Pittsburgh visit

Wait, I thought Shelbyville was the "City of Bridges"

Kristi and Franco Harris re-living the "Immaculate reception"


Grandma Frances has lived here for nearly 60 years, it's also the house Carole grew up in

Uncle Rick (Grandma's brother) and Ted (Grandma's boyfriend) at Eat n Park, similar to Denny's

Ted and Franny

Kristi and Aunt Sandy, Rick's wife

This is the new TV we bought Grandma, because the old one was too blurry. Ted loved it, Grandma took a little bit to warm up to it


Here's the porch after one coat


With a little time on our hands, Kristi and I went
to Pittsburgh to visit her 92-year old grandmother
Frances, Carole's mom. Franny has lived
in that house for about 60 years. We did several
projects around the house such as painting her front
porch, bought her a new TV, cleaned light fixtures,
bought a book shelf, etc. We also bought her a
vacuum cleaner, but the trouble is having one be light
enough for her but still effective.
Otherwise, we met several of Franny's siblings (she was
one of 12!), went to church and watched college basketball
with Franny and her boyfriend Ted. Of course Fran and
her house reminded me of Dobbie and Gram in a lot of ways.
I told Kristi that if my grandmothers can't be with us, at least
I can spend time with hers. Best of all during the whole
trip was it didn't snow and the temperatures were fairly mild.

Spring Break Fun

Last week was spring break here in Charleston, so we did lots of fun "extras!"

Here is a photo tour of the fun we had:

First up, exploring a really huge magnolia tree in our neighborhood.

Can you see Clara and Benjamin in front?

Here they are inside the tree (a.k.a. "the jungle")

They found some branches to climb and were able to show it to their friend,

Walton, when we saw him in the neighborhood

On Tuesday, they crafted with posterboard and made a shield and butterfly wings.

On Tuesday evening, we rode out to visit some friends of ours who live in the country

and met some adorable chocolate lab puppies.

Clara held one, but wasn't excited about the kiss he gave her!

On Wednesday, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by reading the story of

St. Patrick, painting green pictures and eating some green food!

Later that morning, Libby came over to play and they hunted for worms

in the backyard. Lots were found and some made it into jars to live as pets.

I'm not sure how well they're surviving!

Wednesday evening, Andy gave Clara her first violin lesson using a miniature violin that our friends (with the puppies) are letting her borrow. She loves it! So far, Andy can play a few songs and Clara is starting with "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

On Thursday, Clara and Benji did a lot of playing outside on the swingset and riding bikes.

What do you think of Benji's awesome moves on the rings!

And Friday, we headed up to the Memphis Zoo with some friends.

Here are the kids from our group in front of an elk statue next to the new Teton Trek exhibit. We had beautiful weather and a really nice day!

And Saturday, we went back up to Memphis (after Clara's basketball game) to have my harp regulated and do some errands. So, we were ready for a rest on Sunday!

Roxanne!

We have a new resident here at the Bridges'! Roxanne, the Hackney pony, arrived on Friday afternoon!

Though we've planned on getting a pony or two for quite awhile, we didn't expect to be getting one this week. A good friend of ours (the contractor who built our house and lives a couple of miles away) is in his seventies and a grandpa type to everyone. He has always had horses and has been on the lookout for a good pony, knowing Abigail really wanted one. Friday afternoon I was halfway home when Andy called to tell me he was at our friend's house, looking at a pony. Sure enough, by the time the girls and I got home, the pony was at home in our pasture.

I had only told Abigail that Daddy had a surprise for her and incidentally, the babysitter told me how Abigail had mentioned to her how she so wanted to have a pony. When we pulled up I asked the girls if they saw anything new in the pasture and Abigail said, "A horse???" and immediately, "My pony, my pony, is that my pony!!!???!!!"

Look at that happy face! At this point I think she really couldn't believe what was happening.

