Cecilia's Birthday Party

For Cece's party she had 4 friends come over for a movie at a "cinema grill" theater and a slumber party.


Sue made Cece's cake


The girls at Raleighwood Theater having dinner and a movie.


Her new iPod made her quite happy.

Easter 2008

For Easter the kids painted eggs, searched for their baskets, got all dressed up and had the big Easter dinner.

Easter Egg Hunt

Autumn Park held it's Easter Egg hunt at the gazebo this year. Our backyard was the Tot Egg Hunt area.

Here's some photos of the kids searching.

Brian's 11th Birthday Party at Adventure Landing

Brian had his 11th birthday party at Adventure Landing in Raleigh. Since it was raining (and snowing!) the outdoor mini-golf and go-karts were canceled and a double dose of laser tag and video games was the flavor of the day.


The gang's all here.


1) Make wish. 2) Blow. 3) Count girl friends


Brian's bowling cake tasted as good as it looked.


The hunt was on in the laser tag arena.


Cece had a blast playing laser tag with the boys.

NASA Astronomy Days at the Science Museum

We went to the NASA Astronomy Days at the Raleigh Museum of Science today. The kids got to look through various telescopes at the Sun, make rockets from 2-liter bottles and launch them using compressed air and meet a real astronaut (Roger Crouch - flew on STS-83 and STS-94).

Here are some photos of the day


Cece checks out the Sun. The telescope has a filter that eliminates all but a very narrow band of light allowing the viewer to safely view the Sun. All the kids got to look through several different telescopes to see various filters (and even a satellite capturing noise from space).


Launching a rocket starts with picking out the perfect body. Nose cone color is the real key to success.


Brian gets his rocket wings ready for flight. Proper design is critical to a successful launch.


The Astro Rangers get ready for launch.


Looking skyward to track their launch. The rockets went up, with a pop from the compressed air. After soaring to a height of nearly 30 feet they came back down to terra firma.


The post-launch rush to check the structural integrity of their designs. All three survived their initial launches.


The kids meeting Astronaut Roger Crouch. He flew on STS-83 and STS-94.

Sure - I'm an adult (more or less) ... but it was pretty cool to meet an astronaut. These guys strap themselves in just feet above hundreds of thousands of pounds of fuel and launch at thousands of miles an hour into space. SPACE! Come on! These are "Real Men" © and it was pretty fun to meet one. [-Robert]