For the love of gingerbread....

This coming Monday will mark the sixth year of hosting a gingerbread party for 12 kids, 7 years old and younger. It gets crazy, and messy, and is one of my most favorite days of the year.

It wasn't always this crazy. The first year, it was a handful of toddlers (6), a baby and a few close friends. The moms pasted graham cracker houses on milk cartons while the kids ate candy. It was simple, yet beautiful.

First year...

A few more siblings have joined our friendship circle, kids have developed opinions and want to decorate the houses themselves, and entirely too much sugar is ingested. But trust me, it's still absolutely beautiful! 

Flashback to 2013...all kids 5 and under...

Because this tradition is going strong, custom outfits seemed only appropriate. 

I wanted something roomy and a mix between a dress and shirt. The Patricia tunic pattern from Scientific Seamstress was a perfect answer! First I found my fabric, a beautiful, bold, glittery gingerbread house fabric from JoAnn fabrics. Then I started cutting it out...

I stalled as much as possible to start sewing it, as I am constantly interrupted with two little ones, and honestly, I've learned that procrastination somewhat suits me. The pattern was super easy to use as I am a beginner compared to most, and have had no actual training on how to sew. Just a couple of youtube videos and blogs from Pinterest and now I pretend like I actually know what I'm doing. 

 I added the contract fabric to the sleeves as well to add some extra fun, and to reduce the bright pink bubble gum color fabric I chose for my main fabric.

I had enough fabric left over to make my daughters twirly matching skirts for the party as well. This was a fun little project, and one step closer to our annual gingerbread house decorating party next week.

Summer Days

Today marks the first day of July and the official half way mark of summer vacation. It's hard to believe that already 1.5 months have flown by since Elliana's last day of school. It's even more hard to fathom the amount of fun and adventure we have cram packed into such a short amount of time. Listed below are just a few of our highlights thus far: 

 Sprinkler Fun

Oh, to have such joy over a sprinkler! LOVE their love for life!

 Creation Museum Petting Zoo and Botanical Gardens

GO Cincinnati Outreach Project - cleaning and organizing toys at a foster care 

      and planting flowers at the foster care home as well 

Hiking at Big Bone Lick State Park (on more than one occasion) 

 Findlay Market shopping with cousins and grandparents

Gymnastics!!! Both girls are enrolled and loving it! 

Weekend getaway to visit the Sutton Family in Chicago and get some much needed cousin playing time!

Strawberry picking and eating fresh from the plants!

Elliana's Dance Recital - 8 months of hard work!

 Day trip to visit College Roommates and play date with our kiddos

Baseball Game

 Splash Grounds and lunch with Daddy

Traveled to Maryland for a beautiful wedding, play time with cousins and a lovely new addition to the family! 

Enjoying the streets of Annapolis

Cutest Ring Bearer and Flower Girl EVER! 

My brother and new sister-in-law! So exciting and beautiful! 

Eager to welcome our newest family member! 

 Enjoyed a lovely tea party birthday! 

Rode a horse named "Dude"

Went hiking again....we really like to hike. 

 Annual Anderson Ferry Boat Ride to get ice cream with friends. LOVE this yearly tradition and watching our friends grow together!

Maya said good-bye to diapers!!!! Whoo-hoo!

It's hard to believe that 6 short months ago when we were snowed in day after day, I was worried about how I would fill the long unstructured summer days. Turns out, I seem to thrive on it. I am loving the ability to call up friends and plan pool days and not juggle around school schedules. I love that we can go to the pool and the movies and the park, all in one day. I love that we can sit and cuddle for hours on end with no where to go except wherever we want to go.

Our summer still has a lot of time left. Our summer bucket list still has a lot of items not yet done, and room to add new unplanned ones.

I feel like I should have a more poetic way to wrap up such an adventure packed entry, but one word just keeps repeating in my head. Gratitude. I am overwhelmed with gratitude at our many blessings. And so I must say Thank you. Thank you Lord for each and every experience we are blessed with, both good and bad for they are what make us "us". Thank you for this family, our friends and the ability for me to stay home with these precious kiddos each and every day. Thank you for a husband who keeps me grounded yet lifts me up each and every day. A man who still finds beauty in me when I skip a shower or hang out in yoga pants day after day (without ever actually attending any yoga classes). Thank you Lord for the adventures you still have planned for us, that we are not yet aware of. I pray that we have ears to hear you and courage to follow whatever you ask of us.

