Happy Holidays!

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas!



Pictures from our three Christmases are on Flickr.

Ready for Christmas!

Christmas To Do List:

√ Send Christmas Cards

√ Decorate Tree

√ Holiday Orchestra Concert

√ Bake Cookies

√ Leave Treats for Santa

We're ready!

More Christmas prep photos are on Flickr.

Warm December

The temperature yesterday hit a record high so we decided it would be a good day to visit the zoo.



Lots of the animals also seemed to enjoy the warm weather in the middle of December. Especially the siamangs, who wouldn't stop hooting and yelling at each other during our entire lunch. The kids were also able to explore the new section of the zoo and the Working Wild interactive exhibit.

More pictures from the zoo are on Flickr.

Green Machine

Brandon enjoyed the Fall soccer season on the green team. Moving up to the next age group brought with it a weekly practice, a pair of neon cleats and a cool team nickname.

More pictures from the Fall U6 season are on Flickr.

Halloween 2015

Happy Halloween from Optimus Prime and his grandma!

More pumpkin and Halloween photos are on Flickr.

Day Off

The kids didn't have school on Columbus Day so we took a trip to the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. We started in the art museum.



Evelyn was excited to point out examples of Cubism since she's been studying it in art class. Brandon was excited to point out the one that looks like it has Laffy Taffy stuck to it, because candy.

After lunch in the courtyard, we headed over to the natural history side.



The kids explored the entire museum but especially liked the dinosaur bones and the hall of gems and the wall of bugs.

Special thanks to Christopher Columbus and Andrew Carnegie for making this day possible. More pictures from the museums are on Flickr.

First Day of School

It's back to school time and we only had to wake up one of the children this morning. You can guess which one.

Anyway, everyone was on time for the bus since it was fifteen minutes late due to some mechanical issues.

Evelyn is starting fourth grade and Brandon is headed to Kindergarten.

Here's to a great school year!

Brandon is Six!

We celebrated Brandon's sixth birthday with a LEGO themed party last weekend.

Then we were able to celebrate again on his actual birthday!



More sixth birthday pictures are on Flickr.

Return to the Hill

The kids returned to Central PA for a another summer visit with their grandparents. We checked off most of Evelyn's list of things to do, including riding in the convertible, helping in the garden and visiting Pop-Pop. Evelyn & Brandon were also able to visit Indian Echo Caverns and spend a day in Hershey.



More photos from our visit are on Flickr.

Kennywood Day

This weekend's visit to Kennywood had a couple of firsts - Evelyn's first time on the bumper cars and Brandon's first ride on the Racer. The kids also took turns on all of their usual favorites and stayed at the park until past bedtime.



More pictures from Kennywood are on Flickr.

Ocean City 2015

It was another week of fun in the the sun!



More pictures from OCMD are on Flickr.

U5 Soccer Wrap-up

This spring was Brandon's first experience playing on a real soccer team. Highlights from his season include being on the blue team (his favorite color), scoring a few goals, enjoying the post-game snacks and getting a glow-in-the-dark medal.

More photos from the U5 season are on Flickr.

DanceSpirations

Evelyn finished up her year of dance lessons with a recital this past weekend. She continued tap and ballet classes, and this year she added hip-hop as well.

More pictures from dance weekend are on Flickr.

Pre-K Graduate

Brandon graduated from Pre-K this afternoon.



On to Kindergarten in the fall!

More pictures from graduation are on Flickr.

Children's Museum

The kids had election day off of school, so they voted to visit the Children's Museum. They enjoyed their regular favorites like the Waterplay area and the Studio.



And of course the Garage.



They also discovered some new fun things, like the Prism Palace.



More Children's Museum pictures are on Flickr.

Happy Easter

All of the eggs are dyed and/or found and the pantry is restocked with candy. Happy Easter!

More Easter pictures are on Flickr.

Evelyn is Nine!

Evelyn turned nine years old last week. She had a great birthday and a really fun party.



More photos from Evy's ninth birthday are on Flickr.

A Wintry Mix

More than once this winter we experienced a mix of snow, rain, sleet and ice. Add in temperatures reaching -12 degrees Fahrenheit and we've had quite a start to 2015.

We did manage to built a few snow sculptures and take a ride on a snow snowmobile.



More photos of our winter activities (including Valentine's Day, Monster Jam and lots of playing in the snow) are on Flickr.