We're Ready

We've had it with winter, and we're ready for summer!

We found an indoor pool and went Saturday.

Spencer was brave and went down the waterslide.

I took a lot of pictures of Faith, but there is nothing cuter than a baby in a swimming suit.

Karly, Faith, Spencer and Annmarie.

Hurry up, summer! We're ready for you.

Blue and Gold

Friday night was our Blue and Gold Banquet with a birthday party celebrating 100 years of scouting. We entered these car cakes in the contest. My creative friend Tiffany gave us the idea, and we thought they were winners even though they didn't win.

James hangs out with the wolves now that Spencer is a bear.

Spencer has been in cubscouts a year and this is the first scouting event where Spencer's patches were sewn on. It takes me awhile.

Faith wanders and colors all night.

The boys graduating up to boy scouts get to run through the cub scouts to get to their leaders on the other side.

Stop Hunger Now

Last night Spencer, Doug, James and I went to volunteer for an organization called Stop Hunger Now. They had organized a night to assemble food packets to send to Haiti. It was held at a Christian church in coalition with other churches in the area.

Spencer said the smell of the food was making him sick.

James loved it. While I was explaining what we would be doing over dinner last night, James held on to his root beer and said, "Don't tell me I have to give this to starving people."

Doug held a plastic bag under this funnel and the rest of us dumped in the dried food.

That's pretty gross James has his foot on the table, but somehow I don't think the people who will get this food would have cared.

We really wanted our boys to work at this since they lead such charmed little lives and have no idea that people die all over the world from starvation.

My Heart is Full

Lately I am amazed at how nice people are. I mean really, truly, nice. Let me give you a few examples.

My mom is a great example of constantly giving to her kids and others, and I'm amazed at what she does for us.

Yesterday in church, I received a bag of jelly beans in RS for being spotlighted. I whispered to the lady next to me that I didn't even know people were spotlighted in RS because I haven't been for so long since Faith is kind of anti-RS at the moment. I tried to last through the entire meeting this time shoving jelly beans into Faith's mouth. When she got tired of that and wanted to leave, this lady next to me took Faith and said, "I'll take her in the hall today. You sit here and enjoy." And then she was gone and I sat and listened to the lesson for the first time in I don't know how long. She doesn't even know me that well. Now that's nice.

Then there's this group of women in Long Beach.

Every spring we have been able to participate in a run/walk for Katie that honors organ donors and their families. I wouldn't be able to go this year since we moved across the country. These women in Long Beach raised money between them to buy my airline ticket so I can still go this year. What can I say about how nice this is? There are no words.

I'm constantly asking myself, would I be that nice?

I don't know, but I'm grateful for these examples that keep teaching me how wonderful it is to be so nice.

I Love Her Sense of Style!

This girl loves to dress up in anything she can get her hands on.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We were in Connecticut with the Bradys on Valentine's Day where the kids loved playing with cousins and getting spoiled with lots of Valentine candy from Mammy.

After church Heather made a special Valentine dinner with chocolate fondue for dessert. Thanks for the fun time! We had a blast!

All Aboard!

We hopped on the train from Washington, DC's Union Station to ride up to see my brother and his family and my mom in Connecticut. We made it out on the first train we could after all these blizzards. The train. What an experience. It's all about the sounds: the whistle, the conductor punching tickets as he walks by, the clickety clack of the track and the spewing sound coming from the lady in front of us who barfed all over.

Aside from the barfing incident, Faith was a pretty happy camper on the train.

Yale and Cupcakes

We ate lunch in New Haven on Friday afternoon then took a walk through Yale's campus. These buildings are so cool.

We were in search of the famous cupcake truck. It's quite popular as you can see from this line we waited in to get our cupcakes.

The kids stayed busy drawing on their truck with chalk. Brilliant.

And the verdict? Yummy. I had the best caramel frosting cupcake I've ever had.

The boys spotted this R2D2 mailbox.

And while we were in town, my brother gave my mom and me a tour of his hospital where his picture is hanging up. We're quite proud of Dr. Dan.