Valentines

02 19 2009

This year I gave up control and let Elsie make her very own valentines … She used all of her favorites sticka’s, glue, markers and love to make them (Special thanks to Mindy who was overseeing the valentine production!)

valentines

Here the artist is taking a break (sans shirt which was covered in glitter glue!)

valentine maker

Sadly mark took all of the valentines to the post office where a very nice man convinced him that they would be fine in the mail … 3 days later 15 of the 32 valentines were returned to our house. Additional postage was added to the randoms that came back and they were sent again. Snail mail is so persnicketty (yes that is a real word!)



Gossip Girl!

02 19 2009

Elsie showing off her XOXO* shirt from Niko!

cheese

xoxo

(she’s finally starting to smile for the camera!)

*you probably only get this reference if you watch Gossip Girl (MT this one is for you!)



Swimming

02 3 2009

Mindy has been taking Elsie to the Erie Rec center pool and Elsie loves it … here is a shot of our pot-bellied piggy in the fountains. :)

water fountain



First Movie

02 3 2009

Over the Holiday we took Elsie to her first movie theater movie … we went to see Bolt. We opted for the early matinee (popcorn at 10am is a bit much) and Elsie loved it.

She was very excited to give her ticket to the door man…

Movie ticket

movie ticket2

We had many many MnM’s through the movie (she takes after her daddy)



Niko

02 3 2009

We were lucky to have Scott, Julie and Niko visit Colorado for New Years. We saw Nicholas in September, but 3 months is a long time in baby minds so I don’t think Elsie was quite prepared for such fun times!

The welcome! From the time we picked the Johnston’s up until they had to go, Elsie and Niko were best friends …

kiss

hello
Here they are at Josh and Amy’s for New years …

ball

Gaming…

video game

Sharing Pin Ball

pinball

Some time during the night, elsie decided to get “nakie-poo”

sharing

with scott

Here they are sharing cookies (for breakfast in honor of Grandma Mart)

playing

Bath time (with finger paints)

color

paints

bath paints

painting

washing

conspiring

even buzz was playing with soap paint

buzz in the tub

Saffie wasn’t quite ready to get in with all the commotion, but was happy to watch

saffie

We spent some time at the Aquarium, we saw Dory and Nemo

dory and ray

Crawled through a tunnel (many times)

tunnel

Climbed exhibits (this was permitted)

climbing

touched sting rays

rays

Elsie was also very insistent that “cott and joo-lie” also carried her when they were carrying Niko

scott

Later they pushed each other around in the wagon (while julie steered)

pushing

pushing

tired

More time with “cott” and binky for Elsie and Pa-pa for Niko

pa-pa and binky

Since it was football weekend (playoff games and all) the kids had to move to the bedroom to watch their movies …. they didn’t seem to mind

watching movies

Its pretty amazing to see these two together … and its also amazing how two little toddlers can keep each other busy playing for hours! Elsie still points to a Diego toothbrush in the bathroom and says niko (or nickis or nicky)

. . . .

Each time we see Nicholas he introduces Elsie to new things this time he got her hooked on Dora and encouraged her to want to climb and jump off things that are too high …



Photo booth

02 3 2009

Lavi and Andrew had a Photo booth at their reception … it was AWESOME – I would seriously consider setting one of these up in my house! We had so much fun returning to the booth for more … here are some of the photos

Mandy and Mark … I, of course, am looking at the camera in all of them … mark not so much

MarkMandy

Elsie on the other hand, refuses to look at the camera (sadly there was a screen in the room off to the left which was very hard to ignore)

MMElsie

Grammie and Papa and the girls

PKGirls

Josh, Amy and Saffie and a party crasher for photos 2-4

JAGirls

My favorite set with Josh … giving him the Loser sign in 2

JoshMandy

Grammie and Papa (grammie is wearing my dress and she looks pretty damn cute!)

PamKev

Me with Grammie … look at pammies look in the bottom left … scary!

PamMandy

Amy, me and Carolina

AmyMandCar

Richau girls!

All Girls

Richau boys (clockwise from my dad … his uncle lee, his uncle clem, his cousin doug, and his uncle arly) … serious head sizes!

RichauBoys



Lavi and Andrew get married!

02 3 2009

We were excited to celebrate Lavi and Andrew’s wedding over the holidays … sorry for the delay in finally posting! My mom and I were the day-of-coordinators and were charged with getting the reception in order… we set up name cards, placed centerpieces, put out rose petals. We were a great team!

reception

The wedding was wonderful and Elsie made it through the ceremony (we told her the priest was working and she would do a shhh – which is what she does at home when she goes in to visit mark during the work day). After the ceremony we headed back to the Firesky for a night of dancing … here are just a random collection of photos …

Elsie lane

Some Richau photos …

My Uncle Lee and Paul, Doug and my dad

Richau Boys

Auntie Deb and Mark …

Debbie and Mark

Elsie with her papa

Elsie and the boys

with papa

Elsie was enamored with Clem (whom she called Clem-a)

clemma

We dressed the girls in matching outfits … to coordinate with Lavi’s wedding colors of course!

Josh, Saffie, Clemma and Elsie

Mark and mandy

family

girls

Saffie and Mandy

with grammie

Outfits

Lavi and Josh

Josh and Lavi

Lavi and Mark

Lavi and Mark

Boys

Dorothy and Paul Richau (Clem’s kids)

Dorothy and Paul

We were able to meet Carolina! Bill’s girlfriend.

Mom and Carolina

Family

My mom with Arly (lavi’s dad)

Mom and Arly

Dancing

Mandy and Doug

More Richau’s

Richau boys

Lavi and Doug (cousins)

Doug and Lavi

We had a fabulous time dancing the night away! Congratulations Lavi and Andrew!!