Southern Virginia

After leaving Wayne in Scranton we set off for Petersburg, Virginia. We needed to look for an apartment anyway, so we decided we’d like to spend the weekend with our friends, Christopher and Amelia, in Southern Virginia before scouring the DC housing market. We were surprised that Petersburg had far more to offer then just good company. We toured one of only six churches in the United States with all of it’s stained glass windows made by Tiffany Co. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but the church was lovely and situated on the grounds of the second largest cemetery in Virginia.

Next we headed off to Petersburg National Battlefield where the Union sieged Petersburg for about ten months at the end of the Civil War. We were able to see where some of the most pivotal moments of that battle took place (including the Battle of the Crater) as well as the front lines.

                                                              

                                                                                                             

After an authentically delicious barbeque lunch and a short nap, we headed to an antique tractor museum. Lincoln loved it, of course. There were hundreds of antique (but completely restored) tractors and many trucks as well. Lincoln wasn’t allowed to climb on the tractors, but the nice lady at the front desk let slip that that rule wasn’t strictly enforced on two tractors displayed outside.

                       

                                                                                

On Sunday we went to Church in the morning and were hoping to attend a tractor pull a man at the museum had told us about (we think… he was pretty hard to understand) but it ended up being too far away. Instead we saw the most amazing tree. It is the second largest “cucumber” tree in the United States (but only by an inch or so in the diameter of it's trunk). It was pretty cool. Behind the tree was a museum with a very long winded tour guide, but it was interesting nonetheless.

                                                                     

                                                                                                                      

We were bummed we had to spend all our time Monday and Tuesday in DC when we still wanted to hang out with Christopher and Amelia! We’re happy we’ll get to hang out more when we move down there!

Title Censored

Last Friday Jonathan, Lincoln, and I drove to Scranton, PA to meet up with my friend Wayne who had been visiting New York City that week. Scranton is about half way between NYC and Ithaca, so we thought it as good a place as any to hang out for a few hours. After meeting at Steamtown Mall, we decided to sample the local cuisine at Alfredo’s Pizza Café. We were a little underwhelmed by the pizza. The crust was wonderful. The toppings were delightful. It just tasted like they used Kraft singles for the cheese. I shudder to think what Pizza by Alfredo tastes like.

                                                                                       

After lunch, we decided to take in some of the local sites. I had read on Trip Advisor that tours of an old coal mine were available and we thought that sounded like a fun activity for our afternoon. Unfortunately the last tour left at three o’clock and we arrived at 3:02. So, instead of seeing a real coal mine we visited the Anthracite Heritage Museum at the same location. We were the only visitors to the museum that day and the guest book hadn’t been signed in days. People just aren’t as interested in coal as they used to be. On top of being a museum about coal, about half it was blocked off with caution tape, because they were having some work done on the roof. This turned out to be a good thing, though, because it made the museum much more exciting. We felt like rebels as we threw caution to the wind to get photos of hundreds of antique thread spools. We like to live dangerously.

                                                                        

We had such a fun afternoon in Scranton with Wayne! We hadn’t seen each other in quite a long time, so it was really nice getting to catch up and hang out. I’m really excited we’re going to be living a whole lot closer to him in a little over a month!

Welcome Summer!

We are so happy it has finally thawed out in Ithaca! We celebrated a wonderfully warm Memorial Day with a trip to Flat Rock, our favorite local swimming spot. Lincoln loves swimming, so this was a special treat for him. We are so glad it’s finally summer!

         

P.S. We took these pictures on our old point and shoot. There were a few pictures left on the memory card from New York last summer. I thought these, from Prospect Park, were exceptionally cute.

                                                         

Good-bye PizzaLand

I can hardly believe it, but Jonathan graduated from Law School last week. We were happy to have Jonathan’s parents and Aunt Brigitte in town to help us celebrate such a huge milestone.

 

Keeping a two year old reasonably quiet  for two plus hours (during his naptime, no less) and the low lighting inside made getting any presentable pictures of the ceremony impossible, but we made sure to take quite a few after it was over.

