And now for something completely different...: April 2021

Sigh.

April.

Ralph went to the vet's again.

His dry, flaky skin was still hanging round and he was still losing hair.

They told me to continue with the baths and start another round of antibiotics.

We began one half a prednisone pill every other day.

This is how he (and I) felt about that.

Easter was early in April this year. The first weekend actually.

Even though no one but me eats them and we don't hide them, we colored eggs.

Coloring station - READY!

We decided to try something new this year.

Put a drop or two of dye in the bag.

Put a hard boiled egg in the bag.

Mush the egg around in the bag.

Egg is now done.

The kids much preferred this to the "dye in cups" method.

I think they liked it because it didn't take nearly as long.

They didn't have to stand around waiting for the eggs in the cups.

And, they thought the end result was pretty cool.

Later that Saturday, Katie got a hankering for onigiri.

She made some bunnies for Easter.

She also made a Bill Cipher or two.

Shhhhhh.

It's the Easter bunny!

The first thing Katie had to do on Easter morning was to open a mystery box that we had gotten from Grandma.

She had been waiting a week to open it.

I purposefully left the box out on our bench to tease her.

Tee-hee.

I told her that she would never guess what was in it.

I was right.

Egg huntin' time!

Ralph likes to observe.

Egg hunting is serious business.

She doesn't have time for us right now.

Getting right to it.

Don't worry....the eggs progressively get harder to find.

It's always entertaining to watch them search.

Katie was excited about the stowaway she found on this egg.

Genuinely perplexed.

Every year the Easter Bunny hides one of Mikey's eggs behind the door.

And, every year it is the LAST ONE that he finds.

Katie had a bit of trouble with her last egg, but after the fourth walk through of the yard she was able to find it.

Obligatory "Happy Easter" photo to send to grandparents.

I found these in the grocery store.

I remember eating them when I was a kid, so I bought them for the kids to try.

They weren't impressed.

Neither was I.

Ew.

Time to open the eggs.

Lots of candy this time around.

Probably too much.

Next, it was time for the Easter basket search.

Katie found the first clue (again) this year.

She started it off.

"Hey. Where'd they go?"

Ralph was excited about this one.

There was a clue in his dog food bin.

But, alas, he did not get any kibble.

The clues bounce them from one part of the house to another.

The kids take turns reading the clues out loud and then work together to decipher them.

Sometimes the Easter Bunny's clues are cryptic.

(insert Jeopardy theme music here)

SUCCESS!

The glorious unpacking of baskets began.

And the equally glorious gorging of candy also began.

Peeps. A must have.

Even if they are root beer flavored.

That's a lot of crap.

"Where's MY treats, Mommy?"

Don't worry.

We didn't forget about Ralph.

He had his own egg hunt!

A local shelter held a fundraiser where you could make a donation and then receive some plastic eggs and treats to hide for your dog or cat.

We couldn't pass that up.

At first, he just shuffled the eggs along the ground and the kids would help him get the treats out.

YUM!

But, eventually, he figured out that he could just chomp the eggs

and the treats would fall out.

SUCCESS!

I hope that next year when the Easter Bunny hides the kids eggs filled with candy that Ralph doesn't remember he can just chomp them open. Hmmmmm.

We had fancy beef for dinner.

It was a standing rib roast that cooked about half the day.

Katie eating donuts.

With a FORK.

They are sticky.

I threw a grape.

It landed here.

Couldn't do this again if I tried.

Katie had to take a picture of it.

On April 6th, we talked to the GI about Katie and Mikey's latest endoscopies.

Both were all clear of eosinophils and looking good!

Katie was also looking good Crohn's wise.

It was decided that in addition to egg, Katie could now add soy back in to give it a try.

Katie's running NO GO Food list: Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Gluten, Dairy

Mikey was given the choice of what to add back in and he chose dairy.

Mikey's Running NO GO Food list: Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Gluten/Wheat, Egg, Soy

(Again, both don't eat fish/shellfish)

The first dairy he added was parmesan cheese on his pasta.

He was so happy.

Outdoor judo sessions were still happening every weekend.

And, it looked as if Timmy and Tommy, our raccoon brothers, came back to visit our deck.

April 12th marked the start of the kids Spring Break.

There wasn't much planned as we were still trying to stay away from public places.

Stretching for things to get the kids away from screens, I proposed visiting a manual car wash.

