more company pictures

The Habeses left yesterday and we heard they arrived home safely today in Denmark. Its very quiet in our house now and we miss having everyone around. We had a busy but great time visiting and here are some more pictures from the week.

Here are all five cousins together ...

A typical scene hanging around at home playing playstation and checking things online ... 

Here is Emil showing off his goalkeeping skills ...

In addition to soccer, we played bocce and threw around an "American" football. Aida had a great arm ...

Going to Walmart was something Emil desperately wanted to do. So they went twice. And we documented one of the trips ...

And here's a shot in front Macy's where we also spent a lot of time and with which the whole family was impressed ...

Safia at the NASCAR Hall of Fame ...

Mustafa and Aida competing (against Emil and Emily) in a timed pit crew contest at the NASCAR Hall of Fame ... 

 A nice shot of Azra and her Daidza ...

A nice shot of Aida and Safia in our back yard ...

And everyone at Intermezzo Pizzeria on our last night together ...

Company !

No time to write anything, but here are two pictures of fun with our company ...

Mommy's 60th Birthday

Last night we celebrated Mommy's 60th birthday with a cake and a couple of presents as she and Dad passed through town. I spent the whole afternoon baking the cake, putting the memory book together, wrapping presents, even pre-loading their van ... and then forgot to go to the airport to pick them up. I didn't really forget - I just had the time wrong, but even so it felt like a movie where I was checking things off the to do list for a big event and then realized the guest of honor hadn't been invited. In the end it all went well - they just had to sit at the airport a little longer after a long trip!

In any case - we all agreed last night that Mommy looks fantastic for 60 and has more energy than some 35 year olds I know!

random recent photos

Here is a random assortment of recent photos ... me dressed in blue with blue food for a College of Arts and Architecture color-themed party, Scott Battle's bachelor party, Miran and Azra posing as scarecrows after laying straw over new grass seed, an architecture tour I organized last week-end, and our new roman blinds in the family room.