GAC is back!

Greetings!

As you all know Grace and Abby have been living it up studying abroad. Before our trio was split, we decided that during their time abroad I would come visit them during the week of Thanksgiving. We were split for almost 90 days, 3 months. And let me tell you it was rough. During the days leading up to my flight I was so excited and nervous, mostly because I had never traveled alone before. 

The trip for me lasted a full week, November 20th to the 27th. I hopped on a plane at approximately 7:30pm USA time and arrived in London at approximately 7:30am, which was 2am in USA. So I tried my best to sleep on the plane and luckly had no one sitting in the two seats next to me. The trip consisted of Abby and I exploring London for Monday, and Tuesday. Tuesday night Grace flew into London and the next morning the trio hopped on a plane to Morocco, Africa where we spend Thanksgiving. We were there until Friday when we flew back to London, and then proceeded to stay there until Sunday when Abby and I headed to the US and Grace was sent back to Scotland. 

Now that you have an idea of the trip, let's get to the details...

Monday November 21st

When I arrived in London I took the subway (aka the London tube) to meet Abby. I was super scared because Abby was originally supposed to get me at the airport, but I was a big girl and did it! When I arrived Abby and I talked for about 3 hours straight catching up on all the gossip of the past 3 months. After that we went exploring. Here are some pictures...

Tuesday November 22nd

The next day we headed out with Abby's study abroad roommate Isabelle. If you didn't know, during our time in Philly Abby and I have been asked if we were twins over 10 times. And being that the Parent Trap was filmed at a house in London, and happens to be Abby's favorite movie, we decided that we needed to get a picture in front of the house. We ended up having the butler of the house pop his head out and wave at us while we were taking pictures and trying to learn the famous Parent Trap handshake. 

After the pictures were complete, we headed to Harrods, a famous department store in London. Abby and I spent quite a bit of time there. Mostly in the baby section, because who doesn't like tiny designer clothing? 

Later that evening we awaited Grace's arrival with some legal drinks. That night we FaceTimed with our favorite Philly friend, Josh, and it was quite the reunion. We stayed up till about 2 am when we decided we needed to be up around 4:30am for our Morocco departure, so at that point, what was the point of going to bed. 

Stay tuned for Part two of our trip in Morocco!

xoxo, 

Christine

Scotland Update!

Hello friends and family,

So, as many of you know I am spending the quarter studying abroad in Scotland! I originally planned on not keeping a blog, but what can I say...it runs in my blood.

Anyway you can read all about my very eventful first day in Scotland at:
http://ghoffmanabroad.blogspot.co.uk/

xoxo,
Grace

Pre-London Update

Hi there!

I just wanted to say a quick hello and give everyone a quick update on my few days before I leave the country. The last few days have been interesting to say the least.
I had a few appointments to go to before I leave for London including getting my hair cut and to have a few highlights put in and a doctors appointment. My hair appointment did not go as well as I had planned and I was devastated. I am too embarrassed to show you what it actually looked like but here is something that gives you a pretty good idea.

An example of what my hair looked like...

So obviously I came home to my mother in full rage saying, "I CAN'T GO TO LONDON LOOKING LIKE THIS. I LOOK LIKE A FREAK" She calmly told me that she would try to make me an appointment with her fancy hair dresser man and he would "fix you right up". I have been to him before and he does a very good time so it calmed me down for a while.
I then started packing and realized that I could check two suitcases for my flight. I assumed as in most domestic flights my bags could weigh 50 lbs. But no. They had to be 20 kg or lighter. (by the way 20 kg is 44.0925 lbs.) I promptly freaked out for the 100th time. After eliminating a sweater here and a pair of jeans there I finally got my bags to be under 44.0925 lbs.
While checking to see how heavy my suitcases could be, I realized I booked my return ticket for the wrong date... so I had to fix that.
Sunday rolled around and it was time for my second hair appointment and I was excited. He said he was going to bring some of my natural color through and it would look incredible. Being the trusting person I am, I let it happen. Approximately 2 hours later he was blowdrying my hair and it was brown. Not dark blonde. Brown. Freakout #107 started (and has not really stopped yet.) Maybe later I will be willing to share a picture of it, but at the moment, I am still in shock. My mother thinks it is a way for me to reinvent myself and all this stuff... but I'm still flipping out. (Sorry mom).
Anyway, it is the day before I embark on a crazy adventure and I have calmed down and now I am excited. I look forward to keeping you all updated!

xoxo,
Abby

P.S. Shout out to the best friends in the world (Grace and Christine) for not only helping me move out my mountains of stuff from our apartment, but also for calming me down and keeping me excited and confident about my journey. Love you guys!!!

