Children's Museum

I’ve been going through a backlog of photos tonight and I finally got to the photos from the recent trip to The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis. Brooke, together with her friend Kaitlyn, were brave enough to go on the road for the day and take them all on a little field trip. I know from the stories that we heard that the kids had a great day and as I went through the photos tonight, it certainly seemed that way.

I have said it numerous times previously on these pages and we’ve certainly expressed the same views to Brooke personally but it’s so hard for Lynne and myself to express the sheer degree of thanks that we owe Brooke for all that she does for our children and thus for us. They may never fully appreciate the kindness, patience, care, affection, tenderness and love that she showers on them but we certainly do. As I’ve stated before, she is the reason that we can lead the hectic lives we do. Brooke, if you ever read this, we thank you most sincerely for all that you do. 
As always, shown below are some select shots. My favorite, Anja brushing in the dinosaur dig area. This is only because it reminds me of our very first trip that museum. In that very very spot, a two-year-old Anja who was very recently transitioned out of diapers wet herself. This one mother in the area freaked out, it was like Anja peed nuclear waste, she called security who in turn evacuated the area and cordoned it off. What a day....

Old Photos...Mum and Dads 25th Anniversary

This week, the “old photos” were taken about 16 years ago at our home in Ireland the evening my Mum and Dad celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary. They renewed their vows and had pictures taken before a celebration with the wider family. The photos below are of Mum, Dad and my sister Eilish, a picture of my siblings and myself, a picture of Lynne and myself and finally a shot of everyone who attended. Didn’t we all look much younger there?

Anja the Photographer

These last few weeks, Anja has taken a surprising interest in taking photos. In addition to our big digital SLR camera, which the kids know is strictly off limits, we also have a small point and shoot (Canon Powershot 100) which I let them use from time to time. 


Anja has been using it more and more recently. She has now also decided that she wants her own camera for her birthday. I’m pretty pleased about this since I’ve tried to teach them a few of the basic photo tips over the years, really basic stuff like point the camera at the person, hold it really steady, not an easy task. Downloading her shots makes for some interesting perspectives. Shown below are a cross section of what she has recently captured, some of it's good, most of it needs work, especially that handsome Daddy of hers :) I really like the one with the small bug inside the daffodil. The upside down ones are on purpose, she was particularly pleased with these…

Pirates....

It was a pretty ordinary week here in WL. Our garden is bursting with green. Lynne and the kids have been in heaven pottering around in the garden these last few weekends. I hope you’re all having a great weekend.

Shown below are the kids reading with Lynne before bed, this is how it looks virtually every evening. You’ll notice that Anja is in a pirate outfit, they had such a theme on Friday at School and on Thursday night she couldn’t contain herself. My favorite picture this week though is the one of Isabel, I took it last weekend when we went to the park. She loves playing on these monkey bars and I had simply intended on get a photo of her on them. This is the image that popped out though; she let go just as I took the shot.

Ready for the weekend??

Anybody out there glad the weekend is here? We certainly are. It has been a pretty normal week and no major plans ahead of us for the weekend. I’m sure we’ll make it hectic though, some way or another. One thing is for certain, something is seriously wrong with our climate. We have flowering trees in full bloom here one month ahead of their time. We had temperatures in the mid 80’s this week.  Shown below are a couple of shots from the last few weeks, have a great weekend everybody.

Picture of Venus and Jupiter

Last week I heard a story about how close the planets of Venus and Jupiter would appear in the Western skies all this week. Sure enough, we had excellent visibility last night and the two planets are immediately obvious as you look to the West. Beautiful. I got my tripod out and took the picture below, which required a 30sec exposure. I was pretty happy with how they could be framed between the gap in our tree line. Then I looked online to see the photographic efforts of others this week. Wow, the picture here on the National Geographic website is stunning.

We had a very relaxing St Patrick’s Day. Once we got some of the Saturday morning chores out of the way, we pootled around in the garden for a short while before Steef and Ginette came over. We had some great food, perfect weather and some beers to honor the patron saint of Ireland. The kids had a blast. I watched the rugby too, pity about that, after about 20 minutes and they discovered we had no scrum, it was all over.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick’s Day everybody, wishing each of you a great day. We’re taking it easy here today, we’ll have some friends over later this evening for dinner and I’ll watch a recording of the Ireland game later tonight. Should be a good one. Sláinte!

Shown below are a few pictures of the kids this morning in the clothes that Granny Owens sent over, thanks again Mum. Lynne is feeling much better today by the way, many thanks for all your well wishes.

Lynne Hit by a Car Whilst Riding Her Bike

Lynne was very lucky she did not get seriously injured today. It was a great day so she headed out for a bike ride. As she rode along the main road, a car approached from a side street and pulled into the road right in front of her. The driver was turning left and was looking right as he veered way to far out into the main road. He never saw Lynne and she crashed right into him, was thrown from her bike over the hood of the car and landed out in front of the his car into the middle of the road.

She has some bruising on her thigh right above her knee where she got tangled up with her handlebars but other than this she is fine. It could have been a lot worse. She is a little shell shocked of course but ok. Her leg will be sore for quite some time. We’re both so grateful that this incident didn’t cause any significant injury.

The picture shown below is from a bike ride we did in 2003 but she did have that bike jersey on today.

Megan and Ashley Visit

Tonight was out first evening of the year to have dinner on the deck and we did so with Megan and Ashley Mathews. They’re Randy and Lorraine’s grandchildren from Texas who are visiting this week. They came over this afternoon and spent the entire afternoon running around and playing with our kids, they were absolutely exhausted when they left. I think everybody had a brilliant time.

Three Musketeers.....

The beautiful Spring-like weather allowed us to do lots of activities this weekend in addition to meeting with lots of friends. We met with Steef and Ginette on Saturday, had a great morning in the garden this morning before we headed over to Lisa and Brad’s house for a relaxing afternoon to celebrate Aldens birthday. I’m going to write a short post on each below but I wanted to share this great photo below of the three musketeers this morning. They were in heaven out playing and very cooperative when I asked to take a quick photo.