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The day after we got back from vacation was Easter. We made it very low key, with brunch at the UL Torresdale. Zoe and Elliott joined us as well.

The Easter crew.

It was chilly – so jackets went on right after this picture was taken. Where is spring?!

Easter was also Benson’s 12th birthday. Zoe and Elliott watched him while we were away, and they spoiled him with his own cake.

The cake

Here he is with his cousin, Merci from a few months ago.

A recent shot of the old man

Even though he’s getting up there, he’s still spry when he wants to be. Here’s a video of him with a new bone.

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Happy birthday, buddy!

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In October the Sharps left for their eight month adventure down the East Coast and into the Bahamas. We were lucky enough to meet them in December in Key West, and lucky again to meet up with them in The Exumas, Bahamas, for spring break. It was amazing! We leaving a cold, snowy Philly and it was warm AND beautiful!

SATURDAY

We left Saturday morning, flew to Nassau, and then took the sketchiest plane I’ve ever been on to Staniel Key. Only a 30 minute flight, thank God. There was electrical tape holding some of the lights up, and not all seat belts worked, I’m not kidding.

Here we are taking up almost half the plane. They had to seat us according to weight.

During a stop over at another island, Sophie jumped up to sit right behind the pilots.

Here’s a shot of Staniel Key from the plane. By far the most populated island we were on all week (in fact, the only populated island). Accessibly via sketchy plane and private yacht, making it an interesting mixture of locals, a handful of cruisers (like the Sharps), and very wealthy folks – half totally pretentious and half totally crusty.

Once we arrived in Staniel Key a woman who worked at the airport (which was a building the size of our living room) was nice enough to give us a ride on her golf cart to the yacht club, where the Sharp’s boat was.

Here are the girls in the back of the golf cart.

We met up with the Sharps at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, which had one of two restaurants on the island. It also had a large group of Nurse sharks that hung right in the water outside. They congregate there because it’s where the fisherman throw their scraps. They’re not aggressive, so the girls could go down and pet them.

 

SUNDAY

On Sunday we went snorkeling in Thunderball Grotto, made famous by the James Bond Thunerball movie. It was a cave that you had to hit right at slack tide, otherwise it was too hard to get into. Once inside it opened up to this amazing space that was lit from above by an opening. There were thousands of fish. It was pretty incredible. Sophie snorkeled with us, Lauren didn’t want to leave the boat.

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Dave brought his go pro – here’s one of the videos.

After the Grotto we left Staniel and headed to Shroud Cay. It was about a four hour boat ride. We anchored and took the dinghy and kayaks to this beautiful beach, which you got to via a winding waterway through mangroves.

Here’s a shot of Kathy prepping to lower the anchor. It was pretty amazing – the entire week we hardly saw other people. Each anchorage had maybe two or three other boats.

On the kayak trip to the beach we saw a lot of sea turtles, including this guy.

Me in the kayak.

Sunday night’s sunset. They were all pretty amazing – it was hard to pick just one to post.

MONDAY – WEDNESDAY

On Monday we left for Warderick Wells Cay. We planned on only staying there one night, but the wind really picked up and it was just too dangerous to leave – which I am not complaining about because this place was amazing. I’ve certainly been “stuck” in worse places.

Here’s Warderick Wells.

The tides are pretty extreme there, and when it’s high tide there are some cool intertidal zones. Every day we went and checked out what came in.

Here are the girls exploring.

One of the sharks that we saw. He was pretty small – maybe two feet. He was just waiting there for his dinner to float in.

We did a few hikes at this Cay, including one up to Boo Boo Hill, which was named after the sound the waves make crashing into the cliff.

Here’s a view from the top of Boo Boo Hill. The only non-sailboat is ours.

At the top to Boo Boo Hill people leave the names of their boats on pieces of drift wood. Sophie made a sign for So Many Stars and Dave screwed it in to remain for years to come.

Sophie with her sign.

A family shot on the way up to the top of Boo Boo Hill.

Monday night we celebrated Dave’s 67th birthday. Kathy had bought a cake from a woman who also ran the laundromat in Staniel Cay.

The next day Dave, the girls and I took a hike to another side of the island. We followed a path someone had marked with yellow paint.

…and ended up at another amazing beach – totally secluded.

This one was called Barefoot Beach.

