A Day on Diagon Alley

Ashlan has read and LOVED the Harry Potter series...thus it has taken over our home! :) She chose Harry Potter as her birthday theme this year, and we had fun livin' it up.

The witches casting a spell:



Hogwarts cake:



Matt played the role of the wand maker very well, carefully choosing the "perfect" wand for each girl. He had carved the wands and stained them (He's so cute!):




Making potions:




Throw in decorating spell books, a Horcrux Hunt, and Bernie Botts Every Flavored Beans and you've lived a day in the life of Harry Potter (or Hermione in this case)! We love our Ashlan and her love of reading!

Summer Lovin'

The Summer seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye! Here's a sample of the fun we had.....

A trip to Maryland to visit cousins, including an outing to the National Zoo, and a day at the temple for moms and dads:








Elli had her gymnastics show:




A family night in Pittsburgh at a San Francisco Giants game...go Giants! World Series Champions! All decked out in orange and black:






A trip West to visit family....5 weeks in Utah and California....we saw every member on both sides of our families! What a blessing!

A family reunion at Park City:








Time at home in California:




Back to UT- hiking Brighton with the Gruwell clan:






Then it was back to PA and reality.....the first day of school:



School's in full swing and we're loving the gorgeous Fall that comes with living in the Northeast. Lots of Fall Festivities to come!

Under The Sea

Elli just celebrated her 6th birthday, and she wanted a mermaid party! We had a day full of underwater adventure!

Sea stars, shells, and treasures decorated every inch!




Fish pond cups (served for lunch with shell pasta sprinkled with "sand")




Banana Octopus craft



And....of course....a Mermaid cake



We love you sweet Elli!

Ice, Ice, Baby

Our darling Ashlan decided to try ice-skating this year. She did really well, and best of all, she loved it! Here's a peek at her end-of-the-year show:





They skated to the "Stray Cat Strut". Ashlan is 2nd to the end in both of these pictures.






Aunt Meg was here to see it! Yeah!




And Elli cheered her on....




We're so proud of you Ashlan!!

Beauty

There is beauty all around.....

Life is SWEET!

Last weekend we celebrated spring by going to the Maple Festival at Asbury Woods. It was so fun, with nature crafts, face painting, scavenger hunts, tours tapping maple trees, and of course.....pancakes with maple syrup!!!

Any sap in there????



Tree stump necklaces



A taste of Pennsylvania

The Monkey Club

You know you want to join!! Being in the Monkey Club is a special status you earn at Elli's gymnastics center when you can climb to the top of the gym rope and ring the bell. The rope is really high, and I get scared looking at the little 5 year olds trying to do it, but Elli has been determined. Well, she DID IT! (see her way up there!) And now her teacher can't keep her off of it! We are so proud of our monkey.

The Impossible Truth

Our little Kate turned one this weekend! It seems impossible that a year has gone by. It's truly been a full year, and so in that light as I think about all the experiences we've had in her first year of life it makes sense that time has flown by....but if I close my eyes I can feel myself going right back to holding her in that hospital room as if no time has passed at all. Life is funny that way...and I love it.

We celebrated sweet Kate's birthday with a Spring theme...bug and butterfly cupcakes, bunny ears, jelly bean jewelry and bird nest crafts. Topped off with chocolate cake, fun friends, and lots of smiles....oh, and a splash of pink...always!

I couldn't stop kissing her little cheeks....




Cake Time!




(Obviously, the crafts were for the older kids...but we just had fun being together! Plus Kate was very helpful eating the jelly beans....)




Pictures of her first year....





We love you so much, Kate!!!