Grandpa Barney's visit and Basil's Birthday

As I was getting ready to post pictures from Memorial Day, I realized I'd forgotten to post about Grandpa's visit and Basil's birthday. So Memorial Day will have to wait . . .

In the beginning of April, Grandpa Barney came to visit. We had such a great time. We happened upon Earth Day downtown at the park, we visited Mount Spokane, and we attended Japanese Day at the museum--family free day! 

Here are a couple pictures from Mount Spokane. We didn't get to go to the spot we wanted to, but we did find a fun place to explore.

And in the mid-end of April, we celebrated Basil's SECOND birthday! It was so much fun. The girls are really getting into the whole gift-giving thing. They went with Rhett to pick some things out for Basil. I love that they are so excited about it, but I'm thinking we are going to have to set some price limits or something! haha.

We had strawberry shortcake cupcakes for the celebration.

 I don't know what this face is for, but I love it.

 This is what Claire picked out--a GIANT coloring book.

I think Pyper picked out the crayons?? I can't remember.

For our birthday parties, we always play a little family game that we don't do often. This time, we did sardines. It was the girls' first time playing it. It was WAY TOO fun! On the second to last round, we could not find Claire. Seriously. I was starting to worry. We searched for quite a while, and no one could find her. FINALLY, we found her! She was hiding in the windowsill behind the curtains in our bedroom. Since I had my big belly and my feet poked out the bottom, it was a little more obvious where we were hiding. As the rest of the girls joined us, we couldn't stop laughing. Rhett had the camera, and when he found us at the end, he threw the curtains open and got pictures.

Rhett had one more good hiding spot. So he headed out while we all counted. I knew where he was going because I'd checked there when I was looking for Claire, and I'd thought, "Now this is a good spot!"
But it was too tricky to climb in with him and hide, and I accidentally gave it away. The girls found him--and I was the one to take pictures this time.

It was such a fun birthday. I can't believe our sweet Basil is two years old now. She is getting so big and mature. She could count to thirteen before she turned two, she says her own prayers now ("Thank you daddy comes home soon" etc.), and she is just so much. She and Summer have a special connection because they get a little extra time together while the other two are at school. When Summer leaves, Basil misses her so much. A few days ago when Summer was at school, Basil got hurt and was crying. Claire said, "Basil, do you want me to hold you?" She said no. Claire asked, "Do you want mom?" Basil said no. Claire asked, "Who do you want?" And Basil said, "I want Summy." :) So sweet and tender. I love it.