Happy 3rd Birthday Beautiful!

It's been 3 years... 3 years since I had my beautiful, rambunctious, energized, crazy, baby girl.  She has kept us on our toes every step of the way.  So, when we asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday we fully expected something outrageous.  Instead, she said, "I just want some friends and to sing Happy Birthday!"

AWESOME!  This was going to be a walk in the park party.  We invited some close friends and planned on pizza and a cake.   That's what I was hoping anyway.  BUT, of course my party planning madness set in the week before and "UNDER THE SEA WE WENT".... 

Welcome Merpeople...

Flounder the cake ...

Pretty fun craft that was a hit ... JELLYFISH friends :)

And since Piper doesn't like cake... she got to eat (nibble) on a huge Sand dollar sugar cookie!

We headed to the basement afterwards to burn off some of that sugar.  A fun time by all... including the adults!

It was a great party, with great friends, and Piper was full of smiles and laughter the entire time!  Happy birthday Peanut.  We love you!

- Mom & Dad

2013: Here We Come

As you could tell, my blog and photography hobby took a backset to running last year.  I still captured everyday life with the girls and our family but just haven't stayed on top of publishing my photos to the blog.  I'm going to try to balance everything this year and get at least one update on the blog each week. I'm going to TRY very hard!!  

So, in an attempt to start this off on the right foot... I've posted a few photos from the start of our Disney World 2013 vacation.  We decided to come because this was my final goal in my running journey from last year... to complete a marathon (26.2 miles)!  We decided to make it a family affair and signed the girls up for their very own races.  

Piper took off on her 100m dash.  She was doing so well, which was a surprise to us because she isn't the most graceful little girl around.  Just as she reached the finish line, literally maybe only 5 steps, she took a nose dive into the ground.  Luckily, Mickey was there to brush her off and greet her with a huge kiss on the forehead!

Then it was London's turn.... she ran one back in the fall and did fantastic so I thought why not sign her up for the Mickey mile.  0.16 miles into the race she turns to me and says "I'm tired... where is my medal?!?!?"  This was NOT starting off well.  I gave her incentives along the way (sips of Vitamin water) and she finally crossed that finish line with a HUGE smile on her face.  

All in all... Race Day #1 was a great day!  

Flashback to June: Water Balloons

Playing catch up once again... these were from June (yes... I'm a half year behind).  It warms me up just looking at them.  Summer isn't fun without a good old fashion water balloon fight.   London takes this sport seriously!

Flashback to May: Happy Anniversary!!

Tommie prepared a wonderful weekend get away for our anniversary back in May.  There's a beautiful local B&B up the road that has so much character and charm.  In addition to that, wonderful food too!  Anyway, it was an incredibly busy weekend for me with work but we still managed to sneak away for a little while.  These pictures are extra special since it seems like a huge blur to me given all the work I did that weekend.  I'm incredibly grateful for my wonderful and caring husband.  He still sweeps me off my feet and knows just when to do it!  Thank you to my one and only :)

Flashback to May: Spring Flower & Jazz 5K

My neighbor gave us a heads up on a local 5k and Kids Fun run back in May.  We took the entire family (including Bill & Erin who didn't seem to make my set of photos) and the girls had a wonderful time running the "big circle".   They were thrilled to get their very own medals!

After that, I set off on my first 5k which turned out to be the fastest 3.1 miles that I've ever run (25:04) at that point in my training.  It was fun and I look forward to doing it again next year!

Sunflowers Anyone?!?!

We took the girls to a local sunflower garden this weekend to cut fresh flowers and to take some photos since I haven't had much time to keep up lately.  We are headed into cooler weather now but I thought I would still take a chance and hope there were enough to make it worth while.  Boy was I in for a surprise after pulling up to the owner's home.

He had bunnies, chickens, bee hives for honey making and not only a few rows of sunflowers but wild flowers too!  It was gorgeous and went perfectly with the girls attire. On top of all that, the girls had a blast and we brought home a beautiful bouquet!  Enjoy :)

And no... I could just pick a few!  

Thanks!

Class Clowns - 1st Day of School

To say the girls were excited for their first day back to "school" would be an understatement.  London started Pre-K and Piper transitioned to her "Two's" room today and they were all smiles all day long.    Even though I am WAY behind on blogging photos for the past 3 months (thank you Disney for backing me up for months) I'm still shooting and will sprinkle past memories as I post new ones going forward.  So, it may be mixed up from time to time but who cares... sharing is what counts!

Anyway, here are our class clowns of academic year 2012-2013!!!

And a few "normal" ones:

And a few from school:

Ready or not... here we come!!!