The kids were hesitant, but acquiesced.

We got to work.

I think Mikey's favorite part was using the high pressure water jet.

Meanwhile, Katie enjoyed the sudsy scrub broom.

She kept an eye on Mikey to make sure he didn't miss a spot.

Katie put the finishing touches on by blow drying the car.

This was probably the most expensive manual car wash ever recorded, but, hey, it got us out of the house.

Who knew they would have so much fun washing the car?

The baby bunny was still around.

He seemed to be living under our deck.

Although Ralph had discovered him, the bunny had managed to evade him so far.

He's a quick little bugger.

Still cute and floofy too.

On Tuesday of that week, we convinced Huzbend to take a day off of work to visit some tulips with us.

Did you know that the tulips grown in Skagit (pronounced ska-juht) Valley account for 75% of the total U.S. commercial tulip production? Me neither.

Every year (well, except in 2020) there is a Tulip Festival where over a million people come to look at flowers.

We had never been.

Thought it was about time to check it out.

We visited Tulip Town first.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous.

The farms weren't at full bloom just yet, but it was still pretty to see all the different color flowers.

There were tulip colors I had never even seen before.

I call this one "Flame-io"

Yep. Made her pose.

Just like the million other moms who were there trying to get pictures of their kids.

Made Mikey get in there too.

Best. Picture. Ever.

Lots of tulips.

Couldn't pass up the corny Animal Crossing photo op.

Even K.K. Slider came out to visit the flowers.

Tulip Town was pretty.

I liked how they had a section of random tulips all mixed together in their field.

Most rows were planted by matching color.

Before entering the tulip field, they had an area with a planted garden including a windmill (and fake blue water) and an indoor space that contained food/drink for purchase as well as a place to order tulip bulbs. They also had a tractor ride, but we passed on that.

The place was pretty compact - excluding the tulip field which had plenty of space.

It was crowded and it was kind of freaking us out.

So, we found a spot to relax for a bit in the shade of a tree.

It was still near people, but at least they were 6 feet away.

We decided to leave.

As the boys wrestled on the walk out, Katie spotted a kettle corn food truck.

I went over to check the ingredients and, would you believe it?

She could eat it!

We picked up two bags on our way out.

Next stop, was another tulip farm.

We visited RoozenGaarde.

This place was WAY bigger than Tulip Town.

Their fields were huge and there was much more space.

Much more comfortable for us.

I'm not sure why wrestling and walking is a thing with the boys....

We are super atrociously bad at family selfies.

See?

RoozenGaarde had A LOT of tulips!

They went on as far as the eye could see and they were beautiful.

The beauty was so overwhelming that everyone just had to stop to play the "hand slap game."

Katie had enough of that silliness and gladly posed for a picture.

So pretty.

There were daffodils too.

Lots and lots of them.

????????

"Will you tell them to STOP?!?!"

So that Katie wouldn't leave us in the middle of the field, we decided to check out the gardens.

It was so calm and shady that we decided to sit for a bit.

Well, the ones that didn't mind touching grass sat.

It was a nice view.

We were in no rush to get up to leave.

There were many varieties of tulips that I had never seen before.

I think these were my favorite.

There were different varieties of daffodils as well.

This part of the garden was a bit tighter on space because it used a small path to walk through.

Mikey and Huzbend decided to sit out the garden stroll.

Katie and I wandered in to take a look.

We weren't disappointed.

Roozengaarde had a tent where you could buy tulips (and souvenirs) to take home.

We bought two bouquets.

I'm glad we ventured out to see the tulips.

It was a nice break from the norm.

We were also glad that Huzbend took off work to come along.

It turned out that we had not just Baby Bunny in our yard, but Monster Bunny.

Monster Bunny - center of photo

Baby Bunny - bottom of photo

I wonder if they get along?

Katie got an "everything free" monthly baking kit for Christmas.

The latest box was unicorn donuts.

They certainly were pretty.

But, taste-wise, mmmmm not so good.

Katie decided that we needed to have a hanami picnic in honor of all the cherry trees blossoming in our neighborhood.

Ralph came too.

The spread consisted of:

Root beer

Tostitos

Popcorn

Unicorn donuts

GF Oreo cookies

Baked Lays

Grapes

and Bacon wrapped dates

Huzbend was a special guest.

