Ali Gets Married!!

One of the greatest joys of our summer was getting to see our dear friend Ali marry a wonderful guy.  We originally thought that this wedding would bring us (or me, at least) to India, but due to some family circumstances, the wedding was moved back to the states, which allowed for the rest of my family to attend.  Because it was an Indian wedding, it was very different from our traditional weddings, and so much fun!!

On Friday evening, Lexi, Gigi and I got to attend a Mehndi ceremony, which was very fun and interesting.

The wedding was Saturday, the next afternoon, and it was wonderful.  We had so much fun, met lots of wonderful new people, and learned a lot about the culture as well.

Ali gets ready for the ceremony with help from Manu

Ali and her mom are beautiful!

Ali's Uncle walks her down the aisle

Ali and Sid during the ceremony.

Ali smiled through the entire ceremony.

The kids were in charge of the flowers.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Parmar!!

The North Andover crew at the wedding.

Ali's henna tattoos.

Beautiful!

Siddharth is a hit with the little ladies!

Lexi and Zach had a lot of fun!

My angels.  :)

My wonderful family!!

We are so happy for Ali and Siddharth!!  They are a match made in heaven and we felt very blessed to be a part of their special day.

Camp Pickles 2013

This summer we spent another two weeks at the lovely Angle Pond in Sandown, NH.  Because we had just moved two weeks earlier, Ahren and I had to spend some of the time going back and forth to the new house to get some things squared away.  But after a very busy and stressful spring, we were happy to have some quiet time on the lake.  I took a pitiful amount of pictures this year...maybe I was too relaxed!

Daddy and the kids get fishing on Day 1!!

Lexi and Zach enjoy the view

Zachary caught this fish with his net!  He was very excited.

Lexi loves it when Great Gram reads to her

Lake naps are so relaxing!

The cousins won't let a little rain get in the way of their fishing fun!

Luckily we had plenty of towels.

Lexi the dragonfly whisperer.

She put out her hand and this dragonfly landed on it, and devoured a bug it had caught.

Zach takes a little kayak.

Lexi masters the paddle board.

She did great!

A happy boy in his kayak.

Working hard.

S'mores time!

YUM!

YUM!

We're happy sitting around the fire pit eating s'mores!

Lexi loves Gigi!!

Mom gets a turn on the paddle board.

Chirp Chirp

Yes, there have been crickets on the blog for the past month or so. There's lots of exciting stuff for me to update about soon. But for now we're doing this...


...and loving it!

Butterflies and Moths

Each Spring, Gigi, Lexi and Zachary collect caterpillars of different varieties so that they can watch them transform into beautiful butterflies.  This spring they had more varieties than ever before, and really had an opportunity to explore and enjoy each one.  Here is a small video that Gigi put together of their time with some of the butterflies - Butterfly Video. 

 

One of the most exquisite variety they had this year was a Lunar Moth.  It took quite some time to hatch, and we actually worried that  it might not ever emerge, but when it finally did it was so exciting!

This is such a wonderful activity that the kids (and everyone else!) really adore doing with Gigi.  Throughout the few weeks that they spend waiting for the butterflies (or moths) to emerge, and the time they get to spend with the butterflies once they hatch, they learn so much about nature, the different species of butterflies and moths, and the circle of life. 

The most amazing thing that happened this spring is that once the painted lady butterfly had hatched, and the kids had a few days to spend with her on the sun porch, it was time to let her go.  They went outside with her to set her free, but rather than flying away, she stayed with the kids for a very long time, sitting on their fingers, and letting them feed her from flowers in their hands.  She had really grown to trust them, and they knew just how to take care of her.  It was very special.