Before we begin another new year I thought it would be fun to revisit all the great memories we've made THIS year. 2012 has been a fabulous year for us, not without pain or heartache, yet still good and full of great moments. We are blessed. Here is a little month by month review of some highlights ...
Both girls played Upward basketball, they had a fantastic 8 weeks of games and learned so many new skills.
We didn't get much snow last winter, but the one big storm we did get we took advantage of. We went to a friend's house to sled and had a great time.
As is our custom, we did it up big with our at home fancy Valentine's Day dinner. We decorated the whole house, dressed up fancy and had an amazing Shrimp Scampi dinner.
Road trip! We took a fun road trip out to Amish country in Pennsylvania to visit with some of our favorite friends. The girls absolutely LOVE hanging with their friends, the Mamas got to enjoy some scrapbooking time and the men did some shooting and relaxing - a great trip for all!
How can this beauty be NINE already?! {actually at the time of this writing she's almost 10!} ... she's never been a big fan of traditional cake so we celebrated with a Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake.
We experienced a pretty mild winter, not mild enough for shorts in my opinion, but nevertheless the girls wear what they feel comfortable in. Anyhow, they enjoyed some fun playing in the creek on mild days {after school work was done for the day}.
MARCH
Oh what a glorious sight when the flowers begin to push through the soil in March! Even when our winter is mild it's still COLD and bleak and I always long for the beautiful days of spring when color begins to reemerge all around us!
When the weather gets nicer, we always long to head outdoors more. More hikes, more bike rides, more being outside and less being cooped up indoors ...
APRIL
April means Easter and we are always thankful for the death and resurrection of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ. What a blessing to be bought with His blood!
After a beautiful Easter morning church service we head north an hour to be with our family for Easter dinner. It's always fun to have the cousins together for an egg hunt, playing outdoors together and lots of laughter and fun.
In April the grass began to get green again and we pulled out sandals again ... oh how good it felt to let my feet breathe again!!
And then we had this CRAZY day where it hit 90 degrees ... in APRIL!! Unheard of for where we live ... so we did what all sane people do and headed for the beach ... for the record the water is still FREEZING in April, even if the air is super warm. Do you think that stopped my girls from getting in the water?!
April brought another gathering for our Balcony Girls group ... they each brought their American Girl dolls over and we had a nice tea party/picnic outdoors ... I just adore these beautiful girls!
More outdoor stuff ... enjoying hiking with Daddy any chance we can get.
MAY
The girls and I took a day trip to Boston to visit the Boston Aquarium ... my favorite thing to see was these super cool penguins!
We finished out another year of Awana at our church. SO proud of both girls who worked so hard this year memorizing hundreds of verses.
As is our tradition for the last several years, we attended Mother/Daughter camp in New Hampshire on the Friday/Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. SOOOO blessed to share this time with my daughters and with 4 other Moms and their daughters ... lots of fun girl time!!!
Mother's Day was a gorgeous day and after church we enjoyed a wonderful lunch out with my Mom and my in laws ... so thankful for these two Moms in my life! I have learned SO much from both of them and they are such a great example to me!
Later in May we took these 4 {very} excited girls to see their favorite band ... One Direction!
JUNE
At the beginning of June we were finishing up our home school year and had been praying about making a big change in sending our girls into public school in the fall. The first week of June was a pivotal week in our year as we visited the schools, talked with principals and guidance counselors, the girls shadowed students, we prayed, prayed and prayed some more and ultimately came up with a decision that we would send them back to school. When I look back on this whole year this week will stand out to me as a time when I agonized over the decision, when I prayed harder than I have in years and when I finally felt such a strong sense of peace as we let go and decided to trust God with the decision. The rest of our summer became a quest to 'enjoy every moment' since we now had an official 'back to school' date and we wanted to cram in as much fun as we could before that day came.
Also in June ... My Mom turned 60! We had a surprise party for her here at our house with friends and family. It was a beautiful day! My daughters painted these paintings as gifts for her ... she loves to kayak and these were just perfect for her! I am so blessed to have her for my Mom and it was fun to surprise her and shower her in love that day.
The next day we went out for lunch together, my brother and niece were in town for my Mom's birthday so it was good to be all together and enjoy the time.
My birthday is the day after my Mom's ... we had already finished school for the year at that point so we took a day trip up to Newport, Rhode Island for the day. We walked the cliff walk, did some window shopping, took lots of pictures and enjoyed a yummy lunch at the Red Parrot. What a great day with my family!
Once our friends were out of school for the summer we jumped right into summer fun. First up, strawberry picking, an annual favorite!!
Next up ... LOTS and LOTS of beach days ...
At the end of June we sent our oldest off to summer camp for a week. She had a BLAST and we missed her terribly but tried to stay busy with friends and fun.
JULY
When we picked her up from Camp we stayed up in New Hampshire for a few days for a little mini vacation. We spent several lazy days floating in rivers and just relaxing.
OpSail came to Connecticut this July and we spent a lovely day out on the water in my Father in law's boat watching all the tall ships come in.
My nephews {and their parents} came to visit in July and the kids were treating to tubing behind Grandpa's boat - they had the time of their lives! It's pretty rare to get a good picture with all 5 Grandkids so I was happy to get this one.
Our summer was filled with LOTS and LOTS of playdates with friends ... we did a lot of swimming and picnicking and just having fun together.
Then our lovely friends, the Womer's came to visit ... they are the ones we went to see back in February so it had been a long time and we were super excited to have them come see us. My brother and niece were also in town for a couple of days ... as you can see there are a lot of girls between the 3 families!
July is also the best time to go to the sunflower farm ... I just love seeing thousands and thousands of gorgeous sunflowers and it doesn't hurt that they have delicious homemade ice cream there too!
My Mom, my girls and I took a little road trip to New Jersey this July. We went to a huge hot air balloon festival where my cousin and her Dad were in charge. A whole bunch of my family were there to help crew for the hot air balloons. The first day we got there we had lunch with my last living Grandparent. He is in his 90's and it was neat to get this picture of the 4 generations.
And here is a group photo with a lot of my family that was there ...
Helping crew for the balloons was an AWESOME experience, I've never done anything like that and it was just amazing. The colorful balloons filling the sky was the coolest sight to see! I hope to go back next year.
AUGUST
August became our 'we better do everything fun now before school starts' month. Knowing we had just a few weeks until school would start we knew we had to take advantage of every day. We spent more days at the beach, more days swimming with friends, more late nights with campfires and fun, more runs to our fave ice cream places ... just more of all the summer fun stuff ...
In August we had NINE 'tween' girls here for a sleepover party for my oldest. Her birthday is actually in September but she wanted a swimming party so we had it in August. These girls consumed more sugar in that afternoon/evening than most people should have in a month and were SO.LOUD! They swam and danced and sang and ate and laughed and were loud and silly and it was all a bit crazy but also super fun. So thankful for so many sweet and wonderful friends for my girls to enjoy life with!
{of course her cake was One Direction themed - she helped me decorate it}
At the end of August we got to visit her new middle school. We met her homeroom teacher, checked out her new locker, got her schedule and toured the halls. It was an exciting time!
And we crammed in ANOTHER beach day ... =) {gotta do these things while you can, you know!}
And then the day arrived ... the first day of school. I still can't believe we took this huge leap, but the Lord has been SO faithful and the transition has gone beautifully for both girls. Here they both are on the first day school.
{middle school/6th grade for our oldest}
{4th grade for our youngest}
... all ready to hop on the bus!
SEPTEMBER
September meant the start of another great soccer season. Hope was on a fantastic team and we always love our Saturday mornings in the fall when we go to the soccer field with friends and family and cheer on the team.
The other big thing in September was our CRUISE!! Yep, we took the girls out of school for a week and cruised to BERMUDA!! This was our 3rd time in Bermuda and we love it more every time. We had a fantastic week on the cruise ship and the island.
This lucky girl got to spend her 11th birthday at sea! She had breakfast in bed, a fun filled day on the ship and waiters who sang to her at dinner that night. I think it's a birthday she will not soon forget!
{Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda}
{Tobacco Bay, Bermuda}
OCTOBER
Our friends hosted their annual fall harvest party - it's always so much fun and this year they outdid themselves with a paint ball gallery and a scavenger hunt in the woods. We are so blessed to have some truly amazing friends!!
We went up to visit our family on Columbus Day. It was a beautiful and brisk fall day and we went on a nice little hike before coming back to their house for hot soup and homemade bread.
The girls started something new! Joy began playing the Flute and Hope began playing the Clarinet ... both are doing quite well and it's been fun to see them progress!
I personally thought this fall was one of the most gorgeous we've had in recent years. The foliage was so bright and beautiful this year and one day I took my camera in the car and just took photos everywhere I drove to try to capture it all. The Lord's creation is absolutely stunning!!
We enjoyed some beautiful fall days together as a family. With the girls in school now it's harder to find these family moments as our weekends fill up fast - but for the most part we reserved our Sunday afternoons to spend together. One Sunday we enjoyed the gorgeous weather with a nice long bike ride together ...
We did our first Adventure race in October. My brother in law, my husband and myself all ran it. There were 10 obstacles and some MEGA tough hills but I survived and finished in just over 36 minutes!
It wouldn't be fall without some time playing in the leaves!!
Hurricane Sandy hit our area just before Halloween... although our shoreline was hit pretty hard we were very fortunate at our house to only lose power for 24 hours. Many in our area lost it for a whole week and had significant damage.
{the picture below is the sand completely covering the road next to one of our local beaches}
The end of October always means HALLOWEEN, we went to a fun party at our friend's house with about 35 people! We always have a great time with our friends and a whole bunch of kiddos ... the costumes were so cute and creative this year!
NOVEMBER
November brought the end of the soccer season and a nice little team picnic/celebration. LOVE that Hope has such food friends on her team!
November also meant another election. And no matter whether I agree with the person who took office or not, I am thankful that God is still in control!
THANKSGIVING was another highlight of our year with a HUGE group coming together to celebrate. We had family from both my side and Bob's side, and some friends of the family too - about 25 people in all. It was a wonderful weekend and we truly enjoyed the time spent together.
Once the dust settled from Thanksgiving we headed full on into Christmas planning. First up was picking out and cutting down our Christmas tree, a tradition we always do right after Thanksgiving.
AND we ended the month with ANOTHER One Direction concert ... what other girls would be lucky enough to see them not once, but twice in one year?!
DECEMBER
Our 16th Anniversary was November 30th, but we celebrated it on Dec. 1st with a really nice evening out together. Our tradition is to go to our favorite local restaurant and once again it was fabulous. We ended the evening by cozying up at home for a movie. So thankful for 16 amazing years with my best friend!
And the rest of December has been filled with school days, basketball practices, swimming lessons, preparing for Christmas, baking, sending cards, and all the other good and fun things that come with getting ready for Christmas. It was a busy month and we also had some fun weekends thrown in with a 50's dance, a Christmas party with friends and a light parade. Perhaps being so busy this month is why it seemed like Christmas came so fast?! I'm not sure, but I do know that this year seems like it flew by astonishingly fast!
The end of our year was spent celebrating our Savior's birth, spending time with family and friends and enjoying a nice, big snowstorm to finish out our year.
To say that our year was all sunshine and roses would be a huge lie, as we all know that hard times come to every single one of us. Yet reflecting on these simple and fun memories of all the good times we've had really puts it all in perspective and helps me to remember just how very blessed we all are. Our family and friends have had such a HUGE part in our lives this year and we are truly blessed to be known and loved by each and every one of them.
Through all the laughs we had, all the tears we've cried, all the moments - good and bad - we stand back and say THANK YOU LORD that you are SO good to us. Looking forward to another wonderful year in 2013!!
