Sarah's Birthdaypalooza

2012 was the big year for Sarah, she turned the big 4-0, went over the hill, and is in the second half of her life.  40 years gone.

She really celebrated in style this year with 3 separate celebrations.  First up, she headed to the mountains in Tennessee with some friends to celebrate both her birthday and a friends.  The second stop on the tour was heading up to Michigan for the weekend to spend time with her family, including a sleepover at her cousins.

The final leg was a surprise weekend in Orlando.  I took her and the kids down to Orlando for the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, always one of her favorite events.  Also surprised her with a private birthday party and fireworks viewing at the Boardwalk Hotel at Disney.  It was a really nice dinner, some friends were able to come out and spend the evening with her and we had a great view of the fireworks at Epcot.




Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was the kids first here in North Carolina.  It was a simpler affair for us than usual.  Since we just moved to the area we decided to not do our annual party.  The kids also ran out of time and were not able to come to my work for trick or treating.  That left just good old fashioned regular trick or treating around the neighborhood.

Ella was a Geisha Girl while Max went as Snake Eyes from GI Joe.  It was nice to have good weather on Halloween, not too cold to wear their costumes.



Settling into North Carolina

Well, no posts in quite a while.  Moving to North Carolina and getting settled in has been quite the adventure.  Work, school, and other activities have kept us super busy.  Now that we are through the holidays, we wanted to start getting some updates posted.

This fall, the kids started their new school at Briarcliff Elementary, Ella started 3rd grade, and Max started 1st.  They are both doing really well in school, particurlarly reading.  Ella just tested in the 99th percentile on a standardized reading test and Max is reading level 12 books while some kids in his class are on level 1 and 2.