Among the guests at our home was my sister’s new dog, Harpo. Nala was banished from the house lest she confuse this tiny fellow for a snack. When a wind up toy from one of the Easter Eggs was released, Harpo started batting at it with those little legs and it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

 
Nicolai was in charge of hiding Easter eggs, a job he cherishes. Among them was the golden egg with a $20 gift certificate inside. After a half hour of searching Kyle was convinced that Nico had placed it high in one of our trees. In fact, the coveted egg was hidden under the newel post of our deck railing.

 
A highlight for the kids was this chocolate fountain. Despite the available array of fruits and cakes available for chocolate coating the kids seemed determined to try using every imaginable substrate for the liquid confectionery. I stopped keeping track when experimentation led them to potato chips.

 
In celebration of Easter this year we invited several families over for an Easter Egg hunt and Sunday dinner. The women seemed to gather around the food (no comment), while the men seemed to prefer the dining room. The kids claimed the sun porch and breakfast area. In total I think we had 28 guests and enough food to feed 50.

 
Nephew, John William, 7 months younger than Kyle is now taller than both of us. He went to watch Kyle play soccer this afternoon and got roped into being a linesman. Although he initially turned down my winter coat, by half time he was more than happy to slip it on.

My sister Alissa and her family are here to celebrate Easter with us this weekend. Pictured here with Maya is cousin Rachel. They spent the morning in pajamas rehearsing a music video dance routine. 

I needed to wait till morning for the photograph but I was able to finish the strong back in a little over two hours. I am very pleased with the result. The H beam design I used proved to be very strong. I also took the time to protect the floor under the assembly area which is likely to get covered in epoxy and varnish before the project is done. 

This evening I started construction of a wooden kayak. The first step is construction of a strong back (a 14 foot, twelve inch wide table that is ultra flat and very stable). It is the platform on which construction of the kayak takes place. I came up with a design that can be easily broken down into two seven foot sections for later storage. If this project goes well I plan to build another for kayak for Jeanine. 

Kyle hanging out with some of his buddies this evening. Seth shaved his head for a big swim meet and now understands why I am always wearing my Nanook of the North hat. Harrison grew a foot since I last saw him. 

 
This evening I finished building a set of sports crutches for Nicolai. I used a conduit bender to form the angle in the aluminum tubes I obtained from eBay. I recycled the handles and cuffs from Nico’s collection of broken crutches (a typical pair lasts him 6 months). My design is custom made for his height and does not require adjustability allowing me to use a single tube rather than three. This allowed me to shave 2 ounces off the weight and eliminate all the adjustment holes which invariably are the failure points. These crutches are also totally quiet compared to the clicking of his current crutches. I may have to add a cow bell to the new ones so we can continue to keep track of Nico. Total cost of materials was $10 compared to $100 for a new set.

 
I finally had a chance to photograph the award Nico received from Shane’s Inspiration.

I told Maya she was my second favorite date. She was quite thrilled with that standing. 

Maya is so light weight that it was no problem to pick her up and dance check-to-cheek for the slow songs. Photo courtesy of my friend Mike Krupa. 

 
This evening I attended the Shamrock Ball with Maya. This very popular father-daughter dance sells out in 24-hours and this year I secured tickets in person rather than risk the mail delay. We had a dinner date prior to the ball and danced until both of us were tuckered out. Maya was beautiful in her Christmas dress and I wore matching colors. It was a very special evening for me and I cherished it knowing that in a couple more years she will be opting to attend dances with her friends. Maya has become quite the little dancer and also led several conga lines.