Sunshine on my mind

 

Just like that, another school year is gone! We are excited about summer and the change of pace it brings. Here's the recap of our spring heading into summer. 

Just a girl and her chickens. She loves chasing after them.

The garden is mostly going well...I'm still learning a lot but it is so fun to pick and eat things right from our own backyard.

The cardboard costume obsession lives on. 

Fun times at the library:

She's also into the real thing:

Sometimes everybody joins in:

Just taking her pet unicorn for a walk.

Starting to get into lots of mischief! She loves locking herself in the pantry, she can hear the sound of an opening door from a mile away, and she is obsessed with the toilet. Definitely have to keep a close eye on her these days.

Peach picking with friends. 

We had a fun Easter egg hunt at church the weekend before Easter. The boys were running around too much hunting down eggs to get a picture of them. Ana enjoyed opening and closing lots of eggs!

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My parents came to visit for Easter. We had a beautiful church service and then enjoyed all the usual Easter festivities together.

We started a tradition last Easter of having loaves and fishes for Easter dinner. It is simple and delicious and it is a good reminder of what Easter is all about. I'm glad we could continue it this year thanks to a friend who gifted us some delicious fish he caught!

Post-movie night at a friend's house. Is there any doubt that Caroline is the wild child around here?

Ricardo and I went to Puerto Rico for a few days in April! So many thanks to my mom for watching the kids while we were away, 4 kids- including a toddler- is no small feat.

The first night there we drove through so many small windy roads to get to a mountain in central Puerto Rico where we stayed at the coolest airbnb ever.

The next day we did the world's second-longest zip line. The scenery was so beautiful, it was the coolest experience.

So many delicious fruit juices.

I will admit I got over the food pretty quickly, it was a lot of fried and heavy foods. By the end of the trip, we just started eating only 2 meals a day and that felt a lot better!

The second half of the trip we stayed at a quiet beach. It gets light so much earlier there so we were up at 5 every day. 

Hiking in El Yunque

Ricardo drinking the fresh mountain water:

The tiniest little pot in our beach condo:

Exploring Old San Juan:

Our last stop was to the new San Juan temple. It was a lovely trip and a great way to have a little break before the craziness of the end of the school year started!

After we came back we went to a friend's birthday party and our kids got their first taste of karaoke. They are hooked!

We got to babysit a friend's bearded dragon for 2 weeks-basically Thomas' life goals.

Rare sleepy baby in a stroller.

We went to the Bluey live show with friends. Our seats were in the second to last row :), but Caroline still loved it.

Music class recital! She was so proud.

Zoo field trip with Thomas. He loved the 1:1 time with Mom and he is still the biggest animal lover so it was a great day.

Russell was in the school talent show. He played the Star Wars theme song while wearing a Mandalorian suit he made. He did a great job!

Russell turned 10! Food may be his love language (he asks me every night what we are having for breakfast the next day), so he had lots of birthday requests.

Crepes for breakfast! With a side of a book of course.

Steak and shrimp for dinner-he's been requesting that combo for years. Don't know where he gets that expensive taste from.

Custard for birthday dessert! Ricardo says the expectations are too high for Russell's future wife...I guess that's possible. :) Russell is the best kid and we are so blessed to have him in our family. It's so hard to believe we've been parents for 10 years!

He got karaoke for his birthday and they took turns singing lots and lots of songs.

Birthday party fun!

I had a great Mother's Day. It was a rare relaxing Sunday-I even took a nap! The kids brought home so many cute things from school. I especially love these drawings Caroline did for mothers/fathers day.

Caroline graduated from preschool! We will miss her cute school and teachers. Preschool has always been my favorite grade, it's just too adorable.

Caroline is so excited for kindergarten. She keeps wondering if it starts today and I keep re-explaining the concept of summer break to her. She will be so ready to go in August.

Ok, that about wraps things up. Just a few more pictures of Ana with the best brothers.

Happy Summer!