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!