Trudy and Jenna Visit

Trudy and Jenna popped over this afternoon to see the girls and Connor. Trudy and her husband Mike are our direct neighbors and friends.  Like us, too they have three children, albeit a little older. Patrick, Jenna and Piers and obviously since we have moved here we have seen their children all become adults whilst they have seen us become parents. Jenna now works in Washington DC and she wanted to see how big they were all getting.

The kids love Trudy, a teacher in our local school district, has had our girls over from time to time to her house on Sunday evenings for reading since they could walk. They love that of course, they’ll sit and be read to for hours, the little treats they also get don’t hurt.

I also shared with her our family blog address so perhaps she’ll come visit and leave a comment……

Underwater Camera

The girls and myself went swimming this afternoon over at our local YMCA, we try doing that as often on a Sunday afternoon as possible, particularly in the winter to simply get out of the house.

Today we had an extra incentive; well the geeky Dad did anyhow. One of my work colleagues lent me an underwater camera. It’s an actual waterproof camera instead of a camera in a casing, an Olympus Stylus Tough 6020, and it worked really well.

It was hard to get adjusted to it at the start, the shutter lag was tricky having had an SLR for quite some time. Shutter lag is tough to adjust to when you also have to dive up and down to catch breath whilst explaining all of that to a 3 and 5 year old.

It was fun see the best few shots below.

Randy's Accident

Some of you will know but others will not. Our good friend Randy had a rather nasty bike accident last Sunday afternoon. They were at the end of a long ride and upon returning to where the car was parked, it appears that he hit one of those speed bumps without seeing it. It did not have any discernable markings which they have now fixed of course.

He tumbled from his bike and was laid unconscious for a few minutes. He hit his head somehow and shattered the helmet. We shudder to even imagine how it would have ended up without a helmet. Although he did have some luck with this accident, it’s all relative since he did unfortunately break three ribs and his collarbone. He’s in a lot of pain right now, is obviously incapacitated to some extent which is very frustrating for him. He'll be this for six to eight weeks but his spirits are very high.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Randy!!

Boston and Harvard

Yesterday I had to visit a company in Boston for work. I had mixed feelings about this trip since I had never been to that city and really wanted to visit but initially it required a 4 am start, a trip there and back returning at about midnight. In the end we decided to stay the night and I’m glad we did.

We took full advantage and after our meetings were concluded, I headed over to Harvard University to soak up some of the university atmosphere. I'm presuming that everybody has heard of Harvard, arguably the most famous university in the world. The campus was all of what you’d expect from an almost 400 year old ivy league private university that is most likely one of the most expensive to attend and most difficult to get accepted.

We then ate dinner in Boston’s famous Little Italy, the North End. There were literally hundreds of small tiny Italian restaurants. It was difficult to choose but we did and it didn't disappoint. I mixed pasta with New England cream clam sauce and it was delicious. Can’t wait to go back to Boston.

Kindergarten for Anja, New Bed for Isabel

Anja had a big week whilst I was away in India, her first day at Kindergarten. I  heard most of how she enjoyed via phone during the week but more this morning. She likes PE but not the fact that she can't wear a dress on those days. She seems to have taken her first week in her stride. below are her first take home "pieces of school work".

Isabel will also return to Montessori this week but she too had an exciting weekend last week. She graduated to a big bed on account of her turning three. Her first night was Saturday and suffice it to say that with all the excitement they didn’t get to sleep straight away. She hasn’t fallen out yet so fingers crossed!!

Home from India

Having travelled literally halfway around the world, I returned quite tired yesterday evening from India after a six-day trip. It was a rather uneventful trip, I mostly saw the inside of an airplane, an airport, a hotel, a manufacturing facility or a conference room. That pretty much summed it up. We did manage to eat lots of good Indian food and survived it all. I brought the girls back some dresses. I think they liked them, they’re wearing them today anyhow!!

Next Week

Next week will be a very busy week for everybody. Anja starts kindergarten, cannot believe our little girl will be entering the school system. Where did those five years go? Isabel will also be upgrading to a five morning a week toddler schedule at Montessori school. Lynne of course also goes back to school, she start teaching again next week. To

To compound all this chaos next week, I will not be around to help much. I’m travelling to India again on Sunday afternoon and will be there until Friday afternoon. I’ll be in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, a non-stop trip. 

Weekly Update

We’ve had a pretty run of the mill week here in WL, the final week off for the girls and Lynne before school and semester starts next week. Wednesday was Isabel’s actual birthday of course. She got her presents from Mummy and Daddy and was very excited, again! I also took them both out to our local Mom and pop silver dipper ice-cream parlor that evening which was even more exciting. I’ll have to admit to liking that myself; they have great ice-cream from Wisconsin.

Anja also tried the next level of riding her bike this week, her bike without stabilizing wheels. She was pretty nervous.

New Blog Design...Daisy Design!!

