April was an action-packed month here at Illinois State University.

We began April with breaking news that was too good to be true (Try the Tri), then ended the month with such good news that people couldn’t believe it. (Yes, Portillo’s is really coming to Normal.)

In between, Illinois State’s campus hosted a daylong research symposium, weeklong celebrations for three of our colleges and departments, and countless end-of-semester events for our graduates. Oh, and a BuzzFeed celebrity crashed the Quad.

Every month on STATEside, we share some of our favorite photos of Illinois State that were posted by Redbirds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter from the previous month, using Storify.

Here are our favorite photos from AprilĀ 2016: