Our Casa Lennon is your Casa

We are thankful to celebrate all birthdays, but there is something special about the milestones.

Abuela appreciating her birthday collage

Casa Lennon’s abuela, sometimes know called Juana Antónia Lennon Gutierrez Magro Ibañez Alonso Palacios Barona Ruano García, delighted everyone by turning 70 years young. Much of the family converged on Las Tapas in Old Town Alexandria in what unexpectedly turned out to be a surprise party. More a function of the Lennon clan’s well communicated inability to communicate well.

That said, it was really fun. People came from Florida, North Carolina, New York, and even Maryland to take part. The primary “gift” abuela always wants is the time spent with her family – namely the grandkids. That is what she wants more than anything else. That said, Michael coordinated a gathering of lifetime photos and stories to put together for abuela. I highly recommend viewing the awesome collage that was the product of that effort.

ASIDE: We had the good fortune of being at the Spanish restaurant while Spain was beating Paraguay in the World Cup. (In case you hadn’t heard, SPAIN WON!!!! VIVA ESPANA!!! )

One last thing, we’d like to thank our niece Chloe for snapping so many candid photos.

Pictures from the Celebration

Here is the photo album gallery.

Here you can view it as a slideshow.

Alexander poolside on his surfboard mat

The day our community pool opens should be a holiday in our house. We look forward to it for months, literally. This year the big day was May 8, a little bit earlier than the year before. Sweet! Makes us feel that our ever-increasing home owner’s dues may be moderately justified. Ironically, we failed to make Opening Day this year. Nevertheless, we finally made it and were accompanied by 3/4ths of Team Gresham.

Sophia had a blast in the water. It was a little surprising only because the water was a little chilly early in the season. (I know that “chilly” is relative, but when compared to her typical bathwater, it was chilly.) We’ve since made two trips and Sophia has actually had no interest getting in the water. It might be a water temp thing, but we doubt it. She’s really just wanted to run all around the pool, stopping at each ladder to makes us just nervous enough. Michele finally got her to go back in after many attempts. Within 5 minutes, Michele and Sophia were having a great time, as usual. Mommy Michele always seems to know exactly what to do.

Alexander actually didn’t make it into the water on his first visit. He was napping some, and Daddy rewarded him with some tummy time. That’s love. We did dip his 3 month old feet in the water. He was not amused. As an aside, Alexander loves getting baths. It took Sophia a while to actually come around to liking them. Alexander pretty much loved them as soon as we were able to submerge him. Makes the experience better for everyone.

Quick aside – After we bathe Sophia at night, she climbs out and starts saying, “Ale’ander’s turn.” It’s so cute (to us.) The way I wrote it is my attempt to capture her phonetic pronunciation. Basically, his name without the “kz” sound of the “x” in Alexander.

More Pool Pix

Here are more random pictures from the first day at the pool.

We got pictures taken last weekend. We look forward to meeting our little boy Monday (or sooner). Pictures will be available soon.

Valentine’s Day Post Card

Family Portrait

Mommy Michele and Sophia (with Jr hanging in waiting)

Sophia Being Cute