Moving right along...

We've been on a bit of a bullet train this last little while.  The kids had fun playing in boxes while I packed up the house for our move to a roomier place.  Second trimester was a great time for this--I felt pretty good and still had tons of help from our neighbors.  We didn't even need to rent a truck because so many neighbors offered use of their trailers.  Unfortunately, the saved moolah was moot because Mark had a fender bender with one of them and had it repaired.  But, the move itself was pretty stress-free.

Moving in was greatly helped by my sister Brooke, who happened to be so fortunate as to be bunking down with us for a few days the first day in our new home while her hubby was on his annual mountain bike trip.  She did a good job entertaining the kids (so did her baby Brig) and also moving boxes around for me. 

Lucky Cooper took the brunt of the move--his birthday was two days later.  The night before I was too exhausted to wrap gifts or hang streamers (although I did muster up enough energy for his decadent brownie peanut-butter pudding cake).  Brooke and Leslie took my harried directions and I headed off to bed.  I had forgotten that one of the gifts I thought I would pawn off on him (I originally bought it for Macy for Easter) was an unspillable bubble bucket, bright pink with rainbows and unicorns.  Poor kid--he was pretty surprised when he opened it, as was I.  Good thing it wasn't his only gift.

He did like his big pirate puzzle and a new Cubbies hat.  (Of course, we found his old one that same week.  He didn't know it was lost in the first place, so this gift was also slightly confusing.)

I think we managed to redeem the birthday with a new bike.  And a trip to the pool that night.

Leslie had a fun first season of volleyball playing with other 5th-6th grade girls.  Brooke got to attend her last game and gifted her a volleyball of her own to practice with.

We took a break from unpacking on Coop's birthday to visit Cabela's with Brooke and Brig.

The kids always like the shooting range, but it's better with Grandpa.

I know, candles in a crock pot is kind of weird, but this is the second year he wanted this and I am definitely not arguing.  (I think I pretty much polished off the leftovers single-handedly.)

Part of the crazy month is that I have been driving the kids back and forth up to finish school and preschool where they were.  The day after we moved I was asked to bring a photo collage of Cooper's life to preschool, along with some pre-wrapped goodies.  (I HATE doing stuff stuff like that on a good day--once I was commiserating about a similar project to my Grandpa Heagy and he had a fabulous phrase for it:  all that MALARKY!)  Luckily, Cooper was pretty excited about my mom-amended plan--he got to bring a show-and-tell along with a big framed picture of himself that would usually be hanging on the wall.  Plus the required pre-wrapped treats. Here he is singing along with his class at preschool graduation.  Scroll down for some video of the same.

He got loaded up with accolades.  He really did learn quite a bit at preschool and I'm glad we did it.  He also had fun being in a class of all boys his own age.

While Brooke and I were battling the indoor sea of boxes, the kids had a great time playing in our new backyard.  It's very pretty with several trees, a lovely patio surrounded by vinca flowers, and an alfalfa field behind us.  Here is Leslie swinging on one side of the remnants of a hammock.

I love this little song the kids were singing, although I missed taping the first part.  (Sorry that Cooper was feeling a bit shy during this performance.  He does it pretty well at home.)  The lyrics to the first verse go:
"I wish I had a little red box to put my mommy in.  I'd take her out and xxx and put her in again!"