April was another jam-packed month with a lot of activities on our calendar. I will recap Savannah’s 7th birthday festivities in a separate post, but here is the rest of what we were up to this month:
Another month…another walk home from school with Sarah and her girls :)
Brooklyn had her first soccer game of the season on April 2nd, and Savannah had her second. Brooklyn’s was at 9:45 AM at Dublin 3. We all went to watch her, and Cici came too.
Brooklyn did great! She knew a girl on the other team, Whitney, from her class at school. She played striker, defense, and goalie during the game. Travis said she made two saves when she was goalie, including catching a ball in the air. The Galactic Cheetahs won 2-1! Karleigh and Laila both scored a goal. Brooklyn was really excited that they won!
Savannah and I left Brooklyn’s game at halftime to get to her game at Palmer at 11 am. The team that Savannah was playing only had 3 players there, so the Mermaids loaned a different player to the other team each quarter. Savannah played 3 quarters for the Mermaids and 1 quarter for the other team. It was hard to know who to cheer for!
Savannah’s ponytail is always swishing!
The girls all did great. Savannah didn’t score any goals, but she did make some great passes and helped the other girls score.
Coach MJ brought unicorn ice cream as the post-game treat, and the girls were really excited about that!
April 3rd was a busy day of birthday parties after church. Travis took Brooklyn to a party at Up A Creek for a girl named Norah from her class at school. We’d never been there before, but Brooklyn had a great time.
Travis got a video of her riding this mechanical bull shark. It was a competition to see who could hang on the longest, and the video was hilarious.
She loved it!
Meanwhile, I took Savannah and Abigail down the street to Addie’s house for her birthday party. It was unicorn themed, and the girls enjoyed coloring unicorn nightlights with markers.
Savannah and Abigail had a lot of fun!
Addie got some play makeup for her birthday, and she put some on Abigail before we left :) It was her first time with sparkly eyeshadow on, but probably not the last!
The joys of being a kid…
“Yay! Here come my sisters!”
We gave Abigail a craft box from KiwiCo for her birthday, and it sat unused in the top of her closet for months until we finally remembered to get it out this month. The box contained everything we needed to make 3 different crafts and was rainbow themed.
Not sure why she is smiling like a little old lady in the picture, but she enjoyed making this cloud pillow!
She also dyed a tote bag with rainbow colors and liked getting all the pieces of tissue paper wet to stain the bag. It turned out cute!
Brooklyn and Savannah biked a couple of miles with Travis while he ran on April 5th. Abigail rode down the street but wasn’t able to pedal fast enough to keep up, so she stayed home with me for most of the time. As you can imagine, she wasn’t too happy about that…
…so the next day, Abigail and I went to the greenway where she rode her bike for a few minutes while the big girls were at school.
We always enjoy seeing the horses, but sadly, I’ve heard that the owners sold their land to a developer who is planning to turn the horse farm into a neighborhood. It won’t be the same once that happens :(
That day at school, Savannah and Isaac practiced reading together.
April is usually a great month for walking home from school because the weather is so nice.
Love these sweet sisters!
Savannah came home from school with this cute card for Daddy that she’d made…
“Thank you for helping me…grow!”
Building with marshmallows and toothpicks is always fun :)
Abigail got on a kick for a while this month where she wanted me to French braid her hair and put a bow at the bottom.
Brooklyn has really gotten into playing games on the computer this school year, so naturally Savannah and Abigail ask to play too. Sometimes they will play after school for about 10-15 minutes each, and the big girls are good about helping Abigail know what to do.
Back in March, Mill Creek started allowing parents to eat with their kids at lunch for the first time since before COVID, and I was so excited! Savannah automatically wanted me to sign up to eat with her, but Brooklyn wasn’t so sure at first. Thankfully, after one of her classmates had his mom come and eat lunch one day, then she decided that it would be okay for me to come too ;) I signed up to come on April 8th. Her teacher didn’t care where we sat, so Brooklyn and I ate with her classmates. It was fun to get to know some of them better. Afterward, Brooklyn was glad that I came and told me she wanted me to come back and eat with her again :)
Savannah had soccer practice that night, and it was SOOO cold. Probably the coldest practice I’ve ever sat through.
