April 2k19: all the rest

One morning at work, I started getting random texts and phone calls asking me about some raspberry starts. After initially dismissing them with a 'Sorry, wrong number' I decided to look into it a bit after more calls... and thus I found this craigslist ad. That was about the same time I realized the date was April 1st...

Some stealth detective work... aka Marco Polo'ing... revealed the prank master as the one and only Nycole. (Also this is one of my favorite candid pictures of her. I think it's what I have saved as her contact info in my phone...)

Nycole had been awfully busy that morning, as Emily and her non-existent free baby goats can attest:

Ah yes, and Paulina and her 'free' squatty potty - oh my gosh, we all died laughing. Freaking Nycole!!

That being said, we did miss her terribly the next week at girls' night. It did make it easier to plot our revenge, however!

Caption via instagram: Feeling like we got a future ENT on our hands 👩🏻‍⚕️👂🏻👃🏻👅🏥🔦💰🔬💊💁🏻‍♀️

Adventures at Grandma's house: bike rides, play doh, modeling, reading books (and calendars?):

Carma and I sneaked out for a girls' night to watch a cheerleading and dance showcase - SO fun. 

Easter sneaked up on us a bit, but luckily Chuck's parents came into town prepared! The kids had the best time dyeing eggs in the backyard with cousins and Grandma Izatt!

Quick egg hunt in the front yard...

We had a fun dinner out with Chuck's family, including Casey and Caleigh and their cutest girlie Claire. Carma and Claire (and Jack!) were pretty mesmerized by this water display at the front of the restaurant!

Doesn't everyone get the best sleep cuddling with their sibling after kicking their mom out of HER OWN BED? OHHH, just Jack and Carma? Cool.

Avengers: Endgame was released into theaters, and these four (plus Grandma Pam!) saw it the first Tuesday available. 

So happy for all of them.

More Carma Junie randomness... all related to Dad. Who else would encourage her desire to collect weird slugs along the path? Or upgrade her on a bike that looks entirely too big for my tiny little girl? 

And who would let her walk around with this crazy ensemble on?? Oh, yeah, that was definitely me ;).

Accidental brother matching requires a photo shoot:

These two middle boys are pretty lucky to have each other... most of the time ;).

Random evening at West Park:

Is having Jack unload the dishwasher efficient? Not at all, haha. Is it entertaining? Very much so!!

Clyde gave me a heart attack when he started sporting these random spots along his outer ear. I'll save y'all the mess o' googling that ensued, it's something about kids and a reaction almost allergy to the sun? Said it wasn't a big deal, so I moved on!

Clyde inherited the use of an old iPhone 4s for when he's home with the other kids alone, so I took the opportunity to hook him up with an awesome lockscreen reminder.

Cute little team working on a puzzle:

I'm borderline obsessed with this tree - look at the leaves starting to pop out! Yayyyy spring!!

Instagram caption: In these busy life it’s SO important to carve out time for your marriage! Sometimes it’s in Boise at 5am trying to jump the car that died on Chuck last night during rush hour construction 😳🚧😂 but any time together can be special- like how Chuck bought me a chocolate milk at Walmart with the tow strap #romanticbreakfast Another pro tip: driving in separate cars back home doesn’t have to end the date; just stay on speaker phone together and your connection will be as tight as the tow strap💕... minus the one intersection where it broke off #whoops 😬😅. Sure love Chuck, sure hate car problems, sure happy with life all around though 🙌🏼.

A few more pictures to really set the scene... being towed is NOT my favorite but Chuck's a rockstar and super patient with me and I wasn't tooooo late to work, so that's good!

Chuck had been looking at scooters for a while, so when Yoshi's Idahoan counterpart popped up on craigslist, we obviously had to go take a look.

Which may have led to a test drive... which may have led to a purchase.

Carma and I drove home behind Chuck and the new scooter. It was a very slow drive home haha.

We didn't take a helmet with us, so we were grateful when the seller tossed in this (admittedly small) helmet with the sale. Chuck wore it the whole drive home, then popped it atop both Carma and Jack for some rides around the neighborhood.

It was then stashed on the sidewalk momentarily and we caught side of this wee stowaway inside:

AND THEN WE ALL HAD A HEART ATTACK WHEN WE KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE HELMET AND CAUGHT SIGHT OF ITS BELLY. 

It's cool, just a black widow that spent like 45 minutes right next to Chuck's freaking scalp. And then hung out in close proximity to both Jack and Carma. 

After its death and a moment of silence, I took a couple spins on the scooter sans helmet. Felt safer.

April = the cute springtime birthday of our lovely Katie - she was out of town that day but Clyde was able to hand off her gift a couple days later and of course I made the two of them take a quick picture in Katie's front yard:

... because how amazing is this side by side from Katie's birthday last year?? These two best buddies are awesome; I love the respect and kindness and encouragement they give each other. The cutest.

k, that was April! Moving right along!

