Solid Food!

Good Gracious, we almost forgot to tell you!

Of course, he's taken to it like a duck to water. No surprises there. He practically dances while he's eating.

Lydia lends a hand with one of his earliest feedings. The novelty has worn off, though, and now Brit and Emily do the dirty work. The boy loves his cereal.

This last picture has nothing to do with solid food. We tried Guthrie out in a restaraunt high chair a couple weeks ago. He didn't last long, frankly, but he had a good time during those few seconds.

Lutheran Ponies

Messiah Lutheran Church had a very small spring carnival this weekend. The best part was the pony ride. The ponies were NOT tied to any kind of contraption at all - Brit just walked Lydia around the church property.

Guthrie posed with Caramel Candy, too.

Rose gets Married!

Brit and Rosann Bruscia have known each other since high school. Last weekend, Rose married Adam Sear.














It was a beautiful ceremony at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden.
Here is Lydia, standing with Rose's half-sister, right where the ceremony had been.
We all partied the night away at the Lodge above Buffalo Billiards after. Our children love a good party, and this was a great one.
One of the very best things about weddings is seeing so many friends.


Here is Guthrie with our dear friend Pat Skok.



















Here are Brit, Kevin and Onda, friends of Brit's who live in Houston.














And here our are our Austin friends Kevin and Debbie.
Probably the last time all these folks were at the same party together was when Brit and Emily got married. (Okay, Debbie wasn't there, but she would have been invited if we'd met her back then. We like her very much.)
Guthrie took a disco nap during the reception. Smart baby.
Later, he made me take his picture in this cool longhorn chair.

Dragon Boat Races

Sometime in April, Emily received an email from Freescale Employee Communications announcing the Austin Dragon Boat Festival. Freescale was looking for volunteers to work a booth at the festival.
Emily did NOT volunteer, but she did take note of the festival, and the races. So, the last Saturday in April, we headed to Festival Beach at Town Lake for the 8th Annual Austin
Dragon Boat Races and Asian American Festival.
We saw demostrations of Martial Arts, and traditional folk dances.
Here are some of the dancers.






Are you wondering what dragon boats are? Here are some photos from the web. The races are very exciting. Drummers keep time for the rowers, who row mightily. We watched the semi-finals, the last race of the day. Whoever won this race, won THE race. And guess what?
Freescale won. Emily was very proud.

Finding this festival was like finding a little hidden part of Austin we didn't know about. To think this has been happening for 8 years! We will go every year, and next year, we're going to join the final dance when we're invited. (This year we watched....)

Easter Day

The night before Easter, Lydia carefully dyed some beautiful eggs.














Guthrie watched from his chair, while stretching his legs a way you and I can't.














Sunday morning, we stepped out of the house and discovered this:














Of course, that wasn't the only surprise. The Easter Bunny hid eggs all over the yard! (We think he hides them in the front yard because of the dogs - they are always in the back yard, and they're very noisy.
Of course, Easter morning we heard them barking and took this photo. Look closely behind the leg of the swing. . . . . )














Now, we don't want you to think the Easter Bunny forgot Guthrie. He left this lovely monkey Easter basket. And while Lydia's basket was full of chocolate, Guthrie's was full of jars of organic baby vegetables. Smart bunny.











After the egg hunt at our house, we went to Messiah Lutheran Church. Here is Lydia by the cross they decorated during Sunday School.



















And here she is during the egg hunt. (Lydia is the one in pink, in the middle, picking up some Easter booty.) Messiah has a pretty good size high school youth group, and they were in charge of the egg hunt.











After church, we picked up Mo and Kirke, and we all went out for Easter Brunch. I was going to ask our waitress to take our picture, but it didn't happen. But, it was a very lovely brunch, with incredible food, and we all looked very nice.
After brunch Emily, Lydia and Guthrie went home and took naps. (Brit, Mo and Kirke waited for us at the Showdown.)
After our naps, we picked the rest of our party up at the Showdown, and we all went to our friend John's for his annual Easter party.
Here are Guthrie and Brit. Guthrie has cascarone confetti on his little head. And the goofiest smile ever. This is Emily's favorite picture at the moment.

Here's Guthrie a few minutes later, too.




















And with his Mommy.
It was an especially good Easter, full of family, and fun, and friends. John's house is an old tradition with the Leuba Jones family, and it was nice to have Guthrie there this year. And I think brunch after church with Mo and Kirke will be a new tradition. Y'all should join us next year, too.