Celebrating Spring

 Thursday was the first day of Spring. I had the day totally planned out for weeks. I'm pretty sure this has been the worst winter; so cold, so snowy and with no end in sight. So when March 20th came around marking spring - I was determined to celebrate!

 We headed to the Lil Pop Shop after school for a special treat. Who doesn't enjoy gourmet treats?

We packed up a picnic dinner and ate in the sunshine with the art museum behind us. It was a bit brisk, but beautiful. Afterwards the kids played on the huge boulders. They were pretending to be cougars. I love the games they come up with.

Meet Eileen

Eileen is a researcher from Beijing, China. She is a visiting scholar doing more research at Penn. I met her through the English class I teach on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Her son Jerry comes to my class. (He chose his name from the cartoon Tom & Jerry.)
One day we were talking and she told me how she does famous Chinese brush painting. Yesterday I had some free time to go over and see her work.
As a child Eileen didn't have much to do so she would spend much of her time drawing. Later after college she paid money to take a class to learn this technique of painting. She spends her free time here in Philly painting.
She showed me at least 50 paintings. Many were scenes of birds, with flowers or flowering trees in the background. She also has some of large eagles with mountains in the background. Her work is so amazing. This one isn't even her best work.
She can't sell them in America because there isn't a market for them. She sells them in China for $1,800-$2,500. She does this as sort of a second job.

Lilia's 7th Birthday Party

 Lilia turned 7 on March 7th - her golden birthday. I wonder where that came from anyway...
Aunt Karen came in to town for the party. The kids were so happy to see her. It was a girls only party so we sent Dave, Alex, my dad, and Jesse (Karen's birthday) off to the Franklin Institute.

 Lilia got an adorable pink, monogrammed, bathrobe from Aunt Karen.

 The girls were welcome to come dressed in their prettiest dress and favorite shoes. We did their nails and make up. I put Katy Manni in charge of eye shadow. Ava, her daughter, is pretty good too. Below she is doing Lilia's eye shadow.

Top Row: Eliza, Jarah
Bottom Row: Cindy, Ava, Lilia, Esther, & Rena

Aunt x2

 On February 4th, Naomi and Claire were born to my sister-in-law AnnMarie and my brother. They were born full-term, which is amazing.
Naomi is on the left, Claire is on the left.

It was such a sweet priviledge to FINALLY meet them. Snow storms and schedules filling up prevented my from getting there sooner. In this picture they are exactly 1 month old.

I couldn't stop thinking about them the whole drive back to Philly. I love being an aunt!

Fighting against winter

 In this picture Alex was shoveling snow off our porch out back because it was so frozen solid that we couldn't open the door. I was able to get the door open enough for him to squeeze through. He dug a shovel out of the snow and was doing the hard work of digging us out. He was so happy to do it! Thanks Alex!

He posed like this and asked me to take a picture.

 Some time last month when we had that warm-ish rainy Friday, Alex and I went to the zoo with friends. The reptile house was hopping, I mean slithering with excitement at the change in climate. The king cobra had climbed up to the top of his enclosure and was checking out the florescent lighting. I would say it was about 2 1/5-3 feet high. It was really cool.
The tigers were pacing right past the window. Our friend Avery is in the polka-dot rain coat, Hudson is crouched down in green, and Alex is in the blue coat.
We came around to the mountain lions and they were snuggled together with their heads touching. Then one of them came right up to the fence and was starring down Hudson like he was lunch. It was cool and creepy at the same time.