Jankers

It seems we’ve finally turned the corner into summer. I don’t think we ever had a spring this year, the days just hopped between 30 and 60+ degrees. Now this week, the humidity is here and we’ve been over 80 for a few days. Feels good. Actually, one day early in March was really warm and Alicia picked up a deal on a water table. The kids really love it.

For Nora’s Birthday, Gram and Grandpop took Nora to the real Mary Poppins. She had a great time and even got a carpet bag to take home!

Meanwhile Levi and I worked on our paver patio near our front door.

We celebrated Nora’s birthday last weekend with friends over for pizza and painting of flower pots. Here’s Nora’s creation.

Nora struggled with the candles, but only because mom bought trick ones which kept re-lighting!

Of course we colored eggs for Easter. Hopefully they are still edible since Levi kept playing with them until each one was thoroughly cracked!

That evening we celebrated the wedding of Alicia’s sister Kelly. Congrats Kelly and Josh!

We all dressed up for Easter Sunday!

Nora’s getting to be a decent photographer.

After church we hung out on our freshly new patio and raided our Easter baskets.

Easter afternoon we headed to Gram and Grandpops for an Easter Egg hunt and dinner. Here’s Nora and her cousin Olivia

In other news, our Explorer is running rough lately. Since registration and inspection is due, the clutch is acting up and the check engine light is on, I think it’s time to put it out to pasture. Too bad – we are only a few thousand short of 200K miles. So our next post may be about a Pilot, Highlander, Explorer or Yukon – suggestions welcome.

And what post is complete without a cute video?

It’s been a very busy 2011. First of all, this winter has drawn on and on. We got a couple huge dumps of snow and the snow didn’t melt until this weekend! I hope the snow is done for the season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we got one more dump.

I tried to take advantage of the snow and get the kids involved. Every time I had to shovel snow, I would throw it on the front lawn so I had more to work with in building a sled run. Of course I have a crew to help.

I think I out did myself this year. The run was like a mini luge!

The kids are doing really well. Levi’s got a good set of teeth and is eating well.

Nora is turning into quite the artist. She is very detailed and can even write her name! She just finished a paint by numbers of Toy Story 3 – one of her favorite movies

With the cold, Alicia’s been cooped up with the kids indoors much more than she would prefer. But she’s done a great job finding new things to do.  For example there was shredding day:

And slide day. (And I have no idea why Levi is wearing a pair of Nora’s socks on his hands!)

One weekend in January we decided to get out and do something different so we took the kids to a local helicopter museum. We all had a blast because you could climb into the cockpit of many of the exhibits.

No, I wasn’t pretending to be a real pilot with those glasses! I just had corrective eye surgery so I had to wear those for the first few days after to prevent any kids from poking me in the eye If you are wondering, the surgery was completely successful and I love being able to see! If you are considering having it done, let me know and I’ll refer you. Lasik Plus was very good and is nationwide.

Another big change in my life is school! I am now a graduate student in Computer Science at Villanova University. It feels weird being back on a campus, going to the bookstore and having a student id. But so far the material is challenging and somewhat enjoyable. But 3-5 more years of school is a little daunting so I’m just taking it one class at a time. And of course I’m not looking forward to the exams. Speaking of which, I should be studying for my midterm right now.