The Harter Family: A lot of catching up to do!!

Yikes. I have fallen behind on this blog. And it's not from lack of activities...probably just the opposite! I have been busy at my job as I leading the way for an event on campus in ONE WEEK....we are bringing all five Richmond mayoral candidates to campus, students from approximately 14 other schools for a total of almost 800 people! Whew. Needless to say, that is what I will be doing all week! Gage is busy as always with his job, freelancing for Richmond Magazine and even his first Richmond TV appearance to talk about Arthur Ashe! We have it on DVR, so if you are ever at our house, ask to see it! Ema turns 3 in less than two weeks! She is currently obsessed with Disney World. We may have broken the news to her too early -- yes, we are taking her to Disney World in March over my spring break (I get a spring break for the first time since college!!). Already, we booked breakfast in the castle with Cinderella. Lately, she has been contemplating the princesses and Walt Disney World a lot. The other day, after a long thought process she asked me, "Where do the princesses live." Of course, I told her Disney World. Then, we had to discuss if Jasmine lived in NYC as we saw her at the Disney Store when we were there. The answer? She was on vacation, of course. Yesterday, Gage had to answer teh question, "When are we going to Disney World?" He chose to answer with a sequence of events: Ema's birthday, Papa's birthday, Daddy's birthday, Thanksgiving.... And now she tells everyone she is going to Disney World, including randomly telling the balloon guy the other night at the restaurant. I can't wait to see her face when we walk into the Magic Kingdom for the first time. We need to take a photo of that for sure!!
Here's a look at some of the fun things we've been up to lately...

In late August we celebrated National Night Out at Meesh's house. We had a great time eating and visiting with friends!

See more photos here.

Ema moved up to her big girl class and is happy to be with her friends Carter and Zak again! She is the youngest in the class as the oldest is 5. But she is learning a lot and singing new songs ever day.

See more school photos here.

Grandpa came down for Labor Day weekend and we visited Lewis Ginter Botantical Gardens. We also got to chat on the computer with the Harters in Bangkok. It was fun!

On Sunday of Labor Day weekend we took a family trip to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. It was a fun time and Ema started to discover her photographic talent, insisting on taking photos of her own!

See more photos from Labor Day weekend here.

The next weekend Grandma and Papa and Uncle Fred (Papa's youngest brother) were in town. Papa and Uncle Fred were here for the NASCAR races, which were postponed till Sunday.

So while the rains fell, thanks to Hurricane Hanna we decided to become a Wii family. Grandma quickly became addicted to bowling.

See more photos here.

Jen got a fun weekend in Bloomington for a mini-reunion with sorority sisters. It was great to see some people I haven't been around in almost 10 years! We even stayed at the sorority house! But, I must say we are definitely getting older!

See more photos from the sorority weekend here.

And we had to bid farewell to Jen's friend Stephanie who is moving to Denver with her husband Wes. We'll miss them a lot, but we're hoping they have an extra bed or two and want some visitors!!