And, her first ride! Andy just led her around the pasture for a walk and she had a ball. Later on she told me, "Mommy, I just love my pony, she's so lucky to have me."

Saturday, trying out a saddle we got from another friend. It's much too big but is enough to at least let her feel what it's like to ride in a saddle. She only got a little bit shaken when Roxanne shook (hard), the equine method for scratching an itch.

By Sunday we decided that Roxanne had had enough settling in time and it was time to find out what she really knew. And well, she's pretty green. She's fairly lazy (great for kids) and she's a quick learner. Not much frightens her, which is great. She is happy to be led and she isn't worried by kids making noise. Andy and I fully expect to be working with her this summer, but that's one reason we wanted to find a pony that was big enough to carry me. Andy had a pony as a kid but as adults, we don't have pony training experience. So, we'll do some ground training and I'll do some riding and we think Roxanne will work out just fine for the girls.

We can't wait for everyone to meet her!

Happy Day, Hannah!

On March 4 Hannah turned 2! And, woke up with a low grade temperature and the beginning of seriously cutting her two year molars. The timing! She was kind of puny on her birthday and the day after but started to feel better on Saturday, the day of her party.

On Thursday evening (her actual birthday) we enjoyed some gourmet cupcakes in celebration of our Hannah Kay Cupcake. I think we need to be careful with these nicknames...recently Mom found out that Abigail thought Hannah's last name was Cupcake!
Here she is with two candles in her strawberry shortcake cupcake from The Flying Cupcake bakery in Broad Ripple (near my office). It was a gorgeous spring day, so different from the ice and snow storm we had the day she was born.


Family gifts: a Mega Blocks wagon (full of blocks) and a set of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends trains that are constantly running around the kitchen.

Party Day! It was so nice outside that half the party was outdoors! But, some leftover snow was sticking around so the girls decided to take matters into their own hands with a couple of sand box shovels. I'm not here to report how much progress was made, only that they tried! On the porch L to R: Ashley and Mike Brown, Aunt Amy (sitting), Polk.

The cake! Accompanied by chocolate ice cream and a DQ ice cream cake that "Papaw Brown" (our neighbor and husband of Abigail's first full time babysitter) brought. He brings one to each party :-)

Presents!! Hannah got several fun toys (some for the bath, which have been a big hit), puzzles, lots of adorable clothes, the cutest bathing suit I've ever seen, a McDonald's gift card and her very own purse. Plus, a quilt for her big girl bed (someday).

Thanks to Aunt Dawn for playing "photographer for a day!" She got so many cute pictures of Hannah hugging everyone, it would take forever to post them all. I can't wait to use them in next year's calendar.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Hannah! We love you!!

Pickin' and Grinnin'

Here's some of what we've been up to lately...Andy has taught himself how to play the banjo "clawhammer" style and will have his debut performance next weekend at the Methodist church's missions night. Benji is very interested and often asks his daddy for "chawhammer" lessons!

Clara wanted to dress like me one Wednesday evening when we were about to go to church, so here's a picture of the "twins" and an onlooker. :)
It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but Clara recently lost her 2nd tooth! So she's now lost both of her bottom middle teeth (the first two that she got as a baby) and the new ones are almost halfway in!

Cookin' Carl

Over the last several weeks, I've added some recipes to my repertoire and have looked for ways to be more of an expert with recipes I've mastered (making wing sauce from scratch, for example).
It's been a combination of trying to eat healthier and cheaper. Cooking for one forces a dilemma between preparation time, portion size and leftovers. I'm also looking for recipes, like soups, that can offer easy leftovers, or supply multiple meals.
So far, I've mastered wings, with an assist from Bruce, "easy chili" and taco soup, with assists from Polk, and tonight I made homemade pizza with spaghetti sauce, cheddar cheese and chicken.
Last weekend, Kristi found two recipes which are a bit on the advanced level: Lemony chicken (with lemon curds) and turkey and stuffin soup. I'll let you know how those go.