GAC Loses One

Yesterday was a sad day for GAC :(. Abby has left Philadelphia to spend a week at home before fleeing the country to London!

Christine and I are so happy for Abby as she is following her dreams and studying abroad in London, but we will miss her bunches and bunches.

But come Thanksgiving week GAC will be reunited! First in London and then of to Morocco!

You can follow Abby's adventures abroad at https://abbysabroadblog.wordpress.com/


xoxo,
Grace

Pringle Test by A and C

Hello everyone!

The other day Abby and I took our final grocery run together. While at the grocery store we stumbled down the Pringles isle. Since Grace did not accompany us we knew that we could get away with buying them. We have wanted to taste all the flavors for awhile, but decided that we need to narrow the flavors we try. We decided to pick up three flavors. Those flavors were Buffalo Ranch, Cheese Burger and Kickin' Chicken Taco.

The Pringle Spread

We sent a picture like this one to all of our friends to see which they thought would be the winner. Most of them voted for Kickin' Chicken Taco and Buffalo Ranch.

After doing a taste test we decided that Kickin' Chicken Taco was pretty good, and Buffalo Ranch was pretty average, but that Cheese Burger tasted exactly like a cheeseburger from McDonalds. You can taste the pickles, mustard, and ketchup too (Grace's favorite)! After a few more tests (because we couldn't stop eating them) we decided that Kickin' Chicken was way too seasoned for our liking and that Cheese Burger was definitely #1.

We hope that if you stumble down the Pringle aisle anytime in the future that you let us know about your favorites and we suggest that you try cheeseburger, you won't be disappointed!

xoxo,
Christine

Grace's Birthday Surprise!

Hello all,

Saturday, as you may know, was Grace's 20th birthday. Abby and I had quite an adventurous day planned for her. 

Saturday morning Abby and I drug ourselves out of bed from an exciting night before to make Grace funfetti pancakes with her favorite food, bacon. We brought it to her in bed with her present which included a card. The card stated, "Grace- Get ready for your Great Adventure. Be dressed by 9:40 wearing cool clothes and tennis shoes." This was set up just like a date card from the Bachelor(ette), our favorite show. Grace enjoyed her breakfast, got dressed and we headed out the door. On our way out we met up with our friend Alex who came with us for the ride. 

We got in Abby's car, set the GPS for a mystery location and headed on our way. Half way there Grace decided to guess where we were going from her hint in her date card. We went to Six Flags, and met three other friends from freshman year there!

The Six Flags Crew!

Grace had no idea they were going to be there. Six Flags was a blast until it rained but we had plenty more surprises coming Grace's way. We headed to Wawa for a quick bite and got ready for our 7 o'clock dinner reservation. 

The restaurant we went to was Jones, a Steven Starr restaurant serving up some lovely comfort food. In the meantime, there was a surprise party in the works at our friends, Sarah and John's house. As the meal came to a close Abby and I were frantically checking our phones to make sure all of the guests had arrived and everything was set up. We got in the Uber to go "visit Sarah since she couldn't come to dinner." Once we were there, Sarah opened the door and the crowd yelled out a huge "SURPRISE!" Grace was so surprised. 

Grace and all her friends...

Once everyone said hello and they all settled down we played a little slideshow that Abby and I put together for Grace. Everyone loved it. A little while later we gave Grace her birthday cakes. One was chocolate and the other was made by Abby and I. They were both pretty tasty, especially the chocolate one which I went fork deep into by the end of the night. 

The crazy colorful cake

The night was so great and went way better than planned! It was so nice to have the entire gang back together for a very special day.

I'd just like to now take a moment to say that I have two of the greatest friends. I wouldn't trade them for the world. Although this year is not over yet it has been quite a ride (haha, get it?) and I wouldn't have had anyone else by my side . Love you two to pieces. 

