Today was Hank's 4th birthday. Instead of moving the event to the weekend, we decided to have a party at our house right after his school got out. Everyone from his class came, and I would say a good time was had by all. Pizza, fruit salad and cake. What else could any 4 year old want?

I took most of the day off and went to his school where I helped Hank and the class make Norwegian meatballs. After the inside party at home, we all went into the backyard on our first beautiful spring day and broke open the Spiderman pinata.

I will email some pictures to my regular readers.

This morning we painted Easter eggs. Hank was upset that his favorite color was not included in the kit. Black.

After the eggs were painted and after the first Easter egg hunt, Skipper came to me and said "Dad, why do we celebrate Easter?" And I said "We celebrate Christmas because that's when Jesus was born and we celebrate Easter because that's when Jesus was killed and then came back to life." He looked at me kind of funny and walked away.

It was a real spring day. Almost all the snow has melted, and we spent most of the afternoon at a park. Thank God. Life has been renewed.

I've got a new office and some new responsibilities. The boys stopped by at the office yesterday and helped me hang pictures. They wore hard hats and carried their tool boxes. We then went down to the cafeteria for lunch. It's important that I take them upstairs where I work because otherwise they think that all I do when I go to work is eat. They love the cafeteria and Denise at the grill throws on the grilled cheese as soon as she spots them. They threw her for a loop yesterday when they decided on cheeseburgers.

I've been working on helping the Governor's staff prepare the Governor for a presentation to the City and Town Managers Association. They meet each month for lunch and talk at 20 Water St. in East Greenwich. The lunch was today and the Governor was well prepared. The restaurant looks out over East Greenwich Harbor. His back was to the Harbor as he spoke. This last day of Winter was a beautiful sunny day and quahogging skiffs passed back and forth behind him as he spoke about pension reform, health insurance administrative costs, and tipping fees. I tried to pay attention, but my eyes wandered to the skiffs, the shining expanse of the Harbor, and the Potowomut hills rising from the shores beyond.

This is the Winter that will never end. It snowed all day today. Big wet flakes, leaving slush everywhere. This morning Hank's school had a trivet painting event. I didn't quite get it and Hank was uninterested but Skipper participated. For $8 you got a round piece of paper on which you made a drawing with magic markers. You then turned in the drawing. Four weeks from now they will have baked the drawing into a trivet and will return it to you. Anything to keep the boys busy.

Later in the day we went to the Athenaeum for almost two hours. Skipper and Hank made friends with a six year old named Harrison (who was wearing a tweed sport coat). This boy had just learned to read and enthusiastically volunteered to read to Skipper and Hank. Later he promised to bring them policeman uniforms next Saturday. Before we departed he had hired them as special detective police officers and had given them his phone number (with backward 3s). Later in evening Skipper tried to phone him (unsuccessfully) and Hank said "I can't wait until next Saturday when I get my uniform." I've just completed an anywho reverse check on the number. It exists. We need to make contact with his mother so that there's not too much disappointment.

We took the boys to their first hockey game today. Brown vs. RPI in the ECAC playoffs. There were around 600 fans rattling around in a rink that sits 3,000, but both teams had brought their bands and it was loud.

We took a walk around before the game started and a drummer on the RPI band gave Skipper and Hank used hockey pucks. "Official hockey puck made in Slovakia" was inscribed on the side of each puck. They were good bath toys later in the evening.

The Zamboni circled the rink. "What's that machine doing?" they both asked. "Making the ice smooth and slippery." I said. "Why?" they replied.

The teams skated onto the ice with both bands blaring. Brown scored shortly after the start, but I was the only one really watching. I tried to explain penalties and power plays. No one listened or could hear me over the battling bands. "Why is there someone sitting in the penalty box with the Brown player?" Skipper asked. Good question.

Between the first and second periods the boys finished off a hot dog each and I ate a bag of peanuts with their assistance. "You've thrown all the shells on the floor!" said Sarah. Give me a break.

With nine minutes to go in the second period and Brown leading 4 to 3 Hank said "I want to go home." When the announcer bellowed "one minute" we started to leave, but where was Skipper? Three frantic minutes later he was found, hanging out with the Brown band, watching the action along the boards.