Easter Festivities

No one does holidays quite like my family. I'm fortunate to come from a large family who gets together on the holidays. But it can be a bit hectic to try to see everyone in one day. Easter generally consists of brunch with my mom's side of the family, lunch with my dad's side of the family and dinner back with my mom's side of the family. We used to attend a Czechoslovakian church in Newark on top of all of this, but that church has since closed down. So this year, we woke up and Evan got to explore his Easter basket. And no, we did not give him Peanut m&m's - the Easter bunny brought that for me.
As our niece Morgan tells us often, Brian certainly is a "goofball". Evan is thoroughly entertained by his father's antics.
Here is a shot at the first stop of the day for breakfast. You can't see everyone, but there were over 30 people here in the morning.Goofballs again. Evan has just learned to intentionally stick his tongue out and he has been doing this non-stop!
My brother's girlfriend, Jess, with Evan. Evan was a little shy at first and wanted some snuggle time.
Family portrait.Two handsome guys:My parents with Evan: Next it was a 45 minute drive to my grandmother's tiny house. Thankfully the weather turned out great because 43 of the Weiss family members (out of 49) showed up. It was great to see everyone! This picture shows a portion of the 43 Weisses in attendance:

Close up of Evan: Our nephew Matthew enjoying a gummy worm:

My cousin Michael's son, Cameron:

And one last shot of Evan in his full Easter outfit.

Longwood Gardens

Be prepared to see lots of pictures of Longwood Gardens in the coming year as we purchased a season pass to the gardens for the year. All we had to do was visit twice and it would pay for itself. After a very rainy day yesterday, the sun was shining this morning and we made a trip to visit ater lunch. The tulips had begun to bloom, though in another 2 weeks, it will even be more spectacular.Once we got into the conservatory, we were able to put Evan down to pose for some pictures. My absolute favorite picture is the one I put at the top of this posting, but these next few aren't too bad either.He loves to stand now and I just love those little sneakers he is now wearing. Such a serious face here - so much for him to take in.Here is just again - won't sit still for more than 1 second.Another favorite of mine - he certainly was enjoying the sites and sounds. We are looking forward to several more trips this summer

Standing Tall

Evan finally started pulling to standing this past weekend (4/10/11)! A few weeks prior, Evan had begun to boycott standing altogether and would collapse everytime we tried to stand him up on his feet for him. But, just like crawling, once he did it once, he started repeatedly pulling up as though he's been doing it forever. He's already in the very early stages of "cruising". We've got a long way before the walking starts, but he's getting there. Other fun notes - Evan is saying the word "dog" now. I don't know if he knows the meaning, but he most definitely says "dog". In addition, he is currently battling his 3rd ear infection, teething and a nasty cold. He is coughing through most of the night and just hasn't been himself. This morning was the first time he cried when Brian dropped him off at daycare :( And his most recent trend is that he is preferring to be with Brian over me. I have heard that kids go through phases in preferring parents, but I am not enjoying the phase where I go to hold my baby and he reaches back for his daddy. Hopefully it will be a short-lived one!

A Stroll Down Memory Lane . . .

I had the chance to spend a night away with two of my closest friends this past weekend. Kelly was my roommate for 4 out fo my 5 years at Lehigh, while Chris completed our trio. Much of my free time was spent with these two dear friends. Up until last year, we had let a long 10 years go by without all getting together (outside of weddings). Right after I got pregnant with Evan, we had our first "reunion" and hope to be able to cotinue this on a yearly basis, if not more. Kelly still lives near our alma mater of Lehigh Unviersity, so we decided to spend the afternoon strolling around the campus and reliving years of memories. I also worked on my photography skills, trying to capture some of the sights on campus as well as the three of us just being silly. I got so many great shots that I had trouble cutting down what I would put up for this posting. This photo below was taken in the library. There were diligant students studying on a Saturday afternoon . . . many of which were staring at us as we giggled and posed for photos:

Here, Kelly and I attempted to re-create a photo from many years ago:

Next is a shot from inside the amazing Linderman Library. I did not appreciate the beauty of this place until coming back to campus several years later. I used to study here frequently.

This area with the spiral staircase has a beautiful rotunda at the top. This picture was taken looking straight up at the ceiling. Here we are being silly again - we were able to get a student to take a few shots of all of us. This area of the library, know as the dungeon, is filled with rows and rows of books. We wondered how often are these books even touched today, in the day and age of the internet? This picture is taken from a window looking out from the dungeon. The building you see on the left is of the chapel (where Brian & I got married). The beige building on the right is the Math building, which brings back some fond memories. The Math building (named Christmas-Saucon) was one of the first buildings on campus. Here Chris is giving me a piggy-back ride. And another one of the three of us: This building was my & Kelly's freshman dorm. It also was Brian's freshman dorm one year after us. We could not really appreciate the beauty of this building while we were living here. As I commented on how I never realized the beauty, Chris pointed out that not only do we see the beauty, but we are flooded with the memories (nostalgia) as well. If years go by before we all get together again, it will always be like we have never taken time apart.

Photography Classes

I'm now 4 weeks into my 7 week photography course. Last week's assignment involved shooting the same actions shots in varying settings to create a completely different picture. I have never really played around with camera settings before this class so I am learning a ton. But I found it interesting to see how different these two scenes looked . . . and how the blurry photo seems much more artistic and interesting than the one that captures every detail.

How big is Evan?

Please ignore my annoying voice :)

Please Touch Museum

It's not often that we get visitors outside of immediate family that make the trip to PA to visit us from NJ. I was especially thankful when my cousin Christa decided to drive 3+ hours to visit us with her two adorable little girls, Grace & Mary. Mary, who is typically shy around strangers, took all of 5 minutes to warm up to Brian. He has such a way with kids. After a sleep-over on Friday night, we all headed to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia where we met my mom, sister and nephew.

Matthew & Grace enjoyed the "Alice in Wonderland" exhibit together.

The kids tending to the baby in the hospital nursery:

Evan's favorite activity - eating! With his Gram:

Evan now can drink out of the sippy cup by himself!

Mary enjoying her drink:

Megan & Matthew on the carousel: Matthew driving the bus:

And one last picture of Matthew smiling:

It was a fantastic day and I can't wait to take Evan back again when he gets older!