Jim always enjoys when he needs to travel to Colorado for Cru, because he can usually squeeze in some time with Jake. This time, both Jake and Tiffany were free to meet for breakfast! Jim loved seeing them both in uniform.

Back at home, Jeremy and Ruth kept the Cornermouse candle burning by fulfilling two different cake pop orders. The first order was for a birthday party with a Peppa Pig theme. They made pig pops!

The second order was for our friends’ daughter who is a student at Moody Bible Institute. We delivered the cake pops to her on her birthday.

For Jake’s birthday, I made a party shirt for him to wear to his upcoming Ring Dance. Most cadets wear these altered tuxedo shirts: they are business (unaltered) in the front, and once they remove their jackets, party in the back.

I also put together a matching fabric corsage for Tiffany.

We learned about circuits in science.

We took advantage of the mild weather by putting together a gazebo, and screening it in ourselves. Well, actually, Peter can now add “screen installer” to his growing list of home improvement skills. Yes, he did just about the entire gazebo himself!

Meanwhile, Derek assembled the table

which is now used daily.

We spent Easter in Chicago and enjoyed a beautiful day. After lunch, we walked down to Maggie Daley Park and played a game of whiffle ball.

What a gorgeous backdrop!

Ruth’s current goal is perfecting her softball pitches. She works on them all the time, with or without a ball.

The tree in the front of the house bloomed:

Despite more rainy and cold days than not, baseball was in full swing. Jeremy and Ruth started their seasons, but unfortunately had many rainouts in the month of April.

Peter enjoyed his first season playing high school baseball. He played catcher, and was consistent at the plate.

Speaking of Peter, he had quite a busy month. Not only did he have daily baseball practice and games, he also had two orders for cake pops to fulfill: one from a teacher, and the other from a coach.

And if that wasn’t enough, he performed in a percussion concert. Here’s the livestream of the entire concert.

After the concert, kids were invited to come on stage and play some of the instruments. Ruth joined Beth and Anna.

The month was also a very busy one for Derek. He was nominated to compete for Mr. WA. I never knew my second-born could dance like he did. I was totally impressed. Again, the livestream of the entire performance is below.

There was the awards ceremony, where we enjoyed seeing many of the seniors’ talents and character acknowledged.

And then there was prom.

Derek went with a group of friends,

and they had a blast.

The weather on the day of prom was sunny and mild. The weather the day after prom took a turn for the worse…to put it lightly. The temperature plummeted, and the skies opened up. The group had planned to go into Chicago for the day; rather than walking around all day, they hung out at Mom and Dad’s. It was nice to have a backup plan.

The weather continued its wintery trajectory and dumped a bunch of snow at the end of April. Here, Ruth is standing in it before church on April 28!

We capped off the month with Grandparents’ Day at WA. Mom and Dad had to divide and conquer, since we had two students at the high school this year.