So, we had a fun Easter and birthday.  My Dad came down for a couple of days and it was good to talk with him.  He played songs on the guitar for the kids... I'm glad my kids get to have memories of him doing that.  We alternated between David's house and our house to spend time with Dad.  I had a good birthday! I woke up to hearts with messages cascading down the stairs.  We had all of the in-town family and Dad over for dessert (my favorite Nadler's cake from Carol), I opened presents and cards from everyone, and then we had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids.

The big news is that we're having a girl!  So excited!  The baby is healthy and measuring a little big, so the baby might come a little earlier than expected.  I wrote "It's a girl!" on pink paint sample cards I had picked up from the store and delivered them to the kids' schools.  The kids are very excited.

I spent a few days this last week trying to teach Emma to swim with a 1-week trial membership I got to a gym.  While she's made a lot of progress she still will not leave the wall or let me hold her away from the wall without screaming bloody murder.  So, I don't think she'll do Swim Team this year... next year definitely though.  Try-outs are in two weeks and its just not enough time to fully teach her to swim on her own without a pool I can go to every day.  I bet she'll be a good swimmer by the end of summer though.

Logan lost one of each of his two pairs of tennis shoes and so he was wearing his church shoes all week.  I had the kids go check the mail and down at the end of the street they found Logan's other tennis shoes.  Apparently, he had worn them mismatched to play and left them at the end of the street.  *Rolling my eyes.

On Friday, I took the kids to the zoo and Emma and Logan had a great time seeing the animals.  When we got to the zoo we realized that Emma had somehow taken off her shoes before we got into the car to leave and nobody had noticed... and the zoo was far away and we got one of the last parking spaces available.  So, luckily I had an extra pair of crocks in the car that Logan was able to wear and then Emma wore Logan's shoes.  We tried buying shoes in the gift shop but they didn't have Emma's size or anything near her size.  Nobody complained and we got to see everything, so the shoe situation worked out.  The 3 oldest loved feeding the Lorikeets and Cameron at one point had one bird on his head eating nectar and another on his arm.  No, I didn't get pictures because my camera died just before we got to the Lorikeets.  Then we went to Jason's Deli (the kids' favorite place to eat) and then swimming.  I was exhausted but we all had a fun day.  Then yesterday was a work day.  Errolyn and I worked hard on the inside cleaning and Mike and Cameron worked hard on the front yard.  Logan cleaned inside and then also went out to help the boys.  Emma enjoyed helping Errolyn with her chores.  I think we all worked for 5-6 hours straight.  My motto is "work hard, play hard."  Since we'd had a fun day the entire day on Friday the kids knew Saturday would be our work day.  I'm glad that my kids know how to work hard... I think its an important habit/ skill to learn.

Kathy and Grandma just came over to get some of my extra artichoke plants that sprouted to the side of my big one.  Apparently they were $24 a plant at the nursery, so I was glad I had some extra offshoots that they could have.

Other than that, my left ear is still slightly clogged but a lot better, my ptyalism is still ruining my life (not really just super annoying), but at least I'm not sick and able do things with the kids and around the house now.  :)