On February 24th, my parents celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary. Wowzers! This is the ad my sibs and I placed in their hometown paper, much to my mother's mortification.

We celebrated this milestone event with a whirlwind family trip (minus tots and husbands) to NYC. Tricia and Sam, Gabriella and Richie were excellent hosts and planned lots of fun activities as well as nonstop gastronomical delights. You can see pictures of the debauchery here. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=10znfdrq.92so2852&x=0&y=ju7wn

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

For President's Day, Todd took the kids to go see a couple.

Or at least the monuments named after them.

When Nonnos Come To Town

This could be a Discovery Channel nature show about how much homemade cavatelli, homemade pizza and homemade cooking a person can eat before they explode.

My parents came to town and we took them to the Rock Creek Nature Center where Henry tried on a new set of antlers.

Later, we planted basil and oregano from seeds we sell at the hardware store.

We are watching them sprout a little more every day. My father took home a few packs like this, and he says his favorite part of the day is coming home and checking to see how much they've grown. With Spring around the corner, can homemade pesto be far away?

My parents marvelled at how much Loretta likes to eat grapefruit.

...and everything else put in front of her. God bless.

One night, my parents cooked and we had a family dinner with Ben, Colleen, Hamid, Salma, and Tom. After dinner, Ben brought out a present for Henry. It was a whoopee cushion! Henry didn't know what it was exactly, but he asked Nonno to blow it up.

We told him to put it on the floor and sit on it.Ready, set..... Ppfffffttttt!!!

Oh my gosh, he laughed like a crazy man when it made the noise. Then he did it again and again and again. We taught him to say "Pardon Me," and "Sorry," afterwards. He did it so many times and with such gusto that he finally broke it. If any of you out there have a 3-year old in your life, this is the perfect gift.

Thank you Ben Shaw for the cushion, the comic relief and the photography.

The Art of The Matter

Sometimes it's fun to paint with a brush. (Henry and Gabriela)

But it's more fun to paint with your fingers!

Loretta agrees.

Lovey Duv Duv Day

Here's my two cherubs in their Valentimes Day outfits courtesy of Nonna and Nonno.

Loretta learned what Conversational Hearts were and tried to eat an entire box by herself. Then she snuck her way into a box of chocolates. I think she's going to be a big fan of this holiday.

Check out the pizza bread my father made my mother for Valentine's Day.

Are they cute or what?

Future Professions

Loretta: "I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up."

Henry: "I'm going to be a monkey."

Buzzworthy Fashion

Henry: "I loves my bumble bee slippers!!"

Thank you Colleen Fellingham!

Botanical Sabbatical

On a particularly cold wintry day, we retreated to the lush and balmy splendor of the U.S. Botanic Garden.

Surrounded by greenery.

Loretta liked the floor especially.

Apparently, Henry did too.

The Three Gay Plaid Caballeros

Nuff said, really.

Into The Woods

Even though we live in the heart of the city, we are a short walk away from the woods of Rock Creek Park.

Off to the woods with Papa.

A few blocks, and voila! Nature.

A wicked-cool tree.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

Salma Arrives!

In mid January, the very beautiful Salma was born to Colleen and Hamid.

And of course, on the very same day, a loving mama was born.

And a proud papa was born.

And a blog was born!

http://salmasworld.blogspot.com

I've added Salma's blog to our links section, and also added some other families we're awfully fond of. Look on the right hand side of this page under the Blog Archive.

A Typical Weekday Morning At Our House

Before I had kids, I was one of those people who DRAGGED their sorry self into work and arrived half-asleep desperately craving coffee. I always wondered why the people with kids seemed so chipper. Now I understand.

Friends From Hither And Yon

One thing we will surely miss about DC if we ever move away is the fact that so many people we know and love happen to pass through here. Recently, we've had a spate of ne'er do wells, er, old friends come over to visit.

Pete Kope got to know Loretta. And she got to know his cell phone.

Pete doing his best Luciano Pavarotti impersonation. Michele seems unimpressed. These two professional dancers are hard at work on their next production. Their little baby boy is due this summer.

Dr. Kevin Kinser stopped by to hang out with us, although Henry seems to be doing most of the hanging around courtesy of Tom.

It was great fun seeing Kev and having him get to know our kids.

World traveler Lisa Doherty took a mini-break from globetrotting to come see us.

She is back in Chengdu, China now, teaching English to college students.

A fabulous photo of the fabulous Trevor Colas.

Which makes up for this one of Aaron and Todd.

Futon Fun

So one night, these two spent twenty delighted minutes climbing up ONTO the futon, then jumping (and squealing) off said futon. Cheap thrills in the DiPfeiffer household I tell you. After we put the kids to bed, Todd and I did the same thing for about an hour.

Woo-hoo! Ouch.

Red Plate Day

This is old news but...way back when in October, I started a part-time job! I done forgot to share that with you all. I masquerade three days a week as a Senior Copywriter for a small ad agency in Bethesda called August, Lang, & Husak. I really like it, and I really like the people. Here I am eating dinner on my first night after work. In Todd's family growing up, if someone had a "Red Lettter Day" like a birthday or a special occasion, then they got to eat dinner on a red plate. I thought that sounded like an excellent tradition and so we adopted it. My mother-in-law Madeline even got us a red place setting one year for Christmas.