Savannah stayed warmer than me because she was out there running around. Her team scrimmaged another 7U team at the end of practice, and they enjoyed that.
Abigail tried some of Daddy’s coffee the next morning and was NOT a fan :)
On April 9th, both Brooklyn and Savannah had games at 11 AM. Travis took Savannah to her game at Palmer, and I took Abigail to Brooklyn’s game at Dublin. Both teams won again this week!
Savannah’s team won 4-1. Travis said she didn’t score any goals, but one time she shot the ball so hard that it hit the post and actually spun the goal around to the side! She said she had fun, and Travis said the Mighty Mermaids played a great game.
Brooklyn’s team, the Galactic Cheetahs, played great too and won 2-1 again this week. The other team actually scored first, and then our team scored 2 goals unanswered.
Brooklyn played the whole game, switching positions each quarter…
She played goalie during the 4th quarter and made some good goal kicks. She played hard and did a good job passing and dribbling out there. Proud of both girls!
Abigail made a sign to cheer Brooklyn on. I thought that was so sweet!
I ordered this framed print from Natural Life, and it sits on my bathroom ledge now. It’s a good reminder for a worrier like me!
Abigail and I went to Publix on April 11th, and she was cracking me up while we were there. She was sitting sideways in the shopping cart and saying, “Math problem me!” i.e. “Give me a math problem to do.” So I would ask her, “What is 1+1?” and she would count on her fingers to see if she could figure it out :)
Checking out a bug on the way home from school that afternoon :)
Savannah was so excited to finally be the Camper of the Week this week in Mrs. Pride’s class! She had patiently waited all year, and it was finally her turn.
As the camper of the week, Savannah was able to bring a book from home for storytime one day and bring a stuffed animal for show-and-tell on a different day. Mrs. Pride also made a slideshow about her, and Savannah was able to tell the class all about herself. She was very excited!
This was a good month to pick flowers on our way home from school :)
Brooklyn loves it when she gets home from school and finds Gabby hanging out on her bed.
Gabby sometimes joins the girls at breakfast too!
On April 14th, Abigail and I met Alisha, Luke, and Barrett at the Indian Creek Greenway. Abigail rode her bike, and the boys rode their scooters. Watching them reminded me of what a privilege it is to see the world through the eyes of a child. They splashed in puddles, rescued worms from the path, and collected treasures in Abigail’s bike basket. Their joy and excitement was contagious. Being a parent isn’t always easy, but it’s definitely a blessing.
Cousin time is the best!
The girls wore purple to school that day to show support for the military kids at Mill Creek.
Savannah gave Daddy a test with lots of school-related questions. He had trouble answering them correctly, so she helped him out ;)
I’m just glad she didn’t quiz me! ;)
Savannah’s team had practice on Friday nights this season. They had nice weather for their practice on April 15th, but it rained pretty hard overnight, so the girls’ games were both cancelled the next day.
It actually worked out nicely that the games were cancelled because we were able to go to an Easter party that Nicole and Lori planned instead. It was supposed to be at the Weatherford farm, but at the last minute, they moved it to an event venue in Ardmore. We had a great time!
They had a coloring contest, and Savannah won first place in the younger age division. When they announced her name, she raised her arms up in the air and shouted hooray :) It was so cute!
She won a golden egg with a $5 bill inside!
Her winning artwork :)
They had other games for the kids to play, and everyone played bingo after lunch.
We had a really fun time and were glad to be able to go!
Brooklyn surprised us with this sweet book that she made for us :)
The Easter bunny came that night and brought some candy and a few small things :)
The girls left some notes by their baskets that night before bed…
Abigail insisted that I write on her card just like this…haha!
The girls were up before 7 AM the next morning to see what was in their baskets ;)
I bought the girls some new dresses for Easter at Belk that were so cute. I couldn’t resist doing the matching thing one more time before Brooklyn gets too old for it ;)
It was a rainy morning, so we took some pictures early before the girls had even eaten breakfast. I bribed them with an extra piece of candy if they would give me their best smiles. It worked!
