Happy Holidays!

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas!



Pictures from all three of our Christmases are on Flickr.

Ready for Santa

The final holiday touches are finished and Evy and Brandon are ready for Christmas! Over the past couple of weeks they have visited Santa, had school & dance class Christmas parties and baked lots of cookies.

More pics from our final Christmas preparations are on Flickr.

Christmas Prep

The Christmas tree is up, the decorations are hung, the Christmas cards are ordered and Daddy's birthday is out of the way.



We're ready for the holiday season! More Christmas preparation photos are on Flickr.

Halloween 2013

Halloween costumes get quite a workout these days. In addition to the school parties/parades and trick-or-treat night, the bee and the fire chief went to a shopping center celebration, dance class, trunk-or-treat and Aunt Julie's birthday party. All of these activities also featured candy.

More Halloween photos are on Flickr, including our picking and carving of pumpkins.

The Start of Autumn

The fall season has gotten off to a busy start.

Brandon kicked things off with his first ever field trip. He and his preschool classmates visited Trax Farms to learn about apples, bees and gourds. They also went on a hayride and sampled some fresh apple cider.



The Hootenanny on the Hill was next. Everybody had fun with friends and family while wearing matching t-shirts.



Pop-pop visited the hill while everyone was in town. The ages of this group of his great grandchildren added together don't even equal half of his age.



Did you hear about the duck? The 40 foot tall rubber duck floating in the Allegheny River near Point State Park in Pittsburgh? Of course we had to go see it.

Evelyn had a chance to visit Heinz Field for Kids Day. At this special event she took a tour of the Steelers locker room, participated in a football skills competition and ran back and forth through the inflatable gauntlet at least 25 times.



Not bad for the first month of autumn. More pictures from fall 2013 are on Flickr.

First Days of School

It's time for school to start again, and Brandon gets to join in the fun this year. He started preschool and had a great time.

Evelyn is now a bus rider and is enjoying second grade.

More back to school pictures are on Flickr.

Summer Fun

We have been busy packing as much fun as possible into the last month of summer. The kids took a ride on the Strasburg Railroad,



created their own virtual ice cream flavor at the Turkey Hill Experience,

stayed up past bedtime celebrating Lauren and Andrew's wedding,



visited the Pittsburgh Zoo with their cousins,

and had a blast at parties, picnics, reunions and playgrounds.

Lots more pictures of our fun summer are on Flickr.

Brandon is Four!

Brandon stretched out his birthday celebration over a good two weeks this year. It was an extravaganza. He started with a birthday party and a biplane cake.



Then there was a celebration (with more cake) while his cousins were in town. Then dinner at Red Robin (with an ice cream sundae).

Finally, we had birthday pancakes on his actual birthday.



That afternoon we topped it all off with a birthday trip to Kennywood.



If you're keeping track he had two cakes, five happy birthday songs (including a reprise), a ton of ice cream and a lot of fun.

More pictures from Brandon's fourth birthday are on Flickr.

Welcome, Ian!

Evelyn and Brandon have a new baby cousin!

Ian Fire arrived earlier today, just in time for a picnic and some fireworks.

Congratulations Aunt Julie, Uncle Tim and Jay!

Beach Week 2013

We made our annual trip to Ocean City, Maryland, for some fun in the sun.



Evy and Brandon played in the ocean, dug in the sand, played mini golf and swam in the HEY YOU GUYS THE POPSICLE TRUCK IS OUTSIDE I CAN HEAR THE MUSIC PLAYING IT'S COMING DOWN THE STREET AND I NEED TO GO ON THE BALCONY RIGHT NOW I'LL BE BACK IN A MINUTE!!

Anyway, a lot more pictures from OCMD are on Flickr.