Dick's birthday weekend

On Saturday morning our Florida kids flew from Tampa to Baltimore, then drove from there to State College.  We kept in touch all day by text messages.  Finally, sometime after 3:00 they arrived.  I could finally see my little Florida sunshine face to face and hear her giggles and chatter in person.

Austin was still taking a nap, but it was impossible to keep the noise down with so much excitement.  Lisa wanted to show us a video she had made for Sophie's school which is being used to promote the school, but everyone was talking so much she couldn't get them to listen.  When they finally paid attention and watched it, some of them acted like they were so touched by it they were crying.  (sigh)  It really was a good and very well-done video.

 At last Austin woke up, much to Sophie's delight, but he was not at all thrilled at having all these new faces on his turf.  Slowly he warmed up.

We went to Damon's for Dick's birthday dinner.  They let us have a room to ourselves, and we had the best waitress.

Our waitress asked if she could take a picture of our family.  Bless her heart, we hadn't even thought of it.

We didn't have a cake for Dick, but never mind.  Sophie had brought one from Florida!

After we got back to the house, Sophie modeled her new pajamas.

Goodnight, Uncle Jeremy.

After the little ones were asleep everyone came down to our living room to hang out.  The travelers were very sleepy, so we didn't stay up very late.

Lisa showed us some of her amazing Yoga stretches.

We had decided ahead of time that due to the very short time they would be here and the very long length of our church services up here, that we would hang out at home instead of going to church Sunday morning.  I made pancakes and sausage for the crew.

While I cooked, Grandpa helped Sophie to make a ring from a kit Lori had given her. 

Later he played on the floor with both kids.  He's a good grandpa.

The mommies got down on the floor too after they returned from their walk. 

Austin practiced his walking, much to his and everyone's delight.

Beautiful cousins.

More Yoga stretches.

Nap time for the men!

In the afternoon we went to an open house and had fun imagining living there.  Then we came  home to eat the Middle Eastern Chickpea and Rice Stew that I had made.  It's a new recipe I found this past winter that has become a favorite.  Then George treated us to ice cream at the Creamery on the Penn State campus.  George and Lisa met as students at Penn State, so there's a lot of nostalgia associated with the campus.  (But mostly bad memories of cold weather, hahahahaha!)

After we came home and the little ones were asleep, we all hung out in our basement living room one more time.  For a while the iPhones took over as everyone was cracking up over some funny websites. 

George disappeared for a while, and then came back with a huge cookie birthday cake for Dick.  It was really delicious. 

I finally got everyone corralled into a game of dictionary, a long-time favorite.  It's our home-made version of Balderdash.  As is always the case, we ended up in stitches a few times, especially when the word that needed to be defined was "limpkin".  I'll just leave that to your imagination.  

The next morning, actually the day of Dick's birthday, he had to be at work by 8:00.  Anthony made some eggs, and George had bought a whole bunch of bagels when he went for the birthday cake the evening before.  I had time to play with Sophie.  We played the piano, colored, and played Memory.  She won by a long shot.  

And then it was 10:00, and time for them to head back to the Baltimore airport.  Austin went down for a nap, Lori went to work, and I was left with a very, too quiet house.  Good family times are anticipated for such a long time, and over in the blink of an eye.  But the good memories are in my mind and my heart.