What?? The middle of April??

Yeah, that "tomorrow" sure was a long time coming. I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday. I can't believe April is more than half over. I can't believe we have a little more than a month left before school is out! I can't believe the amount of laundry I have and how defiant our personal possessions are, throwing themselves on the floor when we're not looking. But I digress...

We finally got a beautiful breath of fresh air today...it was sunny and 70! We've had a crazy couple of days this week, but today, after I took Mindy to drumline and picked Abby up from Color Guard, the kids actually had time to play outside while I made dinner. Caroline was beside herself with joy! She LOVES to be outside. Unfortunately, we're going to have to figure out some way to secure the doors very, VERY SOON. She has easily mastered the deadbolts, and I am having a heart attack almost daily. She's also mastered climbing up the fort and onto the slide all by herself. I had to swallow the lump in my throat when a memory of how little she was just a year ago flashed before my eyes. She is more and more a big girl everyday. Here are a few more shots from today. The story behind the first set is that Abby decided it would be fun to go head first down the slide. And, of course, Caroline thought that was pretty cool. She was up on that slide and on her way down when Mickey sprang into action, grabbed her ankle and eased her down. Then he insisted that he, as big brother, take her safely down himself...the proper way. "Proper, schmoper" was, I believe, Caroline's response to that idea.

The next three are so very reflective of my son's personality...he was doing a "look, Mom" with his paper airplanes and apparently, very accurately aimed one at my head. In the middle picture, you can see the second plane has yet to launch...destination? My eyeball. And in the last one, you can see my son's reaction.

And I totally spaced posting our egg coloring escapade...I was amazingly calm throughout most of the experience...although about halfway through, as eggs started dropping into the dye with less and less fragility, I wondered what sick idiot thought up this tradition. Really, it was fun, thanks to the sedatives...no, seriously, I have learned to laugh (mostly as a coping mechanism) in the face of danger. Despite the look of sheer boredom on Abby's witty little face, they ALL had a fun time. I had no other choice but to laugh when my son stuck his HAND into the orange dye to retrieve his egg because he just couldn't wait for his turn with the tongs. And I have no idea what Caroline was up to with the blue egg, but shortly after that photo was taken, the blue egg mysteriously had an altered appearance. And believe it or not, no clothes were stained in the making of this memory...

Next up...the rest of the Easter pictures...