April 2016

All three girls worked together to decorate a princess for Leah's birthday party.

Here's one with Evania smiling...

...and one with Gloria smiling!

Speaking of smiling, hey, Krassi!

Evania's apparently getting into chess at an early age.

I laid Gloria on this cushion next to me while folding laundry, and she went and fell asleep!

Ooooh, the faces this little girl makes!

Gloria likes to be propped up where she can see what's going on.

One day we found Reuben all tucked into Grandma's bed, with her dictionary!

Leah is so good at holding Gloria.

Gloria's wearing the onesie from Texas A&M that was given to Evania by someone who helped us with some of the costs associated with Krassi's adoption.

Yay!  Another visit from (second-)cousin Joy! Every time she's more fun as she's more and more interested in what the girls are doing.

We celebrated Leah and Evania's birthdays in the middle of the month.

Evania is VERY interested in what's in this box! (Hint — look at the first photo from March — it's one of her own!)

Little Miss hard-to-get getting all excited for her birthday muffins.

Leah was at least willing to smile!

And *there's* someone who knows how to smile!!

The new building next door is positioned such that a LOT of water comes through our yard during big rains, so we've decided to put in a rain garden to help contain it and slow it down as it flows down toward the lower parts of the yard. It's hard going, because this is where much of the gravel was dumped to make it possible for the big trucks to make deliveries when we put on our addition.

Reuben found a fun way to play outside. We're so pleased with the way he's becoming more able to find things he enjoys doing.

Look at those three girls! Evania loves her birthday rain boots so much she wears them with just about everything. (We draw the line at bedtime pajamas!)

Big boy sitting tall! The corner helps him, but he's also getting more strength in his core.

Leah got a kite for her birthday!

Evania is delighted with her own markers and Care Bear - named "Lollipop."

We enjoyed a beautiful evening and took a walk/bike/ride down to the Village. Owen took the picture, which is why he's missing.

The purpose of our walk was a scale "map" of our solar system. If the sun is a 1' diameter ball at our corner, then Mercury is a tomato seed about 50' away, Earth a pea, Saturn a small orange, a block and a half away (and we have big blocks!), and here we are by the fountain at the Village looking at Neptune - a small potato. Pluto is way too far away to walk to (and since it's not really a planet anymore, it's not worth it, anyway!) It's mind boggling the distances and how very puny we are, just in our own Solar System!!!

Rins was tired, so big brother Owen helped carry her back home.

Our friends' son Max is two days younger than Evania, so we made a joint birthday cake when they were over for supper on the day in between!

She climbs up on this rock all by herself! (So exciting to see the peonies coming up!)

Reuben's helping us plant blueberry bushes!!

Krassi's sunning on the rocks. ;)

Evania's just supervising the work...in her butterfly rain boots.

If you look closely, you can see all of us in the photo above during Gloria's dedication at church.

Silly Evania. She kind of does her own thing!

Gloria's been introduced to the world of "babies."

Reuben asked for his iPad on our long drive to our annual family reunion. I laughed when I looked back to see what he was doing with it. It made a great Bible platform. ;) (In all fairness, on the trip back, the Bible was an iPad platform, but this one made me laugh!)