April

April is a big month for our family. We've got my dad's birthday on the 2nd, mine on the 6th, my mom's on the 17th, Easter (usually), and a lot of fun events around town.

Since this weekend was smack dab in the middle of four of those events (Dad's birthday, mine, Easter, and the city art festival), my family came up for a visit.

I told my husband the only thing I wanted for my birthday was for him to (finally) paint the exterior of our house. We live in an area covered in thick red dirt. It's beautiful landscape, but it makes such a mess. The person who designed our home brilliantly painted the stucco white. You see what I'm getting at here? We decided that a nice reddish brown would be much better. We're accenting with moss green trim and a burgundy door. (I've always wanted a red front door!)

On Saturday, I made a little Easter luncheon, and we ate and opened birthday presents. Then my dad and Fritz worked on painting the house while my mom, grandma, sister, Margaret, and I went to the art festival (and ate the most incredible scone on Earth, but shh, don't tell the boys!).

My mom gave me some beautiful summer clothes. This new post-pregnancy body just didn't fit properly in a single thing I owned before, so it was looking like I'd be wearing sweaters and cords all summer. Here's a peek at some of the lovely skirts (Excuse the poor lighting. It's really overcast today.):

sunny yellow linen tulip skirt with rick-rack, embroidery, and organza lace

teal, red, and brown full tapestry-style skirt

aqua, brown, and purple panel skirt

sky blue and forest green toile fit and flare skirt

(black photographs horribly)
black pencil skirt with pleats in the back

My sister gave me Boggle (gosh, I'm obsessed with that game), and a Tide-To-Go pen because she cunningly destroyed my old one. ;)

My dad got me an external hard-drive so I can stop obsessing that I'm going to lose all the pictures I have on my computer of Meg and our previous foster/daycare kids.

My grandma is buying us some new carpet for the basement. Let the hallelujah chorus begin, Laaaaaa! We currently have some terrible orange carpet down there that clashes with our red sofa and is pulling away from the tack strips along the walls. I can't wait for the new stuff, especially as it won't be too much longer before Meg's crawling.

I'm so blown away at the generosity of everyone. Such thoughtful, wonderful gifts.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Now, just to finish painting the house!