Last Sunday the Pasta clan came by to enjoy a nice afternoon/evening outside.  Barbara did most of the cooking while Joanne, Joe , and Sean attempted to set up a badminton net.  

Joe and Joanne looked confused

Sean Looks Confused

Ketucky Derby Party

Fellow ISP-er Scott Grell hosted a great Kentucky Derby party.  Click here for pictures.  All of the other kids were older, but Sean still had a great time.  There were many contests for the competitive attendees, both kids and adults:

• Derby winners
• Derby and Kentucky trivia contest
• Hat making contest (kids)
• Blindfolded horse drawing contest (one for kids, one for adults)
• Horse pinata (kids)
  
• Wind up horse race (kids) 

On Friday night we went to a birthday party for 8-year old Braden and on Saturday morning we walked/ran in the Sprint for Life ovarian cancer fundraiser in memory of my aunt Kathy.

Lost Pines Weekend with Anida, Eric, Daniel, and Rachel

Saturday our Denver friends flew into Houston for for a family event.  They spent Saturday night at our house and we all headed up to Bastrop on Sunday morning in a rented minivan: 4 adults, an almost 5-year old and two 3-year olds.  We stayed at Hyatt Lost Pines Resort - an awesome place.  We all had a fantastic time.  The kids got along great.  Sean swam a lot and finally seemed to "get" pedaling a bicycle.  The food was good too, but expensive.  The grounds were beautiful, especially the "crooked" river...

Click HERE for all the pictures : http://picasaweb.google.com/dpastalaniec/LostPinesWeekend#

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4/17/10 Weekend

 Beth came to visit from Kerrville and Darlene also came down to spend Friday night.  We all went to the  Friendswood Fig Fest and car show and then hooked up with the Cooks for dinner.

4/15/10 Tea Party Day

On Tax Day Sean and I went to have our little say on where our taxes are going.  We headed to Discovery Green, downtown, for a Tea Party Rally.  Sean liked the flags and the hand dryer, David liked the fun and good right-wing conservative rhetoric.

Tea Party from across the lake

Sean jumping for joy at some right wing rants

Don't Tread on Me!

Sean trying to climb away from the Main Stream Media

Erik's Catholic Party

During an Easter Vigil service Erik officially became a Roman Catholic.  One of our friends from our former Bible study group, and one of several none Catholics in the group.  Sean had some great play time at the Scott's house with our God Daughter, Morgan.

Easter

We celebrated Easter on Saturday at Grandma and Dziadziu's house.  Sean looked for "hidden" eggs in the backyard.  We then all made Peep dioramas, an idea stolen from a newspaper.  On Easter Sunday at Mass Sean wanted to know why the choir was singing about salt (they were singing "exalted")

Sean and his egg booty.  Plastic Easter eggs come in all sorts of cool shapes now.

Peep diorama Grand Champion: Grandma's circus.

Sean's Peep sculpture

Dave's diorama of a Peep gym thingy

Joanne's "Running of the Peeps"

Barbara's "The Last Supper"

Dziadziu's Peep surgery

Tripi to Baytown/Sylvan Beach

The Saturday before Easter we took a trip to Baytown to see a bald eagle family that has nested there.  We then went to a very foggy Sylvan Beach in LaPorte.

Volcano from Grandpa

Grandpa sent Sean a Magmasaurus Magic Volcano Toy in the mail.  You add water and the volcano erupts.  It slowly disintegrates and a dinosaur is inside.  The dinosaur grows over 3 days to almost fill the plastic jar!  The Elmo Easter basket seems pretty amazed, too!

Cheez-It Scrabble

During a 2am snack session this morning I was struck with the need to count how many of each letter is in a box of Cheez-It Scrabble Junior.  The chart below compare the percentage of each letter in the Cheez-It box with the percentage of each letter in the official Scrabble game.  They actually match up pretty well... (there may be sampling error in my interpretation of whether a cracker was an "N" or a "Z")

New Windows (Mostly)

Today our new windows were installed!  This is something we have wanted to do since we moved into this house, but the cold winter and the drafty old windows pushed us forward.  They were ordered about a month ago and came in last week.  World of Windows spent 12 hours on them today and got the old ones out and the new ones mostly in.  They still have 3 hours of work tomorrow to finish putting the outside trim and caulk in place.


On another note, Sean taught me a new word the other day: Reggiano.  Apparently real parmesan cheese, from several regions in northern Italy, is called Parmigiano-Reggiano - especially on one of Sean's three favorite shows: Rachel Ray.  Last week Dziadziu broke out a jar of Parmigiano-Reggiano and Sean recognized it, somehow, and called it by its correct name.  No one is really clear where he picked that up.

Guest Room: Before

Guest Room: After

Missing Master Bedroom Window

Sean using his new emergency exit.  We have told him the new windows are so strong they will keep out the longhorns (which he is afraid of coming in the window at night.)  I know, don't start with me.

Entering Sean's Room

Sean peeling off the window sticker (for Aunt Keri, who hates for people to buy new windows and leave the stickers on)

One more sticker left...