KolaNuts

Louis and I made a crocodile craft, idea from his Chirp magazine.

By the way, do you know the difference between alligators and crocodiles?

Adrian’s Lego dinosaur creation:

We love hugs and cuddles around here!

Louis is very ready to start school. Just a few more months, buddy! (We are hoping to put him in preschool part-time in the Fall.)

Adrian spiked his and Eli’s hair. (I helped out with Eli’s. Louis was not interested.)

Hoping these April showers are bringing us May flowers!

So, I left off the last post with about 3 bags of sand in the sandbox.

The sandbox is now full with sand, toys, and kids!

And it’s now covered when not in use.

I’m thrilled with the new addition to our yard.

We’ve been working on making our house our home, working on painting inside, decorating, and various other projects (pictures still to be taken and posted).

But now, we’ve also started on the outside.

You saw the last post on Eli playing in the dirt. Well, we’ve been dreaming about a sandbox in the yard for the kids to enjoy. We talked about location and decided on a spot near our shed, in great view from our kitchen.

The only problem was a little tree. I’m bad at taken “before” pictures…I only remember once we are in the process, but you can see the tree behind Louis on this picture from Easter Sunday.

So, Pierre started by taking it out and digging to make a spot for the sandbox (4x 5 ft).

Then he made the frame.

He had some helpers.

A fabric was put on the bottom of the frame as a “bottom”, to keep the sand from mixing with dirt, weeds growing up, etc.

And voila, a sandbox!

With a little bench. Someone was excited!

Time for the sand.

Bag #1 (of 15).

I don’t have a great “after” picture, yet, as I had to run off to bring Adrian to a birthday party, but there should be lots of opportunities for that to come.

Thanks, Pierre…the boys will have a blast with this!

…got to play in the dirt?

Yes, we have plans for making a sandbox for the boys this summer, but in the meantime…

…he had a lot of fun in there.

And guess who is in a big boy bed!?

Yup, Pierre changed his crib into a junior bed.

Next step will be to put him in a single bed in A & L’s room and baby will get Eli’s room.

I don’t think they’ll mind sharing a room!

… at the mall.

… hanging out at home.

… being silly.

… wearing their new aprons from Home Depot (with the bird feeders that they made there hanging behind them).

…tulips!

What a good husband to buy his Dutch wife tulips. Enjoying these every minute I see them.

…and a growing belly!

Half-way. About 20 weeks.

We again used our Resurrection Eggs to follow the Easter story.

We started with “Jesus Rides Into Jerusalem” (palm branches) for day 1.

Each day after supper, we would read a passage from the Bible. And after prayer, the boys could search for one egg each. In each egg was a symbol related to the story. The last egg (empty for the empty tomb), we did on Easter Sunday morning after breakfast.

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The boys and I made some crafts, which made beautiful decorations on our table. It’s a good thing that they enjoy making crafts…because I enjoy it!

The Easter lillies were made from tracing our hands. (Idea from here.)

We got some ideas for making the chicks and bunnies from googling images online, but a lot of it was creativity from the boys.

Ideas for the baskets from here and here.

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Sunday morning pictures.

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After church, the cousins came over and we had an egg hunt in our backyard.

…tacos!

I was really impressed with Eli at dinner the other night. Usually, he eats the taco shell on his own and the rest is not important. But instead, he filled his taco (except for meat) and ate it, like everyone else. I think he even had two. I didn’t get the greatest pictures to show, but he’s cute anyways!

Then the other boys wanted some pictures taken…so SMILE!

Near the end of March, we had a beautiful week of weather. It was a surprise to have summer weather so early in the Spring, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

The only picture I have, though, is us enjoying supper outside one of those evenings!

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Our teenagers watching a show.

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There is always some silliness going on around here.

It didn’t take long and he was biking mostly on his own.

So proud of you, buddy!

Caught you, Pierre!

The other boys played.

Looking forward to more beautiful days ahead!

(For all of the March pictures, click on the album on the right.)

Last weekend, we went for Mathis’ bday party.

It was a Batman & Robin theme.

Yes, that was Adrian. He wanted to wear Batman colors, so he had black and blue on. The mask he got at the party topped it off.

The boys had a great time!

The cousins together.