Hannah + 1 = More Birthday Fun!

Saturday Hannah had her friend birthday party.  It's fun because her friends are our friends, and we had a great time hanging out with friends!  We had beautiful weather, an incredible location, good food and great company.  Yay for birthday celebrations that never end! (Seriously, though, this is actually the end. I promise).

We did a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme with all the fruits of the week and a caterpillar cake.

Hannah enjoying a birthday swing

I call this: And the children mob the presents. Hannah  and her friend didn't much care about opening presents, so they had quite a few helpers who cared quite a bit about opening them :).  It was hilarious! Dad was there to stave off the crowds.

Hannah and her ball

A birthday guest

Hannah has birthday cake: Round 2.  It was hilarious because she only used her two fingers to gently dip into the green frosting and everyone kept commenting on what a dainty eater she is.  No, folks, it was purely for show :).

Camping at Lums Pond

I know it took us all summer but...we went camping again!  And we had a blast.  This time, we were invited to a group camp-out with three other families.  We went to Lums Pond, just a hop, skip and jump away from our house.  We threw everything we needed into Ty's pick up and headed out after work on Friday.

Our good friends the Archibalds.

The Archibalds' little girl is one of Hannah's good friends. She also has awesome hair.

We had a great time hanging out with our friends and watching Hannah go hog-wild in the grassy meadow.  There were six little boys running around and the youngest three thought Hannah was "soooo cute!"  They followed her around and played with her almost non-stop.  The older boys thought Ty was just great with his soccer skills and light-up Frisbee.

This little man even planted a few kisses on Hannah's little cheeks.  He also told Tyler, "I want to give you a kiss...on the lips!"  He only got as far as the head, though.  At 7 the next morning, he came and serenaded Hannah in the tent with the song "Skid-a-ma-rink a-dink a-dink. Skid-a-ma-rink a-doo.  I looove you."  She loved it.

This little man gave Hannah a crawl tour through the campsite.  He crawled behind her saying "you'resocuteyou'resocuteyou'resocute" and chasing her.  She loved this too.

We had a wonderful time camping and spending time with our friends!!!  Hopefully we can get a few more camping trips in before the weather turns cold.

The next morning...recovering from a long night :)

Hannah has her cake and eats it too

Though the amount of frosting may lead you to believe otherwise, Hannah mostly just picked off the frosting-covered blueberries and ate them, leaving the cake largely intact.

Her frosting hands kind of stressed her out.

...until she put them in her mouth.

Hannah takes a pause to admire the balloons.

Back to the cake-eating business.

The face-wipe.

One last bite.

Mmmmmm...cake.

After that last bite, Hannah got frosting in her eyes and cried as we gave her a birthday shower (I think her own image in the mirror frightened her).

Cake-scarred Hannah crying chocolate tears and wiping chocolate boogers. But she will live to open another present, we are sure.

The Day Hannah Turned One

Just to warn you...this may be picture overload.  And I may make this a two-part or even three-part blog post.  But...she'll only turn one once. :)  You've been warned.

Hannah woke up to balloons and presents.   She bee-lined right to the presents and pulled the littlest one off of the table to open.

Hannah LOVED the balloons!  Here's our decked-out kitchen :)

We kept up the Harlan tradition and let her open a few gifts in the morning before Ty left for work :). Her favorite by far was that little white brush she's holding.  Mine was her little All-Star shoes.

Hannah and I had a great day together playing with her new toys.  We went to our playgroup and then decorated her cake.  When Dad got home we had birthday dinner.  Then we let her dig into her little cake.  I'm going to do a blog post later just on her cake fest because there were just too many good pictures of it :).  After that she had a birthday shower, followed by more presents and skyping with Grandma and Grandpa Kelley and Grandma Trina and Poppa Dave.  Thanks so much to everyone for her birthday wishes and gifts!!! We felt your love and are so grateful for such wonderful family and friends!

Hannah tearing into Grandma Cathy's present :)

She loved Grandma Cathy's card best 

Hannah opening Grandma Barbara's gift

Happy Birthday, little one! We love you and are so happy you joined our little family one year ago!

Random Happenings

We got our first tomatoes from our bucket garden!  Deeeelish.

Hannah's new favorite thing to do is go to our shoe basket, take out all of the shoes, then sit in the basket.

Hannah is growing so fast...she's so close to walking (standing by herself and taking one step before falling down).  She zips around getting into all sorts of things (we have taped the toilet shut and installed latches on most of our cupboards).  And she wears herself out!  This is her favorite way to sleep, with her bum way up in the air.  We call it sleeping stinkbug-style.

Oh!  And I uploaded loads of our home videos here on my youtube channel for your enjoyment!  If you have problems accessing them, just shoot me an email and I'll make sure you are on the list.

Gearing Up for Birthday Madness :) One Week and Counting...

In one week this little goon turns one!!!

