Valentine's Day

Ever since the holidays, whether we're traveling in the car or sitting around the table together Gavin has filled the silence with "Let's talk about Valentine's Day". The conversation turns to various goodies we should bake or the cards he wants to make for his friends, fueled by ideas from several books we checked out from the library (let me know if you have a favorite on the topic). This week we finally pulled the cupcakes (check out this favorite recipe), brownies, and heart cookies out of the freezer, slathered them all with a healthy layer of frosting, and delivered plates to friends and neighbors. The festivities also included a Blue's Clues hunt for Valentine's presents, a visit to the home of a member of our congregation known for her holiday decorations, and a card making session for the grandparents.

Other recent happenings: With the winding down of the Valentine's Day festivities, Gavin and Arwen channeled their full energy into anticipating their sleepover with friends Sam and Owen. The boys stayed here recently during an overnight event their parents were attending. For our turn Chad and I enjoyed a quiet dinner at home, then got up super early Saturday morning for a trip to Boston, including a visit to the Boston Temple, a Trader Joe's shopping spree, and the Museum of Fine Arts. Though the trip was short we enjoyed the chance to get away and spend some time just the two of us.

A search for a new faculty member in Chad's department has kept him busy for the past few weeks. He's had some serious déjà vu watching each of the candidates present their research talks, teach a class, interview, and chat over dinner with members of the department. It's hard to believe it was a year ago Chad was going through the same thing. Chad also got to present some of his own research findings in a guest lecture at Eastern Connecticut State University last week.

This month has brought Arwen's first real experience with the potty. Her comment on her first productive session was "Amazing!". She left a delighted voicemail for Daddy and enjoyed having the red plate for dinner. Subsequent sessions have been less productive but the association between M&M's and sitting on the potty has kept her mind on the topic.

On perhaps a less exciting note, as of a couple of weeks ago we are the proud owners of a modern dishwasher. Having inherited a 30-year-old model in our condo years ago we thought we'd had the most ancient appliance ever. The one that came with this house proved us wrong, screeching through the cycle with a sound I repeatedly mistook for an alarm going off somewhere in the neighborhood and leaving dishes less than clean. (I'll admit the inspector told us not to even try it, but after a few weeks of hand washing I thought I'd venture a try and got used to enough to delay the investment in a new one.) We are very happy with our new Frigidaire that leaves dishes sparkling clean with minimal noise and convenient loading.

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons we've taken to venturing off in pursuit of destinations that Chad has found interesting on the map. Last Sunday we discovered Hopeville Pond State Park, a campground and recreation area under half an hour away where we could get in some fun camping and kayaking this summer. With the road closed we got in a fun hike on our way in. We have also visited the town of Colchester recently which had a cute town square and a lot of beautiful historic buildings.