GAC cheesing up a storm

Oh and happy birthday Grace! Here's to Vegas next year for your 21st!

xoxo, 

Christine

P.s. I would like to thank Josh for ditching the party. I hope you had major fomo. 

Dinner with the Guterman's!

Hello friends!

A few weeks ago Abby's parents came to visit. Abby had a grand old time with them. On their last night in town they all went out to dinner and graciously invited me along. We went to Vernick, the second best restaurant in Philadelphia. Below you will find the glorious spread of food that graced our table.

Here you will find a melon and celery soup with a small bite of cornbread

Here is a lovely dish of beets on top of a sheepsmilk ricotta

Above is a gorgeous asparagus salad atop bacon jam with a crispy fried egg

Dessert was an enchanting blueberry pie with buttermilk ice cream

This food was some of the best food I have ever eaten. I am so thankful to have joined the Guterman family for such a nice dinner. Thank you all!

xoxo,
Christine

Broiling Turkey Burgers!

I just want to take a moment to brag about my wonderful amazing roommates, Abby and Christine! Not only are they amazing friends, but even better cooks! Of course like every 20-year olds we have our occasionally mishap, but always recover!

This past Tuesday we had turkey burgers for dinner which Christine kindly offered to cook for us, but unfortunately couldn't get the cheese to melt. She had the ingenious idea to broil the cheese for just a few moments.

This plan worked perfectly until the fateful moment of retrieving them from the oven, when one guy slipped through the racks and landed cheese-side down. No worries, Abby jumped into action by simply placing a new cheese slice on the burger and broiling it again! 

I must say these burgers were delicious and even better with the bacon Abby cooked up!

Oh, during this time our smoke detector went off, sending me into heart failure. An eventful night for sure

xoxo, 

Grace

Crock Pot Adventures!

HI!
I have been MIA for so long it upsets me. But I am back and I have an exciting story to share with you! A month or so ago I purchased a crock pot from Graces favorite store, Walmart. I got a great deal and we were all so excited to try and create something with it. Our first go was crockpot brownies which, unfortunately, did not go so well. We burnt them. I should probably take full blame for that one... I burnt them.

Today, Christine and I decided to try again. We decided we would make "Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo Tortellini"  And boy oh boy, do we reccommend it. It is a type of food that you should probably be working out whilst eating it, but we said, TREAT YO SELF. It was one of the cheesiest most delicious things we've ever made. Here is a picture of our creation.

Our Dinner! We thought we needed salad to balance things out.

Before I get up and get another serving of this, I think I should put this blog post to bed. Stay tuned for more crock pot adventures.

xoxo,

Abby

Grace's Vacation in Asheville

For my summer break, I headed home to Asheville, NC and my mom decided it was time we became tourists in our newest hometown.

I flew home early Saturday, like left my apartment at 4:15 am early, but this meant I got in just in time for breakfast! We stopped at one of my favorite restaurants, Tupelo Honey, for a yummy breakfast!

Breakfast doesn't get much better than blueberry french toast!

My mom made sure to keep me busy while I was home for the week, but she was kind enough to give me Saturday to rest! Sunday, though she kicked my dad and I out to go float down the French Broad River. We were both very excited about this, until we realized that the water level was low which meant the river was flowing slower than normal. This meant that our 2 hour trip became close to 4! Oh well, lesson learned.

We also did Lazoom Comedy Tour one evening. It was a great way to spend an evening laughing and even learning a little bit about Asheville! We also finally learned about the male Nun we see riding a bike around downtown! He is an ongoing story line for Lazoom!

And what's a bus tour without a selfie! 

I also managed to convince Kimmie to go zip lining, and she did amazing!! She only chickened out at every zipline, but she made it! Wootwoot! (No selfie was taken due to Kimberly's request...she was too stressed to smile)

We also spent one very hot afternoon painting pottery! It's almost as fun as adult coloring books, but way more stressful!

My Mom's

And mine!

Our final activity and probably my favorite, was the High Roller Food Tour of Asheville. This was a walking food tour of 8 different restaurants with a small bite to eat at each! The food was divine and usually we were able to speak with the Chef! It as a great way to learn more about Asheville and the restaurants it offers!

