Tappana Times: April

Besides Spring Break in Utah, us Tappanas had a pretty good April. Lydia started her science class.

She decided to give dance class a break and try out an engineering class through the community. Science is her favorite subject at school and she was excited at the possibility of learning more. Every class she came home thrilled with her bridges, triangles, light bulb conducting play-dough, and rocket launcher.

I did some crafting of my own and made an adorable dream-catcher wreath for my door. A post on the making of this is in the works.

And it's much cuter in person.














With spring on the rise, so were the dandelions in our yard. I put HOURS and days of work into pulling them out. You have to get them before they go to seed and spread their filth even further.

We have a giant backyard and a decent-sized front yard. I worked each day until that garbage can and each of those buckets were filled at least once. Usually, more than that. A week later our yard was dandelion free.

Along with my back and legs, my kids were constant complainers. Wanting to teach them the value of work and working together as a family, I made them come out with me. At first they helped pull weeds but when I noticed they couldn't get the roots, I had them take over on baby duty. Kendrick's face accurately depicts how we all felt when I announced we were headed out again. Keeping the baby happy while I worked was a job all on it's own. The baby hated it, the kids hated it, and I just wanted to weed and listen to my audiobook in peace.

By time the yard was cleared, I never wanted to see a dandelion again. I'm sure they will make their appearance again, but the overwhelming numbers are currently overcome.

In April Kendrick moved to his own room and I began to miss listening to his sweet baby snores at night.

I had hoped that it would solve his waking up early, but his 6 am wake up call has remained consistent.

Lydia had her first grade Pajama party performance. Good luck finding her in the sea of first graders.

Lydia had a speaking part, but unfortunately her shyness kicked in and I couldn't understand a word she said as she mumbled through it.

She was also included in a special dance number in which she danced with a stuffed animal. There was some drama and lots of tears about her friends calling her pink monkey creepy, but it was all forgotten as she did a great job dancing with her monkey.

Lydia and Ammon wanted to play outside and since Brigham had just mowed the lawn, I told them they could if they wore clothes that they didn't care getting grass stains on. They ended up matching exactly.

Then when I told them to pose for a picture together, this is what they did. I just love how much they love each other.

Now if only they would play in our giant, beautiful, fenced-in backyard. No matter how much I push they don't want to play out back; they prefer to play out front, where the busy road is and where creepos can watch them and I have to check on them constantly. Drives me crazy.

Speaking of going crazy, at the end of April we all came down with a nasty cold. After being cooped in the house for days, and with beautiful weather, I couldn't take it and we went to the park to get some fresh air.  It was such a gorgeous day and Mount Ranier looked so pretty.

We're lucky to live somewhere so beautiful. And it helped rejuvenate our spirits. Spring colds be darned.