Showers of April Photographs

If March was a month of sickness, April was a month full of activity to make up for the weeks spent lying in bed in March.  Grace Church put on an Easter Holiday Bible Club, I made a frenzied effort to paint the spare room, we drove lots of miles for extra ballet practices; there were birthday parties for the kids and late-night outings with friends for the grown-ups, and we started seeing more sunny days mixed with lots of rain and hail showers.  In short, it has been spring!

April 1 - I put a fresh coat of paint on the guest room walls.  I persist in calling it a guest room (I suppose that's the American way), but when I heard someone call it our spare room, I had Anne of Green Gables flashbacks and wondered why I wasn't calling it the spare room all along.

April 2 - We cleaned up James's bedroom in preparation for houseguests, and he was so proud of his newly organized "book area."

April 3 - I bought this milk bottle with some Christmas money when my mom was visiting.  I thought it was so cute.

April 4 - Still sewing...

April 5 - Freshly painted, hopefully soothing SPARE room

April 6 - I ate my first Jammy Dodger at Easter Holiday Bible Club, and as strange as jam and cream on a cookie is to American sensibilities, I found it astonishingly delicious.

April 7 - KJ took my camera on a walk with some church family.  There really aren't words to describe the glory of days like that.

April 8 - Beautiful Blossoms, You know you've taken at least one photo like this in the past month.

April 10 - Ella and I have enjoyed our Sunday night walks to Maypole practice.  There are lots of lovely doors along the way.

April 11 - Morning Jog, catch-your-breath break

April 12 - James was so excited about The Chronicles of Narnia after KJ read him the first two books.  He's embarked on reading them himself a page or two at a time, and it makes me so glad to see him learning to love reading.

April 14 - This little robin shows up in our back garden now and again and always makes me smile.

April 15 - The bright green paint makes me think of Hobbiton.  I had a nice cup of tea here while waiting for Ella to finish ballet one night.

April 16 - An Intense Game of Checkers

April 17 - Morning sun is always a welcome sight...except for the fact that it's waking me up around 5:30 these days.

April 18 - New Growth in the Garden

April 19 - Sunny Garden

April 21 - Southern Comfort Food night at The Grantham Arms - We couldn't miss that!

April 22 - We're starting to see lots of those golden fields as we drive through the country.

April 23 - We just appreciate sunshine so much more now.

April 24 - Little Red Riding Hood being chased by the Wolf

April 25 - Ella's performance flowers are spread throughout the house, and I'm diggin' it.

April 26 - One of about 7 hail showers this week - I had to stop and think about why I would remark on this, and it's because there are some things that don't happen as often in England weather-wise and some things that don't happen as often in Alabama, so we can't help but take notice of the differences. You rarely have thunder and lightning here (and I really miss it!), but we rarely have hail in Alabama.

April 27 - Ella and I made pizza for church Wednesday night, and we didn't hold back on the pepperoni.

April 28 - I did a little speed-walking to the ATM one morning but had to stop to admire the tulips.

April 29 - Ballet Flowers:  Ella's room edition

April 30 - One of the Queen's Royal Corgis...in biscuit form

2016 is really flying.  I can't believe it will be May tomorrow!