“ 'April, April, laugh thy girlish laughter, and the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears, April.' ” ― Angus Wilson, No Laughing Matter

April Fools!

Ella enjoyed her Easter egg hunt at school

April 3

All filled up with candy and ready for our annual egg hunt in the backyard

Grandpa helped Ella and Knox dye the eggs

April 4

Easter 

Neil wore the tie our niece Sarah made for his birthday

Niece Julia made those works-of-art Easter cookies

They were delicious and half gone before I could take a picture

Our backyard Easter egg hunt is one of my favorite traditions

Even the adult kids join in the hunt. There are prize eggs to be found, and Neil goes out

of his way to make them extra hard to find. This year, Sarah made little Easter boxes

filled with goodies for the old folks to find. Revenge is sweet.

My box was under a pile of rocks.

Elijah collected his eggs in a makeshift ‘basket’ made out of a pair of pants

Brothers and sisters and cousins

They always make the Easter tradition fun

Happy Easter from the Ranft/Myers/Kimbrough Families!

April 6

All our grands have played T Ball

Maybe Ella will too

April 8

She knows she’s not supposed to go up the stairs by herself

Did it anyway. Thought it was funny.

April 9

She likes to help Grandpa feed the birds

Elijah has perfected the backflip on trampoline

Shelby and Ella picked a spring bouquet

This friendly kitty has found him some new friends in Ella and Knox’s backyard

April 12

Sunset view from the Wal-Mart parking lot

April 15

Ella visits after school each Tuesday/Thursday

One of her fave treats is Cool Whip in a Dixie cup

Backyard after school

Knox and his dad throwing the football

Elijah and Shelby popped in

Always fun to have all the grands here after school

April 18

One Two Three Red Light!

April 20

Bubble fun

Her dad set up not one but two bubble machines

More fun than pint-sized human beings should be allowed to have

“There is always a silver lining. Find it.”―Shayne Neal

April 22

Neil and I helped pack boxes for Churches of Christ Disaster Relief

Somebody found a marker in the back seat of the car

Borrowed this from Ella’s mom, Kelly

April 24

Happy happy Joy joy

Got to sit down and eat inside Chick-fil-A

It’s these small things we’ve missed during the virus shutdowns

April 25

Knox at Poet’s

Enjoying his cell phone, a big surprise from his parents

April 26

My über blurry cell phone camera capture of the pink super moon

Hope you got to see it. It was awesome!

April 28

Light at the end of the bathroom makeover tunnel

Neil has worked long hard hours on this little room

Old vinyl removed along with our big oak cabinet and our cast iron claw foot tub

Kerry helped Neil move the tub out of the bathroom this afternoon and flip it over for painting

The dark green matched the wallpaper that hung on the wall for nearly 30 years

And now it’s a glossy black

New vinyl flooring installed tomorrow if all goes as planned

April 29

Before …

… and after

Installer did an excellent job

We’re super pleased with the way it turned out

April 30

Spent the day with these two

They call the cat Percy

Ella is quite taken with him

He belongs to the neighborhood it seems

Serenity now

Bathroom makeover is finally coming together

Neil laid a lot of cardboard and we rolled the tub in on a dolly

and wrestled it in place, Neil doing all the heavy lifting

He’s busy plumbing now (not his favorite sport)

Toilet goes in next. More fun for the handy man.

“They always say time changes things, 

but you actually have to change them yourself.” 
― Andy Warhol

"No Winter lasts forever, no Spring skips its turn.  

April is a promise that May is bound to keep, and we know it."
 -  Hal Borland

THE GOOD THE RANDOM THE FUN ~ APRIL SO FAR

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."
-  William Shakespeare 

Grandson Elijah, granddaughter Shelby, Neil and I hit the DQ Wednesday after school for some yummy frozen treats. Banana splits for Elijah and Neil. Shelby and I tried the Brownie Cookie Dough Blizzard, and we both agreed it was totally awesome.

Elijah brought home his art portfolio, an array of pictures he made in class that imitated the style of various famous (and not so famous) artists, using different mediums. Pretty cool. Good work, Elijah!

Thursday was the day for class Easter egg hunts (or Spring egg hunt, as they call it now). The weather did not cooperate, and a thunderstorm blew in right as Elijah’s third grade class lined up to go outside and walk to a classmate’s home to have their egg hunt. His teacher is quite creative and devised an alternative way to hunt eggs in the classroom. Each student had a numbered egg and “hunted” through each pan, looking for his number. They had twenty seconds to go through each pan. Not the ideal situation but fun nonetheless I guess. They also got to enjoy a delicious lunch of burgers and dogs one of the dads grilled for them [in the rain] and fruit and other goodies and they played games.

Grandson Knox had his Easter egg hunt at his MDO school. His mom took this picture of him in his bunny ears.

This pretty blue egg is one he found during his egg hunt, and he carried it around all afternoon until his hands were blue. Matched his shirt. And Crocs, too.

Cherry blossoms ~ one of my fave things about Spring

Just a swingin’ after school. Granddaughter Shelby, who will be in high school next year [yikes!], gave up class egg hunts when she went off to middle school where holiday-related fun does not exist. Real world strikes again.

"Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment."
-  Ellis Peters

Son in law Kerry got into the candy stash ~ that Laffy Taffy is hard to unwrap

"Keep your faith in all beautiful things; in the sun when it is hidden, in the Spring when it is gone."
-  Roy R. Gilson

Daughter Holly popped in after work to pick up her kiddos, and Knox was happy to let her push him in the swing.

Trampoline time

Lovely Shelby

Jump!

Friday I dug out the plastic eggs and filled them with candy. Seems all the major holidays revolve around candy. Beginning with Halloween in October and running through Easter~I call it the Fat Season. It’s hard to ignore a piece of chocolate when it’s right there under your nose. And OOPS! now it’s in my belly [and on my hips].

Today we colored Easter eggs.

The first dozen. One didn’t make it.

Knox got a kick out of the process, but I think Kelly had the most fun.


Looking forward to eating these [with a sprinkle of salt, of course] They turned out so pretty, especially Kelly’s multi-colored eggs.

Seemed like a good night for homemade stew and fresh Italian bread for supper [Food Lion has the best bakery bread on the planet~just sayin’]

After supper, egg coloring ~round two ~the second dozen. Knox likes the blue ones best. Good times.  Great traditions. Hope your April has been awesome so far.