I can't express to you how crazy excited I am for her birthday.  More excited than her, I can assure you :).  Even though I have been telling her all about it.  The cake, the birthday song, the awesome presents that grandparents and aunts and uncles have sent.

We're going to do a little family party on her birthday.  The following Saturday we're going to have a party at a park with a little boy in our ward who also celebrates his birthday in August and is Hannah's little friend.  He also has the most amazing hair!  I digress.  We are doing a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and got together to make the invites.

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out!  I wish all of our Utah and Boston family and friends could be magically transported for the day to our little party.  And I think that would be Hannah's birthday wish too.  Just know that we'll take loads of pictures and video just like new parents do so that you can share in the celebration!

Yay birthdays!

Phillie Phanatic and Phillies Fans

Last Tuesday, we went to a Phillies game.  I have never been to a pro baseball game (is that what I call it? a pro baseball game?) because a) I have never really had the chance and b) I don't love baseball (should I admit b when I am blogging about a pro baseball game?).  

Well, I love pro baseball games.  Tyler had the chance to get tickets through work and we didn't regret it!  The stadium was fantastic.  We especially loved the red brick that made up most of the stadium.  Our seats were great.  As you can see, a fantastic view of the field aaand the Philadelphia skyline. 

The field

The Philadelphia skyline

 The food was delicious.  One of my favorite things is to eat the typical food of a certain place-Ty calls it my 'iconic food hobby'-and tonight was no exception.  I ate a Philly cheesesteak at a Phillies game in Philly.  I mean, how good can it get!?!

Me and my iconic food hobby.   Ty joined in with his hot dog and fries.

The Hannah was a sport.  She loved the people and the stadium.  She got a bit stressed after the Phillies first home run hit and the subsequent eruption from the crowd, but with the attention from our surrounding seatmates she calmed right down.

Back for more! Hannah showcases the Phillies game.

One thing I didn't love, though, and that was the Phillies mascot.  I know I am in the minority on this (Wikipedia claims he is, and I quote, "one of the best ballpark mascots") but I can't pretend that I loved Phillie Phanatic.  Ty loved him.  Hannah loooved him (everytime he came on the big screen she would point to him and smile).  Bri didn't love him.  I just don't know why.  It may be his odd nose/mouth/tongue thing or how he inappropriately bounces his bulging belly, but he and I just didn't hit it off.

Are you a Phan? Tell me honestly...

Maybe I'll just have to attend more Phillies games to get to know him better, I don't know.  It was a great night though.  For a girl who doesn't, well, love baseball, I would go to another Phillies game in a heartbeat.

Ty and Han havin' fun. Go Phillies!!!

Fort Delaware

This past weekend we did something I have wanted to do ever since we moved here: we took a ferry over to Pea Patch Island and toured Fort Delaware.  

Fun on the Ferry!

Yes, I really have wanted to do this and yes, it was really cool!  Things I learned:

• Pea Patch Island really was made by peas.  A cargo ship carrying peas crashed and spilled a bunch of peas all over the place.  The peas sprouted and made the island what it is today.
• Fort Delaware dates back to the 1850s.  It was originally constructed to defend the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia.  During the Civil War it housed Confederate prisoners of war.

Ty and Baby Hannah-the Blue and the Gray

• The entire fort is surrounded by a moat.  The walls are stone and brick and we were impressed by how solid the fort still is.

Inside the Fort

Tyler at home in his blacksmith shop with Baby Hannah the Apprentice

• We got to watch a cannon fire demo.  Loud and impressive, and it was only 1 pound of powder (it takes 10 pounds to fire an actual cannon).

Exploring the Fort

• They do really pricey ghost tours at the Fort.  Actually, I'm amazed at how many 'ghost hunters' are out here in Delaware City!  I don't think I'll ever do this part of the tour, unless Chloe and/or Emma come out and visit again :).

I love this fort!

Hats off to Delaware City for having such a cool fort to tour!  We had a great time.

Delaware City Day

We heard about Delaware City Day the day we heard of Delaware City, and the hype about this day did not end there.  We have looked forward to this celebration ever since we moved here.  On July 20th, at last, it arrived.  With no small amount of skepticism, Tyler and I loaded Hannah into her stroller and strolled down to see what all of the hullabaloo was about.  

I must admit, we were impressed!  They had a great parade, fun food stalls, and fantastic activities for kids.  Hannah got to see a real live goat (she loved it) and hear about 28 firetrucks (she didn't love it).

Hannah and the Goat.

Watching the Parade.  One of the floats threw a little ball to Dad for Hannah.  They both loved it :).

Hannah also played her first ever carnival game and won!  (Okay, so the tagline was "Everyone Wins!" but still, she did a great job fishing a yellow ducky winner out of that water.)

Hannah intent on her Prize

They also had an impressive fireworks display that alas we missed due to rain.  This only means one thing: Delaware City Day, we will come again!