Celebrating Sarahlynn’s birthday

On March 24 Eliana was invited to two birthday parties. One for a girl in her primary class, a family that lives around the corner from us, and another for my cousin’s granddaughter, Sarahlynn.

Because of an issues management job I took on that Friday I only made it to the family birthday party. Vickey was a trooper and took care of the kids most of the day that Saturday.

The activity de jour for Saralynn’s party was kite flying. I think that was a first for both Eliana and Dominic.

Here are some fun photos from the excursion at Mission Hills Park in Henderson.

The bathtub splash

Dominic thinks it’s just great to splash around in the bathtub. If you don’t watch him closely the entire bathroom gets wet.


This is his other favorite bath ritual: drinking the water. Will kids ever learn to not drink the bath water?

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Here’s Eliana showing off a few of her new favorite things: her Mary Poppins Broadway t-shirt, her horse head (a weird item, if you ask me), and her St. Patrick’s Day hair band.

The t-shirt’s from her parents, a souvenir from Broadway. And the horse head is from Grandma Snow, a can’t-leave-the-store-without-it toy store purchase while Ellie’s parents were in New York.

Laguna Beach

The sun came out for a few brief precious moments on Sunday while we were enjoying Laguna Beach.

Here are some photos from the frolicking in the ocean.






Afterwards we ate ourselves silly at Olamendi’s. Terrific Mexican food! I highly recommend it.

Cousins and statues and fountains, oh my

While we were in Southern California we stopped at my sister-in-law’s cousin’s garden shop. It wasn’t just any regular type of outdoor garden shop. It was full of marble and granite statuettes and amazing looking rock formations imported from China and turned into fountains.

Their shop is called Rosemead Gardens. If you’re in the neighborhood, I highly recommend it.

Melissa’s mom walked away with a couple items and I purchased a novelty item for our back yard (you’ll have to wait till I get a picture of it to know what it is).

Here are a few photos of the cousins as they experienced Rosemead Gardens.

Another birthday

In a couple of weeks I will have lived longer on my own than I did with my parents. It’s a weird thought, really.

In a way it’s a reminder that who I am and what I’m surrounded by is largely a result of my own decisions.

It’s also a reminder of the good upbringing I had. I’m fortunate to have loving parents who are still together, and to have the guiding influence of faith, virtue and integrity.

I really never went without as a child, although my brother got better nutrition than I, since I was born while my folks were still in college and he came along when my dad was gainfully employed. So alas, my younger brother’s taller than me. But I’m not bitter…

While some choose to downplay birthdays as just another day, it’s my custom to take the day off work and spend it doing only whatever I want. It’s a great personal gift.

I haven’t chosen a project for this year’s special day yet. Keeping true to my friend Becky’s nickname, ‘Project Pete’ must choose something worthy of my grandfather’s expression, “Another fine job by PJC!”

For those of you habitually late in sending birthday greetings, you’ve got plenty of notice. There are still a couple weeks left before my big day.

And speaking of birthdays, we’re excited to welcome another Codella cousin. Brian and Melissa informed the family earlier this month that they’re expecting number four. Still no word on whether it’s a boy or a girl. We’re all hoping for a girl (the odds are in their favor) and that the due date is on the 21st of August, because that would make four kids born on the 21st of a month. So even though the due date is the first week of September, we’ll hope for an early delivery, Mel.