So, if you have been a follower of my blog, you will see that I pretty much took a year off from blogging...not because I wanted to necessarily, but life just didn't allow for it.
But, I miss blogging A LOT, so I am going to try to commit to a weekly blog entry in 2014!
I thought I'd begin my blogging in 2014 with a recap of 2013...
I will try to give a chronological recap, but my pictures and memory are not necessarily organized in such a fashion right now...lol.
I would also normally add a lot more written detail surrounding the pictures, but for now, I wanted to get the pics into the blog before I lost the motivation to do so.
January/February, 2013
The year kicked off with lots of play dates with good friends. I continue to be so thankful that the girls have made such good choices in their friends...these friendships will influence and shape a lot in their little hearts and lives and I thank God for such positive influences.
Megan was able to enjoy some fun at her school with her good friend Bekka and a few other good friends.
For Valentine's Day...we decided to celebrate as a family
The other big February event was the long-awaited Father/Daughter Dance...Megan was able to go for the first time this year and was so excited!
Here are the two beauties ready to head out the door!
Much of the winter months involved creative play at our house, outside in the snow, going to the Messiah pool and hitting the playground when warm enough to do so.
Once Spring came, it was time to hit Hershey Park w/ our new passes...Woo-Hoo. We even ran into some good friends on our first trip there!
They also had some fun school activities, including a few field trips I was able to go on with Megan.
March, 2013
This year, Megan was old enough to pick a sport to play and she decided to give softball a try. She was by far the littlest one on the team...but she gave it a strong effort! Alexia LOVED playing again and feels as though softball is HER sport!
During their softball season, we took in a Senator's Baseball Game with some good friends...
April, 2013
In April, Scott and I were able to sneak away for a weekend getaway to Pittsburgh and had a great time together!
After we got back from Pittsburgh, the girls had their first softball tournament to kick off the season...
...and for all that effort on a very cold spring morning...they enjoyed a special treat afterwards at their favorite ice cream shop :)
A few final pics from the season...
At the end of April, there was a celebration of our beautiful 6 year old, Megan Nicole :)
For her birthday celebration with friends, Megan chose to go to Brewster's for ice cream and then to play with friends at Monkey Joe's....she had an absolute blast!!
In May, we celebrated our other beautiful daughter, Alexia Joy...who turned 8 this year!! Despite her usual desire to celebrate with a ton of friends...this year she only wanted to celebrate with her dear friend Leann and her cousin, Jillian. We took them out for pizza and then went roller skating.
Alexia seemed so grown up to me as she sat and opened her gifts...
Then, Alexia followed in her cousin's footsteps and shined in her own recital...
At the end of June, two big events took place...the first was Robin's Dirty Girl Mud Run....a 5K, along with 12 Muddy Obstacles....check out my Facebook page for pics from that incredible event!
The last week of June, we took our family vacation to Ocean City, NJ...here are a few of my favorite pics from the week...
July & August brought with it a ton of outdoor summer fun as a family and with the dearest of friends!
And of course...summer couldn't end without another visit from Grandma & Papa...
We even attempted camping as a family for the very first time. We went with our good friends Matt, Ami & Mason...and although we got rained out and had to head home early....we had a lot of fun before the rain came :)
The first week of August was our annual week at Grandma & Papa's house...and this year Scott came along, so it was a great family week together :) I took a ton of pics, but here are the highlights...
We made several trips to Hershey Park this summer and were able to join up with Grandma and Grandpa during at least one of them :)
In August, we all went out to dinner to celebrate Grandma Z's 97th birthday:)
We also spent the month of August focused on the start of the next school year...getting into a regular routine again, shopping for school clothes, meeting new teachers and Megan even had a little Kindergarten reunion...
August flew by and before we knew it...we were sending them off to their first day of 3rd and 1st grades...
The Fall brought a whirlwind of activity...
Fun times at football games while Scott worked School Police...
The girls gave Upwards Cheerleading a try...
October brought with it Trick or Treating....
...and a fun Fall weekend with Grandma & Papa...we checked out the Harvest Fest at Ashcomb Farms while they were here :)
After the festival we went home and carved pumpkins and made these "growing pumpkins" with Grandma...
As is tradition each fall, we stopped over at the Mechanicsburg Wildcat Foundation's Fall Festival...
As part of the October fun, there was more "dressing up" for school. Megan dressed up at Doc McStuffins for the character parade and Alexia had to dress up as a vocabulary word...she chose "glamorous" :)
The last weekend of October, Robin snuck away for her annual "Girls Weekend @ the Beach"...as always, a great time was had by everyone!!
In addition to Cheerleading, Swimming lessons, Scrimmage and Fall Ball, Alexia took on a new activity this Fall...Girls on the Run. It was an amazing program that reinforced many wonderful values and helped her train to run her very first 5K. Scott was her "Running Buddy" for the big race and so he met her at one of her practices for a "practice 5K".
One day while Alexia was at practice...Megan and I raked up some leaves and had some fun with them afterwards...
For Thanksgiving, we headed up to Erie...a little earlier than usual due to Aunt Wanda being in ICU at the time. Despite a very sad week of seeing her so sick, the girls made the most of the snow that came while we were there and did lots of playing and sledding outside :)
Another part of our Thanksgiving week visit that was so special is that we were able to visit with Rich, Ron & Kat, whom we do not get to see very often....the girls adore all of their Aunts and Uncles and so this was very important to them (and to me)!
Sadly, my Aunt Wanda passed away on December 5th, but before we left town, the girls made some pictures for her and gave them to Uncle Bob...it was a very sweet moment...
December kicked off our Christmas celebrations...we had our first gift exchange at Grandpops in Hershey...
That same weekend, the girls helped lead worship in "Big Church"...this was Megan's first year on the Kids' Worship Team and she really enjoyed doing this with Alexia.
On December 14, Alexia ran her 5K with her GOTR team at the Jingle Bell Run...she did great, with a time of 40 minutes and 9 seconds :) Way to go, Alexia!
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We also enjoyed our 2nd annual Neighborhood Friends Cookie Decorating Extravaganza...
We were able to manage squeezing in a quick visit to Hershey Park's Christmas Candylane....on an unusually warm winter day...
...and finally, here are just a few favorite pics from Christmas...
I'm so glad I took time to do this post (all 500+ pics and all...). It brought back many wonderful memories from the year. We truly are blessed!!
