George's 43rd Birthday

George's birthday was on June 29th. We went up to Buckhorn to visit the family and mom made him his favorite oatmeal cake (no, I didn't have any I was in the middle of a "cleanse" - don't ask). It was nice to see the family and I finally met my new niece "Emma" - just beautiful. I am expecting another niece or nephew sometime in November (very excited). Below are some pics of George's birthday celebration.

 George

 Greg lighting the candles on the bday cake

 The fam...singing happy bday......

George, Marc, Dad, Nick (standing), Adam holding baby Blane and my sister-in-law Missy far left

Gracie's Recial - Saturday, June 16th 2012

Gracie's dance recital (at EastPennsboro High School). In attendance was me, hubby, Lil' George, Jacob and my buddy Kori.

 Gracie and some of her dance classmates

 Love this pic...she looks all sorts of sweet and innocent (NOT...)

 Gracie showing mommy some of her moves

 My beautiful daughter

 The one and only day of the year that she can wear makeup!

 Getting ready for tap performance

 Getting ready for jazz performance

 Jacob, George, Lil' George, Kori-Lou, Gracie

Jacob, George, Lil' George, me and Gracie

Roller Coaster Dad....Now this was funny.....

http://youtu.be/KCWvXsr-WIs

Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary Celebration - Washington, DC - June 9, 2012

This past Saturday Gracie and I took a bus trip to Washington, DC to celebrate Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary.  Unfortunately, nobody from our troop went to the event (that I know of) but Brownie Troop 11357 was nice enough to let us tag along with them.  Below are some pictures of our trip.

 Old Glory

 Washington Monument

 Gracie with girls from Brownie's Troop 11357 at the WWII Memorial

 Me and Gracie at WWII Memorial

 WWII Memorial

 Gracie

 My baby girl.....

 WWII Memorial (Gracie with girls from Brownie's Troop 11357)

Gracie's Birthday Celebration at School (6/4/12)

I met up with George at West Creek Elementary School (Gracie's school) today to pass out cupcakes and drinks to Gracie and her classmates in recognition of her birthday. I think Gracie was more excited to take the extra cupcakes to her favorite teachers and it got her and two friends out of class for 10 minutes.

Gracie's 8th Birthday

After we all went to Red Robin we headed back to the house and relaxed while the kids ran-rampid! They entertained us with getting dressing up (with all new dresses that were hanging in Gracie's closet that had tags on them mind you - you can imagine the look on my face, right?) and their version of choreographed dancing - it was very entertaining. Gracie got to open her birthday presents and later that night the girls watched movies, ate popcorn and even managed to squeeze in rootbeer floats! All in all, I would say Gracie had a nice birthday.

 Lots of goodie - Littlest Pet Shop is what Gracie requested from mommy & daddy this year

 Gracie also got a nice outfit and a water slip & slide from the twins

 Gracie picked out the ladybug cake (which is cupcakes that you are suppose to just tear and remove - it was a mess and the icing was super thick (like 2+ inches thick) and kind of hard - I would not recommend buying these whatsoever.

 My beautiful baby girl!

Jake was a trooper and hung out with the girls for his sister's birthday!

Celebrating Gracie's 8th Birthday

Gracie's 8th birthday celebration - Red Robin - June 2, 2012

 Gracie & Suzanna

 Red Robin

Pat, me, Suzanna, Gracie & Andrea

 My three favorite men!

Staff singing their version of happy birthday and the kids all got sundaes!

The Steeler Ant

Gracie had to do a class project and list the various different parts of an insect so she chose to create an "ant" and of course it had to have something to do with black and yellow being the Pennsylvanians that we all are. It was originally going to be called The Pittsburgh Steelers Ant" but since black and yellow (or gold) are the Pirates/Penguins colors....she opted to go with The Steeler Ant to represent all the Pittsburgh teams.  A special thanks to "daddy" who helped her out tremendously with this project - I think he was into the project more then Gracie was...LOL Unfotunately I did not get a picture of the finished product that had all the labels of the various different parts of an insects body. Job well done and she got an A+.

Lake Tobias (More Pics - May 2012)

Summer Has Begun....Lake Tobias

The weather here in PA is hot and humid and it seems like you can count on rain at least 3 days a week. This past weekend I took the kids to Lake Tobia where they went on a safari ride and to the petting zoo. We were there for a good two hours and the kids were finally like "can we go home...it's too hot" - They weren't joking...it was miserable. Below are a few pics at the zoo.

Gracie's Dance Portraits (2012)

Below are pics that were taken at The Studio for Gracie's upcoming dance recital in June. I scanned the pics so they are not as clear as they appear in the actual pictures. I wish they would have used a different background with the white costume - white on white just does not look good if you ask me but Gracie still looks cute/adorable and that's all that matters.