On the main beach there was this huge skeleton of a sperm whale that had died and washed up on the beach years ago. There was a sign that said it had died by ingesting plastic. Later in the week we ended up on a beach that had a lot of plastic that had washed up on it – so we all moved it up to past the waterline, reminding the girls about the whale.

On our last day at Warderick Wells we took the dinghy to another area of the island we hadn’t explored yet and spent the day on the beach. The only other people we saw was a Canadian couple and their granddaughter, who were hiking around.

 

On most beaches were piles of rocks. Dave and the girls help to build this one.

THURSDAY

The winds finally calmed down enough for us to travel on Thursday and we headed to Cambridge Cay, which was about a two hour boat ride. It was another beautiful anchorage, and when we arrived we were the only boat there, other than a catamaran, which was there permanently to collect mooring fees.

Our first adventure was to an amazing area called The Aquarium, known for some the the best snorkeling in The Exumas. Unfortunately the go pro had gone dead by this point, so there’s not video. Lauren did snorkel with us this time.

Next up, we went to a small island that the girls “claimed” with flags.

First the girls hammed it up…

 

And then planted their flags.

The next adventure was a hike out to some blowholes.

 

Dave, his dad, and I went out on Thursday to check it out.

FRIDAY

The next morning we did the blowhole hike again with the kids, Kathy, and Rosie the dog.

The landscape looked a little like Ireland.

Dave his dad and I also hiked to the top of a big hill not far from the blowholes.

Dave and Rosie at the top.

Me with the mooring in the background. A big yacht had joined us the evening before, so there ended up being three of us there.

Panoramic shot from the top of the hill.

After that we were off to see the swimming pigs.

Another two hour boat ride and we anchored right outside of Staniel Cay. We took the dinghy into see the famous pigs. To be honest, they were slightly terrifying. Some of them were huge, and they were very aggressive, coming right up to eat the food you hopefully brought for them (we brought carrots). Although other people were in the water, I wouldn’t let the girls get in, which they were not happy about. They did come right up to the boat though.

Lauren tossing the carrot because I was too afraid to let her feed him by hand. They were not very good at catching food in their mouths.

That night we had our last meal back at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

Not a great shot, but it’s one of the few group ones we got.

SATURDAY

All good vacations must come to and end. We took another golf cart back to the same sketchy plane and headed home.

One last shot of the group in front of the boat.

An amazing week!

 

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I sit here writing this blog post in the middle of the third major snow storm this month! March has certainly come in like a lion. I’m anxiously waiting for the lamb portion of the month.

At least it’s beautiful to look at!

Here are a few shots from our backyard from the last storm. The one we’re currently in is supposed to drop even more than the last two. We’ll see.

 

At least the girls have been enjoying themselves. They’ve missed a lot of school – we’re into summer days at this point. And they’ve been sledding a lot.

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This weekend we celebrated Sophie’s 8th birthday!
On Friday Dave and I went into her classroom in the morning and read to the class (The Curvy Tree), and brought everyone pencils. We both worked from home so we could pick her up that afternoon. Around 1pm we started to get some crazy weather – rain had turned into a wintery mix with hurricane winds. Soon ice was falling from the sky and trees were falling all over the neighborhood. In the middle of making her cake the power went out! It was really scary. Dave and to go pick her up from school in the pick-up truck.

Lina’s family was in town from Sweden for the week and we had invited them to come over Friday night for dinner. We decided to keep the dinner on – we just had it over candle light. We have a generator so the fridge could still run as a few lights around the house. Dave cooked on the grill. Although we ended up eating pretty late, it turned out really well.

I’m kicking myself for not getting a group shot of everyone. This is the best I have.

We sang happy birthday to Sophie in English and then the Swedish crowd sang to her too. It was really fun!

The next day we had Sophie’s friend birthday party – which was a sleep under. It’s apparently the thing to do in second grade. The kids come over int he evening in their PJs, bring sleeping bags, eat pizza, watch a movie, and then go home before actually sleeping. It was great – the first year we haven’t had to rent out a venue!

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We started with a freeze dance party (link above). The winners went home with some sweet make your own soap prizes.

Then we did pizza from Tony Roni’s (of course)

Then it was movie time. Sophie picked Descendants 2, which is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, but the girls seemed to like it a lot.

Half way through the movie we paused so everyone could make their own sundaes, which was a big hit. Since we did a cake the night before, Dave thought it would be fun to shake things up a bit – and everyone loved it.

We still had no power, but fortunately the generator ran the tv and music just fine. Sophie had a great time! Our lights came back on around 9pm Saturday night.

Here are a few shots of our house the day after the storm. The damage in our neighborhood was pretty bad, so we consider ourselves fortunate.

Cable lines were ripped off of our house and hung down over the road, so police came and put up caution tape. We decided to put up birthday balloons so people didn’t think they were driving into a disaster (which they kind of were).

A tree branch came down in the back and crushed two of Dave’s vegetable planters. He was bummed, but we were both thankful it didn’t land on the house.

 

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When Sophie was 4 I started her on violin in a Suzuki program. It was very intense, but I was determined that she was going to do it. Despite my dreams of her becoming a beautiful violinist, after almost three years of tears and drama around practicing I finally let her quit. After taking a breather she said she wanted to start piano. This time I took a totally different approach and let her play what she wants when she wants (with guidance from her teacher of course). Although it’s been slow going, she loves it, which is a much better situation.

This weekend she had her first recital, which is a very casual event at Settlement Music School. Basically, the teacher decides when a student is ready, and one weekend a month kids who are “ready” perform. There were 5 other kids, playing piano and cello, and it lasted less than 30 minutes. She was super nervous, but played beautifully, and was proud of herself afterward, which was the best part.

Here she is practicing one more time before we left for the recital.

We’ve heard Frère Jacques approximately 147 times in our house over the last month… but it was worth it 😉

It was a big stage and a big piano, and she did a great job!

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It’s mid-February and I’m officially done with winter. January felt like it was 147 days long. But we’ve been keeping busy trying to enjoy all of the fun things about winter (which I keep having to remind myself exist).

Dave has taken the girls skiing several times and we did a ski weekend with some friends in the Poconos. Both girls are getting pretty good and both really love it, which is great (Dave is in heaven). I’m still happily sitting inside with my book by the fire 😉

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Here’s Sophie helping Lauren get her ski legs at Spring Mountain.

We also had to say good bye to our au pair, Lydia, who ended her year with us in January. It was so sad to see her go. The girls were pretty bummed, especially Sophie. But, just days later we welcomed Lina, our new au pair from Sweden who will be with us the entire year. The first two weeks were a tough transition for the kids, but I think we’re all settled in now.

Here’s Sophie and Lina

Philly has been consumed with Eagles fever. On February 4th they won the Super Bowl, the first time the team has ever won, beating the Patriots, who won the last five yeas. It’s pretty much the only thing people are talking about and the media is covering. Last week Philly had a celebratory parade, which was just nuts. The City pretty much shut down and hundreds of thousand of people came in to watch the team parade down Broad Street.

Here we are all wearing our Eagles gear. And a the best shot I could get of the parade. The city was just a sea of people and it was impossible to get close to Broad Street. People were climbing anything and everything they could to get a good view.

At the beginning of February Lauren decided that she wanted to get her hair cut again – very short this time. She loves it, and so do it – no brushing drama!

Here’s the cutie and her new ‘do.

I just keep reminding myself we’re just a few weeks away from spring break and the Bahamas!

 

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On December 28th, Lauren turned 5! We had an early birthday  celebration at her school, since her actual birthday falls over holiday break.

She did the traditional Montessori celebration of holding a globe and walking around a candle for as many years as she is old, to represent how many times the earth has circled the sun since she as born. We also read a story to the class. Lauren picked How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and she passed out chocolate chip muffins that we made for her classmates.

And we were in the Florida Keys for her actual birthday.

Here she is doing her most favorite thing – swimming in the pool! On her birthday she decided that she wanted to be in the pool for the entire day. She made it about 5 hours straight before she threw in the towel (pun intended).

Life is good for this 5 year old!

 

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In October, Kathy and Dave Sharp left for their 8 month adventure aboard their boat, So Many Stars, from Newport, RI to the Caribbean. On December 26th we met them for the first time since they left down in the Florida Keys. At 9:30am the morning after Christmas we boarded a flight to Ft Lauderdale, rented a car, and drove the additional 4 hours (which ended up being 6 with traffic) to Stock Island, just north of Key West. The Sharps are currently keeping their boat in a slip at a marina there attached to a beautiful hotel called the Perry Hotel. We spent the next 6 days enjoying the weather, seeing mom mom and pop pop, and just relaxing… it was wonderful.

We took the kayaks out a few times to explore different areas. Here we are going into some mangroves to see what creatures we could see. This day it was mostly fish, but in another day we saw a baby hammerhead shark, hermit crabs, a sea turtle, sting rays, dolphin, and manatee (pics and video below). It was pretty cool.

We took the hotel shuttle into Key West two of the days we were there to explore. Here the girls are standing at the Southernmost point. This was actually Sophie’s second time to this spot – we took her for a vacation when she was just 11 months.

Another day we took the boat to Grande Key, a small island only accessible via boat, where we swam and explored. Look at that water!

For Lauren’s birthday mom mom and pop pop gave her a huge inflatable unicorn (of course!), which they played on for hours.

Hotel Perry had an excellent pool that we had access to as well. The girls swam almost every day. THey’re like little fish. They were totally wrinkled each day when we finally dragged them out of the water.

Here’s a shot of two manatee that we saw in the marina. They were huge and slowly making their way around the boats. It was really cool to watch them.

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We also had dolphin accompany us on one of the trips we took (click on the link above to see the video).

Sadly, the Keys are still recovering from Hurricane Irma, which as totally devastating. Most of the Middle Keys were almost completely knocked out. On the drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Stock Island we saw miles of debris that had been piled by the side of the road. Everything from trees to refrigerators to sides of houses. It was pretty terrible. This pic shows a crane picking up destroyed boats. We saw hundreds of these boats, either still in the water or on land. It will take a while for this region to fully recover.

We headed back home on New Year’s Day and were hit (literally) with below freezing temperatures. When we got home it was 12 degrees with the windchill! Talk about a reality check. But we had the lovely vacation to think about to keep us warm.

Happy 2018!

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Well, it’s finally here…Christmas!

We celebrated early with my family, who came up for Sophie’s choir concert. All three girls got to open presents and we also made gingerbread houses (not pictured, because it was a total disaster).

Pre-present opening. The excitement was palpable! If this was a movie you would see the girls shaking.

And then actual Christmas came. Here’s the living room set up Christmas Eve (with the dining room table poking into the living room because it was so long).

And the girls Christmas morning before running into the living room. Sophie is shielding her eyes so she can’t see the presents. Amazingly they both slept in until about 7:30. And Santa, as he always does, put their stockings at the foot of their beds, so that they could occupy themselves for a bit before running downstairs (and in theory let mom and dad sleep longer – although this year we were up before them).

Just a few of the many gifts the girls got. Lauren is ready for ski season with a new helmet (not seen in this picture is a unicorn on the back), and new goggles, and a new book for Sophie, which she read entirely by herself over vacation (proud mom moment).

Later that day the entire local Rainer crew came over for dinner, as well as Zoe and Elliott from Dave’s side of the family. Here are a lot of the cousins: Lauren, Julia, Maithili, Kishore, Quinn, Ashwini, Sophie, and Carley.

The dinner table, which started in the dining room and went into the living room, sat all 24 of us, which Kishore at the head, of course! For the second year in a row Dave cooked the entire meal. As always, it was delicious! Everyone else brought desserts. Afterward we opening presents and relaxed.

The crew opening presents; Addison and Hayley with Ashwini

Dick and Suzy

Lydia, Zoe, and Elliott

Zoe and Elliott slept over because they were housesitting for us the following week while we were in the Florida Keys. Those two, along with Lydia, were AMAZING and helped us clean up the entire house that night, because we left the next morning at 7:30am to catch our flight. Phew!

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Since Sophie was 2 1/2 I’ve taken her, and then both girls, to see the Nutcracker performed by Pennsylvania Ballet. The production is amazing and it’s a fun tradition to get us into the holiday spirit. This year because December was so busy, we didn’t go until the 23rd, which was actually pretty fun because the City was at the peak of Christmasness.

All dressed up and ready to go. I let Sophie wear some of my red lipstick (oy) and she also recently got tall boots. 7 or 17? Hard to tell.

The girls with a ballerina during intermission.

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