April Adentures

 April was packed full of fun activities.  It was the last month of Dragon Ninja classes for Zane, we are taking a break for the summer.  He made some good improvements and had a great time.

climbing the wall

practicing on the trampoline

rings

sticking the landing

We had a quiet Easter.  Zane enjoyed coloring and hunting for eggs.  We enjoyed going to church as a family and had the Anackers and our friend Mr. Horst over for Easter dinner.

coloring eggs with Pop

Finding the eggs

He got goldfish in his Easter bucket

Our church is big enough that it has a full choir and orchestra, a special treat

Up next was Hartland's Quilt Retreat.  I have been slowly learning the art and have been blessed with a wonderful sewing machine.  It is great to fellowship with many ladies and make fun projects.  Zane has even starting piecing together scraps.

Zane sewing

First I pieced my quilt into blocks

then into rows

The top is finished, now it needs quilted and the binding put on

The speaker for quilt retreat was from our church in the valley.  She runs the ministry, Garden of Hope that provides quilts for cancer patients and helps make baby blankets for the new babies in church.  I am now starting to piece together some quilts for that ministry.  The quilts already come in kits that are precut and just need pieced together.  

Here's the first blanket I made for the ministry

We only had one field trip this month to Farmer Bob's World.  It is an active citrus farm.  We got to learn about different varieties of oranges and other fun facts.  We learned that when they net the orange trees, this is not to prevent cross pollination like we originally thought, but to prevent any pollination, to produce seedless varieties(what you buy in the store as Cuties or Halos).

This is a topper blade, for trimming the tops of the trees

We even got to pick our own oranges 

Fresh picked orange

Our church had Super Hero Sunday, Zane was very excited to wear a costume to church and get his picture with some Super Heros.

At the local swap meet we found a new bike for Zane.  As he has been growing and getting more confident the old bike just wasn't working anymore.  This one has gears and good brakes.  It's amazing at how confident he was from the first time he rode it.  He and Pops have been riding lots of trails and back roads lately.

New Bike

He can even pull the trailer with Henry in it.

Zane and Pop getting ready for a ride

Riding in the burn area from the fire last fall

We finished the month at Crown Valley Youth Ranch.  It's a Christian Mentorship program for youth.  Zane goes every other week and gets to ride horses, help take care of farm animals, do farm chores, work in the garden and many other things.  They had an open house so Zane was excited to show me all the things he gets to do.

Pony Ride

Another Pony Ride

Barrel Train with Henry

Waiting for Pony Rides with Henry and Paxton

We have enjoyed a fun spring here in the mountains.  See you again in May.