Happy Birthday Aunt Lucy!!

Happy birthday to my youngest sister Lucy... she is the B.I.G. 20... so close to 21!! Lucy (Bern to my family....is the sweetest person I know with so much potential to change the world with her kind heart; Bern has always had a love for animals, an obsession with Coke, and tons of friends. She is currently at the best school, University of Wisconsin-Madison and I am so proud of her! I am lucky to call her my sister!! We love you! Happy Birthday!!

xoxo,
allie

P.S. we spent the morning hiking the "Stairway to Heaven"- a famous hike on Oahu ... a long entry about that coming your way soon!!!

Happy Birthday Auntie J!

Happy 23rd birthday to my sweet sister J!

I just have to quickly brag about Aunt J. Instead of taking other job opportunities during her last year at Syracuse, J decided to embark on a journey teaching in downtown Minneapolis through Teach for America.  What a beginning of a school year she has had! It is such a selfless act and I know her students' lives will be transformed with her kindness, intelligence, and patience!

Here are some of her adorable students practicing standing in a line...

Love you J!

xoxo,

allie

J's Day and Mother's Day

My younger sister, Jessie (Auntie J in our house) graduated from Syracuse University this weekend and we could not be more proud. J has always been super intelligent and excelled in school (I always remember admiring that from a young age!); she applied and was accepted to the prestige Teach for America program nationwide. Basically Teach for America goes into underprivileged school districts (typically very urban or very rural) and teaches the students, after vigorous summer training in Chicago, for two years (right J?). J was placed in Minneapolis Minnesota (yayaya, our family is from there and we grew up spending our summers there) and we SO thrilled for her. She is going to be an inspirational teacher and all her students are lucky to have her. H and I just wish we were at graduation this past weekend, but we can't wait to see what Jessie does in this world; I know it is going to be something amazing. These are my proud parents with the graduate!

My Mother's Day started with flowers from one of my best and oldest friends... Auntie Jenn. It was beyond sweet of her to remember H and I on this day. She is SUCH a thoughtful friend and we are both SO lucky to have her in our lives for years to come. This picture doesn't really do them justice but they are beautiful.

H and I had a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday. Here is the little women all dressed up for church and brunch.

We met our friends down at Ko Olina (personally one of my favorite places on the island) which is the home to the Marriott Resort and Disney Resort. Both are right on the ocean with awesome views and the wonderful trade winds. I would LOVE to live there but the commute wouldn't be worth it for us! We don't go down there enough so brunch was a wonderful excuse. Ingrid and Steve invited us and we were thrilled. It was delicious... and they were SO sweet to think about me on Mother's Day and spent the afternoon with us. They also brought flowers. I can't thank them enough! I love these photos below because Harper loves Steve; it is almost board line crush status. These pictures perfectly capture how much she loves to look at him. Hilarious.

The evening ended up my favorite neighbors coming over dinner; they were so sweet and brought over the best sugar cookies I have ever had.  It was the perfect ending to a great day. Thank you everyone for making Mother's Day so special!!

I just have to quickly show this last photo.. This was from today. Grumpy Tuesday we shall say... She is cutting another tooth on the bottom; we are up to 7 teeth and she was not pleased. I don't blame her but phew, sassy.

xoxo,
allie

Aunt Momo

Happy 13th Birthday to Aunt Momo!! Harper is very blessed to have 6 Aunts/Uncles... 3 aunts and 3 uncles. Since Will and I are both the oldest children (Will of 5, me of 3), H has lots of love coming her way all the time. H loves Momo; she is always so thrilled to see her on Skype and I just can't wait to see them together soon on our trip home. Molly is so gentle and caring with H... She is a wonderful Aunt. I am sure H will look up to her for many years to come.

I think I am getting more sentimental now that I am a mom but when I found this old picture from Will's first year at school, I couldn't believe how much older all of his siblings are! Especially Molly! Sometimes "Plebe" year doesn't seem so far ago and yet it was a good almost 6 years ago? Crazy. 

I love this picture! So sweet of H and Mo.

Happy Birthday Aunt Momo! We love you!! 

xoxo,

allie