenient if he could communicate more effectively.  He generally seems to be having fun with life, and his little sense of humor keeps us all laughing. 

Eliot found the laundry pile and put on Dad's "exercise unders" on all by himself.  He was pretty proud.

This is one of the church playdate activities I organized.  The firefighters came to the church and let the kids check out their Engine.  Ira was too cold, so he was chilling inside.  Eliot was loving it!

Ira: As long as he gets enough sleep, he does alright.  This month hasn't been light on the emotional melt-downs.  But he's been more affectionate which is fun.  He's just so fun to hug and kiss, when he lets me. 

Typically younger siblings want to imitate their older siblings, but Ira wants to do everything like Eliot... 

 especially if it gives him an excuse to do things like, spread blueberries all over his face. 

The boys are still obsessed with boxes.  Ira wanted to sleep in one, but this was as close as he got. 

Anthony:  Still keeping busy with work, and making time to play with the fam.  This month we've had to get our fireplace fixed, dishwasher fixed (still under warranty!), our garage fixed (annoyingly expensive), and then our garage fixed again.  Anthony decided to do fix the garage door opener himself, which saved us a few hundred dollars.  Such a handy guy to have around. :) 

Sharon:  We've started a new session of birth classes, and only have 3 couples this time.  They're a fun group, and it feels less crammed in our family room than the 5 couples we had last session.  Our last group of students are having their babies and it's been exciting, and pretty dramatic to see how things pan out.  So far they've had two c-sections, both of which were after about 2 days in the hospital, and the 3rd was an induced labor due to pre-eclampsia and then 40 hours of labor!  I wish all of my students could have ideal births, but it looks like they're all effectively applying the knowledge they've been gaining as well as they can in the circumstances permitted.  

We are also excited to welcome a new nephew to the family!  Anthony's sister just gave birth to cute little Pete a few days.  And yes, this is a different sibling and a different baby than last month. :)

It was an honor for me to be a semi-doula for one of my couples and friends.  I was there for about 9 hours before I had to come back home and teach.  I never thought I'd love it so much!  The spontaneity of being a doula doesn't fit into our lifestyle very well right now, but maybe I'll do it more when the kids get older, or here and there if people ask me to.

We've had lots of other opportunities to serve lately, assisting in Ira's preschool, teaching with the missionaries, helping stranded drivers, babysitting friends' kids, driving neighbor kids to school who missed the bus, a night of helping out at the homeless shelter, taking meals to families with new babies, etc.  We're always looking for opportunities to help people out, and February has definitely presented those opportunities.  When it rains it pours.  Oh, how I'd love it to be warm enough outside for real rain!  Anyway we're feeling very blessed.

Happy March everyone!