Second Annual Peeps Diorama

Reed has this obsession with Peeps...okay maybe not an obsession, but a fascination perhaps?  Either way last year he decided that they would make a great foundation for a Diorama.  100s of peeps were purchased and the fun ensued.  So much fun that we had the 2nd Annual Peeps Diorama this year. :)All the sickening sweetness and sugar...

The art masters hard at work..The Trapeze PeepsThe JudgePeeps Bobsled - Team USATragic accident and Big Bird meets his end....

The results of all that sugar...or something like that...or maybe their natural reaction to my camera in their faces again...

The big 3-0

My friend Brian has officially left the world of 20 something and entered the world of 30 something.  A group of us all got together at Bertucci's in Tysons Corner for a little dinner and then headed over to Reed's for ice cream and cake. 

I can't say that Brian was completely thrilled about the gifts he received.  I think Pretty in Pink and a New Moon Card are completely apporiate for a 30 year old boy...right?

We even got the waiter to get a piece of cake for Briand and sang happy birthday to him.  What are friends for but to humiliate you in public...?

Happy Birthday BRIAN!!!

Make a wish!

Congrats Brian!  You made it to thirty!

Fort Marcy with Lisa

Mel's hometown friend Lisa had Saturday (March 20th) off and came down to visit her.  Mel invited me to to join them in a short hike.  We ended up at Fort Marcy (one of my favorite places!)

Unfortunately the river was still still too high for us to be able to cross it without getting wet (we were not prepared to commit to being wet...) So we simply spent awhile enjoying the sound of the water and the warm weather...and the sticks.  I found a nice short and shapely stick, perfect for racing down the river and chucked it in.  It ended up getting stuck in a group of rocks, but never fear! I went down to rescue it.

See there it is in my rigth hand.  Don't I look happy? I think I was in the middle of saying something when Mel took this picture.

After saving it I set it free once more to watch it go down the river.

Goodbye little stick

It's that look again...remember the "your camara is in my face" look?

Virginia Winters

Remember all that snow we got?

Well, I took several (hundred) pictures (why have a new camera if you're not going to use it?) and these are some of my favorites (in no particular order).

Gives a new meaning to Snow Babies...

Look closely and you can see my little squirrel friend. Trying to get to his stash under 3 feet of snow.

Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in morning, sailors take warning (and this was taking about 7 am Tuesday and we were hit by the blizzard late that night and Wednesday Morning...)

I would love to take a photography class. I love photos and taking picture. I don't really have much skill nor training, but that doesn't stop me...ask Melanie. She has perfected the "Your camera is in my face again, but I'm going to smile anyway" look.

Yup! That look... You'll see it again...don't worry

Pi Day Celebration and Albert's Birthday

As Mel has told me on several occastions...I'm a nerd and she's a nerd and we love our nerdiness.  And the crowning evediance of our nerdiness is our annual celebration of Pi Day.  Yup, that's right, Pi Day :)  3.14159265 (etc).

And most of you may not know this...but March 14th (aka 3.14) is also Albert Einstein's birthday (fate?)

Now those of you who have never heard of Pi day need to know that Pi Day is celebrated (by those in our group) by the making and eating of Pies, get it...Pi and pies :P  (Yep!  100% nerd)

See?  Pies :)  And of course a birthday cake for our friend Albert! And in case you were wondering Pizza Pie TOTALLY counts!

FACTS ABOUT PI

Geometry: Half the circumference of a circle with a radius of 1 is exactly pi

Record for calculation: 2.7 trillion digits (by Fabrice Bellard, December 2009)

Record for memorization: 67,890 digits (by Chao Lu, 2005)

How random? There are no occurences of the sequence 123456 in the first million digits of pi

Source: "The Joy of Pi," Pi World Ranking List

Some of our happy pie eat, Pi Celebrating Frineds :)

Snowbound

For the second time this winter the DC metro area was hit with over 20 inches of snow.

Some people have called the Snowamgedon or the Snowacopolous...no matter how you look at it 25-30 inches of snow is a lot of snow...even if you life in an area that deals with snow often.

The Onley house invited us over and a full-scale snowball fight ensued :)

We even had the random neighbor kids join us...

Snow angel...

Building forts

Safe inside


Most of us didn't have work Monday (except Melanie of course, she always has to works...). Tuesday I had to work, but everyone was battening down the hatched for the second storm, which hit us Wednesday. And it was a good one! Blizzard and another 15-20 inches of snow. (I have pictures somewhere...) There were times we couldn't see the trees in our front yard. Emma was going to have to go to work and we told her the friends don't let friends drive in blizzards. So she called the her supervisor and got the day off...I have no idea what Tysons Corner Mall was thinking to be open!
The Onley boys and the McDonald sisters lost power so they braved the storm and walked over to our house for some warmth, food and fun.
I'll be honest...I'll be happy when there is no more snow on the ground!

Happy Birthday Emma Lin!

You know...I don't know why we try...but we do, every year we try....Try what you say?  To give Emma Lin a surprise birthday party and it never fails that she finds out about it. Or something goes wrong with the planning, most often with the weather.  This time we can blame Reed and Dan for Emma knowing about her "surprise" birthday party and Bronwyn did such a good job too... But doesn't she look surprised?

Reed Helping to decorate...

Happy Birthday Emma Lin!!!