In late March the whole family got together at Amy and Joe’s newly renovated house to celebrate James, Peter and Aaron’s birthdays. It was nice to be all-together and we were all excited to see Amy and Joe’s completed construction project. We had dinner out together and then went back to Amy and Joe’s for presents and dessert. There were of course many great presents, but I would be remiss not to mention Dad’s gifts: Goonies themed treasure chests for James and Peter and a Lord of the Rings prop and cast photos for Aaron. Have I mentioned my father has discovered the wonder of eBay? Click on the photo above to see the album of photos from the party.

I’ve been dying to post these photos since last fall, but I had to wait, as it was a surprise for James and Chrissy. So, this past weekend, my brother James and his girlfriend Chrissy got married (yeah! – you’ll see those photos at some point). As a part of the celebration, Peter wanted to put together something entertaining for their rehearsal dinner. He came up with the idea of re-writing one of James’ favorite songs with personalized lyrics. Peter and Maria worked on that together and re-wrote Don’t Stop Believing by Journey as a song about James and Chrissy. Then Peter came up with the brilliant idea of getting as many of James’ groomsmen as possible together to make a video of the song. Peter with the help of James’ good friend Justin, recorded his version of the song and then had each of the groomsmen dress in costume and perform portions of the video. I am hoping the full video ends up on Youtube – if it does, I will certainly post the link. In the meantime, please enjoy this album of photos of Aaron, Joe and Peter in costume from the filming their portions of the video. You will laugh.

In March Mom took her annual trip to Florida with Nonnie. With Justin’s favorite sitter out of town, Aaron and I volunteered to watch him for a day. We had a great time doing some of Justin’s favorite things, which currently include searching for and watching windmill videos online, reading books, building with blocks or cardboard boxes and playing picnic – complete with a blanket on the floor and plastic food. He has an incredible amount of energy and lots to say – he is definitely not a baby anymore – but he’s so much fun to be around. Click on the photo of us above to see the album of photos from our day together.

For Aaron’s birthday this year, I took him to New York City for the weekend. The initial inspiration for our trip was Will Ferrell’s Broadway show, You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush . I bought us tickets to see that show and then planned the weekend around it. We ate lot’s of interesting and good food: Turkish Friday night at Ali Baba, Saturday lunch at Katz’s deli (where Aaron had the biggest pastrami sandwich I have ever seen), Saturday dinner we had Korean barbecue at Madangsui and finally a crazy brunch (huge portions – way too much food) at Norma’s. We walked the city a bit, explored some neighborhoods and stayed pretty low key. We had a very relaxing weekend away – a successful celebration if I do say so myself.

At the end of February, Amy and Joe and Justin moved back into their house after bunking with our parents for a few months while they were doing some construction. While unpacking they accumulated a large number of empty boxes, which Justin thought were great to use as giant building blocks. He and Joe used some of them to create a big box tower bridge. Later Justin and Aaron created a wall with a window. Eventually Amy and Joe actually wanted to use the room and fill it with furniture, so they recycled the boxes – but it was fun while it lasted. Click on the photo above to see the album of photos.