IKEA!!

To celebrate the advent of Spring Break (huzzah!) we trekked to Pittsburgh today, to make our pilgrimage to that mecca of rampant consumerism, the big blue box of pleasant aesthetics, IKEA. It was a lovely day. Cold but sunny, a perfect day to drive through the Pennsylvania hills. The kiddos were, by all measures, quite perfect. Ivy napped both ways in the car. Jack had a ball (quite literally) in the Smaland play area ball pit (not the least bit troubled by being left in the minimal supervision of strangers, he was alight with glee, only his head showing above the sea of plastic balls as we walked away...) and only wished he could've stayed longer than the alotted hour. Jack's absence allowed for some less-fettered conversation with dear friends Fiona and Anthony, though conversation was hampered a bit on this visit by the fact that we were all rather captivated by our daughters. Most of our time, in fact, was spent camped out in one of the display living areas, watching Ivy and little Keely, 7 months old, clamber about and chew on things. Ivy seemed to enjoy getting to know Keely, giving her hugs (aka head butts) and patting her head, but she really, really loved Anthony. She's into big fuzzy guys, apparently. :)

After a lunch of swedish meatballs (of course), $120 spent on a rather random collection of items, and our now-traditional visit to the patio table at Starbucks, (where Jack ran like a bullet train and explored the mulch in the garden as we fed babies and chatted some more) we headed home. Pizza, videos, and a chance to Skype with Vovo and Grandpa (home now and recovering! Huzzah again!) closed out a lovely Saturday.

Pictures will hopefully be forthcoming from Fiona.

Ivy is also 46 weeks old today, for those of you keeping track. Weekly pictures will be forthcoming too, once we take them, tomorrow.