The Happy Chappys

Bethlehem Walk

2012-12-14T09:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Abby and Ty's class did a Bethlehem walk. You walk through the school and go through the Christmas story. Ty was a merchant in the busy market place selling grapes. The job was made for him since they had to yell and scream to get your attention! Abby was an angel ( of course!). The angels made a choir that sand several songs around baby Jesus and the manger. All the kids did a great job!!!

Philly Trip #1

2012-12-07T22:43:00.000-05:00

Last week some friends of mine came down for a visit and neither one of them had ever been into Philly!

Well I thought that was a tragedy and immediately set about to fix the situation by planning a day trip while they were visiting. Noah also came along and took most of the photos you are about to see(thanks!).

We first stopped at a cupcakery and then made our way to Macy's to see the famous Christmas Light Show.

It is something right out of a vintage movie!! Also they have a "Dickens Christmas Carole Village" on the 3rd floor. Luckily the wait wasn't long. After that we made a quick stop to one of my favorite stores across the road, West Elm. Now it was time for Lunch and we made our way to the Legendary Reading Terminal. You can buy any type of cuisine from around the world there. The utmost reason for going though was for my friend Ashley to have a cannoli (she had NEVER had one and is Italian in descent!). She and Liz (my other visiting friend) Loved them!!! I knew they would! Then we went and saw the Liberty Bell and tried to get a tour of Independence Hall, but missed getting the tickets. Also there was a Christmas Village Craft show in the "LOVE" park, it is where the famous sculpture is that is reminiscent of Philadelphia being the City of Brotherly Love. We ended up leaving the city early enough that we also drove through the Valley Forge Battle field. In all I think we had a nice day.Soon you will get a new Philly Trip #2 post about our family trip.

We are standing in the very center of the City

Independence Hall

The Liberty Bell

Our Crazy Group!!

Let it Snow like Crazy!!

2012-12-06T22:37:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday we got snow!! It didn't last long though,we lost all of it by late afternoon.

It may be the only snow we get till February, that's the norm around here.

Give Thanks

2012-11-22T15:05:00.000-05:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Kiddo's Video

2012-11-10T18:18:00.001-05:00

Today I took some pictures of the kids today and added them

to some others that I have and made a video.

I also had a lot of fun adding cool filters to the pictures in Picasa.

Hope you enjoy!

Playing at the Park

2012-10-25T16:53:00.001-04:00

This past week I took Abby and Ty to the local park.

They had a great time playing tag with other children,

but their favorite pastime was the tire swing.

Below I posted a video of them. Abby's laugh is sooo funny!!

P.S. the pictures were taken with my ipod/instagram, so they might be a little blurry.

Finally......Fall!

2012-09-30T18:21:00.003-04:00

It seems like today we finally feel like fall here in PA! I got inspired by the porch decorations and so I took a few shots to share with you all. Hope it is nice and cool were you are.

Billy

2012-09-24T13:40:00.001-04:00

Well after hearing from some of you that you missed seeing pictures of Billy on the blog, I started the digging process to find some of him. Well what I found was that we don't have many of him,

because of his self professed dislike of the camera!

Well later this week he was in a good mood and I got a few nice shots before he left for school!

Then later that day I had the opportunity to watch a home game for his soccer team, so I got even more!

In the game pictures he is in jersey 25.

Keep up the good work Billy! We Love you!!!

Got his game face on!

Getting in on the action (he is the one on the far right)

Keep running!

My Family

2012-09-21T00:54:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago our family took some much needed new Family Pictures.

The little children (who are not so little anymore!) have gotten much older and bigger since our

last picture. Noah did such an awesome job with these. I gotten a few comments from people

wanting to know if we had these professionally done! No, they are just proof of Noah's amazing

photography skills.They were taken in the evening in our back yard (more like the lane outback!).

