Adventures of a Blogosaurus: Awesome April

No, not my Mom. Even though she is pretty awesome. April was a BUSY month, it flew by in what felt like just a week. We had something going on every weekend and nearly every weeknight. Birthday parties, trips, holidays and school events. Mother nature had quite the April Fool's joke on us by giving us 86 degree temps one day and a massive hail storm the next.   Mom had fun trying to fool me that Spring Break was canceled due to bad ISAT scores by the entire school, but I didn't fall for it...ok, maybe for a minute. ;) We started off Spring Break with a mid-week trip to Chicago. Just one night, but a lot of planning went into making sure we had everything we needed for 3 kids and had some fun. Any guilt Mom had of not doing Disney that week was quickly subsided. Things did go better than anticipated though, but doing that for 6 days in Disney seems unthinkable. Sam did fine in the hotel room and even though he refused to nap on the go, he was in good spirits and we were all healthy and over our colds. The 5 of us were snuggled into a small room at the very trendy "W" on Lake Shore Drive. The temps were cold, but we managed to stay warm at Navy Pier and even rode the Ferris Wheel as a family, Mom did NOT freak out. That night we went to the famous Gino's East for pizza. It was a long wait both outside and inside, but it was worth it and the coolest part was drawing on the walls and tables before we left. The next day, Mom and I took a taxi up Michigan Ave and went a little nuts at the American Girl Place. The plan was to only spend my report card $$ there, but Mom couldn't pass up a few outfits and paid to get Kit's ears pierced and some glasses for her too. We checked out of the hotel and headed to Legoland in Schaumburg. Mom took the Sammy-sitting-shift and hung out with him while Dad took us two big kids around the two story play land complete with a roller coaster, giant lego test area and cool displays. Zach left with a nice gift and had "the best day ever"! We hit up the Cheesecake Factory for duh...cheesecake as well. In hindsight, we probably should have spent another night just to make all the packing worth it, but we were all kind of happy to come home.

The next weekend was Easter. Nana came to visit for the weekend and Grandma and Grandpa D came down as well. Turned out to be a beautiful day...can't remember eating Easter Dinner outside ever! The Bunny was good to us all and we had fun spending the weekend with our families. Mom and Dad even got to sneak out the night before for a couple of hours which they really appreciated.

On the last day of break, Mom took us to the local museum for a Dinosaur themed adventure. There were crafts, dino egg hunts and a make your own Dino costume out of recycled material. Let's just say we got RIPPED off! Our costumes were 100% "green" and very creative but we both took honorable mentions. Mom was probably more upset than us kids were. No surprise since she spent 3 hours cutting cardboard and making costumes! Some kid in a hooded bath towel with cutout ears and dinosaur jammies beat us for crying out loud!

The FOLLOWING weekend was the Girl Scout trip to St Louis. This is noteworthy because just a month ago, Mom did not see how in the world she was going to be able to leave Sam for the night. She even arranged to have a private hotel room, thinking he was going to come along and be and honorable Brownie for the weekend. But lo and behold, he started reliably sleeping thru the night and she felt safe to leave him. We kept so busy that she didn't have time to worry too much. We did the City Museum on Saturday, swimming and dinner that night and the Gateway Arch on Sunday. The Arch was simply amazing and if you have never done it, you really should. The history of the construction is an incredible story. Mom is so glad she went and I was too. The boys did fine back home, but the only downfall was Sam decided on Monday he didn't want to nurse anymore, so he's strictly a bottle-baby now. Mom was pretty sad, but Sam was ready so it's all for the best. After the tears were shed, she's kind of happy to be finished up now.

Moving on...geeesh, that's only half of the month! Dad's birthday was the next weekend. We went up to the farm on Saturday so Zach could finally do some "plowing". We celebrated Ben's birthday and came home that day.   On Sunday, Dad got the birthday he dreamed of...relaxing, computer games, a nice solitary 2 hour hike and then cherry chip cake, dinner at Burger Barge and presents. Mom can't tease him too much about his age since she's right around the corner.

The following weekend was our Daddy/Daughter weekend. We had the annual dance on Saturday night and then horseback riding with the Girl Scouts. Plus, he spent the entire weekend helping me build my log cabin for our pioneer project at school. It's almost done now, just some finishing touches to be put on.

So much more for the rest of the month...Zach has a wiggly tooth (and totally freaked out about it), Sam is army crawling from here to China and back and never seems to get tired. He can sit up now from a belly position which makes him SO much happier now. No more running over to sit him up when he's flopping around like a fish out of water. And he is consistently sleeping from 8:30-7:20 EVERY night, finally!! Mom has spent a good deal of time this month bawling about how big her baby is. Oh and Papa Miller stopped on his way back from FL last week to say hello for a bit. We were happy to see him. We'll be heading to WI this weekend (May 4th) for a visit while Dad goes and tries to stay out of trouble in Aurora.   This month will be even crazier with end of year programs, Pioneer Plays, Teeball practices and soccer starting up! Should be lots of fun!