Sorry for the lull in posts. It has been a busy week. Last week was the usual daily life of three little ones plus getting ready for this past weekend. We were out of town this weekend up in New Jersey for a family party. Last Friday was my grandmother’s 80th birthday as well as my grandmother’s and grandfather’s 60th wedding anniversary. So, of course, we had to have a big family party! Family came from Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York to celebrate together. There was a professional photographer to take pictures during the events and I eagerly anticipate seeing and sharing those photos, but here are a few from yesterday, at my grandparents’ house.
My dad plays with Cecilia and Felicity with my brother Michael looking on. I played with those same blocks when I was little visiting grandma and grandpa.

Cecilia made a camera and takes my picture while I take hers.

Grandpa holds Michael’s person creation inside the fort much to Cecilia’s amusement. Felicity doesn’t seem impressed.

Good thing neither my dad nor Michael are going into architecture as their structures cannot even stand up to the abuse of a 1 year old or a 3 year old. But Cecilia got a kick (literally) out of it.

Ohhhh, Ahhh. Look at the bubbles and fish in the multicolored light tube. Hypnotic isn’t it? Well, it amused them for a little while. On the far right you can see my cousin’s daughter Hailey. She is about 2 months younger than Felicity.

Not even two years old and they are sharing! Victory! Conquest! Yes! Yes! Yes! Seriously, they played together really well.

My other brother’s, Jonathan’s, girlfriend Olga played with the girls as well. I think Cecilia is ready to adopt her into the family. Last night during bedtime prayers she interrupted my prayer intention list to include Olga’s name. No pressure, Jon.

My grandpa used to work on the railroad and he has this hanging in one of their rooms. I remember staying in that room one time and liking the poem so much I memorized it (back when I could get in trouble with my parents for saying the word “hell” – now I get in trouble with my kids) so I had to grab a picture.
HA! HA!
These two remaining pictures are from last week but too funny not to share. Felicity saw Elizabeth sitting there and thought she would like toys to play with. But, more is always better right? Well, maybe not.

Cecilia jumped in when she saw me taking pictures. Can you still find Elizabeth? Yeah, her patience eventually ended for Felicity’s onslaught of toys. LOL.








The exhibit also had a segment on Nichols and the Oklahoma City Bombing.
It included his infamous shack from which he built his bombs.
The next exhibit we went to particularly interested the girls as Snoopy and Charlie Brown made an appearance.
They have a hall devoted to Comics. Can’t go wrong with peanuts.
The East Germany Guard Tower:


There was also a fallen statue of Lenin:






A 1475 Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas:
A 1690 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Locke:
A 1774 copy of The Intolerable Acts of King George III to the American Colonies:
A 1792 reprint of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:
A 1787 first printing of our American Constitution:
A 1788 First Edition of The Federalist, Vol. 2:
An autographed 1893 reprint of Frederick Douglas’ autobiography:
There was also an interactive newsroom where you can try your hand broadcasting the news, newspaper first pages from the current day from every state and many countries, a memorial to journalists who died doing their job, a history of reporting, and other exhibits. But one particularly moving exhibit was on 9/11.





Felicity before a piece of the Pentagon:







I checked to see how bad the damage was only to discover something quite unexpected.
Underneath the information about the Claddagh Ring was information about the Book of Kells. Go figure. I have to laugh about it, but I find it even more humorous that Felicity accidentally discovered uncovered this unknown mystery. I can’t decide if I should try to glue back on the top layer or not.
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Last week I put up pictures of our pumpkin carved Elmo. Well, Elmo didn’t
last so long. He started caving in on himself until Elmo more resembled Animal. So, pumpkin go bye-bye.
Celebrating the little things…