It’s hard to pick a favorite…
…but I definitely want to get one of these framed!
It’s a good thing I got pictures when I did because Abigail was in the car all bucked up in her car seat when she had a nose bleed. Brooklyn came running in the house to tell us because we were gathering up the last few things before we left for church. Blood was pouring out of her nose and all over her new dress. We had to switch sweaters, but somehow cold water and a rag got almost all of the blood out of the dress. We were close to being late to church after the cleanup process though!
Annual cousin Easter picture!
The kids did an indoor egg hunt at Cici’s after lunch. It was just too wet to have it outside. The kids lined up in Cici’s room from youngest to oldest and couldn’t wait to get started.
The kids all hunted together this time rather than splitting up into a big kid and little kid area like we usually do. They had fun and enjoyed getting some $1 bills as well as candy.
Checking out the loot!
On April 18th, Savannah’s class went on a field trip to the Cook Museum in Decatur. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go this time because they only allowed one parent per class to attend. Since I went on the fall field trip, it made sense for Mrs. Pride to let someone else go on this one. Savannah and Nancy were bus buddies that day!
It sounded like the kids had a fun time exploring all the different exhibits…
Annie was one of Savannah’s best friends in her class this year :)
Brooklyn’s class went on a field trip to the Cook Museum when she was in 1st grade too, but they didn’t have a presentation about animals or craft time afterward. I guess they’ve added those things to the field trip experience since then.
When I asked Savannah what her favorite part of the field trip was, she replied, “All of it!” :)
She came home with this “life cycle of a butterfly” made from different types of pasta. Very creative!
Abigail went with me to Walmart and wanted to organize all of the things as I put them into the cart.
Savannah hopped on the back of Abigail’s scooter on the way home from school that afternoon :)
On April 19th, Harper and Collins came over for the morning while Aaron and Emily closed on their house! We had a fun time together and spent a lot of time outside since the weather was so nice.
The kids rode their scooters down to the neighborhood playground and played for a little while…
They also chalked up our driveway! (The girls were more interested in that than Collins was…haha. He mostly wanted to run around and play.)
They spent a little time upstairs in the playroom. I liked how Collin’s wanted to dress up in a Wild Kratts costume when the girls put on their princess dresses and crowns :)
They wanted to eat a picnic lunch on the swingset, so we did that too. Abigail enjoyed having her friends to play with, and they all got along very nicely.
That night, I had my last ever haircut with Sydney. She has gotten into wedding photography in recent years and is going to be doing that full time in the future. I had her take a picture of my hair after she cut it so that I could show a new stylist how she usually cuts it. It was the end of an era because Sydney has been cutting my hair (and the girls’ hair) for years. It’s sad to have to find someone new after so long!
This month, we finalized the design for our office built-in and finally decided which company to use. We were so happy with the finished design after months of tweaks and taping things off in the office to see how it would fit. We couldn’t wait to see it actually installed!!
Brooklyn had soccer practice on April 21st, and she got to practice being goalie during a penalty kick!
April 22nd was a half day at school, and it was also the first HOUSE DAY of the school year! Yay! In a normal year, the kids are assigned to houses and meet with their “house family” a few times throughout the year. They haven’t been able to do that since before the pandemic because they didn’t want to mix up kids from different classrooms. So this was Savannah’s first time ever to meet with her house family. We had known she was in the red house (just like Brooklyn) for a while, but didn’t know who her house mom would be. She ended up with Mrs. Moore, a 3rd grade teacher. Both girls said they had a fun morning!
Savannah’s birthday party was on April 23rd (I will write about it in a separate post), and the girls wanted to help me get ready for it by helping make the icing for cookie decorating :)
Brooklyn and Savannah have turned into big readers! I love to catch them hanging out together and reading their books :)
On April 23rd, Savannah had a game at 8 AM at Palmer, and Brooklyn played at 8:30 at Dublin. I took Savannah to her game, and Travis took Brooklyn and Abigail to Brooklyn’s game this week.
