Sean celebrating his 10th birthday on St. Patrick’s Day. 

Nathan racing by on his new skate board…oh dear.

Sean took his support for the Syracuse Orange to the next level.

If you look closely, his new braces are sporting the SU colors.

After a lot of hard work, Nathan earned his Wolf badge.

Nathan (and Steve) recently built a new bird house for our yard.

It was hung with care on Tuesday evening.

…and to our delight, the house had its first traffic on Thursday. 

Also on Thursday, Nathan’s class reenacted the Last Supper in costume.  Click below to link to his teacher’s web site and see Thursday’s slide show, and several others!http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/SSchading/

We hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Today we headed north for a surprise 50th birthday party for Sue.  We enjoyed catching up with everyone and meeting our newest great nephew (Brendan) and great niece(Elsie Rae) in person.  Sue’s kids did a wonderful job putting the party together, from the food, to the photos, to the music…it was a wonderful celebration, and she was truly surprised – way to go!! 

One of the songs that was playing in the background today was titled “Don’t Blink” by Kenny Chesney.    http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/kenny-chesney/dont-blink/19651456/lyrics.jhtml We couldn’t help but notice how appropriate this song was as we enjoyed the day.

Sue was winking then, but the joke was on her today…

The birthday girl with her prince…

 Stacy and Paul’s daughter, Ava

Joann an Pat’s daughter, Grace

Sue’s son Russell, with his famous rubber band ball

Hi Dad! Hi Mom!

 Below are the Smith “kids”; Ben, John,

Cassie, Theresa, Jenny, Stacy, Jessie and Russell

and their spouses and children…

 Happy Birthday Sue, we love you!!

Well… the leprechauns ushered in another birthday for Sean. They stopped by with their traditional pranks and hi-jinks. There were gold candy coins scattered throughout the most unusual of places, the milk was green, and we don’t want to know how they turned the water in the toilet green.  They are very mischievous!

We had dinner as a family on Sean’s birthday at Applebees on one condition. That condition was that we could tell the waitress it was his birthday so as not to miss out on the complimentary dessert, but under no circumstances could the staff sing to him. We/they honored his wishes and there was no singing for Sean at the restaurant, but FOUR other parties did celebrate their birthdays that evening, as we nervously wondered each time if his wishes had been compromised by an overzealous wait staff.  Later in the week we enjoyed a birthday cake and sang to him as we celebrated his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Susan.

For his birthday Grandma and Grandpa got him a new bat for baseball season. Baseball is by far Sean’s favorite sport. As you can see, the opposing pitchers are going to be in big trouble when he is up to bat.

We can’t believe he is 9! Happy Birthday Sean!