Renae Today: April

This post may contain affiliate links.

April proved to be a great month!  Jason resigned from his job at Walmart and decided to help out at home.  We have been extremely blessed to be in a financial situation where this can actually happen.  It has made all of the difference for our children, and for me.  He now helps out with everything, including learning time!

Sunshine has been doing so well during learning time with a one-to-one assistant at her beckon call.  It has provided me with the opportunity to be a teacher to the older kiddos without interruption.  This has been so wonderful!

Sunshine's time with daddy during learning time is also helping their attachment.  Hooray for progress!

In April we decided to try out another restaurant for practice for vacation to Disney World.  This time we chose Red Lobster.  The kiddos had eaten there before, for their great-grandparents' 50th anniversary.  This experience was much better than our first attempt last month.  Everyone was happy and content. The only challenge we had was waiting for meals and dessert to be brought.  Sunshine needed a few breaks to walk around, but they were short breaks.  The kiddos, Jason and I played the guess who game during periods of waiting.

Dinomite LOVED his meal and dessert.

Bulldozer couldn't get enough of his chocolate cake.  (In April, Bulldozer decided to stop smiling in photos and instead either look really serious or make silly faces.)

Princess LOVES eating at restaurants in general. She's not a dessert person but she loves appetizers.

I'm not sure what happened to my picture of Sunshine. She was with us.  Lol.

Over the course of the month we continued to prepare for the first day of our vacation to Disney World.  I figured if I helped prepare the kiddos for one day of the vacation each month, it wouldn't be too overwhelming, and they'd be ready when October 14th comes.

Our first day of vacation is all travel!  We'll be traveling by car, then plane, then plane again, then bus, and then we'll finally be at our resort in Disney World.

As I started reading children's airplane and airport books I realized that the best way to prepare the kiddos for security, would be to actually go through a security check.  Our local court house has one, so I asked if I could bring the kiddos there to go through the process.  The security guards were more than willing to help out.  I am so glad we went!  Not only did the guards take the kiddos through the security checkpoint, but they brought them back behind the scenes to see what actually goes on,

Dinomite loved asking questions.  Bulldozer learned that he will get his things back after he walks through the metal detector, and that he is to wait until his turn to do so.  He can not walk around the metal detector to get his things.  Princess learned the process isn't scary.  Sunshine learned to follow the crowd.  Lol.  All of them learned what would happen if they wore metal etc.  I still think this was one of my favorite field trips of the year.  And as for me in the picture... That was NOT planned.  Jason took my camera.  Lol.

Speaking of field trips... For learning time we took a field trip to a local flower shop where the kiddos were given a tour.  Each of the kiddos received a free flower.  We were then given this beautiful arrangement for free to use in our activities!  Bulldozer really enjoyed the flower shop.

The weather was FINALLY fit for outdoor play without snow in April.  We didn't hesitate for a second!  All four kiddos received new garden tools and went right to town  using them.

Dinomite dug up a bulb we didn't know was in the backyard.

Bulldozer raked up some old leaves.

Dinomite practiced digging using every tool available.

Bulldozer found a worm!

Sunshine LOVED having perfectly sized tools to use!

As we continued to learn about the airport and flying on airplanes, we decided to take a trip to an airplane museum.  It was small but amazing!

The kiddos had so much fun having a hands on experience with the airplanes.  Grandma Rose even joined us for the trip.  After the museum we headed to Olive Garden for dinner.  The restaurant was right next to the airport.  Three airplanes flew right over our heads and landed right across the street.  What a fun experience for them!

The restaurant experience was okay, but Bulldozer ended up in tears.  His meal was brought out after everyone else's for some reason.  Then when the waitress did bring it out, she dropped the plate with food on the floor, and he had to wait AGAIN.  By the time he did get his meal, everyone was ready for dessert.  He was not a happy camper.  Thankfully he enjoyed his dessert.  We watched the same waitress drop someone else's plate as well, so I'm guessing she didn't stay working there long.  

When we weren't out and about having loads of fun, or doing learning time, the kiddos enjoyed play time.  I'm not quite certain what they're playing here, but they're all very involved!

That's Renae today!