2013: A Year of Travel and Adventure!

My goodness, what a year 2013 was!!! Rumor has it that small children can slow a couple down, but that certainly wasn't the case for our little family this past year.

We jumpstarted 2013 with the celebration of Elliana turning 4, Daddy turning 33 and then off we were onto our first vacation of the year....A Disney Cruise! We ventured to Galveston TX, the newest Departure Port and then boarded our first Cruise Ship as a family. We sailed to Georgetown, Grand Caymans and then onto Cozumel, Mexico. What a delight it was to introduce our little girls to the culture and excitement of new countries, not to mention experience 85+ degrees in January!!

The 6-night cruise so early in the year truly gave us a hunger for more travel, and so in March we were off again to celebrate Mommy and Maya's birthday at the Abe Martin Lodge in Brown Country, Indiana. We filled our birthday weekend with hiking, an indoor water park and then topped off the weekend with a trip to the circus. Throw in Maya's first birthday celebration, Easter celebration and our favorite Norwegian friends visiting us for a few days and we were BUSY!!!! 

In April, we ventured to the Smoky Mountains National Park where we rented a cabin for a few days of uninterrupted family time. We saw black bears in the wild, hiked for a few days, shopped a little bit and of course enjoyed some of our favorite eateries.

 In May we filled our days with outdoor fun, warm weather and local activities. We built forts, played outside, even dipped our toes in our baby pool as we waited for the neighborhood pool to open. The Krohn Butterfly show, Elliana finished her first year of preschool and we went camping! Another busy month!!

In June, we spent a great deal of the month visiting with Mommo, my 94-year old grandma who fell ill.  It was so very hard to see this vibrant, feisty woman so ill and weathered. She passed in late June after a three week battle, and took a bit of my heart with her.

July, we hit the road again to explore the city of Louisville, KY. We celebrated fourth of July watching fireworks over the river from our 9th floor hotel room. It was rather fun watching them from the luxury and comfort of our hotel given the rain was torrential and the kids were cozied up inside. :) Not how we planned it, but slowly we are learning to go with the flow. We explored the local Science Museum, malls, Louisville Bat Museum and any indoor activities we could find as the rain never did let up!

Standing in a giant bubble at the Science Museum!

We also hit the Reds baseball game, local museum with friends, Chuck E. Cheese and a beach vacation to FLORIDA!!!

Two four-year olds + two one-years, = fun times!

Reunited with my long lost college roommate Megan!! 

August we hung out in town, enjoyed our pool, outdoor fun and unfortunately said goodbye to T.J.'s grandma as she joined Mommo in heaven. We experienced 8 new teeth for Maya including all four molars, and said goodbye to breastfeeding. We all began sleeping through the night again (first time since Maya's birth!) Back to the zoo, gymnastics and soaking up the last days of warm weather. 

getting teeth is ROUGH!

Completed Summer Activity Chart

Gymnastics

Zoo days with Ella

In September, TJ and I celebrated 9 years of marriage, Elliana began her second year of preschool, surprised the girls with a trip to see Curious George, apple picking and we ventured to Disney World for a week of vacation.

Hugs before school

Elliana's beautiful letter to God on the sidewalk chalk

The girls Curious George Surprise! Books, new dresses and GEORGE!

Enjoying her fancy meal at Brio in Columbus

October came and went and we filled our days with the last warmth of the year with hayrides, pumpkin patches, outdoor tea parties and unfortunately ended the month with a trip the ER, two sick little girls and finally a torrential down pour on Halloween.

November we were blessed with a getaway for just Mommy & Daddy. A weekend away to Boston for hubby to attend a conference allowed us some much needed downtime and relaxation. The girls loved the quality time with grandparents. Later that month, off to Chicago we went for Thanksgiving. We loved staying with Aunt Jenna and Uncle Matt and getting to know Jackson even better. We need to start planning our next getaway to visit them :)

The girls with their cousin

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry - with Papa! 

December is always a blur of holiday activities, snow and fun. We had our annual gingerbread house party with friends. Elliana sang in her Christmas Concert at school and we all enjoyed the Festival of Lights. We were blessed with lots of family gatherings too to celebrate the birth of Christ. 

Already excited and grateful for the blessings ahead in 2014!