Although, I loved being busy and having a different exciting activity each day, my favorite part was just being home! It was nice to sleep in my own bed and have someone make me chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast! Also, it was nice to see this big guy before he had his little haircut mishap.

If you are in need of a laugh, check out Boomer's new look
https://khoffmanfamily.blogspot.com/2016/06/poor-boomer.html

Until next time Asheville!

xoxo,
Grace

Christine's Beach Break!

Hello everyone!

This past week was our week off of school for break. Abby, unfortunately did not have a break because she was on co-op, but fortunately, she got a long weekend and a few days to spend with a friend from home. My family and I went to Carolina Beach in North Carolina. We have been planning this trip for about 6 months because with Drexel's system you don't get much time off to vacation.

We headed down south Saturday morning bright and early at around 5 am. It was a 10-hour drive ahead of us and we had 2 adults, 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 vehicles. It was quite the drive, but with a few coffee breaks and of course, a McDonald's break for Colin we made it there safe and sound!

We rented a lovely beach house for the week that was three short blocks from the beach. During the trip we spent a lot of time at the beach, and fortunately, I didn't get nearly as sunburnt as I did in Wildwood. We also went on a half-day deep sea fishing trip where we caught over two dozen Spanish Mackerel, and not to toot my own horn but I caught the majority of them because the boys ended up sleeping and Mark and my Mom wanted us, kids to do the heavy lifting so they could relax. 

Me and my prize fishy!

During the trip, we also took my dogs, Harley and Winston, to the beach almost every day. We had to take them a little ways up the beach because they aren't allowed on the beach we were staying at, but they never turned down a little truck ride! After the first few tastes of the salt water they got used to it and loved every minute of it! Since they went almost every day we thought we had it all figured out, until our last day, when my mom got a parking ticket for not having a parking permit. Whoops!

Winston and Harley absorbing the rays!

Overall, it was a great break that I definitely needed. Well spent with my lovely family, who isn't all that lovely sometimes, but hey, you can't choose your family can you? But even if you could choose them, you would probably pick the same ones. 

Here's to the best family, that loves to be goofy!

But, family fun is over! Time to get back to classes and the best summer of my life with the best friends possible!

Till next time...

xoxo, 

Christine

National Donut Day

2 blog posts, 1 week...woah! Are we on a roll or what??

For those of you who don't know, today is National Donut Day so make sure to get your fill of this wonderfully delicious treat!

Christine and I set our early this morning to trek to Dunkin' Donut for our free donut with purchase of any beverage...we obviously both purchased iced coffee.

Notice the wet sidewalk, it was raining this morning, but that did not stop us from getting our donuts!

Soon after finishing up our breakfast, Christine headed to class, Abby got dressed, and I did nothing of real importance. I was up and ready early this morning because today was the day I was joining Abby and Christine at the nail salon. For those of you who know me, are probably asking yourselves, "Grace gets her nails done?" but I was in desperate need of a pedicure so I tagged along!

Christine got back from class and we set off for the nail salon, but first pit stopped at Starbucks...can you tell we like coffee? We decided to take the Drexel shuttle into the city because it was still raining and we, well Abby and Christine, decided to try a different nail salon! Abby and I ended up choosing the same color for our toes, a light shade of blue! 

We returned from the nail salon, famished and decided to warm up our leftovers from dinner last night. I had been craving Zavino all week and last night we decided to go. Abby and I ordered the most amazing pizza and we ended up ordering another one for take away. It was so so good!!

Sometime during this period, I became distracted by our fish tank. We have one fish who likes to hangout behind the filter and I could not find her. Finally, Christine came over and pulled the filter out of the water and I found the fish...stuck to the bottom of the filter. We believe that our frog tried to eat the fish and trapped her underneath the filter. We are all greatly upset about this tragic death and hope that our frog will not try this again. 

We had a short funeral(flushing) of the fish. We all know that fish can be replaced, but the love we shared with her can't be. 

xoxo, 

Grace

GAC plus 1 take on Wildwood!

Hello, everyone!

As many of you know this past weekend was a scorcher. Everyone finally traded in their long pants and sweatshirts for shorts and tank tops. (Let's cross our fingers it stays for awhile!) But anyway, I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed it, we sure did!

