Easter

We had a good Easter this year, Aiden in particular enjoyed himself as he is now really old enough to enjoy the numerous candy gathering activities that Easter provides. Between school, our house, his grandparent's house, and his aunt and auncle's house he searched for, found, and ate a lot of Easter candy. Easter morning (after finding his Easter basket) Aiden let me take some pictures of him while he showed off his sharp looking Easter duds.

Taking pictures of taking pictures.

In the afternoon there was a family gathering at the house of Aunt Nicloe and Uncle Richie. Aiden was near giddy with excitement to play with his cousins Anna and Olivia, and to raise the stakes even futher Richie and Nicole planned an amazing Easter egg hunt for the kids to participate in.

Egg hunting hats were provided.

Pre-hunt meeting.

Venturing out.

Looks like a pretty good haul so far.

The successful hunters, exhausted but happy, with their super-fun Aunt and Uncle.

Easter!

Birthday Getaway

This week Jen and I had the chance to sneak in a one night get-away birthday celebration- just the two of us. Though in the past we've often checked into a hotel in downtown Philadelphia for these type of quick excursions, this time we decided to try something different and head north, instead of south. For a long time Jen (and more recently me) have made day trips with family and friends to the small Pocono town of Jim Thorpe, though until now we'd never stayed over night. So we decided to give it a try!

Being as removed as it is Jim Thorpe is a surprisingly vibrant town that is just about overflowing with inns, restaurants, shops, great architecture and interesting history. We didn't have much planned for our stay, but we certainly lucked out by getting some of the best weather of the spring so far. It was warm and sunny as we meandered through the streets, checking out cool shops (Jen) and cool buildings (Rob) all the while.

The town is nestled in a valley between two nearly sheer cliffs, and I was endlessly fascinated by the series of intricate stone walls that were built to literally hold back the mountain.

One of my favorite buildings was this amazing, old, and still totally functioning library. We couldn't resist poking around the inside, which was pretty impressive.

We stumbled upon the GIANT house for sale. When we looked up the information later we found out that it has 10 bedrooms, 4 baths and over 7000 square feet. Asking price: a cool 325K (seriously). So, if anyone wants to go in with us and start a Bed and Breakfast in Jim Thorpe...

Later we also hopped in the car and did a quick driving tour of the surrounding countryside. Notably, we stopped at nearby Mauch Chunk Lake to gaze reflectively out on the still, peaceful waters- until we got too cold and had to get back in the car.

And finally we just enjoyed the time that we had to lounge around at the Inn. There was a great balcony that we found to be a perfect place to sit back in rocking chairs and watch the town go by.

Assistant (to the) Pea Planter

Aiden and I kick-started this year's garden yesterday by digging in and planting two different types of peas. Armed with his brand new garden tool set and a three-year-old's unbridled enthusiasm for getting dirty I can see Aiden being quite a force to be reckoned with in the garden this year.

Full pea planting report here.

A night in The Valley

We were fortunate this week to enjoy a short but sweet overnight trip out to the Willow Valley resort in Lancaster with Mom and Dad Weidner. It's always nice to get away, even if it's just for a day or two, and this was no exception. We arrived Wednesday afternoon and after one breakfast smorgasbord, tons of snacking, and a whole lot of pool time it was Thursday morning and we were headed home with full bellys and the lingering scent of chlorine in our hair, just like we planned it.

Time Marches On

The last week or so has finally brought the first blush of real spring-type weather to our blizzard battered area. As it is still early March I think that we are all holding our collective breath that we'll avoid the, always disheartening, late season snow storm. But with daylight savings around the corner, and spring bulbs poking up through bare dirt, the general consensus is that we are basically out of the woods of the harshest winter weather.

A few days last week were warm enough for Aiden and I to venture outside to play in the yard. Aiden enjoyed the extra space to run, kick and throw and I enjoyed the opportunity to be outside without a snow shovel in my hand. Ahhhhh, grass.

