Easter in the 'burgh

We had a wonderful weekend until Sunday when Karen had to leave and Paula got sick. Until then we had a wonderfully blessed time with family and friends.

Karen was much blessed at a shower for her. The cake bore a reminder of her and Joe's bridal dance, "That's Amore,"

Karen has decided on a jungle theme for her nursery. Here's a sample.

Then we had our annual egg coloring--at the Bowman's this year. 25 of us colored, critiqued, etc. Next pix shows part of the gang.

My nephew Scott's two girls are learning the facts of life (!) from a close up examination of Karen.

The last pix shows Giuseppe's (think his name will be Joseph John III) first field trip to the Carnegie Museum to see the dinosaurs on Saturday. We told him all about it.

Toni, I am really trying!!

easter weekend

We spent Easter weekend in Estes Park, CO just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park...one of our favorite places. A friend's friend (who turned out to me my high school jv softball coach and 9th grade math teacher...strange!) allowed us to stay in their vacation home (with 3 other families... 8 adults, 11 kids) free of charge. None of us have family in town and it was a nice way to spend the holiday weekend...together.

5 of the 10 boys present for the weekend

Easter worship service

boys and rocks are inseparable...big or little makes no difference...rocks or boys

Owen goes for the biggest splash

our own easter bunny

FOUND THEM!

The gang's all here
(notice the one pink spot...Audrey is the only girl of 11 children!)

Easter Diners

Happy Easter! We had a nice gathering here in Lancaster. Here's a pre-dinner shot of the group. Don't we all look hungry?

Of course, who really cares about dinner when there's dessert to follow? In the following two photos, take note of which side of the table is eating dessert and which side of the table declined.




Alright, alright, since Aunt Sheila and Uncle Les will be checking up on this, I suppose I should confess that we ALL had dessert. The older generation went with the traditional pie and ice cream while the youngsters chose cookies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And it was all delicious! Happy Easter!

nemo

A friend blessed us with tickets for the Disney on Ice - Nemo Show.


We went last Thursday and what a treat. The kids loved it...even Audrey was spell bound through the first half. It is the first thing like this we have done with the kids and it was more enjoyable to watch their delight than anything else. Ethan kept looking up at Mark with a huge grin.


As an extra treat, Mickey Mouse showed up at the end with Minnie, Donald and Goofy. I wish I could have captured Owen's glee when he saw that Mickey was on the ice. I haven't been this close to Mickey since we moved from Florida.

New Noel

We were waiting for some really big news to publish again & here it is.

Steve & Kelly told us the exciting news while we were in CA, but she just had her appointment today, so we waited to pass it along.

Due date Oct. 16-19.

Les & Sheila

Strawberry Time at Plant City

Since we were in the Strawberry Capital of the World, it seemed only fitting that we make some strawberry jam. Three batches later, here is our handiwork.
More pix of our activities later.

february recap

We spent most of February sick - or at least it felt that way - but here are some of our moments and days...




And some time spent with Mark's parents yielding great pics of our beautiful state...