http://www.markandmandy.com/blog thoughts and happenings from the sladden family Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:39:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We have embarked on the final frontier of our home improvement journey by finishing the basement. We kicked off the project by having Kevin and James (Kevin's architect) come down for the weekend from Billings to walk the space and brainstorm ideas. During that weekend, we came up with a ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2010/02/10/basement-remodel/ This year Grammie and Papa decided to do an Advent calendar for the girls. This was always my favorite thing of the holiday - We would get the advent calendars that had chocolate pieces with the 25th being the big santa! Of course my parents took it to a whole ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/12/18/advent-calendar/ Its looking like we won't have a white Christmas this year - but a few weeks back we had a big dump of the white stuff and Elsie headed out to make a snow man (with Mark's help of course) here is the snow blob or snow tower maybe? ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/12/18/let-it-snow/ more England to come ... but first Halloween. For the past 2 years I have been making Elsie's costumes - her first year she was a black widow, and last year she was a chick. this year she wanted to be a pig (sticking with the animal theme) and as ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/12/14/halloween-2/ Mark's godparents Jan and David live in Steeple Aston (Oxfordshire) in historical Cedar Lodge (once home to Novelist Iris Murdoch). We decided to head to Steeple Aston for a few days of relaxation before the wedding storm. Jan and David are amazing hosts - and fabulous cooks! We arrived just ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/12/14/england-part-2-steeple-aston/ In October (yes, I realize its december ... where has the time gone?) we all headed to the UK to celebrate Michael and Alison's wedding. The crew included my parents,  and Josh, Amy, and Saffie. To get ready for the Trip Elsie got her UK citizenship and entered England as ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/12/12/uk-visit/ South Hampton Beach take 2 ... this day the beach was fabulous, but the waves were much too strong for a swim (hurricane approaching) so we mostly ran from the waves Mark and Scott decided to make the ultimate sandcastle which was perfect for the destructors ... ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/11/15/sag-harbor-wrap-up/ this post is very very late, but better late than never! Here is our annual team shot ... notice scott's hand (he is holding the remote) :) We bribed Elsie and Nicholas with chocolate if they would sit through the photos ... :) it worked We headed to downtown for a sushi ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/11/15/sag-harbor-part-2/ Elsie doing her best Happy Birthday song... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/08/26/happy-birthday-papa-kevin/ We headed to the local beach on Tuesday - which also had a playground. We had the beach all to ourselves. The kids were excited to play in the water which is calm and warm ... Mark set up some shade contraptions and much of the day was spent critiquing the ... http://www.markandmandy.com/blog/2009/08/19/sag-harbor-beach-day/