Last Thursday Grace's friend, Danna came to visit. Grace and Danna had their own weekend kind of planned, so Abby decided that we should go on an adventure. She told me we were going somewhere and that her plan was genius, but she wouldn't tell me where she planned to kidnap me to. She eventually sent me pictures of sandy beaches and the ocean and made me guess what beach and I couldn't figure it out. Finally, I realized, we were going to WILDWOOD. 

The trip began being planned and Grace and Danna were pretty jealous, so we extended the offer so that they could tag along too! Abby and I were so excited, but we didn't have a lot of the basics to go on a trip to the beach, so we went to Five Below to purchase what we needed. We got beach towels, the only thing we actually needed, but on top of that, we bought matching shirts and sunglasses that we were going to wear. Oh, and I almost forgot! We got a selfie stick because what squad goes to the beach and doesn't bring a selfie stick?! We also bought new swimsuits which were not in the budget, but hey they were 40% off so our parents would be proud... I think. 

Squad rocking our lovely matching T-shirts

Saturday then passed by with an amazing breakfast, a trip to the farmer's market, a visit from an old friend, some delicious cookies, and a movie to wrap up the evening. The next morning we headed out at 7 AM to the grand ocean blue. 

We stopped twice, once for breakfast and the other to get some chips for our guacamole that we bought the day before at the farmer's market. We also ended up at ACME buying this lovely guy (below), his name is Iggy and for a mere $6.99, he brought more fun to our beach day than any other man could. 

Grace showing off her muscles to all the boys

Selfie stick, take one

After our day relaxing on the beach, we headed up to the boardwalk to ride some rides and finish off with some nice boardwalk snacks. These included ice cream, pizza, and a tasting of fried delights. These fried foods were not all great, but they included fried Oreos, a Reeses peanut butter cup, a Twix bar, and even some cookie dough (our least favorite, I would say). 

On our trip back we jammed out to some lovely music. Overall our beach day was a success! But once we were back to reality the approaching week and the sunburn began to set in. So Grace headed to CVS to stock up on aloe and aloe lotion which we have plowed through. In our defense, the beach was super overcast and we went through an entire bottle of sunscreen but somehow we still ended up sunburnt. Some more than others... whoops, my bad. 

Here's to many more summer adventures with my best friends!

xoxo, 

Christine

Tears in Transit

Not everything is rainbows and butterflies. We all get down in the dumps. But hopefully all of our lows will one day be worth all of the highs. This past weekend for me was a little bit of both.

This past weekend I got to go home and see my family and most importantly my lovable fur balls that are always happy to see me. Seeing them squealing, wagging their tails, and running to get toys was definitely a big high of the weekend. Pets are truly extraordinary characters, there is never a time I am not happy to see them. As for my family, the weekend started like it normally does, with plans for the weekend. But before any of those plans began, my Mom decided that we needed to go to the pet store to get snails for our fish tanks that I mentioned before. The tank is growing quite a bit of algae and I thought the snails might help keep it clean. So Friday afternoon we headed to the pet store and got two snails, that were being fostered in my home fish tank for the weekend.

On Saturday morning my Mom and I planned on going on a hike. Thinking it would only be a measly 2 mile or so walk, I asked my brother to go along. After much bribing he decided to join the clan! He didn’t find out about the length of the hike until much later (5 miles). The hike started at a very steep incline and as always, Colin complained, stopping multiple times threatening that he would go back and wait by the car. This fumed into a family feud, to say more or less. With a family of hot heads like mine, that tends to happen. The moral of that story though is always talk to someone as if it is your last time seeing them, because you never really know when the end will be.  

The hike continued uphill until finally reaching “the Pulpit” where we took this lovely selfie!

Selfies at the Pulpit!

The trail then flattened out a bit with lots of rocks until we reached the final destination, “the Pinnacle.” On the way to the Pinnacle we followed a white trail and knew we needed to take that back to find a yellow trail that would lead us back to the trail. We found what we thought was the white trail and once we passed some trees and puddles we didn’t noticed we decided to look at our map. Turns out there were two white trails from the Pinnacle and we took the wrong one! To get back on track the fastest way would be for us to trek through the woods in hopes of finding the other white trail. Turns out in 6^th grade we went on a field trip where we learned out to use a compass and a map to find our way through an obstacle course. Turns out I learned something because if I wasn’t there my mother’s lack of directional knowledge would of left them heading all the way back, adding another hour to the hike.

