Cousins Meet

Also during the month of May, one evening we met up with Baby Ellie and the kids were able to hold her, Here are some pics which show their first meeting.

Gillian's Recital

Not doing well with keeping up on the family blog, (thanks in part of facebook), but last month Gillian gave her first performance with the 4th grade band where she played several numbers on the flute.

Gillian really likes music, and was given a special award for getting "outstanding" (the elementary school equivalent for A+) for all 4 nine weeks.

Gillian then graciously posed playing flute in our front yard for this picture. Way to go Gilly girl!

More pics of Ellimere

Erin has her baby!

At 9:28 Erin and Colin delivered a baby girl.
They named her Ellimere Vernette Symons.
She was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 inches long! No
one is as happy as Gillian to have another
girl in the family!

Happy Easter

Went down to Pittsburgh to visit the family. First stop was the Farrell's household, where Gammy Farrell had Joey hide about 20 eggs in the back yard. While waiting for the other cousins to show up, the kids played ball in the back. The sun was out and not a cloud was in the sky, which made for a perfect Easter day.


Then it was over to Shaler for Easter dinner, where Dad cooked us up a nice dinner. Mary Louise made homemade canolis, and Vee made strawberry vinaigrette salad. It was a yummy meal and everyone had a nice Easter dinner.

Erin is ready for baby any day now.

Easter Egg Time

No PALS this year, instead the kids used rubber stampers with ink pads for their eggs. It was a fun evening, and the kids each made about 4-5 eggs each. The ink was also fluid enough that a small brush could be applied. There are some of the pictures from that evening.

Our Trip to Phipps

We miss seeing the color green, and since Armstrong County is 1-2 weeks behind everyone else, Sam and I wanted to see some flowers. So we packed up the car and took the kiddies down to Pittsburgh. I forgot to take my camera with us, so no pics of the Strip district this time.




Our first stop was Wholeys on the Strip, to get some fish sandwitches which were tasty. I had a few other items to pick up in the Asian food store, before we scaled Polish Hill and popped over to Oakland.





Once at the Phipps, the kids had a really nice time. There was an outside area with a massive tree trunk and place to play, which they enjoyed.






There was one place where we stopped to do crafts. The kids made a sort of tropical rain forest flower from a Dixie cup and construction paper, which rain forest frogs store their tadpoles in.






Here are some other shots of our trip.