Tulip Festival

On Wednesday, Rex and I convinced Josh to have a picnic lunch with us at the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. It was sunny and almost 80 degrees! Here are some pictures. I'm enjoying practicing with my new camera.

(Sorry for the picture overload, I happen to love tulips)

Two cool dudes

Once again, Rex was really unsure about sitting in the grass, which is why he made this face.

Taking a Walk

The other evening, we took a walk around our neighborhood with Rex. He had a great time!

Cupcake Bites

This past weekend I made these for my brother and his wife, who recently found out they are having a baby girl. I got the recipe from my sister and had a lot of fun making them. Here is the website where you can see step by step instructions on how to make them.

Easy Cupcake Bites
1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (or candy melts for cupcake bottom)
Colored Melts (for cupcake top)
Peanut Butter Cup candy mold
Sprinkles and m&ms for decoration

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. (The texture should be fine/fluffy)
2. Using the back of a large spoon, mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls (make sure they are smaller in diameter than that of your candy mold) and lay on wax paper covered cookie sheet.
4. Chill in the freezer for a few minutes, until they are slightly firm, not frozen.
5. Melt chocolate bark and candy melts in microwave per directions on package.
6. Using a spoon or squeeze bottle, fill each mold cavity with a small amount of chocolate. But as soon as you fill the cavity, go ahead and place one of your rolled balls into it. Carefully push it down until the force causes the chocolate to push up and fill in around the sides of the ball. You may have to experiment with a couple to get the right amount. Stop pushing once the chocolate reaches the top edge.
7. Place the mold tray filled with cupcakes in the freezer for just a few minutes to let the chocolate set. Remove and then gently pull up on the cake ball top to release from candy mold.
8. Now, holding the bottom of the cupcake, dip the top in another color of melted chocolate.
9. Decorate.
10. And, probably impress your friends and family.

Makes about 50. Store in an airtight container and they will last for several days.

Happy Easter!

We dyed some eggs...

while Rex watched.

All dressed up

The sun was a little too bright

He didn't really like the grass and we couldn't get him to do anything but make this nervous face

This is the view from our back porch. Isn't it awesome?

Cherry Blossoms and Sleepy Possums

This past weekend Emily, Rex, and I had the great fortune of taking a trip to Washington DC and Virginia. Harley had the misfortune of being born a dog, and therefore got to stay at PetSmart for the weekend. I applied to the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and was invited out for an interview, hence the purpose of the trip. We decided to make it a family outing. It happened to be the peak weekend for the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, so it was absolutely beautiful out there.

The first hurdle was how we were going to get Rex to sit still for 6 hours of flying time. To our sheer amazement, he was a champ the entire flight. He hammed it up for the flight attendants and flirted with a few chicks sitting in the rows behind us. He's really quite a social guy.

Once we got to DC on Saturday we stayed the night with Scott and Maryanne Fitzgerald. Scott (hereafter referred to by his nickname "Fitz") is an ex-roommate of mine and long time friend, so it was really fun to see them. We hung out Saturday night, ate some ice cream and brownies, and chatted.

Sunday morning we got up and ate a pile of pancakes and headed into DC to see The Mall. We started at the Lincoln Memorial, worked our way down to the tidal pool to the Jefferson Memorial, up to the White house, then back across The Mall to the Metro and headed back to Fitz's to grab our stuff and head down to Charlottesville for my interview.

You may be scratching your head about the "sleeping possums" in the title of this post. Here's the deal. My wife and I have a standing joke that when we see a dead animal on the side of the road we turn to each other and say "Oh, that cat was so sleepy he fell asleep on the side of the road." Or something to that effect. The animals are never dead, just sleeping. We're so funny. We saw several "sleeping" possums on the way down to C-Ville.

Charlottesville won our hearts. The drive down is loaded with beautiful views, quaint little farms of rolling hills of grass. Its beautiful. Charlottesville itself is a quaint little college down with a lot of class. The campus of UVA is amazing. They actually call it "The Grounds" rather than campus. All the buildings are red/orange brick trimmed with white pillars and shutters. Its incredible.

I thought the interview went as well as it could. Hopefully in a month I'll be able to post about getting accepted. We're excited about the prospect of moving out there. It would be really fun.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!