April Awesomeness

1: The second week in April was testing week at Bree and Mason's school. Since the other grades needed extra classrooms for testing, the kindergarteners had full-day field trips Tuesday through Friday! This was a big deal to our half-day kindergartener. And a big deal for me too, since it meant that during the 2-1/2 hours Lincoln was in preschool, I was all by myself! Totally alone! It was strange and wonderful. I am proud to say that I wasted away my hours of solitude being totally unproductive.
2: Chad and I had made plans to go to the temple together one Friday (Chad hasn't been to the Gilbert Temple since the open house), and we had a babysitter for Lincoln all lined up. Chad had an MRI for his wrist that morning (he messed it up punching our heavy bag in our backyard), and the procedure was running a little long. But I was pretty sure we could still make it to the temple. I was really excited because I had found a bunch of family names that morning, and was ready to do some baptisms and sealings. Then he called me to say that the wheel fell off the Suburban...."Huh?" I replied intelligently. The actual wheel fell off. Not just the tire. The wheel. Luckily he was in a school zone at the time--things could have been really ugly if he had been going fast when it happened. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the temple that day. After getting a tow he got a ride home with our Home Teacher (who was "coincidentally" passing by at the time). Then we did the only logical thing. Drowned our sorrows with greasy Smashburgers.
3: This was really a banner week for us. Our air conditioning stopped working. My cousin, who deals with A/C for a living, literally saved us. He rearranged his entire schedule so we wouldn't have to suffer another 90+ degree day without cooling. We thanked him profusely as the blessedly cold air was again coming out of our vents. We tried not to dwell on the thousands of dollars that our catastrophic week was costing us.
4: A high point amid the stress was our semi-annual community carnival. I entered my favorite pie in the pie contest, which turned out to be just me and one other guy. I totally won.
5: Lincoln turned three! I totally dropped the ball and didn't even make cupcakes for his preschool class (gasp!). But he didn't seem to mind.
6: We try to keep the pantry door closed most of the time...because if we don't, this happens. Lincoln knows exactly where we keep the candy. And if we don't have actual candy, he knows that chocolate chips will do in a pinch.
7 and 8: We don't go to too many of ALA's family activities, because we are usually busy. But when it was "Frozen" pajama-party-movie night, I couldn't say no. We took our own snacks, but Mason cannot resist blowing his hard-earned allowance anytime he sees something he wants. He had to have a tattoo. And Bree totally ditched us for her friends. That's the way it should be, right?
9: I made the most adorable and delicious cupcakes the day before our family Easter celebration. That night three of us started throwing up. So not only did we not get to go to the Easter party, I was stuck with 5 dozen cupcakes that no one else could eat without risking getting sick. They are still in the freezer. I figure it's probably safe if I eat them. But I'm not sure I'll be able to think about eating them any time soon.
10 and 11: It was totally time for Lincoln to graduate his crib. We were just enjoying the fact that he was not able to climb out of it, and we dreaded making the transition to a big bed. He and Mason share a room, and we knew he would just keep getting out of bed to play. So Chad took the side off the crib and put it on the bottom bunk. Problem solved. It's a...big boy crib. Not a baby jail, despite appearances.
12: Chad's parents stayed with us the weekend of Bree's baptism. Fran bought some beautiful flowers to put on the table, and they were barely open on the big day. Still beautiful though. I took this picture a few days later to send to her, proving how lovely they were. We hardly ever have real flowers in the house, and I enjoyed their cheeriness while it lasted.