Despite having quite a stable of outdoor toys to choose from, at this stage in life Aiden pretty much just wants to throw stuff. So that's what we did. We threw frisbees, we threw (plastic) bowling pins, we threw sticks, and we even threw balls. I was reminded once again that the things that keep a 3 years old boy entertained and the things that keep a 29 year old boy entertained are not that much different.

Action shot:

The change in seasons is certainly one that we eagerly welcome in this house. We are looking forward to neighborhood walks, grilling (maybe for the first time this week), and I've even started working on this year's garden. Bring it on Spring, we are sooooooo ready.

Yep, there's a baby in there.

We've got some good news and some really good news. After Jen had some concerning symptoms last Friday we made an unexpected detour to get an ultrasound to confirm that everything was a-ok with baby Jones. The good news is that it was a false alarm, and the really good news is that, in fact, the baby is healthy as-can-be and doing great.

We weren't expecting to have an ultrasound for another 10 weeks, so getting the opportunity to hear the baby's heartbeat and see it wiggle around was an unexpected, but much appeciated, blessing.

When we have the next ultrasound in a few months we'll be excited to (hopefully) answer the boy/girl question, but for now we are just thankful to have some concrete evidence and reassurance that baby J is indeed doing well. Yahoo!

Hide and Seek

For some reason Aiden finds this video of himself endlessly hilarious. I field numerous requests from him everyday for another viewing. He calls it the, "I can watch it, cheeeeeeeeese" video. (It'll make sense when you watch it.) The end result is generally him dissolving into an uncontrollable fit of giggles.

B-Day #3

For reasons to be more fully explained later, we decided to keep Aiden's birthday party particularly low-key this year. On his big day we had family over to the house for lunch, gifts and birthday cupcakes. It was just enough excitement to send Aiden to bed tuckered out for a nice long nap, but not quite enough to completely overstimulate and overwhelm.

The birthday boy had a great time, and got tons of attention (and a sweet little haul of birthday presents.)

Here is the obligatory "eating the cake" video montage. In this case the cake is a cupcake, and true to form Aiden remains quite stoic throughout the ordeal. In fact, his facial expression and overall demeanor are remarkably similar to the same moment from his first birthday. Watch it for yourself and see.

One of the most anticipated moments of the day (by us) was when Aiden opened this present:

It's a shirt that says "Big Brother," meaning that in about seven months Aiden is going to be a big brother, and Jen and I are going to be a mommy and daddy (again!) It was an exciting moment to share with the family, and we were glad that they could all be a part of it.

As exciting as it has been to anticipate the new baby, it has also been a tough few weeks as Jen's pregnancy has been a difficult one thus far. Although she and the little one are both very healthy Jen has had daily, almost debilitating migraine headaches. This, coupled with the more expected nausea, aches, and pains of early pregnancy, have forced us to scale back on some of the things that we would normally want to do (like elaborate birthday parties.)

Thankfully we were able to have a wonderful time celebrating with Aiden, and with our family! And we are grateful, of course, for the joy that is ahead of us, and hopeful that daily life will settle back into it's normal equilibrium sometime very soon.

PJ day

Yesterday, pajama day at Aiden's preschool, was coincidentally also the first day that I (Rob) was charged with the responsibility getting ready him for, and delivering him safely to school.

While easy at first glance (no clothes to pick out!) I realized quickly that Aiden may be somewhat suspicious about my qualifications when it comes to fashion-related decision making. Initially, no matter hard I insisted that today was PAJAMA DAY at school, and that all of his friends would be wearing their pajamas, he insisted back just as adamantly that, no Dad, we don't wear pajamas to school- we wear clothes.

Eventually my persistence won over his doubts (or maybe he was just humoring me) and we got loaded into the car in full pajama mode, sunglasses included. And thankfully, all reports indicate that pajama day was a roaring success, even for the most skeptical of little boys.