The view from the top!

The hike was over and we went home and my brother and I spent some bonding time going to dinner, shopping for a baseball glove, and finally ended up getting some frozen yogurt.

The weekend had finally reached the end, Sunday. I always have mixed feelings when coming home and going back to school, especially recently. This is where the low comes in, so brace yourself. Because of recent events I always find myself struggling to come home because of all the memories that no longer exist there. But I also want to stay home because being away from family is always tough. This is a little sappy so I will skip to the point...

My Mom and I waited for the train to come for me to head back to Philly with all of my things in the car, snails included. As always I said goodbye and got super emotional. Like mothers and daughters do, we had a good heart to heart, and before we knew it the train blew in 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I quickly wiped my tears, grabbed my things, yelled “I love you Mom!” and headed for the train. Once on the train I got a text, “Your Snails??????” Turns out I forgot them in the car. So there I was, already emotional from crying previously, tearing up on the train. I was that girl sitting on the train crying. Crying over snails. If only the fellow passengers knew what the distress was really about…

Hope everyone else had an exciting weekend! Mine was a roller coaster of emotions, but in the end the ride will always be worth it!

xoxo,

Christine

Grace's Spring Break

Hola!

For spring break my parents, our dog and I traveled to Texas to visit my brother, Phil. Our trip was filled with good food, lots of laughter, and wonderful memories.

On Saturday, Phil played tour guide to Kimmie and I. Dougie was not allowed to tour Lockheed Martin, as he is not an American.

He missed out on getting one of these super cool name badges. 

I also felt like a true rebel as I smuggled in my cell phone...oops. Phil was kind enough to take ownership of my phone while we were in the building, so all was good. It was cool to see where he worked and all that goes into making certain planes, but the best part was his cubicle. Phil is the proud owner and user of a standing desk. Kimmie must have brought it up and down half a dozen times.

After a few days with Phil, we traveled to San Antonio. I loved San Antonio. It was such a cute little town and it seemed to just have a certain charm to it. Our time here consisted of a lot of walking. So much walking, in fact, that Boomer got tired and quit mid-walk. My mom stayed behind with him at one of the 4 Missions in San Antoio, while Dad and I rented bikes to get the car. In hindsight it was probably our fault to push Boomer for such a long walk, but really what dog quits on a walk.

Dougie and I did take this killer selfie mid ride! 

After our time was up in San Antonio we headed back to Fort Worth, but this time Anna would be joining us for the weekend! My brother only works every other Friday and he was lucky enough to have the Friday Anna was there off, so once again we went on another walk. This time we went to Dinosaur Valley State Park! You can actually see real dinosaur tracks, but most of them were underwater. 

Phil had a teleconference during our time at Dino Valley, but that did not stop the rest of us on going for a short hike. 

On Saturday we went to Six Flags and I'm proud to announce that Philip Hoffman rode all the rollercoasters!!! And don't think he will let you forget that anytime soon... 

I'll leave you with this picture that I think accurately describes my spring break.

xoxo,
Grace and Boomer

Spring Break!

Hello everybody!

Well, today marked the last official day of Winter term! We are all relieved and can't wait to go home! I actually did not have any finals so I got to leave a little early for spring break. I am actually sitting on a train headed home as I write this! Grace had a few finals and projects and she will be leaving on Thursday to go to Texas to visit her brother (with their dog, may I add) best vacation ever! Christine has a few more days of co-op, she's in the final stretch!!! She will head home on Tuesday after work for her spring break to prepare for her first quarter of classes as a Sophomore! I leave to go to Florida for 8 days on Friday and I could not be more excited for warm weather!

I'm sure we will have a more exciting update when we return! To hopefully make this post a little more exciting, I would like to leave you with this:

Our friend Josh.

xoxo,
Abby

Christine's Birthday Present!

Hi Everyone! Sorry it's been so long!

As you may have seen in our previous post, I am 5 years old now! On my birthday, I did some things  a 5-year-old would, like wearing a pink tiara and tutu. I even received gifts for a 5-year-old, like a card filled with owls, my favorite animal, and even a sea monkey kit! 

