Fun April

My apologies for not posting in a while; wish I had a good excuse but I don't. We've been enjoying catching up with friends and taking advantage of the warmer weather this month.

We finally got to catch up with our friends Zach and Claire White who are expecting their first baby in a couple weeks. Ryan absolutely loved Zach and played with him in the yard nonstop until dinner time. It was sweet to watch the soon-to-be parents with Ryan and it's incredibly obvious they're going to be fun, wonderful parents to Baby White. We also visited our friends the Seymour's in Lawrence and were thrilled to see their little guy Harrison who is almost one and has grown up so much since we last saw them. There were very cute moments from both outings but I failed to capture them on camera. Sorry. Here are some good pics from the rest of our activities though.

Ryan has refused to swing this spring after "unlearning" how to swing over the winter and falling out of the swing back in February. So, we made major progress this month when he voluntarily swung himself at the Varone's house while we were over for dinner. (He got away from us while getting changed into his pj's and naked babies are so cute, so we let it go. Can you blame us?) We had a fun night dining with the Varones, Garretts and Prossers and the big kids did a great job looking after our little Ry Guy. The next week, he even let Zach push him in the swing when Whites came over for dinner so fortunately he's starting to overcome his fear.

While at Melissa and Russ' new house, Ryan found a tree in the back yard that was just his size for climbing.

He wore himself out running around Melissa's back yard playing with the dogs and climbing trees so he racked out on Daddy's lap.

We visited cousins Jack and Olivia, Uncle Grant and Aunt Kristen in Lawrence and Ryan had so much fun with them as always. We got to see Jack's soccer game and when we returned to their house, Jack had an amazing surprise for Ryan... his John Deere tractor! Needless to say, it's a huge hit with Ryan. Jack is such a sweet and generous little guy; he reminds me of his dad when he used to take his savings to buy things for everyone else. I don't have pictures, but earlier in the month, I got to see Olivia do her solo at her dance competition in KC and could not have been more proud. She is talented beyond her years and had so much fun performing.

We took a trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead and were joined by Zach and Charlie Collins. The little boys are so cute together and had fun petting the baby goats and watching Todd catch a fish.

This was the first goat Ryan saw and enjoyed petting.

This was the second goat he saw, and he let the goat eat right out of his hand with no hesitation at all. I think he would have fed him all day if we'd more quarters, time and arm strength.

After several rainy days, we decided to visit The Nelson for an indoor activity. Ryan was still stroller-bound the last time we visited so this time it was primarily an experiment with some art involved. He did surprisingly well and broke nothing so I think we'll venture back again for a little longer visit.

This is Ryan's preschool class during their Easter party. I heard one kid say, "Happy Birthday Easter." Hey, there were cookies and cupcakes and they're only two-years-old; seemed like a reasonable assumption to me. His class also participated in the school's program a couple weeks ago. They sequestered the two-year-olds in a separate room until it was show time, led them directly up on stage, the teachers sang a few songs and the kids spent all five minutes looking for their parents in the audience, trying to go to their parents, and in our case, being bribed with a sucker to go back up on stage and finish "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."