Jim photo update.

You can see Mars tonight.

Half moon.

Jim.

Did you know that Jim is a man of many talents?

He can cook, garden, write poetry, and take amazing photographs...to name a few.  For Christmas he bought "me" a digital SLR.  I have dreamed of getting him a really great camera since I met him.  So he beat me to it.

Here is a picture of the moon he took with his telephoto lens.  I cropped it to enlarge the photo so you can see more moon details.

A few weeks back there was some sort of meteor shower.  Jim set his alarm for 3AM and did star photography.  That is some dedication, there is very little that will get me out of bed at 3AM. He is out taking pictures of Mars right now.

Big dipper from my back yard.  What motivates me is his lack of fear.  He is not afraid to try anything and possibly fail. He takes thousands and thousands of pictures, experimenting with different lenses, filters, settings, etc.

My sister and Jim are very similar.  They do not let rules confine them and they think outside the box.  My sister has no fear taking a pair of scissors to an article of clothing and fixing it up to her liking.  I used to say to her "You can borrow this sweater as long as you don't cut it."  My sister will cut anything she feels like, her hair, other people's hair, clothes, etc.  She is also really good at it.  I digress....

Despite our gloomy weather here in central PA, Jim gets some great shots.  (I am pretty sure the sky is grey and cloudy 300 days a year.)

He can also use his lens to shoot in miniature. He took these on top of a parking garage looking down.

I plan to post more of his pictures in the future.

Jack prays.

Jack likes to say our family prayer.  If someone else is praying, he will usually verbalize his prayer at the same time.

Last night we were smart enough to catch it with the camera.



In case you are wondering why I am in bed, it is because I ran a long distance earlier that day and I was a bit tired. I am covering my face with the sheet to hide my laughter, because I think Jack is so adorable and hilarious.

Birthday

Lilly turned 6 on Monday.  She was born on a Monday and it was rather odd to have another January 23rd pass by on a Monday.  How can she be growing so fast?

Sunday night I made cupcakes for Lilly to take into her class. The only specification she gave was "NOT chocolate!" I cried inside and made her lemon cupcakes.  I also spent an inordinate amount of time making cupcake liners. 20 of them to be exact.  In hindsight I probably should have spent a little more time on the quality of the cupcake and less time on the liner.

I would just like to say that Lilly is one lucky girl.  Her dad woke up early to make her a special breakfast of crepes before his commute to State College. She opened up some presents while Jim finished the crepes.  Her favorite gift was her own personal stapler.  That makes me so happy because I picked it out knowing she would love the stapler.  She has spent the week stapling.

(Stacking her gifts.)

During Lilly's celebrating Jack had a few fits.  Jack is going through a phase, one might call "the terrible two's," I am hoping it will not last that long.  So far the phase has involved screaming, throwing, hitting, and dramatic collapsing to the ground.  (Last Thursday he screamed for 3 solid hours before I took him to the doctor, convinced that something was wrong. Nothing was wrong.)

(Fit.)

Lilly picked out her perfect birthday outift and happily went to school. 

There was a two hour delay, which was the perfect gift.  Her name was read over the loudspeaker and she got a special crown and birthday pencil.  After school we played at the McDonald's playland and then came home to get ready for dinner.

Jim's parents came over for pizza and wings, and of course birthday cake.

My neighbors had another cake lying around, so they brought it over as well.  Apparently my neighbor's have a tenant who works at the local bakery and gives away the cakes as they near the expiration date.  Explaining the dragon cake and Jack's car cake. We also had "Peachy Paterno" ice cream that Jim brought from State College after he finished class that day. Jim thought that this was a good way to honor JoePa (I will follow up with a Joe Paterno post later).

Lilly was one lucky girl with two cakes.

This is going to sound cliche, but it's true, Lilly is a delight.  She is sweet, loving to her brother and parents, eager to learn, loves to cuddle with her mom, and loves school  Her teacher sent home a progress report and she has aced everything.  Her teacher wrote "Lilly is my best writer. She writes with inner dialogue and feeling."  She also said that "Lillibeth has blossomed into a sweetheart. She is a joy, loves to learn. I love her, she is amazing."  How could you not love a teacher who says that about your child??

American Girl Store

Last Friday I gave Lilly an early birthday present.  I took her, along with Alysson and her mom Tina, to the American Girl store in Tyson, VA for her birthday.

  

The store is a bit overwhelming and a tad, shall I say, completely out of control?

Hooks for your doll while you wash your hands in the bathroom, each individual stall has a hook as well.

The store also has a doll salon.  You can get your doll's hair styled, a facial if she is particularly dirty, and her ears pierced.  Lilly has been begging to get her doll pierced for some time.

I was rather ashamed to have a doll at a salon, but Lilly thought it was fantastic.

After shopping and piercing we had a birthday lunch for Lilly at the American Girl restaurant. I made this reservation in advance with all the pertinent information for Lilly's birthday.

The dolls are seated at the table with you and are served plates and cups.

Lilly received a birthday crown, and crowns for all the dolls present.  She had a cake with six candles and a goodie bag. Grandma brought fun presents and so did Alysson.  

