April 2024

In early April, we were invited to dinner at Mark and Rachel's place. We got the grand tour.

Dinner was delicious!  It was definitely more food than they were used to preparing.

Jim and I went to Twisted Tree to celebrate our 19th anniversary. 

On the night of the Daddy Daughter dance (Maggie's favorite night of the year), the boys and I decided to have a special night at home.  We had Culver's carryout in the dining room.  We ate on our fine china.

The theme for this year's Daddy Daughter dance was PJs!  So fun!  Note the creeper in the background.

She LOVES her Daddy!

Maggie with some of her pals at the dance.

Jim and I were excited to get dressed up for Cashbah!

We brought up the gifts at mass before the auction.

Jack served with some of his classmates.

It was fun seeing him at the auction.

Ellen and I worked with Susan on the auction information management.  Dream Team!

It was fun to hang with Jim and Carol.

We had an awesome table, thanks to invitation from Scott and Aimee.

There was a total solar eclipse on April 8th. We were not in the path of totality, so Beth and I took our kids out of school and drove to Pickle Springs to view it.  It was amazing!  Jack and a couple friends went down to Cape Girardeau for a "college visit" because SEMO was in the path of totality.  SEMO doesn't even have the major Jack is considering.  They had a great time, though.

We had fun hiking to our spot.

The shadows were pretty cool.

The pictures don't quite do it justice.

One weekend, I spent the night at the zoo with Maggie's Girl Scout troop.  We went on a night hike in the zoo.

Maggie found a panda!

We hiked around the zoo a little in the morning before it was open to the public.

Maggie played pitcher in several of her softball games this year.

Patrick made his Confirmation.

Jack was excited to see two of his good friends who also had younger siblings being confirmed. 

It was really special that Patrick chose Jack to be his Confirmation sponsor.

Mr. Michael has been such a great addition to our parish!

We were not the only ones who had the idea to get Oberweiss ice cream after Confirmation.

Maggie went out to lunch with me and Jim one day (I can't remember why she wasn't in school - that's what happens when you wait 8 months to update the blog).

Jack had his Junior Ring Mass and ceremony.  Before Mass, each junior signed their class banner.

Jack and Jim showed off their class rings.

Jack with his buddies:

We are so proud of this guy!

Jack didn't get to go to the Junior Ring Dance because it was opening night of Mary Poppins, where he played Bert.

Maggie cantered at Mass that weekend.

Jack had a big crowd of supporters at the final show of the weekend!

The next weekend was the robotics competition that Charlie had prepared for all year.

We went straight from robotics to the Spring Festival.  What a great day!

Kelly's Heroes rocked the stage!

As I pulled out of the driveway to take Maggie to her ukulele lesson one afternoon, I saw a ginormous limb had fallen from the tree in our front yard! It blocked the street!  Crazy!