On Friday, we headed to the Washington State Fair: Drive Thru Spring Fair.

Yes. You read that right.

Drive Thru Fair.

It was super fun!

Katie was my copilot and Fair map reader.

Mikey was our color commentator.

As you drove through the fair, they had parade floats lined up along the route.

We also got to wave and receive a flower from the queen and princesses of the Daffodil Festival.

I didn't even know there was a Daffodil Festival.

First up on our route was a drive thru reptile zoo.

Next stop, a drive thru farm animal viewing.

I have to say that I wish that all fairs could be drive thru.

We got to see ALL the farm animals - cows, pigs (and piglets!) , goats, sheep without HAVING TO STEP AROUND THEIR POOP!

BIG THUMBS UP!

What is a fair without fair food?

Believe it or not, there are some things my kids can eat at the fair.

Dole Whip is one of those things.

As long as there is no butter on it, popcorn/kettle corn is another one of those things.

And, last but not least, cotton candy!

Especially cute character shaped cotton candy that is as big as your head.

It did not last long.

Our "show" of choice (we got to pick one) was Dock Dogs.

A competition between hyperactive diving dogs.

Watch him go.

Makes me happy that Ralph is so laid back.

Although, I would love to see the splash that Ralph would make if he jumped like that.....

Oh. Don't worry.

I got fair food too.

A big chocolate chip cookie (I took a bite and saved the rest for later), a Fisher scone (smeared with raspberry jam) to take home and some dark chocolate and penuche fudge.

Not pictured, a Fisher scone strawberry shortcake that I ate in the car.

I'm not sure what I was thinking with the fudge.

We used to buy it all the time at our local state fair when I was a kid.

I loved that stuff. Couldn't get enough of it.

Took a bite of this fudge and nearly OD'ed on sugar. Yikes.

As our last stop, we played car bingo.

A clown called out numbers on the stage and when someone got bingo they would honk their horn and hold their card out the window.

We didn't win.

But we still had fun playing.

I guess even a drive thru/hop out fair is exhausting.

When we got home, Mikey had a good time playing with the bubble wand he got in his Fair Fun Bucket.

Ralph had fun too.

I caught one of our resident squirrels eating the leaf buds off of one of our backyard trees.

He's kinda cute up close.

I just want to pet him.

'Nailed It' time again!

Someone had been "taste testing" the frosting.

This was our pre-event workstation.

Here we are mid-event.

Just a bit of a disaster.

This project was more about decorating than anything else.

Katie did the frosting and made decorations.

I handled the fondant.

Burger toppings.

French fries.

Cheese.

Put them all together and this is what you got!

So, we didn't quite "nail it".

I think we did a pretty good job this time.

AND, we finished with time to spare!

CHEEEEEEEEZE - Burgers!

That afternoon, Huzbend and I got our first dose of the Pfizer MRNA COVID vaccine.

Vaccines are owee.

I shut my eyes and shut out the owee.

Meanwhile, at home, Katie grew a dissectible froggie out of her head.

Spring Break was over and with it came the end of 100% remote learning for our district's secondary students. The hybrid model would replace it

As I mentioned in last months update, our family chose to remain 100% remote for the remainder of the school year.

Monday, April 19th marked the first day of hybrid learning.

I couldn't NOT mark the occasion...

Just a little fun.

I couldn't resist.

With "hybrid" learning also came "working out".

Mikey and I started a weight lifting regimen of my own design.

My own design being...get off the couch, stop looking at a screen and move some weights around.

It was better than nothing.

Spring was in swing.

Our Frankenstein cherry tree was in full bloom.

The blossoms are quite lovely.

But, make a horrendous mess when they fall off.

Katie started playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild again.

She had me take a picture of Link riding a bear.

We did some frisbee golfing (sans Katie - who stayed home to work on a school project).

Just look at the extreme effort.....

The 26th was Ralph's seventh birthday.

Because of all his grey, he looks really old.

Not only did he get treats on his birthday, he also got his steroid dosage lowered to half a pill every two days. Fingers were crossed that the coughing would not return and that his hair would stop falling out.

Huzbend and the kids created a new game with the frisbee challenge set they got from Grandma for Easter.

It was called "Princess Battle".

All I know is that you get points for knocking the bottle off the pillar as well as getting rewarded points for hitting each other on the head or truck of the body.