Happy Easter!

The kids enjoying a soak in the new tubby that Grammy and Papa had done while we were in Washington! NO one was more excited about it then my goddaughter, Abaigeal!
Peter checks out his Easter basket! He loved all of his stuff but especially his Green Goblin figure.
Happy 1st Easter Annie!
Peter and Molly all dressed up and going to Kake's house for Easter! They look so old to me today!
My little lady!

Unlce BOb and Katie bonding!
Karla and Pat, sleep deprived but hanging in there!
Papa sharing a banana with Annie Bananie!
My dad, Eileen and Katie hanging out on Easter!
I know that Ann is my daughter and all but she truly looked like a little doll all dressed up today! And she was wonderful - just went from person to person all day with no fussing!

Eileen and Meghan
Uncle Colin looking really comfortable with Abby and Annie!

Uncle B and Uncle Colin
Auntie Beth wasn't here for Easter so I took lots of Kelly sibling pictures for her. Here is another one of Uncle Colin and Auntie Eileen!

The kids ready for their Easter Egg Hunt!
Peter searching for eggs!
Molly-doll finding her eggs.
Patrick helping Abby find eggs.
My beautiful girl stops to smile for Mommy!

Tyler found a golden egg!
Everyone watching the egg hunt!
Annie and her namesake!
Molly and Katie
Unlce Ed and his goddaughter!

Easter was wonderful - Auntie Kate and my mom prepared a wonderful meal and KK helped make the day extra special for the kids by preparing an awesome egg hunt with presents at the end! The kids all behaved so well and I was able to relax thanks to Bob and my dad spending lots of time outside with the kids! Annie was sweet and loveable, as usual. Katie slept all day and I got lots of cuddle time! I love holidays but sometimes I feel like I need a vacation after each one - today I was able to sit and relax because everyone else was doing all the work with the meal and the kids - I could get used to this! It seems like we left Washington weeks ago already!

Happy Easter to everyone!

Ice Cream or French Fries - that is the question??

Daddy and the girls getting in a little snuggle time after the zoo. The kids were really excited about going to the zoo but after my second presentation today I was exhausted and feeling terrible so we all went to lunch and then Bob headed to the zoo with the kids. Annie and I took a little nap and started packing up. Annie is deinfitely waving goodbye and we think she may have learned her first word - HI! with the exclamation point and in a very high pitched voice. If we tell Ann to say HI to someone she waves enthusiastically and says her little hi very softly but with emphasis. What a cutie pie!
So we all know that Annie looks like Bob and has his laid back personality but we have now learned another interesting quirk that makes her all Daddy's girl. I decided to give Ann a little ice cream at Johnny Rocket's tonight - the kids were very excited and we all sat poised for Annie's response expecting it to be excitement, enthusiasm or something along those lines. What we got was a high pitched squeal and a lurch of the little ones body toward the french fries that she had been chewing on earlier. She had NO reaction to ice cream - that's right - nothing - zippo! If I hadn't carried that amazing little creature for 10 months I would never believe that she belonged in our family - she chose french fries over ice cream!~ The crosses I have to bear in life are endless!
And here is the little cherub sucking on a french fry and happy as a pig in you-know-what! Is there even one tiny cell in that body that is mine - Oh yeah - the eczema that she inherited from me - lovely!

These are just a few pictures that I took of the Capital - Molly thought this building was pretty incredible and kept telling me to take more pictures.
A flag over Union Station! Just another thing I love about DC - so much patriotism and flags everywhere!
These are obviously not in order but I thought it was cute how we found Peter sleeping this morning - good thing Molly had her princess couch to sleep on so she didn't have to share. Both kids got their teachers a present at the zoo - they were really missing them by today and are excited to get back to school on Tuesday!
Molly, Peter and Ann on a walk around Dupont Circle - my training ended at 1 p.m. today so we had some time to spend together until they all left for the zoo and Annie and I crashed.

Peter on the Dupont Circle sign. We had no pool in the hotel but it was centrally located and in a great section of Dc. The only issue was that no one is all that fond of kids in this section of town. Every place we went had NO kids menus or highchairs and were very unfriendly when we walked in for a meal. Even the bookstore was a little snotty about the kids! At the grant meeting this morning everyone voted to come back to this hotel rather then the one in Baltimore when we all come back in October - I was clearly the only one who brought kids! If they do hold it in this area we will probably switch to a different hotel with a pool and a bit more for the kids to do - poor Bob won't stand a chance otherwise. The cherry blossoms are 4 days away from full bloom so we are going to just miss them but we did catch the UCONN game this afternoon. Bob and I were commenting that if we were home and they had lost like that they would have interrupted the evening news to tell us but here the other games were bigger news!

The kids are sleeping soundly and can't wait to get home and see everyone - Grammy and Papa were missed greatly by everyone but most especially by their daughter - I hope that someday we can convince them to come on one of these trips with us! KK is home from Boston (Yippeee- to quote her godson) and agreed to meet us at our house when we get home tomorrow night - yeah for brave cousins willing to help play Easter Bunny. I can't wait until Sunday to get my hands on Katie - they change so much when they're newborns and I'm a little afraid that she has forgotten me! Laugh at me if you will but she loves me already!

Moonlight Trolley Tour of Washington

Everyone standing in front of the Washington Monument on our Moonlight Trolley Tour. It was pretty cold but we all had winter hats and mittens and it was a bright beautiful night to see all the sights in DC> The kids had a blast. These are just some highlights of the 3 hour tour.

I never take pictures without people in them but this was too beautiful to pass up. We had a full moon to view all the sights by. You can't really see it but there is a Marine Corp troop on the steps doing drills. Very cool!

Peter and Molly got matching rings in Union Station!

Everyone getting ready to leave on the Trolley Tour - the kids were SO excited and had a great time. As usual, Ann was amazing. She got loaded and unloaded onto the trolley and into her stroller ten times and never made a peep even though it was threee hours past her bedtime!

The Lincoln Memorial - the kids loved running up and down all the steps!

Outside the Lincoln Memorial! If you ever get the chance to do the moonlight trolley tours it is really worth it.

Peter was very touched by the Vietnam Memorial. He kept saying that he was happy that Papa didn't die when he was a soldier. When we got to the top of the Vietnam Memorial we said a prayer thanking God for keeping Papa and all of our soldiers safe. Pete said this was the best part of the tour if it wasn't a little bit sad!

Peter looking at the list of names of people who died in the Vietnam War. Seeing the size of those books is pretty incredible. He said when he was older he was going to brig Papa here so they could talk about it together!

The Vietnam War Memorial statue.

The kids expending some energy climbing a tree - in the background you can see the Washington Monument and the Capital.
The kids sitting on FDR's lap at the FDR Memorial.

Hamming it up with Daddy at the FDR Memorial.

My beautiful kids with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Molly-girl saw the White House lights on and commented that President Bush was home and probably reading before bed like Mommy does. Then she konked out to the point where we could not wake her to get her in the cab for the trip home.

The Museum of Natural History is closed for renovations right now so we are deciding on the zoo or another museum for tomorrow afternoon and then a colleague gave us some tickets for free stuff at the ESPN Zone so we might head there for dinner. Saturday we are going to get back in the car and pray for less traffic and lots of patience as we head home to help the Easter Bunny prepare for Easter morning. At least I get to dress the kids up for a day!

I did my presentation this morning and got rave reviews. After being up all night with Molly throwing up I suddenly didn't really care all that much about the presentation so I was very relaxed and probably gave my best one yet! At least that's over and I can relax until the next time! Bob and I love being in Washington - what a great city to be in with the kids - every few feet there is something to see and everything seems to have some special signifigance.