The past weeks have been full of fun for us! We’ve gone to several gatherings including play dates, birthday parties, picnics and we’ve been playing outside and going to parks quite often as well. Hank went to one of his pals from music class, Jaiden’s birthday party at “the mouse place” as Hank calls it. He had a blast playing all the games and eating pizza. Hank played ski-ball for the first time in his life and really seemed to like it – he’s been asking to go bowling since then. Right after that party, we went to a cheese tasting and Hank was in heaven! He’s quite the pro now at selecting a utensil and spearing cheese. We were rather surprised to learn he enjoys Topo Chico Toronja – a fizzy grapefruit drink from Mexico. We gave him Sprite once and he pulled a face and shook his head so its interesting to us that he likes this drink.
the gorgeous ball run Ty made for Hank
Later in the month we met some of our friends for a lovely picnic. Hank had fun running around with Ismail and Sebnem and of course eating all the delicious food. We are so blessed to have such fabulous cooks among our friends and Hank is a big fan of Turkish cuisine so he enjoyed himself immensely at the picnic.
Tyler built Hank a ball run for the backyard – its beautiful! In typically Tyler fashion, he didn’t just make a ball run (my idea was to use new gutters and cut holes on the ends, angle them and send whiffle balls down), he actually designed one (of course, the engineer that he is) – and even incorporated an old xylophone we’d picked up at a garage sale. Not only does Hank have a gorgeous wooden ball run (complete with little wooden balls), he has one that allows the balls to play the descending C scale as they roll. He loves it of course (as we all do!) and literally jumped up and down cheering when the balls made it to the bottom the first several times (sometimes he still does the jumping cheering). Tyler also put in a raised bed for us so now we are trying more vegetables and fruit. We put acorn squash, cantaloupe, beans, peas, carrot and radish in – we’ll see how they do. Our neighbors (and friends), Niko and Isabella, came over to help us plant the new garden and its been great fun watching everything grow. So wonderful to see Hank checking the plants every day and then exclaiming when he saw teeny radish sprouts, “The plants are awake!!”.
Hank has been enjoying hanging out with some of his cousins. He had fun getting cookies with his cousins, Kai, Connor and Mia Hope recently. Sweets and family, fun times! We celebrated Easter at Grandpa and Grandma’s house this year. We went to church with them and Hank enjoyed a pancake breakfast and an egg hunt there. He thought the whole thing very cool. He also saw (and heard) a trumpet player during the service and was quite impressed. Now when we hear trumpets in music, he often says “Do you hear the trumpet? I really like that.” Hank’s cousin, Michael, celebrated his birthday a few weeks ago. Hank had a blast at the party! Michael had a big gaming party and Hank got to play Mario Kart for the first time in his life – he had a good time. There was laser tag, several different games, balloons, cake – very fun times and Hank slept hard when he got home from that party. We’ve been enjoying going to baseball games this season. Hank really likes the experience and the music. He was fascinated by the activities in the bullpen last time we went. He loves to run up and down the berm and laughs and laughs. He doesn’t seem sure what to make of the mascot. He went to a game one night with Tyler and our friend, John and they ended up sharing funnel cake (he’d never had funnel cake before). So the next game we went to, Hank ended up reading a sign (he put his finger on the letters and sounded it out – it was amazing!) then told us he needed one. Too funny! I’m sure I’m forgetting some of our adventures over the past few weeks – they’ve been incredibly full, but here are several photos for your enjoyment.
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