March was hands down our busiest month so far this year. We were in and out of town, Sarah had 10 shows in less than 3 weeks, Hank had several play dates and story times and music classes and visits to GG and Grandad’s and Tyler was super busy with work and editing together 90 years worth of photographs for a special family project (as well as taking loads of beautiful new photos). Cody (our dog) had surgery to remove some major tumors from his chest. We’re honestly not sure how long he is for this world, but he seems to feel much better since the surgery and is back to more of his usual antics than he was before.
Hank enjoyed icing this cake, and then licking the utensils
Hank is hilarious and every day is a new adventure with him! He’s still really into cooking and loves to make quiche in particular. I think we ate quiche about once a week last month. Hank is taking after his dad with a love for meat (when we ask him what he wants for dinner, he often says “I’d like cow, please.”) and last time he put bacon in the quiche, it was so densely packed that the eggs never actually made it to the bottom of the crust. There was a complete layer of bacon – Hank loved it! We celebrated a few birthdays in March. Hank really enjoyed having a special steak dinner with his Uncle Josh and helping to make a cake for Patrick (his godfather) – the icing was his favorite part (everyone loves chocolate, right?). He also really liked going to a Celtic festival for GG’s birthday and playing in his sandbox with Megan (it wasn’t her actual birthday that day though). Unfortunately, his cousin, Mia Hope, ended up getting injured on a playground and her birthday party (which was to involve a bouncy house – a big hit with Hank) was cancelled so we didn’t get to celebrate in person with her. We did a bunch of planting in late March and Hank has really enjoyed checking on all the plants to see how much they’ve grown and if there are any buds or blossoms yet. We never knew gardening with a toddler could be so much fun!
Hank has fun painting on his easel
Games are a big deal at our house now. Hank is *very* into playing games. His current favorites are Candy Land, Hulabaloo, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Sum Swamp, Picture Link and memory matching games. We play several of these games each day (sometimes all of them!) – Hank just loves to play his games! We don’t really think he knows what it is yet, but he’s been asking us about Chutes and Ladders (he heard us talking about how we used to plat that game when we were little) so we have a feeling we’ll be adding that one to Hank’s game collection soon. Hank got a lesson in painting on the easel and he’s been having lots of fun with that. Its fascinating watching him paint and then he announces what his painting is called or what its about – he really likes creating. Reading is still Hank’s all time favorite activity. He loves to read with us and thanks to BSF (a Bible study Hank and Sarah attend), Hank is perfectly content to sit beside us rather than in our laps (the children sit in a semi-circle during story time at BSF so everyone can see, no one sits in laps). Its kind of bittersweet watching his little vestiges of babyhood slowly phase out. But its so much fun to see him growing in his independence and he still loves hugs and kisses so we won’t be too sad about not cuddling to read together anymore. When we go to the library to pick out books, Hank is usually more interested in the computers there now than the books, but he is always pleased when we get home and he gets to read all the books together. Its fun!
Hank fills up Henry's car
We’ve been enjoying the lovely weather and Hank even went to a garden party at his friend, Henry’s house. The boys were less interested in planting the garden than they were in digging up the newly planted vegetables. Hank and Henry always have so much fun together and it makes me happy to see Hank interact with his friends. Hank is still enjoying music class and we just started a new session near the end of March. We moved to a different day due to a schedule conflict, and Hank is having a good time making new friends – which is also nice to see. Hank went to his very first play in March. He saw his cousin, Michael, perform in a production of “Beauty and the Beast”. Hank was a little frightened by the beast (whose entrance was announced by a fierce growl) but decided he wanted to stay for the entire play. He said his favorite part of the play was the music. We’ve had a blast visiting the library, parks and playgrounds, exploring and hiking, seeing loved ones and special friends, making music and laughing a lot. While March was crazy busy for us, we’ve been having the best time and here are photos from some of our adventures.
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