If you had a nickel...

"If you had had a nickel for every nickel that he has, you would have a lot of nickels.”
Albert Einstein

How did I miss the redesign of the nickel? I remember the quarter redesign with the stated being such a big deal. How did this one slip past me? I think I saw a new penny the other day, I'll have to be on the look out for that.

Fabulous Fourth

It was very strange not to have a 4 day weekend for the 4th of July, it didn't help that the 4th fell on a Wednesday.  We enjoyed some fun family activities and had a blast catching up with each other.

Olivia and I at the National World War II Museum.  Olivia loves the way you can switch the camera view on my phone and she loves to look at herself on the screen.  I love that it makes for some adorable pictures of her!

Can you believer how big this handsome boy is?

Olivia was mesmerized by the interactive map on the floor depicting the south pacific front.  I can't believe she stood still for such a long time!

Seriously how cute is he!

They were both mesmerized by the display of US Naval fleet.

Typical of most attempts of a family photo...

We can't even get 3 of us, let alone all 4 of us to look at the camera.

Peter got a special toy at the gift shop.  He's slept with it nightly.  It's hard not to spoil him when something so simple makes him so happy! 

After a low-key afternoon at home we headed downtown to watch the fireworks.  I convinced Mike to take us to a parking garage downtown along the Mississippi River so we could enjoy the show.

The parking lot was almost deserted and the kids had plenty of room to burn off some energy.

Sparklers in a parking garage may be a fire hazard, I'll have to check on that....

We had a great view!

What a show!

It was well worth the $4 we paid to park in the garage for an hour.  We were safe and comfortable and we avoided the crowd!

Iron Man

At the end of April Mike completed the New Orleans Iron Man. He got a new bicycle this past Christmas and logged quite a few miles training for the event. It was scheduled to be 1.6 mile swim, 52 mile bike ride and a 13.1 run. The swim was scheduled to take place in Lake Pontchartrain but it had to be canceled because of the high surf so it was replaced with a 2 mile run. The kids and I went to cheer him on. We're so proud of our Iron Man!

Spring, in Review

I haven't blogged in so long I'm fairly certain that people have given up hope of ever seeing a post again.  We have been busy and as I looking back I'm sad that I'm don't have blog posts to provide a guide to what we've been so busy doing.  It's been so long I decided it would be easiest to do one long post with a little recap of what each of us was up to in April and May. 

I love my job but it keeps me much busier than I ever expected.  This past April, Loyola University hosted a huge picnic on the front lawn to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the University and kick off a year long centennial celebration.  I was heavily involved in the planning of the event and I'm so excited I was able to be a part of it.  Things at work didn't slow down after the Centennial, I squeezed in a quick trip to Kansas City, Missouri and then in May I coordinated the Senior Crawfish Boil for over 1000 graduating students and their families during Graduation and then traveled to Atlanta, and Washington DC for alumni events. 

Mike finished up his first semester of graduate school at Tulane and wrapped up the Military History course he was teaching to juniors (he teaches multiple sections of the same course at Tulane, Loyola, Dillard, Xavier, and UNO) just in time to head to Spain with a group of 19 ROTC students from colleges and universities all over the US bin early May.  Mike returned home at the end of June.

Olivia seems so much older!  Her hair is so long!  It's surreal to think that 3 years ago her hair was falling out from the chemo treatments and she was completely bald.  I think that it may be time for Olivia's first post-transplant haircut soon.  Olivia finished up the school year at the end of May and went to one session of a 3 week summer camp offered at her school.  Peter is at the same school but their curriculum changed a bit for the summer and he's enjoying more hands on activities and field trips.  Peter is growing up so fast!  We're surprised by the things he says and does on a daily basis.

So without too much rambling here are a few pictures from our first spring in New Orleans....

I consider it a huge accomplishment that 100's of these were delivered to my office a few days before the event and they all arrived safely at the festivities!

Glad we didn't have to put 100 candles on the cake!

A celebration 100 years in the making

Loving the back yard!  It makes the close quarters much more enjoyable.

A random Saturday morning outing with Peter.

My beach babe!

Olivia's favorite New Orleans delicacy thus far is crawfish.  She loves 'em!

Enjoying a beautiful day in Audubon park.

Peter's favorite New Orleans delicacy is char broiled oysters.

He loves 'em and would eat them by the dozen!

Everybody enjoys beignets.

Although Olivia's preferred method is to lick off the sugar first then eat the dough.

I finally got a passport with my married name and put it to good use visiting Mike in Spain!

We had a great spring and I vow to blog more often.  It also helps that there have been major software updates since my last post and it's much easier to add pictures and new posts!