Early April was a season of spring, Easter, and hopefulness as Dan an I got the first dose of the COVID vaccine! Yay!
We are full of gratitude for health care workers and scientists. The past 13 months were not easy and we were happy that the pandemic was appearing to subside.
In other April happenings, Daniel continued his snuggle sessions with Ranger. This picture reminded me of a puppy snuggling session years ago when Daniel was cuddling with Chief. My Grandma Smeby informed me that I had better watch out because I was going to play second fiddle to the dog. LOL!
Lucy brought home some of her Egyptian art from school! Love that the kids are learning about art from many cultures.
Speaking of Lucy's schooling ... all of the K-5 kids in our district moved to the 4 day a week model in April! Insert the praise hands emoji here! Just look at the happy face of a girl who is headed to school on a Thursday for a the first time in 56 weeks!
Leo embraced the changing seasons by playing in his daycare log cabin outside!
He also loves to read.
With both of the big kids in school, I had a free Friday for the first time in ages. Nola was in town so of course we zipped to some thrift stores. So much fun. :)
One of our best finds? A copy of the To Market to Market book. We had this book back in ~2012/2013 and Lucy literally loved it to death. It was in such bad shape that I ended up tossing it and was happy to find a new copy for Leo. It is currently one of his favorites - he has most of it memorized and can 'read' along. Love it!
Hahaha! I had to include this pic from April. My nephew Paul was having a great track season and his mom was posting about all of his awesome stats. I sent him this photo as a blast from the past when his Auntie was in track. Years ago when I had a brief but spectacular career in track and field, I won a single ribbon. If you zoom in you can see that this beauty was for Sixth Place among 7th grade girls who threw discus at the Big Sioux Conference Meet back in 1993. Don't you love that I held onto this gem for almost 30 years!? #HoardingIssues #StillProud
In mid-April we made a trip to Govin's Farm to see their baby animals. Last year we did the barn drive through event but seeing and holding the baby chicks/piggies/lambs in person was a much cooler experience for the kids!
Leo had zero concerns about climbing mountains of hay bales!
We signed up for a window of time to get into the barn. We washed our hands and entered a sea of animals and humans. First stop - Visiting the baby chicks. They were so sweet!
Next were the brand new piglets!
The Storm kids could not wait to have a baby piglet in their lap!
They were wiggly little critters!
Lucy and Roman were so happy to get their piggy cuddles,
but eventually they had to say goodbye and give up the piglets for the next set of humans to hold.
Even Leo loved point out the baby pig's ears, nose, mouth and eyes. :)
We also met the most precious baby lambs!
Look who else joined us for some spring animal fun? The Cihacek crew! This picture is so cute but I think that it ended in an unfortunate baby sheep tinkling incident with pee all over Brian's lap ... Oops!
The lambs were so soft! Also, why does Leo look like a 5 year old in this picture!?! He is such a tall guy!
We couldn't forget about the baby goats.
There were even some llamas in the barn!
We stopped by our favorite piglets one last time before washing hands, exiting the barn, and doing some outdoor activities.
Everyone loves zipping down a giant slide in a burlap sack!
My middle boy and his cousins were able to do pony rides! Leo was not into it (the need for lunch and nap time were impacting his ability to listen and cooperate in a saddle) and Lucy was just barely over the height/weight requirements so the 2 L's and I went to play while the others took a ride.
Thank you to grandma Nola for walking alongside Romeo.
What a fun day at the farm!
