The "Bolympics Player"

We've been watching the Olympics a lot around our house lately...which has inspired Henry to want to be a "Bolympics player" himself. Here he is competing in some of his events.

(Nude) ice skating:

The luge:




Cross-country skiing:

The Sex Party

As most of you know by now, we are expecting our second child in June. But you may not know about this envelope, which has been burning a hole in our pockets for almost a month. Its contents? The baby's sex.
The thing is, we were never sure if we wanted to find out what we're having, so we told Alexis' doctor to put the answer in a sealed envelope. That way, we could take our time deciding whether to find out. But of course, having this envelope immediately turned the question from "If?" to "When?"...and "How?" So here's what we did:
This weekend, I took two king cake babies and tied a pink ribbon around one and a blue ribbon around the other. Then I took the babies and the envelope to a local bakery and told them to peek inside to find out the sex and then put the correct baby into a cake -- and seal the other baby in the envelope. Then we had our family over....for a sex party.
After pizza and wine -- and a lengthy discussion about the legitimacy of Olympic curling (for the record, I love any sport that allows this guy to be an Olympian) -- we had a very dramatic cutting of the cake...

The cake was nothing fancy...on the outside.

This was when we started getting nervous. But soon afterwards, we got our answer!
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(...spoiler alert...)

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IT'S A GIRL!!!

Kevin was the lucky one who found the baby--and it was pink! Good thing for him, that does not mean he's having the next baby.

Not that we don't trust Henri's Bakery, but we quickly checked the envelope to make sure no mistakes were made. Looks like they got it right! (Not pictured: reality sinking in.)

Exhibit A...

Suzi and Stacy had baby presents for both alternatives. Here is the first of what will be many, many, many pink items in our house. Obviously, we're thrilled. But after three years of raising a boy's boy, this will be a challenge. I wonder if she'll be as quick as Henry to read a zone blitz...?

White Death 2010

After being teased by news footage of virtually every other city in the United States under a blanket of white, we finally got a good snowfall of our own! Needless to say, Henry -- who talks about snow angels and snowmen so often, you'd think he lived in Whoville -- was beside himself with excitement.

The view from our kitchen

Sled run #4 out of 404. Thanks to our highest-ground neighbors who kindly let the entire neighborhood use their front yard and driveway for two straight days of this!

Mindy came for some of the action...

...and so did Ryanansky.

Did I mention the neighbors also provided the sleds? I've never wanted to invest in a sled, knowing full well that such a transaction would guarantee at least a decade of snowless winters. But last weekend proved that it pays to be prepared!