Sunshine and Other Happy Things

I'm glad to finally say that we've had some lovely sunshine-filled days, warm enough to even be worthy of shorts and tank tops!  And, to top off the happiness that the sunshine brings, tax season is finally over!  We were all extremely excited about that, and had a great weekend TOGETHER!  We haven't had an official "celebrate tax season being over" day yet, but we do have a couple of little trips planned within the next few weeks.

But, before I get ahead of myself here's what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks.

I keep randomly finding words/made-up words lying around our house.  This is one time when Kai actually spelled his name right.  Usually he spells it, "KIA".

He informed me that this spelled, "tuque".  At least he's a good Canadian!

My big yard work helper.

First outdoor picnic of the season.  Hooray!

Tracing all of his stuffed animals, and of course practicing his current favourite letters "H" and "I".

Kai's first trip to the dentist.  Surprisingly it went really well, although he did look this serious the entire time.

Bryon popping his last tax-season countdown balloon.

Kai waiting with his sign to welcome daddy home from work.

Kai's good buddy Hunter turned 2 last week and had a fun train party.

See the 3 moose behind the yield sign?  That is right across from our house!  Crazy.  We saw them after we woke up one morning, working their way from yard to yard eating everyone's gardens.  We found all of our tulips completely devoured beside a big pile of moose poop.  Sad!  Kai had been checking on the tulips everyday to see if they were blooming yet, proclaiming, "they're growing just like me!" each time he checked.

Learning new skills is always fun, especially when you can do it in your pjs :)

Helping me make hamburger buns for our first BBQ of the season.

First day of soccer camp, complete with a personalized t-shirt.  I'm not sure who was more excited, Bryon or Kai.

Each group of kids has a coach and a team colour.  Then all of the teams rotate through different stations where they play games or learn new skills. 

This was Kai's favourite station.  They got to kick over as many cones as possible :)

Kai and another little boy got to demonstrate the rolling game.  It's weird for me to think that my "little baby" is now participating in organized activities.  Time flies!

Bryon attempted another sleepover in the shed with him that night, and this time it worked!  I think it helped that we gave Kai his own bed this time, instead of having him share with Bryon.  Personal space is apparently a sleeping necessity for him.

Building a shelf at the Home Depot kids' workshop.

Bryon and I worked hard this weekend while Kai slept.

We're so thankful to live just a couple of minutes from this beautiful lake.  The combination of rocks/sand/water provide never-ending entertainment.

Easter

Despite the fact that Bryon had to work most of Easter weekend, we managed to fit in several celebratory events.  Yes, there were lots of eggs involved, several yummy meals, and a bit too much chocolate, but as we tried to explain to Kai, Easter is really about Jesus.  He is risen!  And, we are so thankful for that.

We had a picnic in the living room after making zucchini muffins together.

On Saturday morning we went to the community Easter Egg Hunt at the park by our house.  I wasn't sure if Kai would be intimidated by the hundreds of other kids, but thankfully they divided them into age groups so he was only with the 2 and 3 year olds.  He was so focused and completely filled his bucket in no time!  Good thing I only gave him a small bucket :)
These types of events are one of the reasons I love living in Sandpoint.  Not only does Kai get to participate in lots of fun events, but we know half of the people there and it makes our small town feel like family when our family is so far away.  

He also got to tour the fire truck which he thought was very cool.

After the egg hunt the park cleared out, the sun came out, and we stayed and played with a few friends.

These three were just like a little group of ducks, following each other all through this huge puddle and getting completely soaked in the process.  What better way to spend a sunny spring morning?!

On Sunday morning we woke up a disgruntled Kai at 5:45 a.m. (after not going to bed until 10:30 the night before) and headed up to Schweitzer for their sunrise Easter service.  When I got Kai out of bed he said to me in a groggy voice, "I don't want to go up on the mountain with Jesus."  I'd explained to him the night before that we were going to celebrate Jesus at the top of Schweitzer, but obviously it wasn't such an exciting thought at such an early hour.  Hopefully next year he'll have a better attitude!  

The chairlift ride started off nice and warm, but got windier and colder as we neared the top.  Poor Kai was miserable.

Here we are after a very cold but beautiful service.  Kai's face very accurately depicts how he was feeling by this point.  Not impressed!  We heard many, "My feet are cold. My hands are cold.  My face is cold.  I want to go home." types of comments, but he survived!

After a very long nap for Kai and an afternoon at work for Bryon, we had a little Easter egg hunt with eggs from Papa and Gramma (Thank You!) before enjoying a yummy dinner together.

Then today, Bryon's tax-season-countdown surprise was an Easter egg hunt just for him (with a little help from Kai of course).

Changes

We've had a few changes in our house this week...

This old, ugly nightstand from ReStore went from this...

...to this...

...and with a little help from Kai (although he had no idea what he was helping to make)...

...to this, along with a little TLC from me, Bryon and my dad as well as a few Thrift store and ReStore additions!

Complete with a chalkboard which is still curing, thus no writing on it yet.

After it was finally finished (yes, it's been sitting in our garage in various stages or readiness for the past few weeks now), we gave it to Kai on Saturday morning.  He instantly loved it and has already made us lots of "snacks" and "drinks" etc.

A basket of veggies in the oven is kinda weird, but you do what you gotta do when your kitchen is the size of a nightstand :)

And, this sweet little blonde, curly-haired boy went from this...

(oh so concerned!)

...to this!

And a few days later to this :(  I have now vowed to never prune trees while Kai is anywhere near.  But, as I carried him into the house, feeling absolutely horrified and scared as the blood poured from his eye, he quickly assured me by saying, "Mommy, I'm just fine.  It's okay.  Let's go play again!".  What a trooper!  And, I'm so glad he's okay and can still see.

Our weather changed too and we had some beautiful sunshine yesterday afternoon (but back to snow again today sadly) which meant we got to enjoy a fun evening outside, complete with bubbles on the porch with good friends.

And finally, we're counting down the last 2 weeks of tax season.  Hooray!  Each day Bryon gets to pop a balloon and find a paper inside naming his treat for that day.  Yesterday he got to go on a post-dinner bike ride to the beach with us before returning to work.  We can't wait to have him around more, and he can't wait to have a life again.