The McPherson Chronicles

March 10, 2009 - March 10, 2019 - Ten Years of Loving These Girls Happy 10th Birthday to these amazing girls! We celebrated BIG this year since it was double-digits AND their Golden Birthday. I wanted to make things extra special for them so it was a weekend full of surprises. The first surprise was on Friday when we woke them up and surprised them with a trip to Universal Studios to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This was the one and only thing they wanted for their birthday and we were not disappointed. It was the perfect day with great, finally not rainy, weather and not crowded at all. We spent the majority of the day in the Harry Potter world and were able to go to Olivanders where Lucy was chosen to do the full experience and have a personalized wand selected for her and then Olivia also got a wand of her choice. They were interactive wands so we were able to go all over the village to try different spells to make magic happen in various shop windows. It was so c...

We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona this year which was a fun little mini-vacation. We got to spend some time with Sarah, Tim, Zack and Nick, visit Great Grandma Rita and have Thanksgiving with some of my extended family, spend time with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Mary and I even got in some shopping time. Plus we worked in pub trivia with Mary. It was a great weekend trip spent with some of our wonderful families. I worked in a brief photo shoot of the kids since they were dressed up for dinner. Love how they turned out!

With the move, Kevin's trip, the girls' trip, and life, in general, we only had time for one trip to the beach this year. We made the most of it and had a great day though. Until next summer!

The girls went on their first big adventure this summer! They went to Arizona to spend a week with Auntie Sarah, Uncle Tim, and the boys. They were beyond excited when they found out about the trip and never thought twice about if they would miss us or their brother. I knew they would be fine and knew they would have the best trip. So excited and ready to go! The three amigos on the road to Auntie's house! Auntie Katie and Lizzy were driving out to Arizona for the weekend anyway so the girls hitched a ride with them on Friday afternoon and loved spending the weekend with them too. The rest of the week the girls spent helping with the boys, baking with Auntie, crafting up a storm and watching movies. They got to go to Legoland Discovery Center too, which they loved. We sent them along with an old cell phone where they could text us on wi-fi and take photos and videos of their trip. It was their first experience with a cell phone of their own and a test to make sure the...

So as part of Kevin's MBA program, there was an international trip included to London and Germany. It was basically a two-week trip with travel and recovery time with the first half being in London and the second half in Germany. They got to do and see so many awesome things and even though he was absolutely exhausted nearly all the time, it sounds like he and his classmates had a wonderful and memorable trip that they will never forget. He can't wait to go back and spend some more time at some of the museums and other sites they had to rush through a bit. I'm so glad he was able to go! I knew he would be using the majority of his vacation time for this trip so we wouldn't be able to have the usual family vacation this year. So, I planned a trip to Big Bear with the kids, my parents and sister for the last week that he was gone. It made the time pass quickly and we had a great time up in Big Bear! The kids loved the boat tour we took of the lake and houses. Th...