Weekend Update

We are back to normal again here in West Lafayette, well as normal as we get anyhow!! Lynne arrived home safely late last night so we all took it relatively easy today. Still managed to give the lawn its first cut for the year, Connor also got another cut and we put in some peas and parsley!!  Hope you all have a great week!!

Happy Birthday Marissa

Yesterday we continued our Spring Birthday celebrations, this time with Marissa who turned three. The girls and myself spent a very relaxed few hours hanging out eating lots of goodies including quite a few cake varieties!! Mum watched over Connor who was napping! It was great to see Steef and Ginette, we’ve not seen them in a while, something we need to fix over the summer!! I took a few photos, unfortunately not many turned out that well (must have had a shaky hand:)). They have a blog so I'm sure they will post a few soon. Thanks for a very enjoyable afternoon guys!!

Lynne Home Tomorrow

Lynne arrives home tomorrow. We all missed her very much; the house seemed a little empty these last two and half weeks, like there was something missing not surprisingly. Of course we all got along just fine, we ate, slept and had a lot fun at times, however, we will all be very happy to see her travel weary self emerge from the bus tomorrow evening.

I have a few additional photos from the last week shown below. Mum took Isabel out for a “special hot chocolate and ice-cream trip” last weekend when Anja was at Reina’s birthday (only fair right?). I also have a few pictures from Randy and Lorraine’s visit for dinner the other night.

Honey Locust

Whilst on Brad and Lisa’s farm last week, as we strolled by their little creek, I couldn’t help but notice that they had several trees, some quite big, that had these extraordinary spikes. I had seen these before but each tree had sprouted these new spikes over the spring and they looked pretty impressive. These spikes were as strong as nails, you could not break them off but were as sharp as needles. I had never seen anything like them in Ireland. The tree is a Honey Locust and they are native to this part of the USA. I took a few pictures.

Happy Birthday Reina

Last Sunday was one of the best days of the year thus far, a beautiful sunny day, clear blue sky, 80F and a warm breeze sufficient to keep one from boiling up. We were very lucky that it was actually Reina’s 7^th birthday so we spent the afternoon and evening sitting on Brad and Lisa deck celebrating her birthday, eating great food, relaxing with friends and really enjoying and the arrival of Spring in earnest. We had a great day. The girls spent a lot of time in their little creek. Happy Birthday Reina!!

Mum Visit Update

We got through the weekend and our usual Monday night swimming class chaos just fine here in West Lafayette. Mum is a great help with the kids and they in turn love playing with “Granny Owens”. They were very good at “helping” her out of bed quite early each morning over the weekend. I managed to take a few pictures of various activities thus far, somehow poor Isabel was never in Granny’s area when the camera appeared. Even Daddy managed to get in a picture with her. Lorraine and Randy were kind enough to offer to come watch the kids for a few hours on Sunday night so we got out to dinner, just the two of us. The timing was perfect since it was actually Mothers Day in Ireland (Mothers day is a different date in the USA).

Lynne is doing well in the UK. She had a good weekend with Dave and Pat. Her brother Keith and his wife Sam and four children (some young adults) all came over for a gathering and a family meal. Lynne then Skyped (if that’s an actual verb?) the kids yesterday evening which they got very excited about. Thankfully Connor enjoyed it and didn’t get too upset.