Birdy Quotes

Lucas after seeing bicycles on a car-carrier: "Bikes on car. Silly."

Not another one

Christy brought Anna over to our house for an ear check the other day. Lucas watched and then declared "I check Anna ear. Luca Doctor."

We let him check Daddy's ears (not poor Anna's)

A lot left to learn

Safety First!

Testing our new Ski Helmets

Giraffes & Gruffalos

Now that it's getting (a little bit) warmer, we've been spending more time at the Zoo again. Lucas is now at the perfect age for it. Loves it! Talks about the giraffes, elephants, and monkeys non-stop during the zoo trip and for days after.

Last month my dad came and spent a weekend with us. It was great to see him and to get some rare quality time.

Back again on a different pretty day at the Zoo:

Nap time came and we didn't make it around the whole zoo. We had to skip the giraffes. (They were napping). Ever since then Lucas has been asking about going back. "See gi'aff. Gi'aff sleeping?" Karen tried to take him back and it wasa too cold so the giraffe was still (!) napping. Bummer. When he couldn't see the giraffe, he asked to the see gruffalo.

If you don't know the gruffalo, check out: www.gruffalo.com. The gruffalo books and the other books (such as Room on the Broom) by author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler (who is from Hamburg!) are our favorites!

The Gruffalo

"He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws

And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws."

"He has knobbly knees, and turned out toes,

And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose."

"His eyes are orange, his tongue is black;

He has purple prickles all over his back."

Good luck to us finding him at the Zoo!

Squid

Lucas and Matt's newest favorite silly game results in lots of laughing:

Afternoon at the Playground

It's been a beautiful and very welcomed start to the spring. We took the opportunity and took Lucas, our "adopted" puppy, and the tricycle out the the park. As a fun surprise, we ran into our favorite twins and had even more play buddies.

Sporting the new helmet. Yes, mom's a pediatrician and makes Lucas wear one already.

Lucas and Ella

Lucas and Anna

Practicing to be a good dog walker with Nash:

Picnic Time:

Anna joined our family for a quick snack

Thank Yous & Kahlua Cake

Matt & Lucas fight over "Matt's" birthday present and say Thank you!

How old is Daddy?

Baking the Birthday Cake

Ever since I got the recipe for this cake it's been one of our favorites. So moist and yummy. The alcohol bakes out ... as shown by the fact that I was first introduced to this cake on morning peds rounds in med school. Try it:

Recipe for Kahlua Cake:

Mix together:

1 cup oil
4 eggs (beaten)
1 yellow cake mix
1 3 oz package instant chocolate pudding

Then add:
1/3 cup kahlua
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup vodka

mix together, batter will be runny

bake at 350 in bundt pan 45-50 minutes

Glaze (I personally am not a big fan of the glaze and usually substitute with powdered sugar only):
1/4 cup kahlua

1/2 cup powdered sugar

stir together then pour half of glaze on bottom of cake while hot, then again on top when cool.

Enjoy!