Happy Birthday to Us!
Within about one month Cadie and Amiya turn 6 months and Jess and I turn... a large number... We all spend the weekend in Ocean City to celebrate. Somehow I didn't get a picture of just the girls - Jess can I get your pics? We had some crazy allergies amongst us - corn, nuts, dairy - so there were 3 types of cupcakes. Did I mention that Cadie is crawling? Result: I'm not blogging or getting much accomplished. I did manage to run for 2 hours this morning as part of our marathon training. It was long and I kept my mind occupied by trying to do math. Seriously. Somehow basic math skills go down the drain when my heartrate goes over 150 so trying to figure out running benchmarks kept me busy (if that sign says I am 2.2 miles past the DC line and it is 3 miles roundtrip from my house to the DC line, how far have I run? - that one kept me busy for at least 10 minutes).

Cake vs. Pie (or any other dessert)


Normally when given the choice between desserts I chose the non-cake option. Cake is ok - it is just not my favorite. However, I have found a cake that I might chose over cookies or pie. SHOCK! It is cakelove's VEGAN vanilla cake with either chocolate or peanut butter dipped chocolate frosting. Cakelove is a bakery within walking distance to us that specializes in over-priced ($3.00 cupcakes!) cakes made from scratch. But their cute store and catchy name just make you want to love their goods. Cadie is allergic to milk protein which means I am not eating dairy and so a vegan cake option caught my attention. But I was skeptical - eggs and butterfat are usually important cake ingredients. I think the reason I am now hooked on cakelove's vegan cake is because it is really dense, moist, and flavorful. On the fluffy scale between angel-food cake and bar cookies, cakelove vegan is like a soft cookie. Now if I could just convince them to release the recipe!

Best Buds

Molly and Cadie have started "playing" together. Mostly this means Molly will visit Cadie to sniff out a dirty diaper or stuffed animal while Cadie bats her arms around trying to grab any fur she can. But occationally they will hang out next to each other and wiggle arms, legs, paws, and tails at each other.

We took a quick trip to Columbus where Eric had some faculty meetings, I looked into the job scene and we scoped out some neighborhoods and houses. We were able to spend a night in Cincinnati visiting Eric's friend Steve from high school. Another friend Mark came down from Chicago for the occation. It is going to be fun to live close to these clowns!

Crazy days...
Not much time to post - Aunt Paige was here, Jess and Amiya came to visit, and then Grandma Carol stayed with us and finally got to meet Cadie. Here is a picture from Easter and me sporting my new do (Thanks Paige!).

We braved the crowds last weekend and hit the cherry blossom festival and kite festival. We weren't in time for the kite battles but still had plenty of cool kites to watch. The blossoms were amazing - especially around the tidal basin where the branches draped over the water. Here are a couple of fun pictures. Cadie was just happy to be out and about with so much to see.

What the???
Something happened to the blog layout while we were out of town and I have no idea how to fix it. Why is the side bar at the bottom of the page? Any suggestions? Jess I think I need your help here.
Recap on the past 2 weeks: 1 week in Puerto Rico with friends Matt and Christina and then 1 week back in DC with sister Paige visiting. Cadie's nap/sleeping schedule is totally werid now but she was a great traveler and loved seeing the sights with Auntie P.
Here's a shot out of one of our hotel balconies that makes me wish we were still on vacation. Fresh mangos and papayas and 81 degrees on the beach every day. What more could you want?

How I spent my spring break...


Sun Bay, Vieques Island, Puerto Rico

Where do squirrels go when it rains? There are dozens of the little critters around our place - enough to keep Molly occupied all day watching them out the back door. Seriously - I always thought they lived in tree hollows but there are way too many squirrels and not nearly enough trees for them around here. And I have yet to see a soggy squirrel.
Alright - I also have a confession that I have needed to share for a couple of weeks. I ate squirrel. It was chewy and tasted like the spices that it had been stewing in all day and that is all I have to say. A friend, who will remain nameless in case all you squirrel huggers want to get revenge, had "game night" that had nothing to do with scrabble and pictionary. The venison and duck were delish and the squirrel... Maybe now that I got this out I can look at the little guys again without feeling guilty.