Riding out the Storm

Hurricane Irene is still making herself felt from NC to the Northeast.  Thousands of people in this area are still without power.  Children have gone back to school in most places in the state, but there are still schools scattered about the area that are closed with no power.  I was lucky to have weathered the storm with family in PA.  The initial reason for that trip was to celebrate little Abby's first birthday, but that got postponed, because many of the activities planned for the event were to be outdoors.  I was encouraged to come up anyway so I didn't have to ride out the storm solo.

Abby didn't seem to mind the birthday delay.  Quite honestly, I don't think she has a concept of birthdays yet.  She is a contented child with a sweet smile, and she has become very mobile in the last few weeks.

The older girls always want to do a "craft" when I come to visit.  This time we made picture frames decorated with stick-on additions.  Both Ava and Elizabeth did a very nice job of it.

Both Jake and Emily are very active two-year-olds, with Jake being the senior of the two.  Jake thinks Emily hung the moon and is never happier than when she is around and will play with him.

Jake surprised me at one point.  This not-yet-three little one was sitting with what we used to call an etch-a-sketch, and he was working away at it.  I thought I heard him say, "Now I'm going to draw an oval" and by golly he did!  I've known first graders who couldn't do as well!  

 Other than some flooding in one niece's basement and loss of power for their family for several days, we seemed to have weathered to storm well.  Actually, I think their area got more rain than we by at least an inch,  but my house lost power for almost a day.  There have been many times when outages here were considerably worse than that.  Perhaps all the preparation work BGE has been doing, upgrading lines and poles and trimming trees, has paid off.  I'll take it.

Jarring Experience

Wow!  That certainly got my attention!  About 20 minutes ago my house started shaking like a tree was going to fall right on top of the middle of it!  I ran into the hall, waiting for it to hit, while the dishes rattled and the house shook worse than it did when the biggest of trees in the area has fallen, but "the tree" never hit the ground.  Turns out it was an earthquake in VA that registered 5.9 and shook things up all the way up to NYC at least!  No damage here that I know of it, but it surely was exciting!

A Birthday Celebration in PA

Over the weekend the Haber clan celebrated Len's birthday.  There was a cake and a family dinner on Saturday at the senior Habers' abode, and an extended family party happened at Jen and Len's place on Sunday.  On Saturday the featured cake was created by Clays, cake bakers extraordinaire!  

Since Len is a Phillies fan, the cake had that motif.  Here his offspring help admire the cake (while they mug for the camera).

On Sunday there were gifts to be opened, and there are always volunteers to "help" open them--first Elizabeth, then Ava, followed by Emily K.  Len's dad Ken kept an eye on things.

It was hot, and the pool go a lot of activity.  Ava and Elizabeth are both swimming very well and have graduated from "floaties", but the younger children still required a lot of support and supervision.  Emily's suit surrounds her with floatation material.  Jake and Abby just enjoy life from the floating seats.

 Ava did a great cannonball!  Fortunately there was no one close enough to be affected by the big splash.

 Emily and her dad had a great time with the toss and catch game.  She apparently loved every minute of it!

 Abby thought the rest of them were a little nuts with all that splashing and bouncing.  She just grinned and showed her new teeth.l

 Jake thought splashing was fun, but he cautiously did it from the safety of the swimming tube.

As usual, Auntie Em took far too many pictures, some of which have been pulled into an album on Picasa.  If you want to see more of the busy weekend's activities check:  http://picasaweb.google.com/ejoyce2