Spring Sing

Well, this week was an exciting one in Aiden's young academic career. Not only was it the last week of his first year of preschool, it was also the week of his spring concert! Expectations for adorableness were quite high, and we were certainly not dissapointed.

Heading out the door in his concert duds.

These pictures jump right to the concert "after party" in Aiden's classroom, but I will be posting video footage as soon as I can load it.

A proud mom.

Everyone was taking pictures. Even Aiden's classmate Leah was getting in on the action.

Aiden's wonderful teachers: Teacher Melissa and Teacher Lois.

And finally here is the after after party which involved lots of cake eating and general mayhem.

Phew! Another great concert, and a great year of pre-school coming to a close. We are all looking forward to next year!

L.A.

Here are some seriously overdue pictures from our recent trip to sunny southern CA.

On our first full day we got to see our good friends Dan and Laura. It had been a long time (too long) since our last visit together, but we made the most of this one! They gave us a tour of their town and the school (Loma Linda University) they have been attending for graduate school. Our time together was amazing, but unfortunately ended all too soon.

The next day gave us the opportunity to visit with Jen's Uncle Bob and Aunt Val who also live nearby. They took on us a coastal excursion to the beautiful Balboa Island/ Penninsula. The weather and scenery were spectacular, and we had a great day together.

Throughout the week we had the extreme pleasure of visiting with and being hosted by our amazing friends Mike and Rhianwen. Although we were only in town for a few days we had a great time seeing their neighborhood, catching up on new stories, meeting some of their friends, and just hanging out in their cool new apartment. Thanks Mike and Rhi for taking us in! You were great hosts!

This picture says it all. I'm just not sure what "it" is.

On Safari

0730: Observing morning rituals of a three year old human male in his native habitat. Subject thus far has displayed an uncanny grazing ability as he seems to be dining continuously on a variety of local edibles.

0740: Very little activity. Subject may be sleeping with his eyes open.

0745: Creature of undetermined species has appeared near subject's nesting site. Possibly Meerkat or malnourished Prairie Dog.

0755: Subject is stirring. It appears as though he may have become aware of my presence.

0758: Oh yeah, he definitely sees me. Maybe if I stay very still he'll lose interest.

0800: Subject is now taking pictures of me. Position compromised. Signing off...

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.