Our Family is now back to our "normal" routine of daily life. The children are really enjoying their new School and Billy is loving being apart of the soccer team as well. Maybe soon I can get some pictures from a game of his. Also this week, I (Chloe) got a part time job at Keystone Wholesale Mall. It is the Wholesale warehouse that Dad has a booth at. I will be working 2 days a week, now to put a fire under me to keep at my Graphic Arts program online and finish it!! Noah is doing GREAT at his Nursing school, he really enjoys the SIM time and always has a funny story to share with us when we get home.
As for family news I think that is about it, I hope now that school is back in session that I can keep up this blog better, sorry for the LONG spaces between each post!

Falling Waters

2012-08-23T09:30:00.000-04:00

Last week on the way home from a trip to Michigan, Noah and I went to tour Falling Waters.
Falling Waters is a home that was built from 1936-1939 for Edgar J. Kaufmann and his wife.
The house was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright.The house is mostly built using cantilever design.
Noah and I, really enjoyed the hour long tour. Our tour was very informative and added lots of interesting tid' bits about Wright and his stubbornness to charge things for his clients! The property on which the house is situated is very beautiful and there are lots of hiking trails you can go on as well as touring the house.
For more information on the house and Frank Lloyd Wright you can visit the Falling Waters website here.
Below are some pictures of the outside of the house,since we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside.
Enjoy!

Louis Kahn Library

2012-07-02T15:06:00.001-04:00

On Sunday I had the privilege of visiting the Philips Exeter Academy Library, in Exeter,NH with my cousin Matthew. It was design by the Famous Architect Louis Kahn.
Although he did not have a great personal life, his building are works of modern art.
The Library that we visited was amazing, every square foot was thoughtfully planned out and used to it's best potential. Even though the middle of the building is an artium, open to all 6 floors, the library still has lots of space to hold the countless books and desk that are needed. Also there are private rooms on each floor and sitting areas. The desks are built into the windows. The staircases are tucked into 2 corners of the building, and one side holds 2 elevators as well. The natural light is amazing, it flows from the windows from the top of the library and from the 2 story windows on each floor. Also the O and X that appear in the Atrium are soo neat. But enough talking and here are some picture for you too see for your self. Also here is a link for you too learn more about the design and the Architect himself.

This was taken from the bottom floor looking up all 6 flight so stairs , pretty cool!

This is the other staircase on the oposite side of the building

We were able to touch books from the 1800's here, you don't get to do that often

This is looking out the top of one of those huge circles you saw in earlier pictures

Kahn liked to see the raw edges of his building materials, so none of the concert edges were covered

Looking down the side if the X from the sixth floor

here are the built in desks

These are study Models found in Kahn's office

Here are some floor plans that I found on Google images

I added an 60's filter over this picture, since that is the time that is was built, maybe some of the first pictures of the building looked like this!

This is a really cool video of the library, make sure to watch it

P.S. Thank you Matthew for taking me and for these pictures!
And check out my second post about Maine below.

Maine and Me Part 2

2012-07-02T14:18:00.002-04:00

To start were I finished off was, after looking inside the stone church, it was back to the car and we hit route 1. Our next stop was Bailey Island, which is one of my favorite spots in Maine. At the end of the island ( which is called Lands End) I always look for sea glass.

Well I think lots of other people found that to be a good spot as well, because there wasn't much to be found. After climbing over the bigger rocks, I did find a few good pieces to add to my collection at home. Oh we also stopped for ice cream when we were on the island. That was a yummy treat for a warm day! After leaving Bailey island, we made our way to Freeport which is the home of L.L. Bean. We visited the outlet and the main store, in all we came out with 2 pairs of flip flops (1pair for Grammy and 1 pair for me), 2 postcards, and a tee shirt. Not to bad! Our last stop was in Wells for dinner, which was at a place called Mainiax. Well of course I didn't have any seafood, but I didn't get chicken either! I got a really juicy cheeseburger! That concluded our trip to Maine.

I had a great time and we fit in a lot in just 2 days!

Thank you Grammy and Grandpa for taking the time to take me!

I Love you booth sooo much!!!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxo

This was the view from our room

These two pictures of Bailey Island are from a blog post from 2008, when we had a

family reunion here. You can see the original post if you click on the picture above.

