Here Comes A New Shelmet

This weekend we took a ride across the river in to good old Jersey to visit Johnson's Corner Farm. Cheryl had taken Zoe there once before with the twins, but this was my first visit. It is pretty impressive and there are lots of things to do there. You do have to pay to get in to the really fun stuff, but it was well worth the price of admission. Zoe got to play her first game of tether ball. I totally won, but that's only due to my 3 foot advantage. We then moved on to play in their massive sand box areas, that had all sorts of tools and toys to use. Zoe loves sand. Next to that there are 4 different play stations. One is a produce market with different bins of fruits and vegetables along with a cash register. Another is a work area, with all sorts of tools. There is a kitchen area, with a grill, an oven and some processed meats. The last one is a veterinary area, with stuffed animals and all sorts of doctor equipment. That face she's making while Cher

This past weekend was Ben and Julia's first birthday. Cheryl, Zoe and I drove up and, about 15 minutes from the party, Zoe fell asleep. I have probably said this too many times already, but she is never so adorable as when she is asleep. The twins were looking very dapper in their birthday finery. While Zoe got along very well with both of the little ones, she seems to have taken a specific liking to Ben. With all of these boys in her life already, I can't wait until she gets older. We had a great time and it is always great to see the Strout's. You can see all the pictures from the day in Ben and Julia's First Birthday album on Flickr.

For two weeks we were thankful to have the Carusos in town all the way from Seattle (actually Edmonds). While they were here, John very generously paid for a photo shoot with the kids. Not only were there some great pictures, but I think Annabelle and Zoe genuinely had a good time playing together. From throwing rocks into the creek to wearing fairy wings and shooting bubble guns, the day was quite full. Here are a few shots from the day. There are 260 of them, and they're all in their own album that you and view on Flickr . Along with that, I put together a short montage of a bunch of pictures, just to try something new. If you have 5 minutes, take a look. I seem to always end these things with my hopes for the future, so I won't break that trend here. I hope that we can have many more outings like this in the future, whether there is a professional photographer there, or it's just me snapping pictures.

For Mother's Day we were heading up to Doylestown for baby John's baptism. In looking around the area, a colleague of mine had mentioned that he takes his daughter to a place called Kid's Castle. This castle happened to be about 10 minutes from the church, so we packed in to the car early and went up there. It was impressive. Take a look. The place was great and because it was the holiday, there were very few people there. Everyone seemed to enjoy it; however, Dara wasn't too keen on strangers. Just check out the look I was getting. Hopefully next time she'll warm up a little bit. Either way, I look forward to heading back up there to climb around and go through the longest, twisty slide I have ever seen.

If I could have a video camera running all the time to capture some of the things that Zoe does, I would do it. Sadly, when I do turn the camera on, she typically clams up and I don't get what I was trying to record, but instead just a video of my asking Zoe to do something and her standing there, staring off in to space, not saying a word. Luckily, sometimes the camera is rolling and I do get something good. Like this time I picked her up from daycare and she was commenting on how sad the crabs are and that she wanted a snack. This past Saturday Cheryl wasn't feeling well, so Zoe and I went out in the morning to see what we could find. We went to Honest Tom's where we enjoyed a little breakfast. When that was done, we made our way to Clark Park, where there was a small stage and some folks playing bluegrass music. Zoe seemed to really enjoy it, especially when Issac was there. Now if I can just catch her singing along to some of the songs in the movies she wat

Since we have yearly passes, and Sesame Place is 5 minutes from my parents' house, we decided to take a ride up this past weekend to enjoy some of the rides. Sadly, there was a good portion of the park that was closed, which had the majority of things that Zoe enjoyed; however, she still liked going on the carousel and really enjoyed the planes this time. Even with that, I still think her favorite part was taking off her pants and wading into the little wave pool. The water was freezing, but that didn't seem to deter her. Plus, when she needed a recharge, she just sat down and fueled up on popcorn. It was a good time and I can't wait to go back when then weather, and the water, are warmer. Now to switch gears just a bit, it was a little late, but I took some pictures of Zoe at the 2 year mark. Here she is in her dress and on her chair, which is how we have been measuring her growth. She's not the happiest of campers, but I think it helps to capture t