On the last day of April, we decided to explore the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve. This preserve has a boardwalk trail going through it, and it is an excellent place for bird watching. We enjoyed searching among the reeds and in the skies for various birds. We also enjoyed reading the many informative plaques along the trail.
We did see and hear a lot of different birds while we were here, but we didn't get pictures of all of them. We couldn't identify them all either, but we did see Song Sparrows, Canadian Geese, Barn Swallows, Red Winged Blackbirds, and White-faced Ibises.
Song Sparrow
White-faced Ibises in flight
Click for a closer look to see that White-faced Ibises have a iridescent sheen
April is a month of lots of birthdays in our family. So, at the beginning of the month we held a combined party to celebrate them all. However, we especially focused on my mom's birthday, and I decorated our house specifically for her.
After a nice ham dinner and cake, we exchanged some gifts.
Austin was delighted with the gifts he got from grandparents, aunts, and uncles, including a Duplo Block set he plays with almost daily now, a new monster truck toy, and a toy wooden fruit set with a toy knife. He also got a very large present that turned out to be a new wagon.
I was particularly surprised when I got a very special gift from my maternal grandma. She is a musician who for years had many piano students. While she no longer teaches, she still has had a couple pianos that she doesn't use often. I know that those pianos still have held a great deal of sentimental value to her, but she gave one to us for my birthday.
In addition to doing a large combined party, we held individual parties for Austin and me with just our family later in the month. Nate made a delicious salmon dinner for my birthday along with a s'mores cake.
I originally found the s'mores cake recipe on Pinterest. I love s'mores, and it looked delicious, so I requested that cake for my birthday. It really did taste good, but for some reason the marshmallow fluff "frosting" didn't turn out anything like the picture.
Austin gave me a delicious raspberry flavored Utah Truffle for my birthday. I love his toothy grin in this picture!
Austin's requested his favorite for his birthday: macaroni and cheese. For dessert we had homemade chocolate dipped waffle bowls and ice cream instead of cake.
He then opened some gifts from us, most of which were clothes. But we also made him a new toy: a magnetic marble run.
Along with a whiteboard to use the pieces on.
Austin has had fun playing with it, though we still need to tweak a couple things to work better.
We also found that we could make faces using the shapes too.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that Austin is already five. The time has gone by so fast. I am so grateful that Austin is part of our family! He is such a smart boy and learns things quickly when he wants to. He has become better and better at helping with things as he has grown, and he is always doing fun things that bring smiles to our faces, like impromptu dances to me singing "I am a Child of God" as I fix dinner...
We have been so very busy lately that I haven't had time to post about very many things. However, I thought I would at least share a few pictures of just some of the things we have been up to in the last few months.
For Christmas, we got a snowman kit from my grandparents. We just had to add the snow! Luckily, we had some more snow in our area that we could use our kit with later in January.
One cold day in February, Austin came out of his room first thing in the morning very proud of the matching outfit he had found for himself:
Our Easter was celebrated over a few days. We went to the city's Easter Egg hunt, which lasted about 30 seconds. Austin wasn't actually close enough to the start line to score any eggs when they set everyone loose on the grassy egg laden area of the park. However, some friends let him in to pick up some eggs from the "special needs" egg hunt area, which was almost solidly blanketed with the colorful plastic goodies (definitely overkill for the handful of kids using that area).
We talked about Easter for pre-school too, and the kids had a fantastic time dying easter eggs and decorating them with faces and hats.
More recently, we drove down to Provo to celebrate Nate's brother Michael's graduation. After the ceremony, we met at their house for a lunch party. They have now moved back to California, so we probably will not be seeing them as often any more. Here is a picture though of Austin with some of his cousin's who were at the lunch:
