New Photos with Granny Owens

Granny Owens’ time here in West Lafayette is coming to an end. She travels home on Saturday morning. As is now tradition, we had a little photo shoot with the kids tonight so that she has a new photo with them. They each have come to love these photos (the promise of ice-cream certainly helps!).

Happy 9th Birthday Anja

Anja turns nine tomorrow so we had her birthday party yesterday. It was a slightly lower key affair, with fewer guests that stayed throughout the day. We had wonderful weather, which made for a terrific day. Lynne did most of the preparation and cooking (Thanks Love) but as normal we also have to thank Anne for baking a fantastic cake, my Mum who bought Anja’s dress and Lorraine and Randy who helped tremendously. Many thanks to all who came to make this day special for Anja.

The fun activity of the day was "mug painting". Lynne found these colored markers that could be used on porcelain which when baked in the oven leave a permanent design. All had a great day. Happy birthday sweetheart, Mummy and Daddy love you.

Good Luck Tomorrow at Boston Jonathan

This is short post to wish Jonathan all the very best tomorrow as he runs the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is arguably the most prestigious and celebrated marathon of them all. The Granddaddy!! On any given year, the goal for many is simply getting to the start line, (you have to qualify with a really fact time for your age) for many others just running it is an incredible achievement. This year is special though. Given the tragedy of last year, tomorrow’s event will be epic, a remembrance, a celebration a triumph.

If anybody is watching tomorrow, keep and eye out for him in bib #3624, he will not be on camera with the Kenyans but not far off.  Enjoy the day Jonathan, I’ll be thinking of you bud!!

Easter Relaxation

We had a very relaxing Easter Sunday. The weather really allowed us all to be outside all day. After pottering around in the morning, (I cleaned out some old brewing kegs and Lynne went for a run) we did not really do much other than do the egg hunt for the kids and host Randy and Lorraine for a relaxing lunch and dinner on our deck.

As you can see from the photos, we all had a great day!!

Happy Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Weekend everybody. It’s a beautiful day here in West Lafayette, and the Spring flowers have finally appeared. We are all out in the garden, I just ordered 5 yards of new soil for our raised beds, veggies will go in tomorrow.

Life is great here, my Mum just arrived yesterday and the kids are very excited. I also just listened to the Roscommon U-21 game against Cork. Boy what a game, well done lads!

Surprise Celebration

I have one final blog post on my MBA. Today my entire department surprised me with a small celebration of my graduation. The group has been extremely supportive throughout the entire course, and this is the one final group that I wish to thank sincerely for all that they have done over the last 21 months. A real dear friend from Scotland surprised me with a small gesture from Scotland and my group got me a gift card to my favorite store in Indianapolis, Roberts (a camera shop). Thank You.

A Great Family Spring Day at Home

We just had a great family Saturday at home. It’s simply amazing the difference a nice day will make. We made cakes, we all got in the garden and did a whole bunch of stuff, we planted new flowers  (yippee Spring is here), we grilled, we had a fire in our new outdoor toy, we did marshmallows, we chatted for ages with our neighbors and the kids played so well all day together (not a given at all).

If this is what Spring is all about….lets get Springin…..

Life Returning

Life has settled down a little post MBA, although starting over the weekend I started “My Little Pony School”. It was a promise I made the girls last year, to take time to study their interests with them. The picture below shows my new desk in the basement.

The weather has also turned so we are all spending a little more time outside. The kids and I went on a long walk on Sunday before returning to watch Frozen. We are all ready to “get into the garden”.

This week I also managed to get outside running in the morning again, had a very slow 7 miler this morning but it felt terrific to feel the cool Spring morning air on my face. I finished my first post MBA Book (Hatching Twitter), had a long overdue chat with Clive and Tracey and also got the camera out again. As you can see, I'm starting to feel like life is slowing coming back.

p.s.....still feeling a little nostalgic tonight. It's Tuesday night, the night which for the last 21 months was carved out for jumping on a teleconference to discuss and debate an array of topics for class assignments...good memories at this point.