Gram and Grand-dad were in NYC and came out to visit us on 4/29.  Gram brought a new book for Sarah all about the adventures of her lost panda sock, left in Great Falls on our last visit.

We cooked dinner and then enjoyed some amazing balsamic ice cream Daddy made.

Thanks for visiting, Gram and Grand-dad!  It was a wonderful day.

All the extra photos from April!  We went to a birthday party at the Little Gym of Scarsdale and Blaine enjoyed hearing all the same songs he knew from his classes in Seattle.

I took the kids to the Bronx zoo on 4/17 (it was a “snow giveback day” at preschool).

On the way home from the zoo we stopped at Walter’s for some delicious hot dogs.

We had a lot of rain in April, so Sarah got her very own umbrella (a panda, of course).

We also got a bubble machine (“bubble fish”).

Daddy tried out his new ice cream machine and made the richest most chocolatey ice cream I’ve ever had.

Blaine went to a birthday party at someone’s house which featured this giant UFO bouncy house.

Twinsies!

Sarah loved the triceratops the Easter Bunny brought her.

She was also excited to help Daddy make blueberry pancakes.

And we had another Easter egg hunt in our backyard.

We drove down to Virginia for the kids’ spring break from school.  First stop, Great Falls!

Sunday turned into a beautiful sunny day so we took the kids to see Great Falls.

Gram made a delicious pre-Easter brunch complete with a chocolate “Easter basket” cake.

And Gram put together a wonderful Easter egg hunts for the kids!

On Monday we drove down to Charlottesville to visit Great Grand-mom and Great Grand-dad.

Blaine enjoyed this popcorn maker in our hotel lobby.

We went out to Bizou for dinner on the downtown mall.

The next day Great Grand-mom and Great Grand-dad hosted us for lunch at the Colonnades!  The kids loved the hot dogs and angel food cake they were served.

And they enjoyed more french fries and ketchup at dinner that night at Citizen Burger (also outdoors, on the mall).

The next day we drove back home to NY and we enjoyed this tollbooth at the rest stop where we had lunch.

The kids were SO excited to bake a cake for Daddy (possibly due to the book, “Spot Bakes a Cake”) so we decided to celebrate on Sunday the 2nd when we would have more time to prolong the festivities.

After dinner we opened presents.  Sarah was very excited to give Daddy this Thomas card that she picked out just for him.

And Blaine was excited about Daddy’s big birthday gift — an ice cream maker!

Then it was time for birthday cake.