Happy 30th Mark!

Yesterday we celebrated Mark's 30th! birthday with a drive into Philadelphia. We saw the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, walked down to Penn's Landing, ate cheesesteak and generally roamed around downtown.


The highlight for the girls was visiting Franklin Square
which is a cool city park with a carousel, playground, fountains and miniature golf course. They also had a little temporary exhibit of the wonders of ancient Egypt made entirely of Jersey sand. The girls thought this was really cool,but were disappointed they couldn't build their own sand sculptures. (hence Elsa's grump face).


They LOVED the carousel ride. Now Elsa's smiling. They informed me it was just like Mary Poppins. I've noticed a huge cognitive leap in the girls since we've returned from vacation. They've taken their imaginative play to a whole new level. They've been playing really intricate games of preschool, cooking, etc. They've started telling stories along with their play. At the park Mark overheard them talking about "Once there was a little girl, named Daddy . . ." and they went on to imagine "Daddy" at preschool. Another time I found them upstairs talking to Raike and Able (two of their friends who moved away). All on their own, they had named their dolls Raike and Able and were taking care of them. So cute!


Later we tried to took the girls miniature golfing. Very exciting to have nearly 3 year old helpers. They liked to collect the balls between shots. (even midplay). But, we made it through nine holes. Not bad. The course was all miniatures of the tourist sites of Philly.



Mark and I are big PBS/NPR geeks. We were pretty excited to see the home station of Terry Gross.



Finally, we came home for cake. The girls were very involved in the making and decoration of this chocolate cake. They've been excited about this birthday all week. Relatives will be happy to know that the girls immediately launched into "Sto Lat" after the singing of Happy Birthday. I think their Polish pronunciation is better than mine. I looked up the word, if anybody is interested.

Life of the party

Lily and Elsa started a toddler dance craze at the Harry Potter street festival this weekend.


There was a stage set up for an outdoor showing of the Harry Potter movie. The girls hopped on and started dancing.


Within minutes, flocks of Princeton tots followed their lead. My girls know how to have fun!

7-7-07 party wrap-up.

We're back from our trip to the North Woods of Wisconsin where 4 generations of our extended family gathered to celebrate Great-Grandpa A's 77th birthday on 7-7-07. (Link to cute article about Grandpa in the Hammond Times).

The girls LOVED their vacation. They logged over 2500 road miles in two weeks and traveled great. It was a really special vacation because they got to see a lot of their family all in one place. We had a little village up there. The girls spent a lot of time with both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents and a wide assortment of aunts, uncles and cousins.

Here's the link to our vacation album.

Here are a few of my favorites.


At Grandpa's party with his kids. (except for Uncle Joe who was there in spirit and by telephone!)



Vicky's surprise 50th birthday party (a month early!) Lily modeling the silly hat and glasses.


On our drive up, we spent the night at my parents. I turned 29 and had my first birthday in Indiana (and with my parents) since I was 21. The girls and my mom made me a really cute cake.


The girls practiced fishing with Daddy. But we had an unfortunate incident of Lily's pole being "lost at sea." That was a rough moment for Lily.


The girls loved Driving the boat with Grandpa A.


And they loved staying up late, hanging out with everyone playing music and games. I LOVE this picture of Elsa with her Uncle Erik.


And getting to eat lots of birthday cakes! Here's Elsa with Grandma and Grandpa P who were able to join us for the festivities!

It was a great trip. I really enjoyed the multi-generational family village getting to spend time with the girls. Looking forward to the next time we all get together.