Happy First Birthday Lauren!

Three days after Christmas we celebrated Lauren's first birthday. My parents came up from Virginia and the Sharps came in from New Jersey. It was a small family get together, which was perfect right after the big holiday. It also prompted us to un-decorate Christmas and decorate for a birthday party.

Here's the birthday girl in her special birthday hat

 This bouncer was a Christmas present, but she was still enjoying the heck out of it on her birthday. 

 Let her eat cake! Chocolate cake to be precise. She liked it too. 

 The birthday crew

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas this year with the Sharps in New Jersey. It was a relaxing few days, with a lot of family on Christmas afternoon. Christmas morning was quiet with just Mom Mom, Pop Pop, me, Dave and the girls (and the dogs too of course). Sophie is very into Hello Kitty right now and got a matching pair of gloves and a hat from Lauren (what good taste at such an early age...)

Sophie's big present was a bike (without pedals, the "new" training wheels). She struggled with it a bit, so we'll need to keep practicing. 

My attempt to get a good picture of the girls together... 

Lauren in her new outfit from Nana

Sophie's favorite present was a box of dress-up clothes from the Boyles. She's a girl through and through. Here she is sporting one of the dresses, complete with gloves and clip-on earrings. 

Becky's Baby Shower

The family all came up this weekend to celebrate Becky's coming baby. I put together a shower at Figs, a restaurant just a block away from our house. Family from PA, NJ and NY all came. Despite the snowy weather, everyone came and had a great time catching up, eating and looking through all of the presents. 

Me, the mom-to-be and mom

 Becky and Yvonne, Jame's sister

 Becky and her loot

 The whole group

Snow Angels!

We've already gotten three big snow storms so far this winter. Last week school was closed early because of the snow, so Amy and I got the girls together to go sledding down a hill close to our house. However, Sophie and Claire were more interested in making snow angels than sledding. They had a blast, despite the freezing temperatures (which they didn't even seem to feel).

Santa

We took the girls to see Santa at a horse stable just outside the City. Lauren was NOT thrilled about the horses. You'll notice the very worried look on her face... she knew there was one right behind her. Not cool, Santa. Not cool.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving we got our Christmas tree and Dave's parents and Zoe came over to help us decorate it.

Lauren helped pick out the ornaments...

 And Zoe and Sophie decided where they went on the tree (the lower branches were definitely well decorated)

 The princess in front of the final product

Thanksgiving 2013

We headed down to Virginia again this year for Thanksgiving. We had a big crew at my parent's house. Dave cooked the entire dinner for 15 (well... I made a cake and Doug was the one who actually did the turkey frying). It was a great few days, filled with leaf luging, hiking, visits with friends and of course lots and lots of eating.

Our friends Carl, Amanda and their daughter Gianna came up from North Carolina. Sophie was in heaven hanging out with Gianna. Here they are getting ready to luge down the hill in front of the house. Who needs snow when you have leaves!

Doug brought the deep fryer and did the turkey in the driveway. It was cooked to perfection, of course. 

The men and the grill. 

 The whole crew (almost) at the Thanksgiving table. It was a feast! 

Early Celebrity

A few weeks ago we went to a party at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with another Greene Towne Family. They had a step and repeat where the girls had their picture taken when we first walked in, and then throughout the night they ran a slide show of the pictures. Here's Sophie on the big screen in the main hall with her friend Rachel, and Rachel's older Leah. Celebs already....