An embarrassingly late recap of Halloween and George's Birthday

Home Sweet Hanna has been on hiatus lately - it has been a busy month!  Wanted to update with a few pictures from Halloween (yes I know we are on to Thanksgiving) and George's 1st Bday - see below...

First there was Ginny's 30th Birthday Party - my DIY (see post here) Kate Middleton costume was a hit...

Ginny "Black Swan", Elizabeth "Kate" and Claire "i-Phone"

iPhone and Steve Jobs

White and Black Swan getting down

Me and my handsome fighter pilot William...I mean Maverick

Next up was Halloween at Home Sweet Hanna - we carved our pumpkin and had lots of cute trick-or-treaters...

Berkley as a pumpkin and Bridget as Yo Gaba Gaba's Brobee - too cute!

George checking out our visitors

Yo Gaba Gaba and DJ Lance - look how much big Bridget has gotten since last year - here

Trick or Treat!

2011 Jack-Hanna-Lantern...creepy

George's Birthday was on November 1st - our sweet boy turned 1 on the 1st (golden bday!)- he got extra ball tossing in the backyard and a few presents to celebrate the milestone....

Playing/chewing his new rubber duckie

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  xoxo

Meg&Mac

Another Family Wedding....on October 8th Meghan became Mrs Mac and the family was there in full effect (Minus Jeff - we missed ya!) to celebrate....Sadly I did not catch many pictures of the boys - was too busy on the dance floor I suppose....few pics of the lovely ladies below...

Prewedding Bridesmaid shot - note we are missing Allison, Claire, and  Caitlin

Congrats to Meghan and Andrew!  The wedding was beautiful and tons of fun - best wishes and lots of love.

The Day She Became LEPG

I'm such a proud friend - Style Me Pretty has a post featuring our dear friends the Grammers beautiful 2009 Charlottesville Wedding....see it here
(pictures by Jen Fariello)

Lauren has such elegant taste and the day was fun and personal in every way!

It was an honor to be a bridesmaid - and Lauren was thoughtful to let us choose our own Navy Blue dresses - as you can see below everyone was comfortable and beautifully coordinated for the big day...

One of our favorite Hanna photos was captured right outside that beautiful Tent....

Both our mothers love this one - captured by Ginny Boland

And most importantly we started "The Family" reunions that day...

"The Family" - you should see us "light it up...like its dynamite"

We have been blessed with such wonderful friends and feel so fortunate to share these major life milestones with such an amazing supportive group!  Love to the fam!

And they lived happily ever after!

There is nothing more joyful that witnessing the wedding of true friends. The two couples we celebrated with in May are so sweet, loving, and devoted to each other  - best wishes and lots of love to the happy couples....

JD and Lauren

Jamie and Marty

And they lived happily ever after!
Don't you love the "going away" pictures?

Everybody in the House of Love

Looking forward to a weekend at the beach with a few of my best gal pals -  kicking off with The Royal Wedding wedding at 6AM EST Friday - Ginny, George and I will be up early to watch it live....a few key items to set the mood  for the big "to do" as my Nana likes to call any big event...

Union Jack Bunting

Knit the Royals set

The T-Mobile Royal Wedding Entrance - love that crazy Harry...and Camilla's sweet rumpbump moves!

Spotted Dick - because Rosie Pope says thats what you eat with the Royals

Royal Wedding Paperdolls - we can act out the big event - of course with British Accents

A Tracey Hat

George is making friends...BIG and small

The price of being tacky?

One of our favorite parts of Christmas is the annual Tacky Light Tour - we got out of the gates early this year with a trip with The Stevens to see a few the first weekend of December (after an El Cap Fiesta of course)....

While driving around we got to talking about the cost implications of being a truly Tacky Light house...well luckily HouseLogic breaks it down here.

To light this house for example:

1,000,000 bulbs were the average 5 watt C7 bulb. Assuming the lights to run for 4 hours each night and 30 nights in total.....the estimated cost came out to be $686/hour  or $82,320 total. YIKES!  
Note - If they use LEDS, their estimate would drop down to $89 hour and $10,680.


It is amazing how much money these families are dishing out to get into the Christmas spirit!  To check out houses in Richmond...use this guide from Richmond.com.


Our favorites are 8202 Shelley (tune your radio to 99.5) and Asbury Court (two houses - mother/son)....

Easy as Pie?

