You wouldn't believe the money we save on soap this way...!

Apparently I'm regressing because when Scott asked what I wanted to do for my birthday I finally settled on Enchanted Forest! So we packed the kids up and spent a day with Alice in Wonderland and the Three Bears. It was perfect! Pictures from the day are posted here. Once we were home Daddy took over the kitchen and produced and amazing dinner of Greek Cinnamon chicken, which I highly recommend.


But the real news of the day was the arrival of our newest nephew, Andrew "Andy" Layne Pankion - on my birthday!! Sheri and Michael called at 5 o'clock this morning to share the news that Andy had arrived at 3:01am Alaska time and everyone was doing fine. He was 19", 7lbs & 2oz. Welcome to the world little Andy! I will gladly pass my birthday over to you and willingly give up having them myself:)
  

Pretty much every night when we get home (unless it’s REALLY raining) we take a stroll to “baby park”, which is a short walk/bike ride from our house. There is a network of paths that run behind the houses in the neighborhoods around here and forms what we call “the walking path”.

It’s nice because you only have to worry about cars when the path crosses the street and there are a few parks and things, like "baby park", along the way that provide opportunities for breaks and distraction. (“Baby park” differentiates the little park on the walking path from “Big park” which is Discovery Meadows. Big park is also technically in walking distance but it wears poor Carson out so badly the trip home can be less than enjoyable. In general though, McMinnville’s parks ROCK!) Carson usually rides his bike to “baby park”, Scott and I walk and Nolan rides in his stroller and eats Cheerios. Sometimes we manage to go straight to the park, and sometimes we get distracted by really important things – like throwing things down the big storm drain.

But we do arrive eventually and let the kiddos run around for a while… all three of them!

Carson came home with us on September 26, 2006 - which made him 9 months and 24 days old. Today Nolan is the same age!
So here's a little break-down on Carson and Nolan at 9 months and 24 days...

It was a great weekend in the Burke house! Saturday started out with one of my favorite activities - house demolition! Really, if you've never had a chance to hammer (or kick!) a hole through the wall just for fun you should add it to you list of things to do someday. I learned that when I took students to New Orleans to gut houses in 2006 and got a chance to tear out walls again yesterday with some friends who are remodeling their house in Dallas. Thanks Paula and Murray for letting us kick holes in your walls for a couple hours!

Scott's mom and sister arrived in the afternoon and we spent the rest of the day hanging out with the kids, which involved tickle wars....

...serious banana eating (all eating is serious to Nolan)...



...and using sidewalk chalk to draw pictures and trace the kids...



...won't Carson be surprised to see his head...!

I'm not sure if I'm more amused by this headline, or the fact there's something in the world called the "Rodenator".
I miss Spokane sometimes!

Nolan had his 9-month check-up today, weighing in at 22 lbs 6oz (73rd percentile) and 28.5" tall (51st percentile). His head is circumference is nearly 90th percentile, which means his head is growing disproportionately larger than his height or weight... and makes him a typical Henson! Proof that at least some of my genes are present in the kid.

The Burke family had a great Easter day, which started with Easter baskets (Nolan's first) and included breakfast at Poppy & Nonna's, church (+egg hunt), lunch back up at Poppy & Nonna's and another egg hunt at Aunt Becky's in the late afternoon. It was a long day and we had two sleepy little boys on the way home, but we enjoyed the chance to spend time with so many of our friends and family. By the end of the day Carson was a little "egg hunted" out, and Nolan was just trying to get a good nap in somewhere, while Scott and I looked forward to some down time at home to end the weekend.

   

Hippity Hop...
        ...Hippity Hop...
                  ...the Easter bunny is getting closer to McMinnville!

   
...Nolan is completely confused about the purpose of an Easter egg...
...Mommy is having a little too much fun with those bunny ears...
...Carson wanted to draw train tracks on all the eggs with his crayon.