These Days, April

April was awesome. The world around us finally finally (finally!) came back to life and we all welcomed spring with big open arms. As I remarked on the instagram of the photo above:
The passage of time in these parts plays out in big feats accomplished during first spring visits to the playground that seemed impossible at final autumn visits months ago. Today, in her new shark rainboots & with both arms outstretched, she asked "please I do this by myself" then nearly knocked me over with a celebratory hug when she made it "all the way across; even the big big step one." Last time she attempted this it required two mama hands. 

Yes, April was awesome. We loved you April. Here are some of the little moments that show why! And to think these don't even include our big April Amazooma trip pics.

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Josie "working" in my office.

Endless hours of dress-up.

YAY! The fountain is back!

Play-doh has been taken to a whole 'nother level.

Sunny Wednesday mornings with Bea (and a major hair cut for mama). 

Sunny Days!!

"Tunes and Blooms"

Flower Walk Bounty

The return of freckled cheeks!

Some great photos from the girl's sweet sitter Grace of the girls with her pups!

EASTER came! (We celebrated at home a week early.)

Happy Birthday Cousin Morgan!

This happened. I don't want to talk about it.

The sweet neighborhood girls have quickly become new best friends!

Grandma & DD visited!

Our April mantra:

It worked. :)

Sing Ob La Di Bla Da - Hey!

Miss Josephine's second piano recital was over the weekend. We are SOOOO proud of her. Apparently she is not yet of the age when getting up in front of a room full of strangers to play two songs on the piano seems stressful or scary. Apparently she is instead of the age when such an event means nothing but sheer excitement!

We were really really proud of Josie this year because she picked her two hardest and most challenging pieces from the year for her recital. We've been working on encouraging and supporting risk-taking, so her song selections made us so proud!



She played an arrangement of The Beatles "Ob La Di, Ob La Da" that her piano teacher put together for her after she declared it her new favorite song a few months back, as well as a duet of "Alouette" with her teacher. In both cases, those little sticky spots revealed their sticky little heads, but she played on with a smile and we couldn't be more proud of her! Go Josie!





Piano recitals are a big deal, so we made a big deal out of the event. We had a family dinner with Grandma & DD at Buca Di Beppo.

Like I said, Josie was more than just a little excited!

Bea entertained herself with dramatic rescues of Elsa by her buddy Rapunzel. 

YAY JOSIE!!!

DD left us special graffiti to commemorate the occasion. Thanks DD!

This happened. #amazoomaspringbreak

We just wrapped one heckuvan awesome week in Arizona. There's sooo much to share here that will trickle out over the coming weeks (and one day become the pages of our printed 2014 family yearbook generated by this here blog). Here's a sneak peek of one of the only pics of all four of us from our week in Arizona. (Or Amazooma if you're Beatrice.)

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AZ 2014: The Grand Canyon

Our roadtrip from Phoenix up north wasn't without a destination. After my trip to Arizona in college and seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time myself, I knew that one day I had to take my family there. Leave it to Lou to turn what was already going to be an awesome adventure into one for the top of the list. Instead of driving all the way to the Canyon, we took this super cool original Grand Canyon TRAIN!!! It was SO SO SO SO cool. SO cool.  The Canyon itself is really beyond words. You just have to see it. You just do. Our day there was perfect. We climbed trees, had a picnic and did lots of standing in awe. At the end of an adventurous day, we hopped back on the train that took us back to our motel on Route 66 and headed back to Phoenix the next day to fly back home. What an adventure. Life is so good.

LAST SPRING BREAK BLOG POST BONUS: While I was working, Lou took the girls on some pretty fun adventures. Here are the highlights!

In other Spring Break news - our last night there at the hotel before heading home, we spent the day at the hotel pool and that's where Bea started taking her first big trips under the water. YAY BEA!

Look what Bea learned in Arizona. #amazoomaspringbreak

A video posted by Carri (@fourschneiders) on Apr 25, 2014 at 4:42pm PDT

Josie's cannonballs got pretty rad, too!

Cannonball! #amazoomaspringbreak

A video posted by Carri (@fourschneiders) on Apr 25, 2014 at 4:47pm PDT