December 2012 in Review

 I attended my 20th (!!!) high school reunion at the end of November.  Overall a nice evening and even though i hated high school, i am grateful for all of my experiences as they got me where i am today. 

Thanksgiving kind of sucked as Olivia was sick the entire weekend...a yucky virus with fevers on and off and then an ear infection.  So once we got that taken care of, everything got better.  We do have lots to be thankful for this year (hence our "tree of thanks" picture). Thanks to Nanny and Papa for being so supportive that weekend even though it was no fun to watch Olivia being sick : (

Once again our dancing star hit the stage for her dance performance. It amazes me that Sydney gets up in front of over a hundred people and smiles the entire time.  And boy does she look adorable doing it!

Hanukkah was so much fun this year.  The girls loved saying the prayers and lighting the menorah each night. And of course opening presents... but the best part is being with family.  We got to celebrate Poppie's birthday, enjoy some fun hanukkah activities around town, and spread out holiday cheer all month long.

Winter break came and we were busy all week long.  Since we had such a great time last year on Christmas eve/Christmas, I decided to take the girls back to National Harbor once again. Jason had to work so our great friend Susan joined us for a day of fun.
We started at the National Harbor Children's Museum.  Then on the making a gingerbread house with Gingy at the Gaylord Hotel. The girls loved it.  And a definite highlight was meeting Gingy (from the movie Shrek).

 The ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Hotel is one of the coolest (literally and figuratively) things ever!  It is 9 degrees (hence the blue parkas to keep us warm) and these ice sculptures are huge and impressive.  Think I might have to convince Jason that we'll make this a yearly tradition as it is a great way to spend Christmas Eve!

I love watching the creativity of the girls play...Sydney comes up with the most imaginative things on her own and is so much fun to watch. So even though our house is continually a mess, I can not seem to put things away as I watch her create these entire scenes with princesses lined up and organized. She puts on shows with dialog and characters...so i'll put up with the mess for just a little while longer...

Check out our gingerbread village-most impressive is that not one piece of candy actually got eaten! (Although i think i've eaten every other candy/treat in the state of Maryland...)

The Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum by Dulles is an impressive place and although we almost lost Papa about a dozen times, we all had a great time at this great museum.  

Although I am not fond of the Playseum, the kids do enjoy it and we took Nanny and Papa for a fun morning.  The girls especially loved the dress up, grocery store and storytime with Marshmallow the bunny!

In case you didn't get one in the mail (sorry if i forgot--i don't have a good master list and have extras to send out if you want one-just let me know!) but here is the holiday card we sent out. 

So to end this for now...I do wish everyone JOY, PEACE, HOPE, LOVE and WARMEST WISHES always!!!
Much love, Jill, Jason, Sydney and Olivia

November 2012 in review

Happy 2nd birthday sweet Olivia! Can't believe just 2 years ago we welcomed this tiny bundle not knowing the tremendous overwhelming joy she would bring to all our lives. Her personality is just bursting and she adds smiles, laughter and sunshine to each and every day.
We started the celebration with our traditional "muffie" from Panera--as we sing the "Daddy is the muffie man" song : )

As a special treat, I took the girls downtown to meet Hello Kitty. Olivia has a total Hello Kitty obsession and this was one of the coolest things ever!

 It was so much fun to celebrate Olivia's birthday in school. Big sister Sydney got to come to class and join us. Olivia carried around the birthday chair with her-she didn't want to let it out of her sight!

 And this is what my girls do just about every day...for some reason Olivia prefers to wear this Nemo costume EVERY SINGLE DAY! She's hilarious!

Sydney's class picture from school...this is her 3rd year of preschool and she absolutely loves it.  She stays late for art class on Wednesdays and has Poppie pick her up which is a real treat.  Next year--preK!

And I had to share just a few pictures from Olivia's 2nd birthday party. Once again we had a party at our house (remind me next year to book elsewhere!) and had a Mickey-Minnie themed celebration with lots of fun activities (cookie decorating, playdough, arts and crafts, games...) and tons of food (MickeyRoni & cheese, Mickey chicken nuggets and lots more themed food.

What a fun party! Olivia got lots of great presents including Hello Kitty stuff and I just can't get over how much Olivia has grown up. She is very independent and loves being with her sister and giving her sister a hard time just because she can. Listening to the two of them talk and sing is one of my favorite things and the dance shows happen all the time.  Got a few more pictures to share from December before I finish up this blog...it sure is fun to look through all these pictures...hope you've enjoyed it too : )

October 2012 in review

 Olivia is almost 2...23 months (10/2/2012) and did not want to pose for my monthly picture...so Mickey is wearing the sticker. But had to document the age : )

I created an entire book for Sydney's 4th birthday & party, but had to share a couple of my favorite pictures on the blog.  This one is one of my favorites!

Love this one of Sydney, me & Jason, both sets of grandparents and great grandma--she is surrounded by LOVE

For her 4th birthday party Rapunzel came to our house for a Princess birthday celebration!!! Check out the photo book on the blog posting from October 18th for many more pictures and details from the party. It was a blast.  BTW--she is already talking about a disco dance party with Merida from the movie Brave for her 5th birthday. Good thing we have another year before we need to talk about that@!

Sydney and Great Grandma Juliet on her birthday.  We celebrated Juliet's 90th birthday party this same weekend--lots to celebrate!

Love this picture of me and my mom...we don't have too many pictures and thought this was a cute one : )

The birthday girl the morning of her official 4th birthday!

On a hayride at Butlers Orchard for the pumpkin festival for Sydney's birthday-lots of fun!

Daddy and his girls picking out pumpkins

pumpkin festival at Butler's Orchard

Almost tall enough for the rides at Disney! Hope she goes on all them with me!!!

celebrating her birthday at school with her friends...and daddy loves to really make it special

 Sydney (and Olivia & Floppy the dog) with her teachers for her school birthday celebration

Everyone enjoying the Disney on Ice show we saw at the Patriot Center.  Somehow we find a way to get to these shows every few months...

School field trip to the Pumpkin patch at Homestead Farms

Sydney was Shabbat girl at school and Nanny & Papa were here to celebrate with her.

This month we had lots to celebrate and parties galore.  I'll include Olivia's birthday party photos next month with all her other birthday activities and will end this month with this Halloween picture of the girls in their costumes--Princess Rapunzel (Sydney) and Minnie Mouse (Olivia).  It is so difficult to narrow down these pictures and show only highlights.  Hope you enjoy!!!