New Hôm Nay

MauldenNews April 2011

Hi all,

April was a busy month for us - I worked my 2-week full-time on-call hospital rotation, and we celebrated Easter and Sam's birthday. Happily we had Bryan's mom (Nana) here too, which was awesome as usual.

Happenings this month - in no particular order:

Alex, protesting an enforced bedtime despite her creative juices flowing at full speed: "But Mom, can't you see I'm making a PROTOTYPE?" Sure enough, she knows what a prototype is: "Something that is the only one in the world."

For Sam's 5th birthday we had a successful wild rumpus party, complete with pinata (our first!). Twelve kids and 11 adults made it lively enough.

First the burro's head came off, but the candy was still all down in the other end...





Weather in April was typical for Utah. We went hiking in 70+ degree weather one day and had 10 inches of snow the next. We actually went sledding last weekend - on April 30 - at a local park. Hopefully that's the last time until winter.



Alex made her own gifts for her teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day - each got a plastic baggie with a Clementine, toffee bits from a restaurant ice-cream topping bar, and a sesame cracker.

Alex also locked me and Sam out of the house one day. Grrrrrrrrr. Luckily for me, our renter was home and opened the basement door for me. I now have a spare key hidden in a special location.

I had the kids loaded in the car to go to school one day and found the car's battery was dead. While I was busy getting it jump-started, using the renter's car (second time she saved me that day!) the kids were playing in the yard. Only after I got the car going again did I realize that they had been eating dandelions. Alex heard they were OK to eat and convinced Sam to eat some. Yummy yummy.

Alex put a purple band-aid on her forehead one day and wore it to school and church. When people asked what happened, she said, "I'm not really hurt. I just like to wear this for extra attention."

For Easter we tried a new recipe: "Empty Tomb" rolls. You wrap marshmallows in dough and bake, leaving rolls with an empty space in the center. They were awesome, and easy. I can see these becoming a family tradition. We also dyed eggs and had Easter egg hunts at home and at church. Bryan and I were up until midnight or so assembling new bicycles for the kids. They were thrilled with their first 2-wheelers (though they are totally dependent on the training wheels). The only shadow of the day was when Alex figured out that the Easter bunny was actually...mom and dad. She was actually pretty mad, but recovered. She still seems to believe in the tooth fairy, but I'm not sure how long that will last.



And that is about it for now. See you next month. As always, keep in touch.