April Thus Far

We are only 11 days into April but I am loving it already.  On Saturday I picked up two Starbucks drinks and headed to a friend's house to chat with her while her precious baby napped.  I was so amused that the straw that came with her coffee frappuccino said "not recommended for use with hot drinks".  I suppose that warning would be beneficial to the coffee consumer.  In the same way this warning may be beneficial to you:  I have no plan for this post other than to share exciting moments from these past 11 days.  If rambling and randomness bother you, read no further.

April began gloriously with a short but sweet visit from the Burgin family.  Nobody makes me laugh like those three beautiful girls do.  Sami Joy-your name fits you perfectly...most of the time (grin).  Mallory-way to rescue that ball from the muddy pit of despair.  I would have left it.  Brooke-I love when you text me from your Ipod.  I even broke my "no texting while driving" rule so that I could respond quickly.    

Here we are laying on the pavement so we can get a picture together.  I love how they co-operate with me.  The candy bars may have helped. 

This photo captures the essence of our cousin-ship.  

It would not be a legitimate cousin get-together if Sami, Andy, and I didn't take some ridiculously dramatic pictures in downtown Knoxville.

In case you were wanting a little window into my life, that right there is as daring as I get.  Top of the parking garage, baby.  Speaking of parking garages...well actually I have so much to say about them, I better save that for another post.  

This photo captures my inner feelings about elevators.  Come to think of it, pretty much covers parking garages too.

This is why I love them:

Oh and this too.  I mean look at those poses. 

I have been promising my cousins since I the age of 10 that as soon as I got my license, I would bring them to Chuck-E-Cheese.  I have had my license for 2 years now and the "littles" asked me to please come through on my promise.  Long story short: I did. And I hid in the corner of the booth the WHOLE time.  I even made one of them refill my Diet Coke.  

Although I was scared for my life and the lives of all the children in that terrifying restaurant, I enjoyed being with these beloved ones:

This is sort of cheating because I think this photo was taken in March, but I think I'm gonna post it anyway.  Here is Ben dressed and ready for his Math Olympics competition.  I  adore him. 

He was pretending to feel nerdy for being one of the 6 students chosen to attend this Math competition, but deep down I know he loved it. 

Mom asked Andrew and I to go back to the top of the parking garage to get some Knoxville pictures with Flat Stanley for a Wisconsin friend.  Andrew?  Parking garage? Pictures?  Of course I was game.

Andrew likes to pretend like he can't wait until I go away to college, but deep down I know he will miss me...I hope...because I will miss him.  

If the way he was playing with Flat Stanley is any indication of how he will be with his own kids, he is a natural.

I would like to introduce you to Ted, Tad, and Todd.  These are Andrew's tadpoles.  He found the eggs in a pond behind our house and is feeding them and raising them with love (as you can tell from the fact that they have names.)  

Every April we get to celebrate Ben and Andrew.  Andrew turned 15 on the 6th and is now driving!  On the 8th we ate at Famous Dave's to celebrate this not-so-little 11 year old child:

We went around the table per my request to tell our favorite things about Benjamin.  About half way through he said, "Um, I just want you guys to know this makes me feel really uncomfortable."  Ha!  Sorry buddy, just know you are loved. 


I'm not really sure why, but I asked Andrew what the worst thing about me was.  He quickly replied, "You take too many pictures."  He doesn't look too upset to me:

Here is my inspiration for this blog post.  We found the following note taped to Ben's door.  It reads: "if anyone puts or moves anything in my room without My permission it or the person will be Badly punished!!!"

And I think I am going to leave it at that.  April has been good to me so far.  I have a feeling the second half will be pretty splendid as well.  That is, as long as I don't move anything in Ben's room.