One of our favorite eating spots is Vinny's Pizzarama. The cheesesteaks, pizza and wings are unsurpassed in the world.
We eat at Vinny's (or get takeout) about once a week.




Another favorite place (for Dad and Belinda) is the Centennial or Bicentennial Park (I can't remember which it is).
We went there the other day when it was pouring rain, and it wasn't really as much fun for Belinda, so we went again.
Playgrounds are great for childrens' coordination and physical well-being. Belinda has really become so much more addept at moving her body since summer began, mostly because of playground play (and Vinny's. Just kidding).




Playgrounds are also good for social development, assuming you live in a populous area. Belinda meets children nearly every time we go, and she gets to see people from all different cultures. This time she played with some Indian (from India) children. The little girl was wearing a rainbow striped outfit that really made Belinda's eyes light up. "I'm going to give her flowers," she said. So she went over and picked flowers and took them to the girl, which gave the girl a big smile. (Of course we aren't going to go around taking pictures of other peoples' children without getting a waiver signed. Now where did I put that Hindi ESL waiver?).


What's really funny is when Belinda tries to talk in another language like some of the children do when we go to the playground. She's just starting to grasp the concept of "another language," helped greatly by D-d-d-d-d-Dora the Explorer. Her non-english language sound like, "Sunter dundy hunter punter klimpter dokty doo."

What to do on a rainy day? The little one stays home and plays in the emergency toy box . The big sister goes with Dad to a park, presumeably to slide and swing as usual. Instead, they end up walking around under their umbrellas, looking at how the creek has risen. Dad jumps in more puddles than Belinda because she's too much of a lady to get her feet wet.

Well, after a weekend trip to the Pocono mountains for a birthday party, we've just been enjoying being home together as much as possible. The kids are a little tired of travelling by now. Let's prove it with pictures:

We say ",Hey kids, we're home! Time to get out of the car!"
Nothing from the back but ",Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."


These two kids play great together. They absolutely adore each other and like doing things like friends. For instance, look at just one of the many examples we have of Belinda dressing up her baby brother.


She sees him as sort of an amazing stuffed animal, and he sees her as the coolest thing in the world. Ocassionaly they injure one another a little, like when she hugs him. Or when he gets ahold of her hair and we have to call the fire department to get her loose. OK, that last part was exaggerated a little bit.

Leigh is busy. She's starting up an Ebay business to compliment her Mary Kay and other endeavors. Her plan is to sell shoes, mainly Birkenstocks. It's fun having a lot of Birkenstocks around the house to choose from!


Jon is working on his summer school assignments, getting back into shape physically, and working his regular job. He is trying not to annoy others with his health-food talk, but he does anyway. He is also learning a little Sanskrit and Ugaritic in his free time.


After bathtime the other day, Sammy and Belinda were clowning around on Bel's bed. Much to his own surprise, Sam pulled himself up onto his own two feet! He was pretty excited about that: