First Day of School 2010

I love to capture the 1st day of school in pictures! I always have the kids stand at the same spot so I can see how much they grow from year to year.

2006 - Sophia heading to Pre-K:

2007 - Sophia going to all day Kindergarten - this was a rough day (actually couple of weeks!) for Jon!

2008 - Anthony starting his school career - 4K!

and big sister starting 1st grade!

2009 - milestone year - both kids in all-day school - this was a hard day for me! Anthony in kindergarten, Sophia in 2nd grade

2010 - we're all old pros at this by now! This was the first year that I didn't even take them to school on the 1st day! Anthony in 1st grade, Sophia in 3rd grade.

A few fun summer days!

We crammed in some fun near the end of the summer!

We made our first visit to Knoebels- we went with our friends Orazio, Kelly, little Orazio & Gracie. It was a really fun (and cheap!) day. Knoebels is...an experience, I'll just leave it at that...

it was a little hot, and Kelly is 6 mo. pregnant...

We had a weekend getaway with our friends Rick, Alicia, Gracie & Maryjane. We only live about 1/2 mile from each other, but due to busy schedules, hardly ever get to hang out as families, so it was so much fun to get away and just be together. We went to a house that was right on the Cheseapeake.

although 4 years apart, these little girlies get along so well!

That same weekend, we headed over to celebrate our nephew Wil's 1st birthday!

And of course, summer would not be complete without a day trip to the beach with our friends the Skis! We have been blessed with great weather 6 years in a row now. It has become such a fun, highly anticipated tradition.

the weather forecast was not good so maybe that's why the beach is so empty? it ended up being gorgeous though!

Lizziepalooza!

For Lizzie's 40th birthday, she had a weekend-long celebration. It was very fun to celebrate someone who is such an important part of our family. The girls (sister-in-laws) headed up on Friday night for a Girls Night Out on the town!

birthday girl

Elizabeth & Erin

Elizabeth & Dawn

Elizabeth & Shannon

I love this picture because we were having such a good laugh on our way into the city. We were on the bus and were trying to take self-portraits and one of them came out so funny and this was right after we viewed it. (I won't be sharing the one we were laughing at) :-)

Merle and E

Cindy and E

A couple of E's good friends joined us as well and it was fun to get to know them.

Liz was able to secure some very hard-to-get reservations at Po - a restaurant in the west village that was started by Mario Batali.

the food was AMAZING

if you ever get the chance to go, save room for Panna Cotta!

The next morning, the guys came up with all of the kids, along with Liz's parents and we spent the day at the Liberty Science Museum - a great place for kids. It was a really fun day together as a family.