Ethan

Some belated birthday pics

Tractor!

Cake!

Chucky Cheese!

Helicopter museum!

Happy birthday, little big fella. By the way, do you notice anything in common to the last three pictures? He’s been wearing them ever since (until one broke last night).

Kitchen Pics

I can’t get the colors right, but I am sick of trying so here are the pics anyway.

Brothers

Just in time

S’mores

First Non-Buzz Haircut

The birthday

Climbers

Simon has taken to climbing our one climbable tree of late. He has also taken to falling out of it. As for Ethan, he is pulling himself up on everything these days. A prelude, we hope, to walking. He about way too many pounds too heavy to carry anymore. And he’s, what, 10 years overdue?

In Thanksgiving

Birthday Party

We went to a friend’s surprise 30th birthday party two weeks ago. It was a gorgeous day. The kids had fun playing in the fort all day, and there was even another Easter egg hunt. Lots of fun.

Easter Pics

The first pic is Easter morning. The next two were taken the night before, during an Easter egg hunt at Grams’ house.

My New Employer

Old School, New School: Quaker Chemical Corporation
Location: Conshohocken
Industry: Chemical specialties
Local employees: 117
Revenue: $460 million

This almost 90-year-old chemical company, which supplies products to the steel, auto and construction industries, among others, has a unique culture that blends the best of an old-school workplace with the opportunities of the new economy. “Even though we’re an international company, we’re still small,” says company rep Jan Waldauer. Quaker’s U.S. headquarters in Conshohocken has fewer than 120 employees — which means politics and bureaucracy don’t reign, and there’s a family feeling. On the more progressive side: Quaker operates around the world, allowing some of its employees the opportunity to spend time in its offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai and Rio. Toss in a summer-hours program, an on-site fitness center and generous retirement benefits, and it’s no surprise the company has such a high stickiness factor: The average employee has been here for 14 years. – Philly Magazine

Love this picture

He just looks like such a thug. It was taken a while ago, though. We are, contrary to reason, growing his hair out now for the summer, so he is fast approaching the hedgehog stage. But this hair cut stemmed from me forgetting to put the attachment on the clipper. And then I had to repair the damage by adjusting the rest to match.

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords

“Ladies and gentlemen, uh, we’ve just lost the picture, but what we’ve seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over — ‘conquered’ if you will — by a master race of giant space ants. It’s difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.”

Sun…finally

It was a glorious day yesterday. Well, in the afternoon at least. Until the tornados came. And nothing fell down in the wind this time. So anyway, during those glorious two hours, we were able to prep our vegetable garden for the year. Nothing has been planted yet, but the plot has been tilled. And in the process, uncovered an Alfalfa Leaf-Cutting Bee nest. Apparently they like sandy soil, and the site of the vegetable garden was once a sand pit. Fortunately, they are not very aggressive and contented themselves with flying around low to the ground for a long time. I am hoping the tornados blew them away forever.

And we’re back

From a while back

Guess it was bright outside. Sorry. Haven’t taken any pics in a while.

The bruised birthday boy

Over a month late. We’re so lame around here. Yet even after a month, you can still see a mark there. Hopefully it goes away eventually.

Happy

This is pretty much what he is like most of the time. Except when he’s wet and/or hungry. Or on his changing table.