My Travels in Maine

2012-06-30T18:16:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone I am back! Well as you can see I have gotten myself back to the ocean once again!

For the past week I have had the privilege of staying with my Grandparents (All by myself!!).

We have had such a great time and one of the things we did this week was to go to Maine for 2 days!

We started our day by eating lunch at Stonewall Kitchen's flagship store in York, and the hit the highway for the fastest way up to Camden. Once we got there we got our hotel and then went down to the waterfront. They had a beautiful view as you can see above. After that we went to Lincoln Beach and dinner. I had Chicken parmesan and the most devine chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.

Then we went up Mount Battie were you can see for miles around. They also have a tower up there so you can climb up to see even further! We stayed until almost sundown ( we would have stayed longer but they lock the gates, and we didn't want to get stuck up there!). The next day we got up and then took our time driving down Route 1 through all the little ocean front towns. For Lunch Grandpa pick one of his favorite places in Booth Bay. My Chicken fingers were great (if you don't know already, I don't like seafood, which is strange when you love going to Maine!). We then drove around Ocean Point were we got out to see some sailboats and a lovely stone church that was getting ready to have a wedding that afternoon.

I think that is enough Writing for now, I finish tomorrow with some more pictures.

Click on the picture above to go to Noah's blog for a bag blog post I did

21 years and the beach......

2012-06-02T12:50:00.003-04:00

Well I know this post has been a long time in coming! Noah has already posted about this trip at leased a week ago, but better late than never right? As Noah said I had my BIG 21st birthday a couple weeks ago and to celebrate I asked to go to LBI ( Long Beach Island, NJ). I LOVE the beach and can't get there as much as I would like! So off we all went on a Saturday. We had such a great time, since it was before the holiday and school being let out the Island was pretty quiet. We all had a great time and I have posted LOTS of pictures, so enjoy!

2012-05-14T16:09:00.003-04:00

Hey sorry about my lack of blogging lately,but Noah has started back to his again now that he is on Summer break from Nursing school. We now have to call him, Noah the "halfnurse", yes it is one word.
But anyway back to the subject at hand, he is back to blogging and he has at leased 2 post about what our family has been up to in the last week or so,and he also has revamped his blog with a different background and template. Make sure to check out his blog here.
P.S. it does take a minute for his blog to load but be patient, it is worth the wait!

Here he is in his Clinical Uniform, ready to go to the hospital.

We are sooo PROUD of our "halfnurse" !!!!!!

Photos are from NCC Photo

Only Ty.......

2012-05-02T08:30:00.000-04:00

Do I need to even write anything with that expression?
If you know Ty well enough, you know that he is our family's spit fire. He always has us on our toes!
Billy came up with this Turban/helmet made from an old basket ball.
We all about fell off our chairs with laughter at this,he does that to us a lot!
Also he modeled the helmet, and then added the Kung-Fu moves! Look at him go!
And here he is with his ever present camouflage shirt, he would wear that 24/7 if we would let him.

Happy Birthday Dad and Abby!

2012-05-01T16:21:00.002-04:00

This week was Abby Joy's birthday, I still can't believe that she is 7 years old and can read!
Where has the time gone from when she first came to us at 5 days old?
Abby decided that she wanted a Hello Kitty party, so the cake and the plates all had
that cute kitty on them.
Also even though the pictures don't show it, we also celebrated my Dad's birthday this week.
We Love you both, hope this new year brings great new adventures and joys into both of your lives!!!!

Happy Hikers

2012-03-09T21:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my day to babysit the 3 little's, so I decided to take them on a hike. We ended up at Nolde's Forest which is about 25 min. from our house. Billy was our trail guide,he watch the map and the markers on the trail carefully to make sure we didn't get on the wrong (or as I said LONG) trail! Ty was the adventure, picking up sticks and fighting off imaginary enemies that surrounded us on all sides, Abby stayed back with me, tell me all about her day at school in great detail. I now know who is on the naughty list at school and who is has the most stickers on their chart for good behavior! She was also ready to strike a pose at any moment for the camera. The boys don't particularly care for having their picture taken, especially if I make them pose, thus that is why family outings that I post on here consist of mostly pics of Abby ( she is always ready and willing!). After 45 min. we returned to the parking lot, and I was soo glad to see the car! Next time we are planning to go on a Saturday so we can have more daylight to try to hike one of the longer trails, and bring along a picnic lunch.

