Thanksgiving~

This Thanksgiving we had been blessed to see alot of our family! We began our day at the Great Coys House in Chambersburg where we enjoyed food and planned out our yearly Black Friday Plans. You've got to have a serious plan to be successful on Black Friday!! lol! Alexandra and Isabel had a blast jumping in the leaves with their cousins.

The next half of the day, we spent with the Meraklis Family. The kids were forced to eat another meal.. which they were not thrilled about :P It also happened to be YiaYia's birthday so celebrated that as well. She got some very very nice gifts.. a new guitar with flower engraved on it, Amy Grant's new book, as well as Amy's new cd.. I am super jealous!

Saturday, we headed down to Maryland where we ate Italian Food and spent time with my Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. Alexandra and Isabel are always sooo excited to play with Angelica, Melina, and Elana. If only we lived a bit closer!

Thanksgiving Activities..

Today, I was able to spend time with Alexandra and Isabel at their school. They were holding their annual fall feast and parade. Food was great and we had a great time spending time together!

AMY GRANT!!

Growing up, Amy Grant was a household favorite. We rollerskated to her music, we all cleaned to her, we sang along.. we loved Amy Grant! So when Angela and I found out she was coming to town.. yes 7 minutes away, we jumped at the opportunity to surprise Mom with Amy Grant tickets for her birthday! As always, we started our girls night off right with Round the Clock.. gotta support the Greek diners out ther :P And after our usual onion soup, we headed downtown where we saw Amy Grant! She was amazing! Sorry Aunt Lisa.. we will call you next time! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Glow Bowling..

The kids had a great time bowling.. but they had an even better time dancing!

Halloween

Every year, my family gets together to go trick-or-treating.. it's been a tradition since we were kids! This year, we were fortunate enough to have Michael's side of the family join us as well! We had a great trick-or-treating experience in our new neighborhood!

Harvest Festivals..

Alexandra and Haley

A's class' decorations!
Alexandra and I headed out to her schools annual Harvest Festival this weekend. It was full of fun and games. Alexandra rode one of the ponies, went on the hay ride, bobbed for apples, jumped on the moon bounce and enjoyed yummy food! Her favorite part, however, was spending time with KYLE.

After recently celebrating Harrison's birthday, the whole family made it a point to ask about his new acquaintence Helen. We thought that was bad.. here we find out our daughter is by far worse! Alexandra has recently been talking alot about Kyle but I did not realize the extent of it!Because I was the one monitoring the Moon Bounce at the event, Alexandra stayed with Kyle and his mom Sheila, whom I worked with at Allfirst Bank. Sheila made it a point to tell me that Kyle told her, " I have a girlfriend named Alexandra and she is hot!" From a distance I actually caught a glimpse of the two eating french fries and holding hands!! I was completely floored.. this happens in Pre-K? They went everywhere together and Kyle even gave Alexandra a kiss on the cheek when leaving.. should we be worried?! Anyways, the day was quite entertaining for the onlooking parent!


Kyle and Alexandra.. yeah she's taller than he is!

My Homies at Countrywide..

Every year, RAYAC sponsors the affiliate fair which includes anyone who is involved in the real estate business. Each company is supposed to decorate their booth according to the theme given. This years theme was children's books so.. our group decided on Robin Hood! With very little thought put into it, I think our booth turned out to be a hit. We had a constant line of realtors visiting Sherwood Forest.. which was obviously our goal! We really had a lot of fun dressing up and mingling.. above is a picture of just a few of my homies from CW :P

Alexandra's 5th Birthday!

Wow, it's hard to believe that it was 5 years ago when we found out we were expecting our first child! Alexandra has brought so much joy to our lives and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful, sensitive, smart, and happy little girl! Isabel is sure lucky to have a such a good example! Just some tid bits about Alexandra that you may not know...

1. She loves to dance, SING , practice gymnastics, and put on a show---> she thinks she's Shirley Temple (too many movies with Pappoo)
2. She likes to look nice (one morning she was crying because the outfit I picked out for her was not stylish)
3. Alexandra loves learning. Her teacher tells us she is very bright! One of her favorite questions recently is "Where did that come from?".. and no not babies thank goodness and please don't mention it! lol! She sat with me and watched with me the process of sugar being refined and has been talking about it ever since!
4. She is quite the artist. Mrs. Johnston says she is very meticulous about her coloring, drawing and painting!
5. Her pretend name is always "Jen" when playing with Isabel.. i'm guessing after Aunt Jenni!
6. She is very determined. Nobody stands in her way when she decides to do something.
7. She knows how to burp! I can't even do that.. yuck!
8. Alexandra wants to be a princess when she grows up.. I told her she may have to move to England :)
9. She really enjoys taking walks around the neighborhood.. what do I mean by that.. Daddy and Mommy walks, Alexandra drives Isabel around in their electric car.. she likes to think she is a very good driver.
10. She is very likeable and makes new friends very easily.
11. She is health conscious..or at least before she eats something she asks "Is this healthy?" she had to have gotten that from her Aunt Jamie because everyone knows it's not from me!

Anyways, below are some pictures from her birthday party. She had a fabulous time with friends and family! Thanks for coming!

Camping..

After much debate, we decided.. let me rephrase that.. I decided to suck it up with two little girls and go camping! We had a great time spending time with our friends Sua, Em, Lindsey & Jason. I decided to take an air-mattress to sleep on, and my luck, it had deflated during our first night due to a hole. Luckily, Lindsey brought an xtra! During our trip we also made a stop at Del Groso, a local amusement park where they were holding their annual fall-fest! The kids had a fantastic time. On our way home, we decided to picnic on the highway.. oh what fun!

Labor Day

Labor Day was great! We took it easy and hung out with Patrick and Angela and enjoyed ourselves as their neighbors entertained our kids! Can't ask for anything better than that!

What's in a Name?

Yia Yia decided to ask Addison, Alexandra, & Isabel a very hard question, obviously..

What is your teacher's name?

Isabel responds to the question, "Do you know my teachers name?" (reverse psychology)
Addison responds, "My teacher doesn't have a name!" (good thinking-he'll cover it up)
Alexandra says, " My teachers name is Mrs. Johnston." (she was actually right)

I thought the responses were quite entertaining! Maybe you should ask if your child knows their teacher's name?

Kevin and Jen's Luau

I wasn't going to post pics from the luau but i've had a few people inquiring about the turn out so.. here we go. Angela and I helped decorate early that morning. We simply had a pineapple on each table with a flower stuck into it and a lei wrapped around the bottom.. it looked very hawaiin! The roasted pig was pretty cool however you might take note that no kid ate pork that evening! Kevin has a huge Italian family which created quite the dance atmosphere. We actually had to drag Alexandra off of the dance floor at about 11pm that night. She danced the night away and had no intentions of leaving anytime soon! The luau was a great idea.. people really seemed to enjoy a change from the typical same-old reception!

NASA Visitors Center..

Because my Dad programmed satellites for NASA, I remember going to the NASA Visitors Center many of times and really really enjoying my experiencex. I have been really wanting to take the girls to visit NASA but have not seemed to have very many free Saturdays sooo.. we decided to go regardless of having 5 kids! I even had a few people ask if they were all ours! They kids had a blast! They looked around at the many pictures of planets, played with some of the interactive games, and enjoyed activating every possible movie in the center. They really enjoyed dressing up as astronauts and sitting in the space shuttle along with climbing on and seeing some of the shuttles and rockets that were previously sent out on missions. Heck, maybe one of them will make it to the moon one day?



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