2017 Christmas at Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens was established on a former home of philanthropist and horticulturist Pierre S. DuPont.  It features lush gardens of European and American design, the original DuPont house, several tree houses and a very large conservatory which is beautifully decorated for Christmas.  The grounds are lit with many colored lights.  We visited today.  It was crowded and got even more crowded at evening fell and the beauty of the decorated trees shone.  One video of, what else, trains below.  Photos of the grounds are included in the Photos section.

Lily's Carousel

Lily loves the carousel at the Plymouth Meeting Mall.  This carousel has been at the mall for many, many years and still holds a thrill for children.  Lily, in particular, loves to ride the "horsee".  Today, she asked her parents to ride the horsee and off we went to the mall.  I had a small camera with me and got a few decent photos.  I also shot a little video of Lily riding with her dad and mom.

2017 Ella's 4th Birthday Party

Ella celebrated her fourth birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's.  Joining Ella was her best friend who shares the same birthday, Sammy.  It was hard to track down the birthday girl and her sister, Emma, at Chuck's. I think they spent a lot of time playing the giant "tube" structure.  The photos I managed to grab are in the Photos section.  Two videos below.  One captures the kids who attended, mostly cousins.  The second was reserved for the actual Chuck celebrations.

2017 Build-a-Bear for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Today, Henry, Sadie and Lily went to the Build-a-Bear shop in the King of Prussia Plaza.  We went to build some bears for the Schuylkill Township Police Department to take to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to be distributed to children who have to be in the hospital for Christmas. Henry, Sadie and Lily each selected and outfitted a "bear", actually, reindeers, Peek-a-choos and My Little Ponies, for the kids at CHOP.  They each got to build a bear for themselves as well. 

The process was quite cute.  Select your "bear" then watch as the assistant fills the bear with fluffy feathers.  Before the bear is closed up, select a heart, then follow instructions to clap on the heart to start it beating, hold it to yourself, close your eyes and make a wish, swish it about over your head to gather all good wishes, then shake it down to lose all of the bad stuff.  Finally, a big kiss, then into your bear goes his/her heart.  Then, the bear is closed up and it's time for a bath and scrub in the air-blast bath tub.  Then your bear is ready for some clothes; a hoodie for the Peek-a-Choos; capes for the reindeer and ponies.  Finally, a birth certificate is printed for each bear and they're boxed in their "house" for travel home.

We then delivered the bears headed for CHOP to officer Chris at the Schuylkill Township Police Department so they'll be ready to go to CHOP for Christmas.

Day Two at Build-a-Bear, Emma and Ella's turns to Build-a-Bear for CHOP.  We got there a few minutes after the store opened but there was already a group in front of us.  Our helper the day before had warned us, "no school tomorrow, better get here early.  There will be a huge line."  We were there early enough to avoid the long line which eventually developed.  The group behind us, with about six kids, tramped in just a minute behind us.  This was thanks to my adept observation in the parking lot that, "They look like Build-a-Bear people."  They got a little lost in the mall allowing Grammy, Ella and Emma to blitz ahead to the store, with me trailing behind.

Pics of Ella and Emma in line, programming the sounds into their "bears" (actually trolls), stuffing the trolls, and a Chewbacca that I added because the boys seemed disproportionately missing from the selections so far, are in the link below.  Same drill as yesterday; pick a heart for each of your bears, follow the ceremony to ward off bad thoughts, gather good thoughts a make a wish on your heart before placing in your bear.  Finish stuffing with a big hug.  Both Emma and Ella got a chance to step on the switch that controlled the filling machine.  A little odd seeing and empty troll staring up at you from the basket.  EEK!  

It seems pink hair became the handle of choice for the girls; very convenient.  Time for an air bath in the tub to clean off all of the fuzz.  Then we picked out dresses, different dresses per Mommy's suggestion (avoid later conflicts).  Chewbacca got a light saber (free too!)  Store folks helped dress the trolls and Chewy and they were carefully packed in their cardboard "houses" for the trip home and to the hospital.

As usual, photos were taken to excess; I plead the grandparent right of photography.  Pics aren't the best quality as both days I used my trusty iPhone as lugging a large pro SLR would have been impossible and possibly dangerous.

A brief snack and rest and we were off to the Schuylkill Two Police Department to pass our donation bears to the officers for distribution.  Who comes to greet us but Officer Chris from yesterday!  Officer Chris says there's another officer who wants to be a part of the fun and asks us to wait for him (sadly, didn't get his name).  The officer arrived, we delivered the bears to smiles everywhere.

Hope our six bears bring a little joy to the kids at CHOP for Christmas.  And, hope we get a chance to do this again next year, with TWO MORE grandkids!

Pics in the Photos section.  There are a few videos below, too.

2017 Halloween is here!

We got to see Ella in her Halloween parade at the Y.  The Drayos stopped by to Trick or Treat and have a bunch of pictures taken.  Lori and Ron posted some very cute pics of Lily (aka Shimmer).  Pics are in the Photo section.

Not many kids in our neighborhood but the ones who stopped at the Lego residence got a small surprise to make it a memorable Halloween.  No, the surprise wasn't just candy.  Check out the video below.

September Trip to Colorado

We made a quick, weekend trip, to Colorado in September to visit friends and relatives.  During our visit, we managed to find time to take the Manitou Springs and Pike's Peak Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak.  It was quite a trip, traveling to the top at 14,115 ft above sea level.

The temperature at the top was 28 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill factor of 8 degrees!  The stop at the top was a bit too short for my liking but still managed to grab a few photos with the small pocket camera that we had on the trip.  Some photos are HERE.

October 20, 2017 Fall is here.

The last few roses of summer are blooming as the weather gets more chilly.  It was also time to have some maintenance done on my "baby", my 1985 Porsche Carrera Cabriolet.  As it happens, she just passed 50,000 miles as I was pulling into our drive.  Time for a few pictures.  She doesn't look too bad for being thirty-two years old.  Some pics HERE.

Lots Happening This Summer... except fishing!

Joshua graduated from Phoenixville High School.  Then, only a week later, he headed off to the Pennsylvania State University, Main Campus to begin his college education at Summer Session.  We ARE....PENN STATE!!  

We have had vacation visits from the Legos (Ron, Lori and Lily), the Drayos (Kristie, Mike, Henry and Sadie) and the Kleins (Rebecca, Steve, Emma and Ella).  Lots of pictures of their visits, plus photos of the 2017 Ocean City Night in Venice celebration.  I must say, the boat parade this year was very disappointing in terms of the number of boats in the parade.  In years past, we had well over 100 boats in the parade but this year, I don't think we broke 50; a weak parade.  The following fireworks helped.

While the Kleins were here, We made our annual trek to the Cape May County Zoo, a very nice zoo with lots of great viewing for the animals in natural/semi-natural surroundings.  Arrive early, it gets crowded fast.