Penny!!!

Henry and Clara and I were so excited to be in town when our new little niece and cousin was born!! (Poor Uncle Pete wasn't there for the event, but he's been kept in the loop with lots and lots of pictures and has sent virtual kisses.)

 Eleanor opened the door the morning after Penny was born and greeted us with "Come meet the new person in our house!" She is a sweet and doting big sister already!

 Congratulations to Rob, Carrie and Eleanor and welcome to the world, sweet little Penelope Clover!

Put the lime in the coconut

The kids and I went to Iowa for a few days last week for the sole purpose of helping my mom with some things at her house. We did find a little bit of time for fun though, too. The kids enjoyed the mini beach out at the lake.
Henry tried, earnestly, to figure out how he could catch a fish with a bucket. Later Mom got him a net, but that wasn't much more successful.
We made one quick stop downtown before heading home. We had to buy the new cousin (Liz and Van's baby-on-the-way) a Hawkeye onesie. I had the kids pose in front of the Old Capitol for a few pictures.
Henry was a little more enthused than Clara. She's still trying to figure out where she's going to apply.
Finally, before leaving town, Mom talked Rob into cutting open a coconut for the kids to enjoy. She had just bought it at the Co-op earlier in the week and hadn't thought about the whole opening-it-up thing. Rob was very enthused about the whole endeavor.
I think here he's saying "would you just let me do it?" and Mom's saying "I'm the Coconut Queen!" Maybe you had to be there.
The kids were pretty interested!
Here's Rob pouring out the coconut water while Carrie gives me the "what's with these two?" look.
Rob also enjoyed some special time with a giant fly. This is right before he tried to suck it up with the shop-vac.
When we went inside Eleanor drew a coconut face for me on her doodle pad, and then proceeded to make the same face herself.

Lame

I fear that the posting-every-day is creating a few lame posts, such as the one for today. We're having a nice time in Iowa City, though Clara is dealing with a little bug, which is cramping our style a bit. We had a nice dinner last night with Rob and Carrie and Amber and Jeff, and then enjoyed a little Arts Fest music...a very little, since there were some power-outage issues.
When we got home Clara was sleeping, but she awoke around 2:30 with an awful diaper and then a couple hours later with some throwing up. Pete and I stripped the bed, I changed my shirt, we cleaned Clara up a bit and spent the next couple hours in the living room, sitting upright with Clara and trying to snooze a bit. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.
Here is Clara this morning (before throwing up her breakfast on the kitchen floor) learning about flags of the world from Eleanor.
And here are all the kids enjoying some story time with Grammie.
We did take Henry downtown for a little bit of Arts Fest food and music (and perhaps some wedding gift shopping) before coming back to Rob and Carrie's to find Joyce had come up for an impromptu visit.
Tomorrow we'll see Dad and Kathie for a bit and hopefully get some more time downtown for the kid's day activities before we had back to the other side of the Mississippi.

I know. I'm sorry. (Easter Festivities)

I just can't figure out how to narrow down the photos. This is my best attempt.
So. Starting with yesterday...Eleanor came to play and brought her parents. Here she is looking cute with her hip shoes and her Sesame Street stickers.
We spent some time dying eggs. Henry's hair is wet because he put the colander on his head.
We also made some cookies, which looked very cute until this morning when Pete dropped the entire box upside-down onto the floor. Then they weren't so cute any more. I told him it's a good thing he is.
After dinner Henry hid his plastic eggs.
Then there were baths, followed by a viewing of It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!
This morning there were eggs and treats and baskets to be found.
"What's this? What'd you get?"
The Easter bunny sent a wheelbarrow via Iowa for Henry. He found it hiding in his card-table house with some gifts inside, including The Wind in the Willows and a pink and yellow butterfly ball for Clara.
Here's where I really had trouble cutting back on the photos. It was a challenging photo shoot.
Clara had to get her shoes on...
We had to get them both looking at the camera...
Henry can't seem to make a natural smile. He tries too hard, like his Uncle Rob.
And then the hat became a little much...
And the contents of the baskets got emptied...
And then Clara said "I'm done! Pick me up!"
Her papa obliged.
We went to church in Deerfield, then to Peter and Mary's for brunch. Here's the obligatory photo of Henry with the lamb cake.
Henry got a "blue track" from the Deerfield Bunny. It was actually pretty cool...just a long, flexible track that you suction-cup to the wall and configure how you want. There were some Hot Wheels in his basket, but Henry liked using marbles on the track.
He and Bampa worked on the funny bunny biscuits while Pete tried to keep Henry from eating the day-glo red cherries.
Aunt Liz and Uncle Van arrived a bit later. Clara was very stylish in Liz's Gucci (?) sunglasses.
And, finally, we got the obligatory photo of Van with the Lamb cake.
Happy Easter to all and to all a good nap!

Marching along...

Wishing some happy Pisces birthdays to a few loved ones...Sharon, Rob, Darcie, Mom, Peter (Bampa) Sr...
Here are some pictures I just dumped off my camera. Henry and I were painting "Krazees" one rainy day a few weeks back. His Krazees were particularly crazy.
In the meantime, Clara and Pete had some crazy times of their own.
Last weekend we finally got back to ICIA for the first time since Christmas. Dad and Kathie took us out for dinner to celebrate Rob's birthday.
Who has the biggest cheeks here?
I love this picture. Unfiltered love.
We spent some time playing in Eleanor's basement. We have much envy for her basement. Henry made an electric guitar out of giant TinkerToys.
We only got one morning at the Java House. While there I spied these typical Iowa City natives in their typical habitat. Who knows what these odd individuals were up to.
Or these odd individuals, for that matter.
Java House has some new art. I would pay some big money for that picture on the left...if only I had big money.
The girls had some good play time out at Grandpa's house too. Clara, however, did not want to look at the camera. Eleanor had lots of things to say. "Birds! Look at!! Birds!" and "Qwarn!! Sheep eats it!! Qwarn!!!"
Yesterday Pete stayed home with the kids, as his parents are on vacation. They had a very nice time together, but no photos. Today I snapped a couple pictures before we all went our merry ways. Here are Henry and Clara in their Leprechaun Day finest.
Kiss him. He's cute.