March "in-betweens"...and everything

March started out with dress up week at Tatum's preschool. I only took a picture for a couple of the days. For dress up as what you want to be when you grow up Tatum chose to dress up as a doctor. :)

Crazy hair day. I don't have a creative bone in my body so I struggled with this one. This is the best I could come up with, one pony tail and one braid with a headband and lots of mismatched bows too.

 Declan helped grandma make bread one day. Mostly he just played with the flour. :)

 We went to a fun playgroup at the library where we got to listen to a woodwind quintet.

 We got to have Carly and Emma over to play.

 Hide and seek was a favorite on this particular day.

Emry turned 5 months and we had a pretty stellar photo shoot, if I must say so myself. ;)

Tatum had spring break in March. Luckily we didn't have anything too wonderful planned since we got a decent amount of snow on the first day of break.

The kids weren't nearly as disappointed by the snow as I was.

 After Brennan got home from work we went sledding with the Pitchforths.

 Love this picture of the boys!

 I bundled Emry up so I wouldn't have to miss out on all the fun and she ended up snoozing in the car the whole time. She is a dream!

 Those cheeks and that hat. It kills me.

When they came in for a break from the cold we entertained ourselves with my old instruments. The kids had fun trying out my trumpet and I enjoyed trying to remember the fingerings on the violin.

 Tatum got her hair cut during spring break. We were headed to the Children's Museum and I saw online that a salon nearby was giving free haircuts as part of a training. Couldn't pass that up!

Before.

 After.

 I managed to do some St Patrick's day crafts with the kids. This is quite uncharacteristic of me so I was very proud. :)

 Tatum usually misses out on the library since we go while she is at school. A trip to the library was top of her list of things to do over spring break. One of the local libraries has a different picture hunt every week. My kids love doing it. This week they were hunting for pictures of different cat characters from books.

 I tried to channel my inner "Denice Cardon" on St Patrick's day. :) I started out by making some green muffins for breakfast. They were made with spinach and I got the recipe from a favorite, and trusted, blog I frequent. Unfortunately they were quite disappointing. Tatum told me they tasted like play doh. :/ Declan ate about five though and Brennan seemed to think they were okay. Luckily we made a little scavenger hunt that led to a box of Lucky Charms so Tatum could still have a holiday themed breakfast. hahahahaha.

 We were invited to a fun St Patrick's day part at the Hassell's. The kids had a great time.

 We went straight from the party to the SaPaDaPaSo parade. Yes, Tatum is wearing a Christmas sweater. Apparently she doesn't have a lot of green in her wardrobe.

 Declan fell asleep on the way home from the parade and stayed asleep when I brought him in.

 We had to go to Chick Fil A for a free green ice cream cone!

 And we made browned butter curry lentil soup and naan for dinner. It was green and it was yummy.

Emry had some oatmeal cereal and applesauce. It was her first time having solids!

We had a good visit with my old friend Grant. We have been friends since we were 4 years old, kind of crazy!

 We hit up Culver's for their monthly superhero and princess night.

 The best is that it ends up being two treats because we save the ice cream for another day and get to go back!

 Emry went a looooong time without pooping. Like well over a week. I actually started to worry about it which is unusual. Finally she gifted us with this:

Cute baby, learning to sit up. Luckily trusty Dukey is behind her to help soften her landing. 

 Pretty Tatum.

 I thought I'd get some cute pictures of these two before church one day but we ended up being in such a hurry I didn't even realize my "backdrop" wasn't over far enough. Oh well.

 Awwwww.

 We had our first tornado warning in March. If you know me at all, you probably know I'm freakishly paranoid about tornados. So yes, we moved all three kids from the second level down to the basement. The storm was past us in probably 10 or 15 minutes but I guess it was worth it for my peace of mind. :)

 Emry became obsessed with blowing raspberries.

 One day Declan told me his ear hurt. So I gave him tylenol and he climbed up on my lap and fell asleep. He was fine for the rest of the day and then complained about his ear again at bed time. Some tylenol seemed to do the trick again. His ear was covered in wax when he woke up in the morning but his ear never bothered him again. We had a similar occurrence just this last week.

 We got a video baby monitor for free to do some product testing and reviewing. It came with two cameras so we get to spy on all the kids, it's kind of fun.

 The kids have started asking if they can sleep in the same bed every once in awhile. I kind of find it sweet how much they like each other so we usually say yes. As you can see on the monitor above, it doesn't always result in kids going to sleep very quickly haha.

 Declan coloring the temple after family home evening one week.

 Her eyes!

 My whole world. Sometimes life seems overwhelming and stressful and complicated. But then I see a picture like this and it all gets put into perspective.

 We went to the sports class at the library again. This time it was basketball. Unfortunately Coach Jed couldn't be there and his substitute just wasn't as good as the real thing. Declan still had a good time though.

 Free cone day at Dairy Queen. Don't mind if we do!

Climbing in the tree out front on a particularly nice day.

 Crazy bedhead. And crazy messy room.

Poor girl!

 :)

 We enjoyed some beautiful weather and picnic at Thomas Park.

 Farm Day at Hills Bank.

 Nothing I love more than tons of random toys from all over the house all around the kitchen.

 Random picture, but it was so weird to me I had to document. I left the garage door open between preschool drop off and pick up one day. At some point during the morning I opened the door to the garage to throw some recycling out and a bird suddenly flew around and it startled me. I thought nothing more of it until I got in the van to go get Tatum and there was bird poop on my windshield! A bird seriously flew inside my garage and took a dump on my car! How annoying!

 Brennan turned the big 3-0! I will not be receiving wife of the year award for this one that is for sure. I'm afraid I didn't do the whole "love language" thing right in this particular instance. I recognized his birthday in quiet, family-only ways. Exactly what I would enjoy. I didn't think enough about what Brennan would enjoy (something more social, maybe even a surprise party) so I think it was a bit of a let down. Hopefully he managed to have an okay day.

I made him breakfast muffins for breakfast. And didn't even manage to get a picture of him looking at the camera haha.

 My indecisiveness knows no bounds. I wanted to get him new cologne for his birthday but couldn't decide what kind to get so I made him a card with his options and made him choose.

 The birthday boy with his biggest fans.

 The kids and I planned to decorate his car while he was at work with window markers. Unfortunately it was a rainy day. We still tried but it was mostly futile.

 Opening presents.

 Tatum had a day off so she got to join us for a story time. It was a little young for her and she asked to hold Emry for some of the lap bounces so I let her. And suddenly I saw myself out of a job. :)

And if you're still with me, congratulations! I feel like I say this every month, but man that was a doozey!

I'll leave you with this little treat. One Sunday we were apparently feeling pretty bored while we hung out at my parents' house. Next thing you know we are having jumping contests. The lighting was horrible but I did decide to video tape one of the contests with all the boys. Don't mind my ridiculous, uncalled for giggle at the end. Simple minds, simple amusements I guess. :)