Happy Birthday, Abby! The Boyce Visit!

This weekend was a special treat because my niece, Abby, and her husband, Stan, came to Pittsburgh for a visit! It was their first trip to one of "America's Most Livable Cities." We had a great time exploring the outdoors . . . both in our own neighborhood and at North Park. There was snow on the ground, but it was in the mid 30's with quite a lot of sun. We managed to take a short hike on Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday, we did one of the trails in the woods at North Park and even tripped onto the Rachel Carson Trail for a short while. Gabe was so good riding in the backpack! He even took at nap in there on Sunday afternoon; we couldn't believe it.

Gabe was eating baked sweet potatoes with his hands on Saturday. Abby said he was quite a mess, so we took his picture. But frankly, I think he just looked like he was enjoying himself. It is kind of gratifying to see a kid his age eat so many different kinds of vegetables!!! Since he is allergic to milk products, Gabe eats more healthy food than practically any American I know. My Weight Watcher leader would be impressed. This boy has the "Core" program down to a science. I never saw anybody eat that many peas at a sitting in my life!

Of course, Thursday, 2/21, was Abby's birthday. We had a birthday supper on Saturday night with Honeybaked Ham and Roasted Vegetables and chocolate cake and (of course) ICE CREAM!!!! We all sang Happy Birthday and feasted away. Then we drank coffee and sat around the table and talked for quite a while before turning in.

On Sunday evening, we drove into Pittsburgh and showed Stan and Abby a few of the sites. Then we went into Oakland where University of Pittsburgh is located and stopped at one of the great Italian restaurants in that area, Joe Mama's. There we feasted away on all kinds of great stuff. It was kind of like carbohydrate loading in reverse since we hiked in the afternoon and then ate the pasta afterwards. Oh, well! Sequence isn't all THAT important.

It was a wonderful weekend! I really enjoyed being outside and spending time with Abby and her family. It is a rare occasion that you get time to spend with young adults with their own families. There is always so much to do . . . and holidays just aren't long enough.

Thanks, Stan, Abby and Gabe, for sharing your weekend with us! Come back again soon!

Time in Columbus . . . Getting ready for David!

I spent the weekend in Columbus celebrating the approach of baby David's arrival. It was full of fun and family and friends. I did lots of shopping with the girls and even found an incredible place to get a massage when I was out walking in Clintonville. The pictures here are only a small sample of the fun that was to be had at the Hilton Inn at Easton where we gathered for lunch and festivities!


This picture is Katy's Great Grandma Martha Wilson, Aunt Melanie, Great Granny Ruth McHenry, Oma, Katy of course, and Mom Emily. We have a number of combinations of different family generations. It was great of Grandma Sue to take this picture for us and to bring the "Great's" over to be with us.

The next picture is Katy's Great Aunt Bonnie McHenry and Katy's cousin Abby Boyce and Abby's son Gabe Boyce, who is about four months younger than Katy. Gabe spent most of his time under the table while Katy circled around the outside. It was a pretty exciting party!


The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying the great shops at Easton Shopping Center, taking great walks in the mild weather, playing puzzles with Katy, sewing curtains for the guest room closet, reading books with Katy, browsing through Pier 1 and Bath and Body Works with Emily, listening to CD's with Katy and singing the songs, figuing out how to make the new curtains in Katy's big-girl room so she can take naps without the light coming in through the window, and making cereal and toast and scrambled eggs with Katy sitting on the counter. It was really a wonderful time.

It is just so much fun to be an Oma. You get to be amazed at how many new words a child can learn in two short weeks while you are gone. The adjectives become really important when Katy looks you straight in the eye and says "MORE cookie?" You don't have to make long, complex sentences to get your point across. Oma got it. :-)

Oma had a nice trip home and was really glad to see Opa after three days away. I will go back to work rested and refreshed after my fresh dose of Katy-ism. Happy Presidents' Day!

The Most Elegant Glass Slipper Ball!

Last night was the Zonta Three Rivers North annual benefit to raise money for scholarships for women. It was held at the Sheraton Hotel here in Cranberry, and it was a beautiful, wonderful event. We won't know the total amount of money that was raised until later in the week, but judging from the success of the event, I expect the number to be the best in the event's 5-year history.

Some of our favorite restaurants were there serving appetizers and desserts . . . over 20 different fine dining establishments were represented. There were scallops and Ahi tuna and wonderful orzo dishes and smoked salmon with avacado and cream cheese on cucumbers and sushi and things I can't even describe. The desserts were everything from bananas foster to truffles (my personal weakness) to ice cream and miniature cupcakes and amazing things with fruit and whipped cream.

The flowers in the ballroom were beautiful, and I got to adopt this beautiful arrangement for my dining room table after the cleanup this morning. The house smells like roses, which is a real treat with the temperature dropping into single digits tonight.

This event was our anniversary, Valentine's, everything February celebration. Greg bought me a beautiful outfit in the silent auction. (Read here how I hinted shamelessly how much I liked it and watched it during the evening to see if the bidding was within reach.) More about the outfit in a later post.

Here is our picture in our GSB finery!

Today is also my baby brother, Neil's, birthday! Happy birthday, bro'! (He's the one in the red shirt.)

Weekend with the Mowery's!

We made a quick run to Columbus this weekend to catch up with the kids. Katy had the croup late last week, and she wasn't feeling her best. However, we managed to get a taste of her rapidly expanding vocabulary, her rather amazing new skills with her puzzles, and found Elmo and Veggie Tales DVD's to be quite a blast!

Melanie stopped over Saturday evening, and she and Drew ate dinner with us. This is the week before mid-terms, and they were both up to their eyebrows in exam preparations and term papers. However, we still enjoyed seeing them and chatting with everybody.

Emily and I were on a mission to get some fabric and decorating supplies for the room she and Brian are fixing up for Katy so that David can have the nursery. We made a couple of trips to Target and Joann's Fabric, but we were not very successful. We did get the measurements and calculated the fabric we need. We still have some time to work on that in the next few weeks.

As I type this, we are kind of watching the Super Bowl . . . actually the commercials since the football is not all that exciting unless the Giants get going here and take off.

This picture is Katy and her dolls ready for a trip to the fabric store this morning. She is a little retro, you know, with her flower power. Every time we got ready to get out of the car we had to put Katy's shoes back on her because she got bored and took them off while we were driving. This velcro is just too easy to operated. Those double-knotted shoe laces at least kept the kids' shoes on for a little while.