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On May 30th it’ll be Dave and my 15 year wedding anniversary! We don’t typically do much of anything for our anniversary, but this year we decided to take a short trip. We’re also both turning 40 this year, so it just feels a bit more significant all together. We decided on South Beach – we’ve both never been there, it’s a quick direct flight, and nice and warm. We had a blast! The weather was beautiful, the people are insane, and there’s great food. We enjoyed it all (although Dave will tell you it was all a bit too much for him).

It seems to be the town of selfies, so we got in the spirit ourselves.

We spent one afternoon in a neighborhood called Wynwood Walls, which was previously a blighted area and was recently (relatively) developed into a hipster/artsy neighborhood. We ate some amazing ice cream at a place called Dasher & Crank and saw some very impressive graffiti and large format art, including an exhibition of Kobra, whom I love.

And then we did what I guess you do in South Beach – lay by the pool, drink straight from a coconut, listen to amazing latin jazz, and meet ladies who juggle fire at a bar late at night.

It was a lot of fun and felt much longer than just three days (just long enough I think). The icing on the cake was getting upgraded to first class on the way home. One of the few perks of Dave’s crazy travel schedule.

For a quick blast from the past, please enjoy this! Look at those babies!

Here’s to the next 15!

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Summer is almost here! The girls are wrapping up their school year activities with end of the year celebrations.

Lauren took her last kindergarten field trip to the Japanese House in Fairmount. Each month the kindergarteners took a different trip and this one was sort of the culmination. They learned all about Japan for about two weeks and then experienced it for themselves at the House.

Sophie had an art show of the different works that she did at the Narberth Handwork Studio. She took a fiber arts course where she sewed some pillows and a sewing machine class where she made a skirt. She loved that one so much she’ll be heading to a fashion camp this summer.

And Sophie also had her first Girl Scouts camping trip. Her troop went to a camp ground about an hour from our house where they earned badges hiking, learning how to use a compass, cooking dinner, and learning about nature. Dave was a chaperone… and Lauren and I slept wonderfully in our beds at home 😉

Sophie also did a program called Girls on the Run this spring, where, for two days each week for an hour and a half each day, she learned to run as well as did a lot of girl empowerment activities. The culmination was a 5K in May. She needed to have a running buddy with her so that was me. It was a hot day and she was tired, but we did it in 48 minutes. She was really proud of herself when it was done, and so were we. We can also definitely say she is not the runner in this family – at least not at the moment.

A few days later I ran in the Philly Broad Street Run, which is a 10 mile race. This was the 6th time I’ve done it and I got a personal best time, with a time of 1:22:55! It rained the whole race, but wasn’t that cold, so not so bad.

And finally Dave and I got dressed up for a black tie fundraiser for Temple University Trauma Center. We were invited as guests of the Gift of Life Family House, a board that I sit on.

Still up – Lauren’s spring ballet recital and Sophie’s spring choir concert – which are of course are at the exact same time in just a few weeks. We’re going to have to draw straws to decide who goes to which.

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This year’s spring break was pretty low key, and it was also really nice. We did a tour of the Mid-Atlantic – visiting the Townsends in Maryland, staying a few days with my family in Virginia, and then ending the week in Rock Hall with the Sharps.

We stayed with the Townsends in their new house, which is beautiful. All three girls get along really well, but Bella and Lauren are especially close.

Bella and Lauren playing dress up

Then we hit the road down to Charlottesville where we stayed for a few days. The weather was mostly beautiful and we took full advantage spending a lot of time outside.

Ari and the girls also get along really well, especially Ari and Lauren who are only a year apart.

  • On the Lawn at UVa
  • On top of Wilde Rock in Crozet

We spent the last few days of the week in Rock Hall, where the weather was beautiful and we were able to hit the beach one day, and where I also neglected to take any pictures.

And we ended the week off with Easter brunch at Torresdale with the Sharps, Zoe, and Elliott.

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On April 1 we celebrated Benson’s 13th birthday! While he’s slowed down a bit in the last few months, he’s still got some spunk in him. He got a bone that made him do his new bone dance and a cake shaped cookie that he devoured.

The birthday boy!

He spent most of the weekend doing what he does best…

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Every year Lauren’s school, Bala House Montessori, has an event called the International Dinner. It’s a pot luck where families are asked to bring a dish that represents their cultural heritage and then the kids give a singing performance where they sing about world peace and loving each other. It’s very cute.

The kindergartners are the “hosts” and sit at the table to check people in and ask for donations. Afterward the kids use the donated money to purchase animals for villages in need through Heifer International.

  • Lauren and her friends collecting donations at the door

Lauren on stage with the other kindergarteners singing their songs. She decided to dress in her unicorn outfit, because as we all know, the Sharp’s are actually descendants of the unicorn.

Unrelated to the International Dinner, but still worth adding so that we can look back at this post some day and remember, Lauren has moved onto a new favorite ensemble, seen here. Over the last year she has decided that she has one outfit or one piece of clothing that she loves, and wants to wear nothing else. She wears it until it’s full of holes and need to official retire into the trashcan. Right now this is the outfit, complete with the boots. It’s magical and amazing, just like Lauren.

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Sophie decided that for her birthday party this year she wanted to have an America’s Got Talent – themed party, so we put together “Cynwyd’s Got Talent,” complete with the four judges from the show. My parents, Becky, and Ariana all come up for the weekend. At the party all of her friends performed a talent, and it was too hard to select just one winner, so all were winners!

Here are all of the performers. We enjoyed dancing, singing, jokes, a piano performance, and a magic trick.

