Christmas in May?

As we drove down our street last week, we noticed that a few of the houses had their lawn covered with some sort of white material. We were then surprised to discover that those houses on our street were to be filmed in part of a new movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, starring Emma Watson (yep, the girl from Harry potter). It is based on a book of the same name (probably not something I'll ever read...), written by an author from here in Upper St. Clair. In fact, the house they filmed on our street is the house he grew up in and his parents still reside there.
The scene on our street was to be some sort of car crash on Christmas night, so they had lights on the houses and luminaries lining the street and that white canvas was covered in false snow and the trees were sprayed with some sort of foam. It was so neat to watch the progress daily, and it sure made for some excitement on our otherwise quiet little street!
One night we ventured down before bedtime to catch a close look and I snapped a few photos, getting as close as I could. Here is what we saw:

If you see the movie next summer, watch for our house! :)

Let's Play Music Recital

On Friday we had our Let's Play Music recital and it was so fun! Everyone did great and we had such a fun time! Carson performed his very own composition and wore a tuxedo (thanks, Becky!) for the occasion. It was a great night and I am so proud of everyone's hard work!

And here is the VIDEO of the recital

(the password is lpm2011)

Catching Up

How many blog posts do I have with that title? More than I would like to admit, I'm sure.
Well here goes:

December highlights:
~Letters to Santa

~Cookie train making

Cookie train stealing...(notice the back cookie is missing from the train?)

~Opening presents from Grandpa & Grandma Kuzdas 

~Christmas at Aunt Heather's house with a surprise from Aunt Kristy's family

This sums up what these three did most of the trip...

Feeding Rocky, the snake

~Back home for a visit with Grandpa & Grandma Ellsworth

~Back to Aunt Heather's for the New Year and to see my Aunt Pam and Uncle Michael

The fabulous feast prepared by Chef Michael:

At the Panto

January Highlights:

~Cameron's birthday!


The cake before





The cake after!



Keep checking in! You just might find an on-time update next time you visit our site!

Santa's Visit with the Fire Department

Every year we wait for an hour in the freezing cold for Santa to come and visit the neighborhood. He is chauffeured around by the Fire Department, bringing candy canes and lollipops for all who are willing to brave the elements for his arrival. While the parents are usually grumbling and frozen, it seems to be a delight for the children so we do it year after year. And after it is all said and done, we always go home to warm soup and hot chocolate, discussing what a great tradition it is. We love our neighborhood friends and it is a great few minutes of chatting and hanging out, so although we are usually frozen and tired by the end, we really do love the tradition.

Christmas Card time!

Remember the days when I actually hand-made my Christmas cards? Actually, remember the days when I actually SENT a Christmas card?! I don't have my card-making stuff anymore is one excuse I have. Then I just don't have the time to design a great layout on Photoshop either. Well, I can officially say that after checking out the great designs and layouts that Shutterfly has to offer, I am out of excuses this year! They have hundreds of designs for anything from Christmas cards to address labels to photo gifts and just plain photo prints. I have used Shutterfly for great photo books but I am excited to use them this year for my Christmas cards. By the way, I need your current addresses, so if you've moved or you think I have forgotten about you, send me a note with your address so you can get a Shutterfly card from me! :) Maybe I'll use this one:

Or this one:

So many to choose from! I can't wait to dig in and narrow it down a little. So with that, I'm starting to come up with one more excuse not to have my cards sent on time this year: which one of their dozens do I choose?!!