Tuesday, June 21, 2005

The kids have had a busy couple of weeks. Cousin Raven and Aunt Gerette were in town for Uncle Sean's Birthday. Then Oma and Opa came up for Father's Day. We took the kidlings to the Aquarium in Camden, where Liam got to see sharks. And Maya ran around like a little whirlwind, yelling "Fishy!"


Sunday June 12, 2005

Liam had soccer class today. He did an excellent job -- sat in the circle when he was supposed to, kicked the ball back and forth, and they even played a little game. He did much better than last week! He was such a good boy he got to go use the pool afterwards. Maya had a great time in the pool -- she was sitting down up to her neck in the baby pool and had a lot of fun in the big pool with Mommy and Daddy.

Liam had his last day of school on Wednesday, but he starts summer camp in a few weeks. Apparently they spend much of the time at camp in the baby pool so he should have fun. (I'm jealous!) And we did finally get Maya a new fish, which she named "Bwie".

Saturday June 11, 2005

Liam and Maya spent most of the day playing outside. Thankfully it gets nice and shady in the backyard. And the kids had a lot of fun playing with the water table that they got from Oma and Opa. Both needed to change into dry clothes several times today. Liam also got to help Mommy plant some more flowers in the front yard. Daddy cooked dinner on the grill. All in all, a very pleasant day.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Maya's fish gave up the ghost during the night. As Liam said, "Maya needs a new fish!"

We got the kids an outdoor playhouse and sandbox. They love to play with it. This morning as soon as he woke up, Liam was clamouring to go and play with his house. I mentioned that it was cloudy outside and might rain. Liam's replay was "That's a storm cloud. I in my house. I safe and sound." Which was a wonderful thing to hear. Right now the kids are outside (the rain has held off) and Daddy and Grandpapa are working on getting the fence hardware in place. Maya is in her "outdoor playpen" on the deck, and Liam is *hopefully* playing with his house and staying out of the way.

Today we take Liam to an allergist. Hopefully we can do something about his runny nose and itchy eyes. Those spring allergies have hit everyone hard this year. And I go to my foot doctor to have my foot dealt with -- it'll lay me up for the next few days but hopefully will feel much better after that. Busy day for doctor's appointments. I'll be working from home for the next few days.

Friday, May 6, 2005

Oma and Opa have arrived for a visit. Liam and Maya are both very excited. We are looking forward to a nice weekend. In the meantime we have finally gotten the fish tank set up. We now have four goldfish and two little frogs.

Click here for additional pics.

Sunday, May 1, 2005

It's Mayday! We didn't stray too far from home, but Liam did collect flowers for the neighbors.


Saturday, April 29, 2005

It's been a difficult week with those pesky spring colds. Liam got sick, and was happy to share. Kim ended up going to the doctor's office Friday to hopefully get some medicine to control the asthma that had flared up with the cold, and the doctor ended up sending her to the emergency room. Finally got home six hours later, after a nice steroid IV, a bunch of breathing treatments, and a fistful of prescriptions. Haven't been to the ER in 15 years; hopefully it will be at least that long before another visit.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that the kidlings stick with normal colds, and don't end up with bronchitis like their mommy did.

Saturday, April 9, 2005 -- Birthday Day!!!

Liam and Maya celebrated their birthdays today! Maya had just turned 1, and Liam is about to turn 3 years old already. We went to the Howell Living History farm for New Faces Day . A lot of folks from the neighborhood were able to make it, and enjoy a pleasant weekend day after all the difficulties of the past week.

The kids really enjoyed going to the farm as always. Liam got to pet a lamb and feed one of the big draft horses some grass. We will be sure to get back there in the days to come now that the weather is turning nice. Click here for party pics.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

We were lucky, and did not have to evacuate. Kim stayed home from work for a few days, as all the roads in and out of the neighborhood were closed. Some of our neighbors were not so fortunate, and had to be evacuated.


Click here to see more images. Warning: large image files. These may take awhile to download if you are not on broadband.

Sunday, April 3, 2005

We walked around the neighborhood today, and Liam and Maya got to see all the fire trucks and police cars that are working so hard to keep things under control. The fire truck went by with the nice folks knocking on everyone's door with a sheet that basically said, be prepared to be evacuated at a moment's notice, but no real news other than that. (They evacuated parts of the neighborhood already, the sections on lower ground}.

As I got Maya in her crib tonight I noticed that the street on the other side of us had water up past the sidewalks. Hopefully no one will sustain too much water damage. According to everyone we talked to today, flood waters are supposed to crest tomorrow at around 8 am. Route 29 was already flooding earlier this afternoon; all the roads in and out of the neighborhood are closed. I'll be staying home from work tomorrow. We are hoping to be able to get out by Tuesday. But that may be optimistic.

Saturday, April 2, 2005

Here we go again. They are evacuating parts of Trenton due to the heavy rains and flooding in the Delaware river [but not our neighborhood yet]. This past September our neighborhood got cut off from the outside world for about 2 days. Luckily our house is on relatively high ground, and last time we weathered through the storms fine. Keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow. Evacuating with 2 small children, a dog, a rabbit, and company is not something I look forward to.

Good thing we got that roof done.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

They have finished the gutters! Which means that we now have a new roof and gutters up on the house. It's not exactly the most sexy of home improvements, but if the roof isn't solid, everything else kinda loses it's luster. I'm quite pleased with how the roof came out. When we bought the house, it came with the original 1920's slate roof. Which is a nice feature to have, but unfortunately Pennsylvania slate has around a 75 year life span. So it was reaching the end and starting to have some major issues. We looked VERY BRIEFLY at getting a new slate roof, but it's way too expensive, especially given the total value of the house. So we ended up getting "Slateline" faux slate shingles. Fairly inexpensive, but work a lot better on the house then the normal modern tiles.

Next up -- painting.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Liam is very excited because Oma and Opa have come to visit. Maya is excited too, but mostly just hoots right now to let us know how excited she is. They will be in town for Easter, and most likely for the kidlings joint birthday bash. We will likely have it at the Howell Living History Farm this year. Let the kids play in the mud and see the animals. It doesn't get much better than that for a soon-to-be 3 year old.