Family Portraits

It was nice Saturday here. Though, with Reuben's allergies raging, he really couldn't be outside much.

So this morning before synagogue, we took these portraits in front of the cherry tree. The family we bought our house from also happen to be members of our synagogue (complete coincidence, and a bad argument at the closing makes talking with them a bit awkward). Every year they ask us about the cherry tree and they tell us they drive by during this time of year to see it. I think the story is that it was a gift from the women's mother, who by the way apparently asks her daughter how we are treating the tree. To tell you the truth, its a lot of pressure ;-) It also takes some pretty delicate pruning several times during the year.

But, for the one week it blooms, its worth it.

Cherry Blossom

I was way off with my cherry blossom timeline. When I got home Thursday morning (2:30a) from CA, the first thing I noticed was that cherry blossom bloomed. Looked nice even at 2:30 am; looks great during daylight.


This evening I met Karen and the kids at UNO's for dinner. Unbelievably we had a nice, dare I say quiet, dinner. I'm pretty sure Jacob is going to be sick tomorrow ;-)

It Should Have Been Obvious

All is explained!! Jacob is sick. He started vomiting this morning and hasn't stopped. I came home early this afternoon to watch Reuben and Faith, while Karen took him to the Dr. Strep was going around the pre-school and we wanted to rule that out. He doesn't have strep, just a bad virus. While they were at the Dr. I played outside with the healthy ones and it was another beautiful day. We watered our pansies and some poppy seeds we put down yesterday. Then played in the backyard.
Later we moved to the front of the house. I'm still working on getting Faith to use her tricycle. She's so stubborn, but we made a bit of progress today.
Reuben was helping Faith by pushing her along with his tricycle. It worked and she then did a few peddles by herself. Shortly thereafter she gave up. Reuben then moved to his now favorite pastime, playing with the street sand dumped buy VDOT over the winter. While playing outside in the front of the house I decided to take a before picture of the house with the weeping cherry blossom not in bloom. I'll do an after picture in about 10 days (my estimate, buds are just starting).
Yesterday Scott asked about my Forsythia. As of yesterday they were just starting to open. Today, much more so; probably about 3 days from peaking. Also, I must also confess a secret. I photo-shopped the magnolia picture from yesterday. Can you spot the change?
Lastly, I hope Jacob feels better tomorrow. Lucky for Karen (NOT!), I'm going to California tomorrow and Wednesday.

Tulip Magnolia's Blooms Survive!!!

False alarm last week, the tulip magnolia's blossoms survived the snow. I guess the buds were not open enough to be effected. Now that the blooms survived we finally get to enjoy this tree's blossoms; probably the first time in three years.

Lots of weeds in the lawn already, so today I sprayed Weed-B-Gone. We'll see how well it works. I haven't been too lucky with Weed-B-Gone, but I have not used it this early in the season before. Things are actively growing, so maybe it will work better. I also started using vinegar instead of Roundup, in the beds for weeds. Today will be a good a test at how effective it is; temperate and no rain.

The whole family jut got back from Home Depot where we got some pansies. The plan being for Karen and the kids to plant them this afternoon after naps. We'll see.

Universe Back In Alignment

Today, Jacob has spent most of his waking moments in timeout...

Time In?

(Note: Picture from last week)

Jacob has been pretty well-behaved all week, but today he was great! No yelling, no fights, NO TIME OUTS!! Congrats to Jacob. Hopefully he/we have turned a corner.

Don't be too surprised if I report tomorrow that he has fever ;-)

OK! So I Watch American Idol

And I'm mad. Lakisha Jones just sang Diamonds Are Forever and it was GREAT.


BUT.... The judges heard something else that I can't understand.

Randy gave her a so-so performance, Paula was positive, and Simon said made no sense saying that it sounded like what she would be signing 50 years from now. It's been 15 minutes since her performance and I'm still pissed at the judges.

Infinity Minutes

Nice, but cold, weekend. We went out for bagels on Saturday morning, and then mostly hung around the house. It was very cold. Today, we went to the DC Air and Space Museum in the morning and later, the boys and I, took Tipper for a long walk. Tonight was my synagogue ABBA event. Tonight's theme was Scotch & Steaks. We had a steak dinner, steaks we grilled at the synagogue. Then did a Scotch tasting of 6 different Scotches. Very successful event with 30 guys, great steaks, and I'm told some very good Scotches. I'm certainly still a beginner when it comes to Scotch, but did learn lot and enjoyed several of the scotches.