OK, I’m sure you’ve noticed the new blog design. I thought it was time for a change. It’s Saturday night and I've spent waaaaay too long playing with the new blogger template designer, I’m going to pay for this tomorrow morning when the kids come bouncing in before 7am :). In any case, let me know what you think of it, let’s call it the Daisy Design!!! 

Isabel's 3rd Birthday

We concluded a very busy but productive week at home today with a birthday party for Isabel. She won’t actually turn three until Wednesday but we had a little party for her today. We had great weather and I think everybody had fun. We had most of the usual cast of friends with the exception of a few who unfortunately couldn’t make it.

Isabel, and Anja of course, were hyper all day yesterday and particularly this morning. Lorraine treated them both to a trip to the hairdresser at 8 am, which as you can imagine went down really well. They both returned all dress and dolled up!! Many thanks are due to many as usual. Brooke did a lot of preparation all week, most notably the making of Isabel’s cake, which was made to order. Chocolate and vanilla on the inside with pink and purple icing. A big thank you Brooke.

Thanks to all who came and for the presents. I took way to many photos as normal, some of which are below but many more on our gallery. Let me know if you need copies. 

Week Off Catching Up Around the House

Lynne and myself have taken this week off to try catching up on all those jobs that tend to not get done when you have three small children. So far we have scraped, primed and painted, trimmed some shrubs and trees, weeded a number of flower beds, edged the front path and power washed it in addition to washing the entire front of the house, did quite a few administrative items related to school start and more and it’s only Tuesday. We still have lots to do!

This weekend, with Randy’s help, we put up new shutters on the front of the house, (thanks Randy). We are now dealing with having a slightly darker green color by doing some paintwork and as everyone knows, once you start cleaning and painting it just inevitably shows what you haven’t done…we are now also going to replace five new windows on the front of the house.

We’re have a great time off. I’m hoping we get some bike riding done later in the week.

Peaches

Not so long ago I wrote a little post about raspberries. Yesterday we had a peach day. Lisa and Brad have two wonderful peach trees and Lynne went to pick some, well a lot really, on Sunday when the girls and I were at Tropicanoe Cove.

Well we peeled and boiled them yesterday morning and had a very delicious desert yesterday evening….peaches and ice-cream. Thanks for the peaches Lisa and Brad!!

Weekend Update

It’s been a few days since I last updated, we don’t really have many exciting items to update you with really. We have all settled after our trip to Michigan.
The highlight has probably been the addition of a new tree to our garden. It’s a red maple and specifically a Crimson King variety and will be that color all year as long as it has leaves.
  

I listened to Shannonside with disappointment this morning as Roscommon lost to Cork in the All Ireland football quarter final. I think they played very well up to the final 10-15 mins. Overall it was a better than expected year and a great foundation for the league and next year.

I trust everybody is doing well. I just had to also show you the two photos of Connor and Daisy below which we snapped over the weekend.

Holiday in Saugatuck, Michigan

There have been no posts for a while, last week we were on holidays. We had a wonderfully relaxing stay on the west coast of Michigan, the quaint little town of Saugatuck.  It lies on the coast of Lake Michigan, a lake so large it almost feels like an ocean. The coast is dotted with sand dunes and beautiful sandy beaches. It is quite uncommon to have such beautiful fresh water beaches. We stayed in a log cabin about 2 miles from the town called Kingfisher Cove. We can certainly recommend them.

We did a little of everything, beaches, sand dunes, we had lunches out, took a boat ride on Lake Michigan, bike riding, nice food (we ate tons of fresh blueberries, even picked a few), touring the town but most of all we spent a lot of time in the pool, a one minute walk. The kids loved it we were there at least twice a day and it was still hard to prize the kids away.

We had a rather large cabin so Randy and Lorraine joined us for the entire trip. They travelled up with us helped us all relax and kick into vacation mode. We certainly had an even better time since they joined us. They provided more adult company; Randy and I certainly played lots of chess. Having them with us certainly allowed us to do more with the kids too. Connor still takes frequent naps and having several extra hands helped a lot with child entertainment, cooking and general cajoling of tired kids (after hours in a pool).

Randy and Loraine – we had a wonderful time, truly a relaxing vacation, many thanks again for your company, friendship, humor and help on the trip!

As always, I took way to many photos. A selection are provided below but more can be viewed at our Gallery Here.

Loeb Fountain at Purdue

These last two days, the girls and myself have taken a little saunter down to Loeb Fountain at Purdue University. This fountain is a very popular destination with all kids in the area, particularly the student kids. Think of the fun this park may present on hot summer evenings!!

Anyhow, our girls had a wonderful time. It took them a little while to get really into it since the water is pretty cold and the water forces pretty extreme. On one occasion poor Isabel had her eyes closed and ran straight into one of the jet streams, I thought it was going to bowl her over She survived, albeit was a little shocked.