April Days

April is over and I realized I have posted NOTHING for the entire month. I've been too wrapped up with my other little project but I still really want to keep this blog alive. This is the place to give the deets about what is going on with the family and our lives. The other blog is where I wax poetic about my love of peanut butter, dumpsters and black silk pajamas. 

Easter was lovely, as it always is. Its such a great holiday, right? There is very little pressure (unless you look at too many pins on pinterest that show you how to die your eggs in organic wild-berry juice,) there is good candy and you usually get to eat ham. What's not to love? The kids started Easter a day early with a great party at Grandma Petersons, where I took a whole bunch of bad pictures, so this is all you get

This picture clearly illustrates too things: 1) Noel is working overtime to not appear photogenic (honestly he never smiles in photos anymore) and 2) The frosting piping genes are strong in the Bingham men. 

We spent Easter Sunday at Grandma Binghams and did an egg hunt with the cousins

 It's nice to be back in Utah and get to actually spend holidays with loved ones. And it means that the kids get three times the spoiling.

And it is really nice to have athletic aunts and uncles around to help my kids play sports. This is as sporty as I get.

April was also the month that Jonah turned 8. Say what? I have an 8 year old? It is difficult to believe, but I remember that it is true every time he is copping an attitude about doing some simple task that I asked of him.

I kid!! Jonah is amazing - smart, funny and helpful when he wants to be. He is creative and fun to be around. For his birthday this year we decided that we didn't have the strength for a big birthday party. We played it pretty low key and invited Bella along to go visit the baby animals at This is the Place park.

The day started off with Pony rides on some sad, slightly-pathetic looking ponies.

Somehow in the last few months Noel's crippling fear of animals has started abating a bit. I don't think a year ago that he ever would have gotten on a pony, but he was excited and rode around and had fun doing it.

The birthday boy. 

Did you think I took this photo with an awesome old-timey camera? Nope, just instagram. Follow me!

Lila also rode the ponies, even though she seemed way to small and I was afraid she was going to fall off. 

Spoiler: She lived.

Lila loved chasing these baby goats around, even though this picture looks like she is terrified. For the record, goats are kind of crazy. Their pupils are rectangles. What was God thinking when he invented that? Crazy,

Jonah was, of course, in heaven. He never wanted the little barn with all of the baby chicks and baby ducks. It's too bad Jonah is stuck with parents who are such animal haters. I'm sure he would rather live with his uncle Richard who has a dog, chickens and apparently a beehive. But he's stuck with us. And no animals. Sorry!

Jonah wanted a "roller coaster" cake. And now that I live in the same state as my family where people will actually SEE the birthday cakes I made I felt like I needed to step it up. Plus it gave me an excuse to go to my favorite store on earth, Gygi, and buy a wide variety of frosting tips, special pans and meringue powder. And this is what I came up with.

I was pretty pleased, even though my pipe work will never win any awards. I was up until about 2 am making it. I made the cake first out of pound cake (from scratch) and that didn't really work, so I started over with a yellow cake (from scratch) and then piped and frosted and all that fun. We also made some cupcakes out of a boxed cake mix just so there was something for the little kids to eat. And when we served the cake at the party to our 20 or so friends and family who were gathered everyone just ate the boring boxed-mix cupcakes and NOT ONE person ate this cake. I'm not bitter, AT ALL. Wait, hold on. OK, I'm a little bitter. I ate it. (PS. It wasn't very good, so I will let my bitterness go.) 

Jonah turning 8 also means he got to get baptised, which was awesome. I'll admit, I was a little emotional during the whole thing. I can't believe he is that old. 

Somehow we forgot to take a nice family photo with everyone in their nice clothes. But we did manage to get this one.

Here is Jonah right after the baptism. This picture cracks me up. He looks so earnest and skinny.

I always wish at this point I had some witty and clever way to wrap this up. But I don't. Hope you weren't too bored by the download of pictures and info. See you in May!