April 2k19: school/work stuff

 Things cuter than Jack riding a wee small bike to and from school every day? Nothing I can think of! (don't worry, I think I actually photographed his final journey home on that one before he upgraded to one of the boys' BMX bikes).

Okay, Carma getting home from preschool and getting the mail is pretty cute too!

April = the continuation of my long-term sub as security aide at the middle school. Where else am I going to be the recipient of beautiful portraits like this?? This was courtesy of Miss Ella, who is possibly in the top five of my favorite students ever.

Some days it's selfies and sunshine... some days it's bathroom graffiti. Glamorous job!

Work transitioned a bit as the safety aide I was substituting for came back from medical leave and my dear Adrian left on medical leave. I was seriously bummed to be there without my buddy, so we texted. A lot. Like me sending him this picture of how I was taking over his desk! Accompanying text: "Adrian! Here's an update: I don't have my bun today. It feels weird. I think I'll have it back on Monday. AND some kid pulled the fire alarm this morning between 1st and 2nd period. Good times! Miss you! Get good rest today"

aaaand this one, where I texted: "I'm using your chair as a footrest FYI. Also did you know we're allowed to wear shorts?! We are. Also I miss you!" and he responded "Miss you too, work wife, lol"

He also got pictures when I had to run back into our office one day after I picked up Carma from preschool - she loved seeing where I work and Adrian loved the introduction to our new junior helper ;).

More fan art ;) and selfies!

Someone... pretty sure Ella?... had my phone at seventh grade lunch and took this captivating picture of me in action at work. 

More selfies, more DuoLingo speaking legit truth, more cute little visitors to my office, and an Easter treat because I work at the best school ever.

Also yes I let girls braid my hair in the cafeteria after school on Wednesdays - I supervise all the athletes while their coaches (aka teachers) have meetings before practice. How cute is this fishtail braid? 

Ohhhh and speaking of best schools ever, obvious shout-out needed for Park Ridge - we hit up the PTA organized fundraiser carnival and it was The Best.

Bounce slides are always a win.

These three were THRILLED to try bubble balls since Clyde's experience with them at Mutual.  

More fun - games, treats, dunk tank, pony rides!

Couldn't resist getting gussied up a bit: Jack chose face painting, whereas Carma preferred arm and hair painting haha:

It was a lovely evening and a lovely bike ride to and from and lovely to see Jack on a bike that fits him ;).

Milestone for Carma Junie: she graduated from speech therapy! Definitely necessitated a picture with Miss Ginny, who worked with Will back in the day and Carma now and whom we love. Also, the irony is not lost on me that ALL four of my children required semi-extensive speech therapy only to end up being children that NEVER STOP TALKING.

Oh, the joy when it's pajama day at preschool AND McKay gets to come in our car for the trip home! We hit up Melinda for rides for Carma and she hit us up for rides for McKay and these two loved sitting in backseats and planning their future wedding and family - five kids? Can't wait to be related to Melinda!!

Took a picture of Will wearing an East Valley shirt in front of East Valley... where he will officially be a 6th grader next year. Insane.

Carma possibly enjoyed the tennis season more than Clyde himself. On good days, she got to hang out with cute girls like Alli and Tessa and Katie and Lindsey during matches. Other days it was just me haha.

The scheduling was tricky, but we made it to two of the spring track meets to cheer for Caden and Katie, which was SO fun. Both of them are such awesome athletes! Also don't count how many people we fit in the car after the Columbia meet; that's what station wagons are for, right? ;)

Classic through-the-fence tennis pictures: I loved watching Clyde play - he started the season mostly in men's doubles and then transitioned to mixed doubles. Such a stud!

I can never resist the court for very long so Clyde didn't have to work that hard to convince me to come be his partner for practice one afternoon. 

Here's my (not at all facetious) instagram caption for that occurrence: Crashed a middle school tennis practice today to humble some young’uns with this cute boy as my mixed doubles partner 🤩. So fun that even after me working at his school all day, he wants to hang out with me even more 🥰🤗. Of course, some days at school I don’t even really see him- which is weird, because he knows where I am during passing periods AND lunch... which now that I think about, he’d have to be actively avoiding those areas not to bump into me at least occasionally... 🧐🤔. Oh well, at least when I do catch a fleeting glimpse of him down a hallway, I make sure to call out that I love him 💕- he usually responds by shaking his head or palming his face 🤦🏻‍♂️ which I think means “how did I luck out so much in the mom department?” ☺️🍀😏

Chuck was able to make it to a few matches, and he and Clyde did some weekend practices as well. Tennis is the Best Sport Ever, and it made April so fun!