April JOY

Happy Friday, friends!  Hope you've had a great week.  I'm excited to tell you about all of the things that have brought my family JOY this month.  We're all battling colds this week so it's fun to look back on all the highlights of the month and remember the fun times.  I also made it a priority to go to bed at midnight every night this week instead of my usual 1:00am-ish.  It's amazing how much better you feel when you get more sleep.  haha

INFERTILITY AWARENESS WEEK
Many of you know our story to grow our family included struggles with infertility both times.  I shared the details of our infertility stories last year (I Never Thought It Would Happen to Me TWICE) and just wanted to encourage those of you who are currently going through infertility.  It's exhausting, hard, expensive, hopeful, time consuming, discouraging, exciting and totally worth it.  Olive and Fletcher bring us so much JOY!  Feel free to comment or email me if you need some infertility encouragement sent your way!  polkadottyplace@hotmail.com

OUTSIDE
Our motto has been if the sun is shining we are outside!  We've been working in the yard, playing, watching our flowers bloom and the kids are taken to heading up to their tree house and shouting their snack orders to me.  They think it's awesome to pulley their snacks up to their tree house.  If you're on the fence about whether or not you should invest in a backyard play set... DO IT.  My kids would stay out and play on ours all day long.

These tulips are the most gorgeous mustard color!  They're almost like a tulip/peony mix.   It brings me so much JOY to see my gardens thriving.

Hello, Mr Raccoon.  This is our raccoon friend that likes to say hello late at night.  The picture is hilarious now, but he definitely freaked me out peeking in the windows late at night.  He kept doing this for 15 minutes so it was easy to snap his picture.

FACEBOOK PAYS
Kevin won a big contest recently thanks to Facebook!  He entered a local heating and air company's contest for $2000 towards a new AC unit and WON!!  He'd forgotten all about the contest and then several students/coworkers told him that they announced he was the winner on morning radio.  We were THRILLED.  Home expenses are always a pain so we'd been saving up to replace our AC one day.  Well this huge check will speed up that savings process.  So thankful and so surprised!

CATS:
My kids are obsessed with pretending to be cats lately thanks to Boss Baby the TV series.  Have your kids watched that yet?  Then I found these three guys hanging out together one sunny afternoon.

BAKING FOR OTHERS
I am trying to teach our kids that little things make a big difference to people.  We try to bake for our neighbors and friends regularly.  This day we were surprising Kevin with brownies after a long day of work.  They're his favorite dessert so it was fun to bake them together.

GIRL'S NIGHT OUT
My friend invited me to Legally Blonde The Musical at a local college and it was so much fun!  We went out for a delicious dinner (Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese on a Pretzel Bun) and had the best time.  We are almost always together with our kids so it was a real treat to have uninterrupted conversation and a night out.

DELICIOUS FOOD
I made several yummy things this week: Reese's Pieces Cookies.  I made my usual Monster Cookie Recipe and swapped out the M&Ms for Reese's Pieces.

Loaded Chicken Salad (recipe here)

KIDS
I mentioned these $1 sunnies for kids from Target earlier in the week.  Well, I'm happy to report that they're great!  My kids have been wearing them all week and love them.  They're durable, fit well and are so cute.

We've gotten back into our routine of going on long walks every day.  The kids love it and the fresh air is good for all of us.  I tell them early in the day that we'll go on a walk in the afternoon.  That way they remind me to get out and exercise.  It's one of our favorite hours of the day.

Our science class was all about the life cycle of a butterfly this week. They learned so much and have been talking all about butterflies.

When you spot a firetruck you stop.  Obviously.  Made this two year olds day :)

We've been doing after dinner art time while I clean up the kitchen.  The kid sit in their seats and color or draw anything they want.  Apparently tongues are fun to color.  Yuck!

In case you missed it on Polka-Dotty Place:

Monday: Summer Target Haul
Tuesday: Loaded Chicken Salad
Wednesday: What I'm Wearing for Spring

I'm joining these lovely ladies for the monthly JOY filled link up!

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm also linking up with My Glittery Heart

HighFiveforFriday, FiveonFriday, and Momfessionals

Hope you have a great weekend!!