                                                 

                                                                                            

Unfortunately, the convocation fell on a very rainy day. That made it difficult to get from the car to the ceremony location, then to the law school for a reception and, finally, back to the car. Luckily the school provided shuttles between these places and a large tent for the reception, but we all still got pretty wet and that doesn’t really make for a fun afternoon. Nevertheless, we were so happy to be celebrating Jonathan’s numerous achievements over the past three years and the end of our lives as students.

                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                            

We are now looking forward to a busy summer of bar prep, a move to our nation’s Capitol, and who knows what else. It should be fun.

Shh… Quiet

I have been working on a quiet book for Lincoln for a few months now. After several missed deadlines and delays I have finally reached a good stopping point. I think I will probably add some more pages in the future, once I can look at a piece of felt again (I am missing the standard lace the football page after all), but for now I am calling it a day. I hand-stitched everything but the cover (similar to how I did my Advent Calendar), so that drew the process out a bit, but I think the results were worth it.

I had a hard time finding a tutorial for the cover, so I sort of had to make it up as I went along. I made some mistakes, but that can’t be helped.

I got the idea for this house page from Leafy Treetop Spot. There are pictures of Jonathan and I behind each of the shutters and one of Lincoln behind the door.

                                                                                         

Homemade by Jill included a rocket page in her book, but I decided to change Lincoln’s to an airplane since they are still his favorite thing (his most recent obsession is watching air shows on YouTube, but I digress). The opposite page is just shape matching with Velcro.

Two more pages from Homemade by Jill. I still need to make a few more finger puppets, but you get the idea. Lincoln can also send and receive letters in his personalized mailbox.

This alligator page is probably my favorite in the whole book. The original idea came from this blog, but I expanded and fancied it up a bit. We took the book with us to Church for the first time last week and I put some Reese’s Pieces in the alligator’s mouth. Lincoln was pretty pleased. The cars opposite just snap on and off.

This page is probably my second favorite. It took forever to make because stitching that entire road on was quite the undertaking. 

This is just a simple counting page with beads. The idea came from this blog.

I decided to put a pocket on the back cover in case pieces need to get gathered quickly or I’m feeling too lazy to put them all in the right places.

There you have it. Lincoln’s quiet book. We took it for a test drive at Church last week and, I must say, it was very successful at getting him to stay on our laps, but not as successful at keeping him quiet. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get.

Easter Festivities

Now that Lincoln is two he is really starting to get holidays. This is what I have been waiting for. There is nothing better then seeing his eyes shining with excitement and watching him dart around as he yells, “Eggs! Eggs!!” I didn’t get very many good pictures of him looking for eggs in the morning because the light was bad and I was filming it, but that’s okay.

                                                              

Lincoln had a few chances to practice looking for eggs before the Easter Bunny came, though, so he was thoroughly prepared. A few weeks before Easter someone came and “egged” our house and we had a ton of fun searching for all the eggs around our door (and eating the candy inside.)

                                                                                     

                                                         

And we had a little, last minute Easter egg hunt with some friends from Church last week. The kids might have been a little disappointed when they realized most of the eggs has raisins in them, but they still had fun finding the eggs and doing a bunny ear craft.

                                   

Now I just need to hit the stores and round up all the clearance Starburst jellybeans before they’re gone and my Easter will be complete!

Croquembouche

We had our annual Branch Talent Show last night and this year I decided to contribute a Croquembouche.

cro·quem·bouche

[kroh-kuhm-boosh; Fr. kraw-kahn-boosh]

     –noun, plural -bouches [-boo-shiz; Fr. -boosh] Show IPA. French Cookery .

     a pyramid of bite-size cream puffs coated and held in place with caramelized sugar.

This was my first time attempting a Croquembouche, although I have made cream puffs before, but I was pretty pleased with the result. Mine wasn’t the towering cone I was envisioning, but it didn’t fall over… and for a Branch Talent Show I think that’s enough.