April

Matthew is the first to rise in the mornings so he can get ready for school.  His brothers could sleep in if they wanted to, but they very rarely do.  They sit at the table and support their big brother.  And they are endlessly amused by him.  These 3 boys are buddies, and it is the sweetest thing to watch.

Steven and I had a hot date out on our own (thanks to Aunt Pam!).  We saw The National perform at ACL live.  It was a great venue for old folks like us who don't really care to stand for the entire show and would rather sit and gently bob our heads to the music.  It was a great show.

In April we took the kids back to Sweet Berry Farms but this time with our Rener friends.  This time, there were strawberries galore!  We only went down one aisle and collected 3 full baskets worth.  Huge, ripe, red berries ready to eat.

The kids had a blast picking them and trying to find the reddest and biggest ones.  Johnny loved running up and down the aisles, picking the fruit and saying hi to the goats.  He looks like he's got something in mind, doesn't he?

Ava & Matt always scale this fence and gaze at the horses.

I came home with a huge load of berries.  Most of which we either ate or I put in the freezer for future baked goods and margaritas!

After all that berry picking we went back to the Rener's to dye Easter eggs and bake resurrection rolls, a little tradition we've tried to continue throughout the years.  They were all very focused.  Johnny frustrated all of them by moving the eggs around to different dye baths.  Maybe next year he'll get it.  :)

Easter Sunday we enjoyed early church together before Steven had to be at work.

That afternoon we went over to Mimi & Papa's to celebrate with family.  Lucy brought her tiny little toy animals, and she & Johnny had a ball looking at them and attempting to make all their animal sounds.  Uncle Bryan got them going with monkey sounds.

After we ate a fantastic ham dinner with all the yummy accompaniments, the kids were dying to hunt eggs.  The waiting was unbearable.  Why is it taking so loooooooooong???  Well, because there was a ridiculous amount of eggs to be hidden!

And then they took off.  John really didn't understand the concept at all.  I helped him find his first egg, and he proceeded to do exactly what Matt did at that age: he sat right down, opened it, and ate all the jellybeans inside that egg.  He found all he needed!

Will's excitement is so cute, and I love Matt inventorying his egg stash in the background.

The two Hanks.  Such cute trouble.

Look at all those kids!  Thankful they were still enough for a picture.

My beautiful nieces.  Growing up.

I kept finding Will passed out in the living room chair on more than one occasion.  He for sure needs more sleep than Matthew but won't stay in bed in the morning and sleep after he hears Matt get up.  Lately though, I've trained Matt to quietly tip-toe out in the mornings without turning on his light and come out in the living room and read, and thankfully Will will stay asleep now.

Matt had a research project at school.  The kids were all assigned a different fruit to research and gather facts about.  They had to collect information on their fruit and write down facts on index cards.  They also had to make a food friend to present to the class as well as the parents one morning.  Matt was assigned star fruit.  His food friend turned out pretty well I think.  And, to brag on my son, the teacher was so impressed with his fact cards that she asked if she could keep them as an example for future students.  :)

And, here's Will and his cool moves.