Savannah’s team played a good team this week that we’d played in seasons past. The Mighty Mermaids lost 3-1, but they did great. Savannah ran hard and stopped the other team from scoring several times. She played the whole game today.
Brooklyn’s team played a team from Arab. Travis said Brooklyn sat out the first quarter. The other team scored 2 quick goals and led 2-0 after the first quarter. Brooklyn came in at striker during the 2nd quarter, and she scored within the first minute of being in the game! Travis said she just dribbled it down the field and shot it and it went in. She was very excited!
At halftime, the game was tied 2-2, but then the Galactic Cheetahs scored 3 more goals! Brooklyn’s team ended up barely hanging on to win 6-5. Brooklyn said the other team was really good, but they played really well today. I hate that I missed seeing her score. It sounded like an exciting game.
The girls were out of school on April 25th for a weather day, and they spent some time that morning playing with some of Savannah’s birthday gifts. Buildzi was a fun addition to our game collection!
They also made things out of perler beads…
After lunch, we decided to take the girls to Brown Farms in New Market to pick strawberries. Abigail caught a quick nap on the way there. She doesn’t nap consistently every day at home any more, but she will frequently fall asleep in a moving vehicle ;)
This was earlier in the season than we went last time, so we weren’t seeing quite as many ripe strawberries…but someone told us to head to the back of the field where there were PLENTY! Since it was a Monday, it also wasn’t very crowded at all.
We managed to fill up two big buckets pretty quickly!
Now that the girls are getting older, outings like this are easier because they are able to help more!
Of course, all of the strawberries didn’t make it into the bucket, but that’s to be expected ;)
We had hoped to end the afternoon with shaved ice, but their machine wasn’t working, so we settled for ice cream instead. We definitely enjoyed those strawberries for the rest of the week too. They were delicious!
I found a few things in Savannah’s church notebook that I loved and wanted to remember. Here, she made a list of what she wants to be when she grows up….a baker, chef, teacher, and a drummer :)
This is one of my all-time favorites! It appears to be a list of young to old categories ;) I’m glad she put Daddy and me in the “middle grown up” category and not further down on the list…haha!
And here is Savannah’s 1st grade class in line order :)
A super tall Buildzi tower!
We walked to school with the Dyess girls on April 27th…
Later that morning, we met some friends at the North Huntsville library for storytime. Mandee, the librarian, used to work at the Monrovia library (near our old house), and she always did a fantastic job with storytime. After we moved to Madison, we may have gone to her storytime once or twice, but it had been a long time (well before COVID). So I was excited for Abigail to get to do storytime with her again! Mandee was just as great as I remembered…she is just really good at engaging the kids in the books that she reads.
The North Huntsville library also has a really nice playground outside, and the kids enjoyed playing on it for a little while before we headed home.
Mrs. Pride shared a picture of her class from that day too :)
Brooklyn enjoyed Buildzi as much as Savannah did!
Abigail acted like she didn’t feel well on April 28th and actually took a nap before lunch…
…but she made a quick recovery and was cutting the grass that afternoon! ;)
Travis read a book to Savannah and Abigail before bed that night. Paw saved a bunch of books from when I was little, and it’s been neat for the girls to get to read the same stories that I remember reading a long time ago.
One of my favorite memories from this month was Brooklyn scootering on the back of Abigail’s scooter the whole way to school on April 29th. After she hopped on, I figured she would get off pretty quickly, but she rode with Abigail all the way to the front door of the school :)
So sweet!
That night, we walked back to school for STEAM night, which focused on the areas of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. The girls were excited about it. The first thing we did was listen to a presentation about simple machines. Most of it seemed to go over the girls’ heads, but Travis and I enjoyed it at least ;)
Their favorite station was the art area in Mrs. Baeder’s classroom…
Even Abigail got to participate!
The robotics team from the high school was there, and they showed off one of their robots.
