Siobhan is having a special spring solstice lunch at her school tomorrow.  The teacher requested someone bring in eggs for the lunch, so my wife got creative and had us make these cute little chick and hen eggs.

20120322-44330.jpg by chris4gl

Well we’ve been busy with the backyard lately.

Last fall we had lost some limbs on some of the very tall (40-50 foot or so) trees in our backyard. The branches fell into the area we had that was full of overgrowth of brush, bushes and small trees that we had wanted to clear out for some time now. So I started, but accumulated a gigantic pile of branches that had to be chipped up and only got 20 feet (out of maybe 100 feet) cleared.

Since Bridget thought the idea of me having a more powerful chain saw and renting a wood chipper was a “bad idea”, we hired the “Tree Guys” to come out and finish the job. I am glad we did, since I had a bad back, and it took 4 guys all day to finish. Once they did, it really made the backyard look so much better, and gave us back a couple thousand square feet of backyard that we didn’t have access to before.

A couple weeks ago we found a half-off deal on a very nice swing set from Creative Playthings. We had looked at their stuff before and liked it, and Siobhan’s school just put in 2 new swing sets there from them. It has a covered fort with rock wall and ladder on the one side, rope wall on the other side, and a slide. Under the fort is a tire swing, and there is a swing beam with 2 sling swings, a ring trapeze and a back-to-back glider. We also have an infant swing as well we can put in.

In order to put the swing set in, we needed a flat area, so we hired Todd from Liberty Tree Service in Malvern to come out. They did a great job getting it ready, and will be coming out again to put down play mulch and maybe do some other finishing work.

Siobhan is on her way home from school right now, I can’t wait to see her face when she sees her new swing set!

20120307-44089.jpg by chris4gl

You can see all of the pictures here.

Bridget and her mom took all of the kids out for a trip to the Academy of Natural Sciences.  Siobhan loved the live butterfly exhibit, and Finn really enjoyed the dinosaurs.

20120303-44041.jpg by chris4gl

You can see all of the pictures here.

Here are some pictures of Siobhan and Finn playing in the snow.  Yes, they are in the same matching snow suits… we liked Siobhan’s old one so much my wife bought it again in the bigger size, and Finn got to wear her old one.

20120121-44009.jpg by chris4gl

Camera:	NIKON D80
Exposure:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture:	f/6.3
Focal Length:	50 mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
ISO Speed:	100
Flash:	No Flash

20120121-44016.jpg by chris4gl

Camera:	NIKON D80
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	50 mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
ISO Speed:	100
Flash:	No Flash

You can see all of the pictures here.

We recently celebrated the Baptism of our daughter Maura Eilis at our church, St. Agnes.  We were honored to have Father Charlie, a long time family friend, officiate the ceremony, and to have Bob Degnan and Vanessa Forest Yeingst as Godparents.

20120108-43974.jpg by chris4gl

Camera:	NIKON D80
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/4.0
Focal Length:	50 mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
ISO Speed:	125
Flash:	Auto, Fired, Return detected

20120108-43988.jpg by chris4gl

Camera:	NIKON D80
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/4.0
Focal Length:	50 mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
ISO Speed:	100
Flash:	Auto, Fired, Return detected

You can see all of the pictures here.

We went to Longwood Gardens again for New Year’s Eve again this year for the Christmas lights display and fireworks.

20111231-43739.jpg by chris4gl

Camera:	NIKON D80
Exposure:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture:	f/2.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
ISO Speed:	800
Flash:	No Flash

20111231-43914.jpg by chris4gl

Camera:	NIKON D80
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/1.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
ISO Speed:	1600
Flash:	No Flash

You can see all of the pictures here.

The kids loved opening up all of their gifts on Christmas day.

20111225-43485.jpg by chris4gl

Camera:	NIKON D80
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/4.0
Focal Length:	70 mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
ISO Speed:	100
Flash:	Auto, Fired, Return detected

You can see all of the pictures here.