Here are the judges, Dave (pop pop) as Howie Mandell, Dave as Simon, Becky as Heidi Klum, and me as Mel B. We all did our best to get into character.

Sophie’s friend Dior was the host, playing her best Tyra Banks.
Lauren and Ari had a great time at the party too. Lauren did a ballet dance to a song from The Greatest Showman, and Ari did a dance and song on roller-skates.

That next day we had a family party with everyone.

  • The birthday girl!

It’s been a while since I made a cake, but was happy to get back into it again. Sophie requested a chocolate cake with a salted caramel buttercream frosting. It was pretty good.

Happy birthday to our sweet Sophie! It’s hard to believe that she’s 9 already. We’re going to do everything we can to enjoy this last year of single digits!

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The weekend of January 19th was Lina’s last weekend with us. We had an amazing year and already miss her a lot. Before we took her to the airport on Saturday, she, Sophie and I went into Center City to march in the (now annual) Women’s March down the Parkway. We marched with a group of girls from Girls Inc., a nonprofit whose board I sit on.

It was a really chilly day, but also a lot of fun. We started at Love Park and marched with hundreds of others to the steps of the art museum.

The next day was MLK Day and the Philadelphia Girls Choir was invited to sing at a lunch event for the Philadelphia Martin Luther King, Jr. Association for Nonviolence. In attendance was mayor Kenney, governor Wolf, lieutenant governor Fetterman, and state senator Casey. It was a pretty impressive crowd and the girls did not disappoint. They performed three songs from their season last year.

After Lina left, Dave’s parents have officially taken over care of the kids before and after school. They arrive in the morning before I leave to finish getting them together and out the door, and pick them up in the afternoons to take them to their various activities and help with homework. The transition has gone incredibly smoothly and it’s great to have them here every day.

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At the beginning of the Christmas break I took the girls to see The Nutcracker performed by Pennsylvania Ballet. It’s been our tradition since Sophie was 2 1/2 (I still can’t believe I took her when she was that young). As always, it was beautiful and fun to get dressed up and go out.

Here are the goofballs before the show started.
With one of the dancers during intermission

After the show we walked over to the Ritz Carlton for hot chocolate. I can say this was hands down the most amazing hot chocolate the girls have ever had – served with about 8 marshmallows and a side of two cookies. I think we might make this part of the tradition as well 🙂

Two days later was Christmas!

We had a quiet morning opening presents with the four of us, Dave, Kathy, and Lina.

Here’s the set up after Santa came
Sophie got a new pair of skis
Lauren with her new roller skates
Lauren is currently in a serious unicorn phase. Here she is was an enormous stuffed unicorn.

After the low key morning we got ourselves into major hosting gear. By 1pm there were 31 people in the house! As he’s done the last two years, Dave cooked the entire dinner, this year with some help from his mom, which was much appreciated. We were able to fit everyone by bringing in two extra folding tables in the living room. It was tight but we did it!

After dinner Dave, Kathy, Sophie, Laure and I gave a short concert of Jingle Bells. Dave played trombone, Kathy was on clarinet, Sophie piano, Lauren tambourine and I was on violin. It was a ton of fun. Back in the day Dave’s family used to have Sharp family concerts and I’m working to bring them back!

After the concert we took the tables down and everyone opened presents in the living room. By 8pm everyone was gone and the house was quiet again. All in all a very successful day!

Two days after Christmas Sophie broke in her new skis, and Lauren used her new hand-me-down skis, and we headed to Spring Mountain. Both girls did amazing. Dave is looking forward to a productive ski season this year 😉

The ski bums
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The PGC had their holiday concert in the middle of December at Temple’s Performing Arts Center. It was beautiful, as it always is. Sophie is in the Etude group, which is made up of the youngest girls.

Sophie was front and center in the Etude group
The last song the entire choir performed together was “Believe” by Josh Groban. It was pretty amazing.
Here’s the singer after the performance.
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The Friday before the holiday vacation Dave and I went to Bala House Montessori to celebrate Lauren’s birthday with a traditional Montessori birthday walk. Students hold a globe and walk around a candle that represents the sun the number of times that they are years old.

Here she is sitting with the candle before doing the Walk.

She also made a poster of her first five years of life that she shared with the class, and then she read everyone a story before Dave and I read everyone a story.

Showing her class the poster she made.
Reading to the class

In our house, on December 26th all of the Christmas decorations come down and we move right into birthday mode. This year was no exception. By the afternoon of the 26th all decorations were taken down and put away (in the newly organized basement, which was one of the many staycation projects we did over the break).

Unfortunately it rained all day on her birthday so we made the most of it and went to Jump, an indoor trampoline park. Lauren, Sophie, Lina and I all jumped. It was really fun. That night we did a family birthday dinner with the Sharps.

Birthday breakfast in her stylish birthday wardrobe.
This year unicorn was definitely the theme. Here she is with the second large stuffed unicorn she received, wearing unicorn earmuffs (missing in the picture are the unicorn mittens she also got)
Birthday cake with the family

The next day was her friends birthday party at Kids at Play, an indoor playground. About eight of her classmates came as well as Ava and Emma Devine and Kishore. We had the place to ourselves and the kids had a blast.

  • Lauren with some of her friends at Kids at Play
  • Cake #2

After Kids at Play her friend Teagan and Norah came back to the house. Sophie’s present to Lauren was giving her and her friends a makeover. I have to say, she did a very tasteful job.

The makeover salon
The party ended with a movie (Star Wars VI) and more pizza.

With three separate birthday celebrations she is now officially a six year old!

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