The boys are now very interested in big numbers and how they compare. They have even learned about infinity and understand the concept at least to some extent. Today, the boys were doing some puzzles and there is a firetruck puzzle they both like, hence the necessity to share time with the puzzle. When Jacob asked how long Reuben's turn was, Reuben immediately responded, "infinity minutes". I cracked up!

Vacation - The Final Days

We finally got a chance to see my Aunt and Uncle on Sunday afternoon. After seeing my Dad's photo club exposition, we had a nice dinner together on my parents patio. Great corn beef from Flakowitz.

Monday morning, while Karen packed the family up, we hit the beach one final time. It turned out to be a very windy day, but still nice.


At one point a big ominous cloud came over and the wind really picked up. That was our cue to pack it up.



Goodbye to Florida!

All Signs Point To Snow

Well the Tulip Magnolia is just starting to blossom. This is truly a beautiful tree, but.... as soon this tree starts to blossom it is almost a sure thing that a freeze is on its way which will turn all the blossom an ugly, deathly brown. I think in the 8 years we have lived in this house, we have had blooms for more than a couple of days once! Needless to say, today the temperature has dropped about almost 40 degrees and snow is forecast for tomorrow night.

In other news, we are now back from our vacation and its good to be back. It was especially nice to see Tipper and she was very excited to have us back, but she learned a new trick while we were away. We have a sliding glass door that leads to screened in deck and then the backyard. We often leave the door open and Tipper can come and go from the house onto the deck and into the yard. However, soemtimes we don't want her outside but want to let some air in so I only open the door a few inches. Tipper now uses her nose to open the sliding door enough to get out. She also knows not to do it while we are around; I have yet to catch her in the act. Crafty girl.

Back To Aunt Steph's

On Saturday we were back at Aunt Steph's. She and Uncle Mitch hosted a nice visit. The same crew as last time returned and Mitch's Father and wife also joined us for awhile.
Meg, on the left, turned 29 for the second time and we had nice ice cream cake for her. Meg got a kick out watching my crazy daughter eat ice cream. She licks it like a cat, even an ice cream cake.


The Boys (Reuben out in front, Levi and Jacob). Look out ladies ;-)


All the cousins enjoying lunch. Which was followed by super frosted cupcakes courtesy of Nana.

Sugar Sand Park - Boca

There is a great park in Boca called Sugar Sand Park. We went there last year and revisited again this year, twice! This time we tried out the exploratorium (kids science museum) in addition to the park.

Here is an assembly line that Jacob loved working.


Here is Faith in the fun mirror, "I'm short"


Reuben and Faith learning about gravity.


Then the next day we went back to the park.


Water Fight!!


Reuben liked the swing so much we had to take shifts pushing him.

Beach Day

Thursday turned out to be a perfect Florida beach day.

Add Your Own Caption

Caption #1 - Yep, that's Anna Nicole.

Caption #2 - Jacob, can you hear us down there?! (Scott)
Caption #3 - I'm not cleaning that up. (James)
Caption #4 - so... who's going first? (Gaz)

Disney - Magic Kingdom Invasion

Nana and the clan visited Disney this week. We spent 2 full days in the Magic Kingdom. Monday morning started out pretty cold as you tell. It did warm up pretty quickly.


Faith was in awe over Cinderella's castle.



Right after I snapped this photo, Jacob got the sword out ;-)


Of course Jacob and Reuben's favorite thing about Disney World was the ice cream! Next time instead of Disney World, I'll get a large container of Coldstone and put on "The Little Mermaid."


Here we are riding Alladin's carpet ride. Reuben and I kept jostling with the controls; I'm pushing up, and he's pushing down.


Enjoying Tom Sawyer's Island. A little free play with no lines is a necessity. For a non-holiday, the place was packed.


In Mickey's Toontown they have some water play areas. Our kids got soaked and loved it.


Nana spotted Belle on our way out with a very short line. Faith and the boys really got a kick. Faith's eye's lit up and Jacob asked her where the Beast was.


Goodbye to the Magic Kingdom. We'll see you again in a few years.