If you don't know, sea monkeys are actually brine shrimp that are very easy to raise. All you need is some bottled water and the kit contains the rest! The past few days I am been raising my sea monkeys and they are doing pretty well! The tank looks very dirty because they eat algae so no picture today. We have been checking up on them pretty often and, needless to say, they have become the light of the apartment. Did I mention they are in a glow in the dark tank?! 

We are also about to get some new aquatic life here in 7041. So stay tuned for more info on that surprise!

xoxo, 

Christine

Christine Turns 5!

Yes, you all read the title correct, Christine is 5...again!

Lucky or unlucky for Christine she is a leap year baby which means her true birthday only comes around every 4 years! In reality she turned 20.

Abby and I choose to surprise Christine with dinner on Sunday at a restaurant she has been talking about for months. Christine was more excited with the fact that she finally got to eat at Honeygrow, than the fact that her birthday was being celebrated for two days!  

We ordered our stir-fry on touch-screen computers! 

Monday was Christine's actually birthday and since we all know Christine leaves for work incredibly early, Abby and I slipped a very appropriate birthday card for a 5-year old and a pack of Nutella and pretzels in her lunch the night before!

Christine's birthday coincided with our Monday night routine of The Bachelor, so we had to come up with a plan to surprise Christine with something special for her birthday, but not miss our show. We came up with inviting a few people over and ordering in Chipotle, a favorite of everyone's!

Flashback to Monday morning: 

Soon after Christine left for work, Abby and I made our way downstairs as we had a cake to make and not just any kind of cake. Abby had stumbled upon a checkerboard cake a few weeks earlier and was dying to make it! This required that we make three round cakes with only 2 cakes pans, which became very time consuming. Abby whipped up the batter and headed off to class, I stayed behind to pull them out of the oven. The hard part was leveling them, cutting them in half, then dividing them equally with cookie cutter, and finally placing each color in a certain other color. Abby would probably do a better job explaining how this whole process went, so hit her up if you really want to know! For our icing we chose to go with traditional vanilla buttercream, but also coffee buttercream. When then assembled our cake and somehow during this process it became lopsided! Oops, but it did not slow people from trying a piece!

Our Birthday Girl with her checkerboard cake!

Happy Birthday Christine! 

xoxo,
Grace

Long Overdue Post

Oh my goodness, we cannot believe how much time has passed since our last blog post! We apologize for our lack of posts and once again, promise to do better. Maybe by the end of the school year we will have this blogging thing all figured out. We can hope....

Anyway, lets see what has happened between last blog post and now.
I believe it was the weekend after we lost the powerball, that we ventured across the bridge to New Jersey! We decided to take a trip to the Camden Aquarium, which has nearly 200000 sq. ft of sea life! We watched penguins play out side, attempted to touch stingrays, and walked through a tunnel full of sharks! Not gonna lie, it was a pretty exciting way to spend a Saturday.

Just look at the Shark Tunnel, pretty cool, right?

Restaurant Week happened in Center City Philadelphia and it seemed something that we needed to take advantage of! We chose Del Frisco's Steakhouse! We went during lunch and the place was packed! Abby and Christine both got fancy cheesesteak's while I went with a salmon dish! The food was divine and it was a great time! We planned to then go ice skating afterwards, but Josh decided to ditch us, so we headed home.


Ah, we have become fans of The Bachelor and watch religiously every Monday night! We are down to the final two girls, one of which he will most likely propose to. Ben, this season's Bachelor, has told both girls he loves them...we are all very interested to see how this plays out.

Which one will he choose!?!

Moving on, Abby has accepted a co-op at Breslow Partners where she will be a Public Relations Intern! We could not be more proud of Abby and wish her all the best! She is excited to see what PR is all about and have a nice little break from school.

I have accepted a study abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland for the upcoming fall term...and I might even blog about my time there

Christine is finishing up the last 2 weeks at Comcast! She is excited to get back into the routine of a normal college kid...by going to classes!

xoxo,
Grace

P.S. stayed tuned for all about Christine's Birthday Festivities

Powerball

As most of you probably know, the Powerball reached an all-time high of 1.5 billion dollars. We obviously had to get some tickets, but didn't want to go in alone. We signed a contract and everything, convinced we were going to win at least something. 

We lost...

xoxo,
Grace, Abby & Christine