Aloha from the Philly Flower Show!

2012-03-08T21:07:00.000-05:00

As you can see the theme of the Flower Show this year was Hawaii.

I was really looking forward to lots of Brightly colored flowers and palm trees. I defiantly got the palm trees, but the whole show was lacking very much in the Flower department. In general there just weren't as many flowers as usual. Maybe it was too difficult to try to keep tropical plants alive for an indoor show, but maybe some not so tropical (but brightly colored flowers) would have made it feel more like Hawaii. Don't get me wrong I still thoroughly enjoyed my self! The miniatures and store fronts were excellent this year, as well as the community garden club display. It reminded me of what an Anthropologie garden would look like!The cooking demonstration was very good this year. It was on Organic cooking and the chef was from Italy. Her voice with the accent was so relaxing!She made risotto with saffron and asparagus, and Penne pasta with spring veggies. It smelled great!

I don't have any pictures of what we did after that but we ended up at Starbucks for a coffee and then to West Elm to check out their new Spring line. It was so inspiring, it would be soo neat to have a job there setting up the displays!

Well below are some pictures that Mom and I took on our short trip to Hawaii via Philly.

Enjoy!

The first display when you walked into door

The Main Display which had special effects on the side of the teeke hut and also a light show every 15 min.

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from the Happy Chappy's.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T08:58:00.001-05:00

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Snow in October!!

2011-10-29T16:05:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone sorry about the long wait between posts. Have been a little busy lately with the family business :) . But as the title states we have snow, in October! Wow that must be a record.

Noah bravely faced the storm to bring you an up close and personal view of our little world here.

The branches on the tree in the video have now snapped off and we had to move the cars so that the windshields were not smashed. Also we have more snow. It as only been maybe 2 hours since he took this video and it has gotten much worse out there. Hope you are all having a warm and happy day were every you are holding up in!

Signing out,

Apple Picking Time

2011-09-27T11:35:00.000-04:00

Last week our family and my Aunt Fanny and her family went apple picking.

It was an overcast day but still very warm. We grabbed 2 buckets and off we went.

We decided to pick Macintosh apples, as they are our favorite for making pies and apple sauce.

With all the eager helpers it didn't take long to fill both buckets. I managed to catch a few photos before they were done! At the store we bought some apple cider donuts and some honey crisp apples for a yummy snack. Later that afternoon my Grandpa made his famous apple pie which everyone enjoyed for dessert that evening. We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed eating the fruits of our labors!!

Heading out to find our apples

Here is our Dude group!

Even Abby found Apples at her right height

Here is our wonderful group of kids that did almost all the picking!!!
Great Job!

Happy 8th Birthday Ty!!

2011-09-14T09:08:00.000-04:00

Happy 8th Birthday Ty!!! You have gotten so big. Have a great day and enjoy your special dinner (oh but I can't give any details, because it's still a surprise!).
These are pictures from the family birthday party that Ty shared with our cousin Derek. Ty turned 8 and Derek turned 4. Ty is really enjoying his new bike and other gifts he got, thank you everyone for making Ty's birthday so special!

Here are the Birthday Boys!!!

Family Hike

2011-09-13T09:29:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday our family, as well Grammy, Uncle John,Aunt Fanny,Nicholas,Thomas, Derek, and Trevor, went on a family hike. Instead of staying on the main trail we took a one off the side and wound our way through the forest to the lake and back to the main trail (which I was never soo glad to see!) Some of the boys rode there bikes and the rest of us just trotted along at our own pace. We stopped at a fallen log to enjoy a quick snack break. We hiked for about 1 1/2 hours! Everyone had a great time and we are looking for a new place to try this Saturday.

What a nice looking group!

What a little man!

Mining for some special rocks!

This was the "dude" picture as the boys called it!