St. Patrick's Day at Winnie and Picky's

Sorry for the delay in this post... Siena has had a cold / pinkeye this week (more on that later), and I've been busy doing LOTS of laundry as a result. Anyway, we had a great time at Winnie and Picky's for St. Patrick's Day. Winnie made the traditional corned beef and cabbage along with some yummy potatoes -- a delicious dinner! Our Irish roots were very satisfied. The dinner was topped off by Joe's famous Shamrock Shakes, which Siena was especially fond of (as you'll see in the photos below). A great day to be (part) Irish!

Our beautiful and delicious dinner -- thanks, Winnie!

Ohhhh, Shamrock Shake

Now THIS is how we celebrate St. Pat's Day!

Mmmm, delish! Great job, Daddy.

Weekend with the Sustars

We took an impromptu trip up north last weekend, which turned out to be a big Sustar family reunion! So much fun for Siena to visit with her relatives. We love living within driving distance of so many aunts, uncles, cousins, and of course grandparents! Here are some pictures from our whirlwind northern adventure...

X is for xylophone! Great toy, Aunt Mary.

Sadly, this was our last visit to Mary, Patrick, and Liam's cute house on Grand Ave. They'll be moving soon -- very exciting. Siena was very lucky to receive a new wagon, wheelbarrow, and some great math books from them. It'll be a fun-filled spring with her new toys, for sure!

Grandma and Grandpa happened to be in Milwaukee as we passed through, and we connected with them at the St. Patrick's Day parade. Wish we could see them more often!

Siena's cousins Irene and Carl were in the parade, dressed as leprechauns. Siena was a bit unsure about the parade, but was very excited to receive a string of green beads and a few gold chocolate coins from the parade floats.

Siena went the entire day without a nap, until crashing on Daddy's shoulder at dinner. She hasn't fallen asleep in public since she was a baby, so I had to capture her cuteness on camera. She was clutching one of her gold coins the entire time -- needless to say, it had melted all over her hand by the time she woke up. :)

The main mission of our trip: retrieving 2 end tables and a console table from our nephew Ian, who is a woodworker when he's not busy studying engineering at Marquette. He is SO talented -- the tables he made us are absolutely beautiful! Check out his work at www.sustarwoodworking.com. The shop where he works is the same shop where his dad started out his woodworking business as well.

Yep, Lizzy was passing through town as well, on her way to her next orchestra managerial position in Detroit. As I said, quite the family reunion!
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It's a GIRL!!!

That's right, our little Junebug will be wearing PINK once she arrives in early June!! We are both thrilled to welcome another sweet little girl to our family. And with some luck, she and Siena will be the best of friends throughout their lives. :) Thank heaven for little girls!

The story of how we found out is kind of funny... Since Joey wasn't able to join me at the doctor's appointment this morning, I asked the doctor to write the baby's gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope so Joe and I could open it together later. The doctor went a step further and placed the ultrasound pictures in the envelope instead, and told me the gender was very obvious and that we should have no problem interpreting the photos. Well, we opened the envelope, stared at the photos, stared at them some more, and then looked at each other dumbfounded. It wasn't THAT obvious to us!! With a little time and study however, it became very clear to me that we'll be expecting a little girl. I'm not sure if Joey completely believes me, however... We're posting a few of the clearer ultrasound pics below -- what do you think? Note that I wouldn't normally be posting pictures of my kiddos' private parts online, but I feel confident that most people will have no idea what they're looking at. :)