The girls also liked the frogs from the Cook Museum. We stopped by the book fair before we left, which was Brooklyn’s favorite part ;) We bought some moon pies as we were leaving and the girls ate them on the walk back to the house. We’ve never walked back home in the dark before, and the girls thought it was a big adventure!
On April 30th, Savannah’s team played at 10 AM at Palmer. They only had 4 girls today, so they all had the play the whole game. This game, we played Madi Dew’s little sister, Ellie’s team. Madi isn’t playing this season, so we hadn’t seen the Dews since the fall. It was great to see them!
The Mighty Mermaids won by several goals…I lost count of how many. Both teams played really hard. Savannah scored a goal on a pass from Gabriella. She dribbled it all the way down the field, shot it in the goal, and then jumped up with her hands in the air when it went in :) She played really well today on defense and offense.
We hurried home for a quick lunch before Brooklyn’s game at Dublin at 12:15. This game was against a really good team from East Limestone who we later found out was made up of several players from a travel team last fall. Brooklyn’s team lost 5-1. They also didn’t have any subs, and the other team had 3 subs.
Travis got to be a sideline ref for this game…haha. We had a real ref, which rarely happens, and he asked for parent volunteers to hold the flag on the sideline and help call who kicked it out.
Brooklyn played different positions each quarter, and I could tell she was worn out pretty early on from so much running.
She did great at goalie in the 3rd quarter, and the other team didn’t score on her.
Brooklyn was pretty disappointed after the game (this was their first loss of the season), but the other team was just a better team overall.
We went straight from the game to a graduation party for the graduating seniors at KSR. I didn’t take any pictures, but Leslie sent this one to me afterward of her with Abigail :) We ended the month of April with a very busy day!
Notes and Quotes from April 2022:
- 4/2/22 – Savannah: “We need to have another baby!” Me: “Why?” Savannah: “Because then I’d have 3 choices to play with!”
- 4/3/22 – Abigail, while we are riding in the car: “Daddy, I remember the part where you had a beard. And it was so funny because you almost looked like an old man. How did it come up?” Savannah: “Because when you get old, mustaches turn into beards!”
- 4/11/22 – Abigail: “Mommy, I’m almost as tall as you! I’m up to your legs! I just have to wait a few more days, and then I’ll be a grown up!”
- 4/17/22 – Savannah: “What is Cici fixing for lunch today?” Me: “I think we are having hot wings.” Savannah: What are those? Me: They are wings of a chicken. Savannah: Will they have feathers? :)
- 4/17/22 – Tim Smith told us tonight after church that he was talking to Abigail in the lobby and jokingly said, “Do you think (baby) Adam (who was nearby) ate his sock?” Abigail exclaimed, “No!” as if she thought that was crazy. Then as she was walking off, she turned back and told him, “That was so inappropriate!” Haha. She’s not even afraid to get sassy with one of the elders!
- 4/20/22 – Abigail was talking to Rae Rae and Paw on FaceTime and said, “Guess what we’re going to be learning about in bible class tonight! The ten leopards!!”
- 4/26/22 – Abigail has taught herself how to do a “pullback” with the soccer ball. She said, “Look what I can do!” I asked her how she learned to do that, and she said, “By watching Brooklyn!” Abigail likes to go outside with me every day after lunch to kick the soccer ball around (if the weather allows, and we have time). I think she’s going to be a good little soccer player this fall!
- 4/28/22 – Abigail asked me, “Mommy, were you ever a baby?” “Yes”, I replied, “Do you know who my mommy is?” Abigail thought for a second and said, “Rae Rae was your mommy!” “That’s right,” I said, “She’s actually still my mommy.” Abigail replied, “She’s STILL your mommy?? I didn’t think grownups had mommies!” :)
- 4/30/22 – Brooklyn was helping Travis and me clean/organize Abigail’s room tonight because it was a huge mess. Papers and clutter everywhere, and it was time for a major purge. Brooklyn opened up Abigail’s nightstand drawer and exclaimed, “Peapod, what happened in here??” (Brooklyn had helped her organize that drawer a few months ago.) Abigail replied, “I un-cleaned it!” :)
Thanks for reading!!
