Grace's Birthday Adventure

For her ninth birthday this year, Grace chose as her gift to go to New York City and see Matilda the Musical on Broadway! We made the plans months in advance and we were so excited to go on January 23rd.

Unfortunately, January 23rd was the day the big blizzard hit NYC!  What a day we had.  Poor Nanny's boots broke apart in the snow, and we arrived at the theater at 1pm to be told Broadway was closing for the day.  What a disappointment!

We were determined to make it back, so we planned a return trip for a few weeks later.  This time, it was torrential rain and strong winds!  We still had an awesome time and enjoyed the day despite being soaked!

We hunted for tasty cookies all over New York - Bouchon Bakery, Levain Bakery, Jacques Torres.  We watched Matilda from the sixth row!  Amazing show! And finished up with a delicious dinner at Carmine's.  Grace's 9th birthday was one to remember!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We were so excited this year for our first Christmas in our new home!  The only downfall was the crazy weather…way too warm for upstate NY, and worst of all, NO SNOW!  :-(

Christmas was wonderful and magical, as it always is with children who are true believers!
We took a ride on “Santa’s Magical Express” and helped Mrs. Claus and Santa save Christmas from the mischievous Jack Frost!

Christmas Eve was so warm, that we didn’t even wear our coats.

We celebrated Christmas Eve mass, went to a few fun parties with family and friends, and then home to get into bed to wait for Santa!

He came!!!

We had a wonderful morning opening surprises from Santa!  The kids were thrilled.

And even after all that fun, there was more fun to be had as we celebrated the next day with the Camenga side of the family!  Here’s all the cousins, they have such a fun time together!

We hope you all had a truly magical Christmas as well!

10th Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange

It's hard to believe we have been celebrating our annual cookie exchange for 10 years now!  We love celebrating with these wonderful friends year after year.  Here's some pictures of our fun!

The kids decorated t-shirts as a craft project.

The bizarre warm weather made it easy to play football outside!

Love all these crazy kids!

And love their crazy moms and teachers too!

Grace Goes to Oireachtas

This past weekend, Grace participated in the Mid-America region Oireachtas for Irish dance.  It includes Irish dance schools from NY, NJ, PA, and DE. What a whirlwind!  We had an early Thanksgiving on Wednesday, and then Thursday we hopped in the car for our ride to Philadelphia. It's a crazy busy weekend filled with sparkly dresses, big wigs and lots of dancing!

Grace danced in the Under 8 traditional set dance.  

Getting hair done and warming up!

She's ready to go.

She did wonderfully...received a recall and placed 11th in her group!

It was so exciting!  A recall is a huge thrill and we couldn't have been happier for her!

Grace also danced in an Under 8 4-hand team.  These girls are just the cutest!

They did not recall, but danced beautifully and we were proud as could be.

My mom and I had a great time with Grace on our girls' trip to Oireachtas!  So proud of Grace and all the Boland School dancers and how hard they worked!

Halloween 2015 - Turtle Power!

I'm so happy that my kiddos have granted me another year of coordinated costumes!  I just love it and will take it for as long as I can get it!

This year they decided to be Ninja Turtles!

Liam as Leonardo

Grace as Michaelangelo 

Seamus as Raphael

Heroes in a half shell!

School Pictures 2015

I was so happy about this year's school photos - I think they came out great!

Seamus, 5th grade

Grace, 4th grade

Liam, kindergarten 

LPA Fun at Great Wolf Lodge

We recently attended the LPA District 1 regional at the Great Wolf Lodge in MA.  I have been wanting to check out this cool place for so long, and a regional seemed like the perfect opportunity!  We road-tripped with our friends the Weissers, and met up the Leahys and many other cool people once we arrived!

The kids had an absolute blast!  

A perfect weekend road trip!  A great time was had by all!