April Recap

Let's see... April. Portland over-nighter, Ethan's Birthday, Easter... haven't I already covered it all?! Ok, maybe not. Here are a few things I may have missed.

* Date-night-movie-of-the-month: Attempted to see this on a date-night swap. Didn't work out. Dang movie was sold out so now we are waiting for it at Redbox. I'm also hoping to read the book soon....Instead we rented this at watched it at home (Ethan was at a friend's house). It was funny. A one-time watch.We still need to get this month's movie in. I'm hoping for Pirates, but wishing X-Men was out!! And I kinda want to see Soul Surfer.... Too many movies that I kinda want to see, but not really any movies that I'm dying to see. Suggestions? Reviews?

* Fast Sunday, Foil Dinners and Friends: This may become a Summer fast Sunday tradition - foil dinners/dutch oven dessert at our house. We've got a big enough backyard, the fire pit and we're just a fence-hop away from the school playground. May was fun...

Most of the group.

Brian with his backpack lawnchair - "The coolest spot in Paradise."

* Fort Vancouver Regional Library: Vancouver has a whole network of libraries. And there borrow/return system is pretty much the same deal as Redbox - you can return your library books to any location. Pretty sweet deal. And get this - the closest location to our house is at the mall!! It's just a small branch, but it has a decent size children's section and that's all I really care about. So last month we finally ventured out and I got a library card. Ethan spent most of his time playing on the computer and listening to an interactive story while I picked out books to borrow. It works out pretty well that way.

This was our very first round of borrowed books. They were a success. All were cute and funny, but Monster Mess! and The Frog Prince Continued were the definite favorites. In fact, I think I'm going to look into getting a copy of Monster Mess! for our library. I've also discovered recently that monster books are usually a hit at our house.

* My {apparently hilarious} Hippie Ways: I am the hippie in my Vancouver group of friends. They know I recycle. They know I keep an eye out for the environment. They know I originate from the land of hippies. So, the following story was absolutely hilarious to them. Glad I was good for a laugh. One Sunday, mid-April, we noticed a crow hanging around our backyard before church. It was still there when we got home and then Ethan informed us that he had gotten close to the bird. Sean and I thought that was a little odd since birds usually fly away so quickly and decided to go investigate. Sure enough, the crow was in our backyard and its wing was broken. Poor bird! So I decided to call animal control and had to leave a message. The next morning I got a call back and was told that they don't deal with birds {this was the part of my story that my friends laughed the hardest at - apparently it is common knowledge that animal control doesn't deal with birds} and they gave me the number for the Portland Audubon Society. I called them up and they were more than willing to take the bird in, but I would have to catch him and bring him in - they don't do pick-ups. Dang it! Well, just as I was about to make my catching attempt, our landlord showed up to mow the lawn. Long story short, I made several attempts to catch the crow, but on my last effort I realized too late that I was chasing him right through our open gate and he was gone. He hopped off down the street, ended up in a neighbor's yard and then finally disappeared. Oh well, I tried. And it was the fact that I cared enough to try and rescue a crow that got my friend's laughing so hard and saying things like, "only Jenn would try to save a crow." You'd think I was a major animal-lover, which I am not, I just didn't like seeing the poor guy suffer and I didn't think it was my call to "put him out of his misery" as so many suggested on Facebook because other than the broken wing, he seemed to be doing pretty well. Sigh....... Me and my hippie ways! At least I didn't name him.
* Some Random Pics:

Ethan on a ride at the mall.

After a late-morning walk (about 3 miles). The sun was shining and Ethan was chilling in the stroller.

Our backyard lawn finally mowed for the first time this year. It was overdue and has been growing like crazy with the combination of lots of rainy days mixed with a handful of sunny days.

PS: I think I'm going to put the ka-bosh on the "Scenes from the weekend" posts, or just do them occasionally. I'm just not finding I have many pictures to post most weeks unless we did something major - and then it usually deserves its own post. Hope no one was too attached....