Our Family in April 2018

Here we are at the end of April and what a month it has been – super busy and filled with adventures, a 10.5 hour flight, Jet lag, madness with 2 cousins sleepovers, and a week of glorious sunshine (remember that?!). We started this month off in the USA and our pictures this month are of us on the Vegas Strip – it was a brilliant day and feels like so long ago now!

When April began we were in Utah enjoying the Spring sunshine, and a lovely Easter Sunday with family. 2 days later we went on to Vegas, before heading to LA and home again to the UK! It was such an epic adventure to share together (that you can read more about in part 1 of our USA holiday ) and Vegas was such a fun place to visit, that we wish we had scheduled in more time to be there and see more things! It was a great place for kids and an excellent way to end our 2 weeks in the USA. We all miss the root beer, hanging with friends and family, the heat and just our general adventures. I love these pictures though because they reflect how much fun we were having, and how relaxed we all were chilling in the states together.

Once we had returned and taken a good week to recover from jetlag, life resumed as normal and we welcomed some routine and less fast food in our diet. Id say that the kids struggled that first week back after Easter with a lot of tiredness but it didn’t do them any harm in the long run as Megan had star pupil 2 weeks ago, and Ethan has gone up another reading level. He is doing really well with school his work, and after a now resolved incident with another kid last week, he is a lot happier too which is great.

We loved that heatwave week we had – the sunshine just puts everyone in a good mood and I always feel so much more motivated. Alice and I especially had some wonderful adventures to the seaside to make the most of the sun and had plenty of ice cream and walks with friends! She is doing great at the moment and is so much more interactive with us all. Instead of pointing and grunting to get her own way, she is talking more and loves being in the midst of mayhem with Ethan and megan. They seem to find her more and more entertaining as her speech and character develop’s and it’s lovely as parents to see her fun and loving side coming out (as well as their growing love and fondness for her).

Megan is doing really good at the moment with her gymnastics, and wowed everyone with her awesome moves on Friday night at the churches talent show…she makes us laugh so much and she loves to perform for us and make up crazy dances. Both her and Ethan were keen to perform in the Church talent show, and with Megan’s (improv) dance, and Ethan’s singing, it was both hilarious and a very proud moment!

Both Ethan and Megan very much into the “Match attax” trend, and doing odd jobs for cash so as to build up their collection’s. It’s funny how things do full circle as I remember the same from our childhood and it’s funny how into them they are! Once home from school I rarely see either of them as the lighter nights have meant they have enjoyed a lot of playing out with their pals (one of the things I really love about living here). Myself and the other mum’s have a “what’s app group” so as to keep tabs on them all, and I always think what a vast difference it is to their Spring/Summer evenings when we lived in Leeds!

This month has also been good for Mr Smith and I, as we managed to squeeze in a date out as oppose to a take out and Netflix… and I have been doing a lot more in raising awareness for Stillbirth and baby loss with Channel 5, as well as getting on with my course in preparation to finish in June!

It’s been such a random and extraordinary month, and in addition to our holiday over Easter we have also managed to squeeze in a trip to the circus, explore historic houses and churches in this area, and then just this weekend…have a rather eventful Saturday in Hull city centre visiting a couple of cool museums with our 3 nephews in tow!