Each guest at the table chose an appetizer and an entree, and was then served cake and ice cream.  

There were several birthdays that day and we kept seeing the same cake brought out and then taken back to be cut.  We questioned whether they brought out the same cake to every table, but they did not, because we got to take the leftover cake home.

Lilly picked out a dog named "Sugar" as her treat from the store.  At lunch she kept asking me to hand her sugar.  It took many sugar packets handed to her until she finally said "Sugar the dog!"

My mom was able to join us for lunch, which was another surprise for Lilly. I was so happy she could join us for our girls lunch.

Lilly had a wonderful day.  I have video that I will upload soon.

Pentagon

Last weekend we went on a private tour of the pentagon.  My dad has a friend who offered to give us a tour  last Saturday afternoon.

We entered by a secret tunnel.

No, not really. Just a regular tunnel from the parking lot - under the highway to the pentagon.  The man who gave us the tour was in military intelligence and so I asked lots of questions that he couldn't answer.  Although he did confirm that somewhere in the pentagon someone has to use an eyeball scanner to get into a room.  I really wanted to see that, but we did not. He also says the pentagon has two underground levels, that he knows of, I like to imagine that there are many levels with eyeball scanners for each one.  I also asked him if I blogged about the pentagon if that would attract attention from the government and if they would start monitoring my blog.  He said probably. I would hate for my blog to be shut down due to national security.  If the site disappears in a few days, you'll know why.

We thought we were incredibly special to tour the pentagon. Turns out over 100,000 people tour it each year. For you math type that is over 274 people every single day. 

Although, we keep our pride regarding this tour because it was private, just for us, and on a Saturday when everything was quiet.  Did you know there is a Best Buy IN the pentagon? Over 23,000 people work at the pentagon, so it's like a small city (more people work there than live in my county). They have a gym, dentist, health clinic, shopping mall, food court, etc., and all the top security in the nation. You know, the usual.

We started with a visit to the 9/11 memorial.  It was very sad.  It is the only 9/11 memorial I have visited.  

There is a bench for each person who was killed either in the pentagon or on the plane.  

The name and the year they were born are commemorated at the memorial.  

1998 marks the year of the youngest person to die at the pentagon.  This was obviously a child around the age of three. He was memorialized with his parents and another family member, or at least that is what I gathered from their bench.

The benches are facing opposite directions, based on whether the person was in the building or on the plane.

The benches are also positioned at the same angle that the plane came into the building.

Each bench is lit and has water underneath to cause reflection. Both literal and figurative reflection.

The plan is for the trees to grow and flower, to provide shade in the summer.

It was very beautiful and very somber.

As expected they did a great job fixing the pentagon, but you can see a slight color difference between the new and old parts of the building.

Inside the pentagon there are over 17 miles of hallway, and all of it is decorated with history and awards.  Very fascinating.  Of course there is no photography anywhere inside or outside the pentagon, other than at the memorial.

Lilly's favorite part of the pentagon was the memory quilts.  After the 9/11 attacks people all over the country made quilts in honor of those lost. Those quilts hang in the halls of the pentagon.  We found a quilt from Elysburg, PA., which is a small town just down the road from us.  Jim wrote down the names of the people who made the quilt. We want to call them so they know their quilt is hanging behind a glass case in the pentagon....although they probably know.

I find it fascinating that people made quilts for these victims. I don't think it would have crossed my mind to make a quilt, but isn't it lovely?

Jack was tied down, or shall I say strapped in his stroller for most of the tour.  His favorite part was eating kix cereal and then running like a maniac through the halls.

There was a lot of war history, lots of weapons and important things like that.

My favorite part was seeing a real Academy Award.  It was awarded for a movie during WWII and it's home is at the pentagon.  I can't remember any of the details....I am sure wikipedia can help, if it's not black anymore.

Jim's favorite part was the 9/11 memorial, the inigma stolen from the Germans in WWII, and the golden AK47 stolen from Saddam Hussein upon his arrest.  I like those things too, Jim just is better with the memory and details.

My dad's favorite part was just getting to spend time with me and my lovely family.  Okay, I didn't ask him what his favorite part was but I am sure he would agree with that statement!

Very memorable day.

Lilly and Jack

This is Lilly's last week to be 5.  I started this blog a few weeks after her second birthday, which means I have been blogging for almost 4 years.

(Lilly's outfit of choice)

When she turned 2, I couldn't believe she was 2.  As you can imagine I can't believe she will be 6! 6 is old for a baby, which she will always be to me.

(Yes, that is a giant bowl of sugar cereal on hold while they 

finish their cookies for breakfast in front of cartoons.)

Luckily I still have baby Jack who doesn't talk back to me, so it's like I still have a sweet little baby (who hits you in the face).

(Watching the scary part in "Swiss Family Robinson")

I love my children so much, I find them absolutely brilliant and adorable.  What gives me the most joy is seeing them love each other.  I can now understand why my mother would always be upset when we were horrible to each other growing up.

(Playing at the hair salon)

Don't be confused, it is not always bliss and joy around these parts, just normal life. Screaming tantrums, fits of exhaustion, and sometimes the children get upset as well.