Can you believe it's already November?  Last weekend The Hanna House were in Northern, VA for Sara and Bill's wedding.  In honor of fall, Sara was so clever and wanted to have pies to fit the season instead of cake...see below...

Love the details - the cute chalk board signs and canisters full of pie filling to indicate which pie is which....and since they were mini....it was easy to try all four varieties....too cute!

Needless to say this was a huge hit at the wedding!  Congrats Sara and Bill - fun that they will have a anniversary tradition of pie every October 30th.


After the wedding it was home for more harvest activities - we carved our pumpkin for Halloween.  We were a little short on time this year so we went with the classic two tooth jack-o-lantern....sort of look like he's about to take a big bit out of that curvy gourd....

.....And had some visitors....Michael, Bridget (the bee...bzzz), and Laura

Guess its time to start think about Thanksgiving!

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer....

In this crazy social media world - who are your closest connections?  Well hopefully not your enemies but - there are tools on Facebook to show you how your friends "rank" based on your interactions on the book....the one I use is Touch Graph....see below for my social web....

As you can see my biggest networks are work(TMA), JMU, and UVA....and my closest FB friends are the largest bubbles - Meghan, Marty, Lauren, Claire, Mary, and the hubby.  When you roll over specific friends it will show you their web of friends within your graph...pretty cool...

Once you get the application - you can go see it any time from your homepage....just click on Touch Graph (below the other place you click all the time - photos)...

Who is in your #1 Facebook friend?  Does it line up w/ your real life?

Going Coastal_Part 2

After our quick cruise around Southern Cali - we continued our Party in the USA tour and  flew to NYC for two days in the city with our fabulous hostess  Becca (love your new apt!) prior to Blake/Alec's wedding in Montauk, NY...

Our days in the city were spent eating at some of our favorite old haunts Grey Dog (the one on University near Union Square - where Brian and I used to meet for lunch when he would visit me in the city), Otto, 16 Handles, Indigo....walking around downtown....shopping...and visiting two new NYC sites for The Hanna house...The Frick and The High Line park.  Pictures are below...

mmmm Grey Dog Club 

Briguy "Because you're mine....I walk the HIGH line"

The Frick Mansion - along Central Park (upper East Side Manhattan)

The Frick was spectacular and I would add it to the NYC must list - the story of Henry Clay Frick is very interesting and I was amazed at the abundance of art and furniture from his collection that is not permitted to be loaned - so you can only see it in this amazing mansion/museum.  The size and scope is spectacular but it is not an overwhelming experience that you often feel when visit The Metropolitan.  You can take your time and enjoy the free audio tour at your leisure (you punch in the numbers corresponding to the artwork/furniture number - so there is not a set course through the mansion)  It is fun to teleport yourself to the turn of the 20th century when the home was built and furnished (1913-1914).  We listened to a docent welcome speech and learned that formal tours of the facility have never been permitted as stated in the Frick will.  Mr Frick wanted visitors to see the collection in a home - not a museum.   Children are not allowed so the experience feels elevated and free of field trip pushiness you often encounter at other popular landmarks.  My Nana had insisted I visit and I am so glad we did - the Frick collection is breathtaking and a truly wonderful experience!  Below are two of my favorite pieces from the collection....

La Promenade - Renoir (gorgeous painting was in the Oval Room at the Frick)

Whistler - Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou (only American artist besides Stuart's George Washington painting that are part of the collection)

After our NYC visit we rented a car and headed to Montauk for our dear friends Blake and Alec's wedding. The weekend was so special and we enjoyed catching up with "the family"!  I think we may have left our mark on Montauk - or at least Nick's - love that place!  Congrats to the bride and groom - few pics below!

MTK Cafe...mmmm Ranchero Omelet - Hang Ten to the surfer threesome sitting at the table behind Brian...we had the "pleasure" of sitting next to them and got to hear how their bodies "just crave surfing" - haha - too funny!

Gals at rehearsal dinner

Blake's flowergirl trying on her veil - so precious!

The Family and Richmond friends - a girl was about to walk through our pic making us all laugh

TOLD YA - There she is.... haha

The Happy Couple (such a gorgeous bride!)

Congrats you two!

Memories from the weekend - NICKS!, dance party on the bus from the rehearsal dinner,  Royal Atlantic hotel...no shampoo...or towels in the "renovated" units, Michael Jackson showing up at the reception, bonfire on the beach, great times with our buddies!