Celebrating Easter

Easter Sunday was a busy day for us. We went to mass, then my God-Father's house to visit and then Nonna and Papa's for our annual Easter Egg hunt and Easter dinner. It was wonderful to have Grammy join us this year. Unfortunately, C had to work and missed Easter dinner. I saved him lots of leftovers. He was very excited Monday morning.

We also celebrated E's birthday. It was on Good Friday. A very special birthday for her. She will never have her birthday this close to Easter again. It reminded me of when I was little. We always celebrated my birthday on Easter Sunday. I miss that.

Easter was a perfect day. Not only was it a beautiful sunny day, but we had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and celebrating Easter. 

Coloring Easter Eggs

It has been our tradition, for about 3 years now, to color Easter Eggs with our friend M and her son, CM. It just wouldn't be the same without them. The kids seem to be getting better with their egg coloring and less messy. Although, CM really likes to stir that egg in the colored water. I think we have more fun each year.

Here are a few images from our egg coloring event.

New 'Do for O Too

Once O saw CK's new haircut she said "Now you're cuter than me." Can't have that! So Aunt J sat O down on the stool to cut her hair as well (which was the plan).

O put her hand to her chin and proceeded to tell Aunt J she wanted her hair cut "this short." No, "to my cheek." O figured if her hair was shorter than her sister's she would be cuter again. No competition here.

We love O's new haircut as well. Short hair will be so much easier for both girls! We're ready for Spring and Summer.

New 'Do for CK

About three years ago CK came to me and said she wanted to donate her hair to a sick child. She had seen something on TV. I was amazed she had such compassion at 3 years old.

Today was the day. Aunt J was in town and cut off an 11 inch pony tale. We have it in a zip lock bag and padded envelope ready to mail to Locks of Love. I am so proud of CK and we love her new haircut.

Tour of California

Wednesday we got to see our first professional bicycle race. The girls had fun once the cyclists rode by. They got their yellow pom-poms and inflatable noise makers.

All the big names were there—Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, et al. C was actually hoping to see the Versus broadcasters (Phil Ligget, Paul Sherwin, & Bob Roll), but no such luck.

It turned out to be a beautiful day. This was the third stage and the cyclists had been riding since early that morning. They started in Modesto, in the rain, and ended in Downtown San Jose.

We hope to make this annual event.

CK's Piano Recital

CK has been taking piano lessons for a year (as of October 2007). Over the summer her teacher added voice as well.

A few weeks before Christmas CK had her very first piano recital. She did a great job and we are extremely proud of her!

Here are two videos from her recital. One is of her playing Good King Wenceslas and the other is of her singing The Bare Necessities.

Enjoy!

Go New York!

As Daddy went off to work today, the girls were playing in their room and I was playing with my new computer. 6pm rolled around and I thought I'd better make dinner. We hadn't been watching the Super Bowl at all, so I thought I'd better turn it on so I would at least know who won. The girls didn't want to watch the game at first, but I told them everyone else in the country was watching it we should watch a little of it. CK asked if it was a tradition. YEP, I told her.

The girls got totally into the game. I explained how to read the score and the time left in the quarter. I also explained how they score. Yes...I do know a little about football. I don't know the two teams and didn't have a preference on who won. CK was cheering for New York and O soon followed her lead. NY was ahead, after all, when we started watching the game.

Soon after we started watching the game, New England got a touch down and were now ahead. CK got nervous, but was soon excited again when NY got a touch down and was once again ahead. I told CK anything could happen, but NY was probably going to win since there were only 20 seconds (or something) left in the game.

The girls were both excited when NY won the Super Bowl. They wanted to call Nonna and Papa to make sure they saw it. "Did Papa see the Super Bowl?" O asked Nonna. She seemed satisfied when Nonna said yes. We, of course, called Daddy to tell him who won. He was surprised, then had to rush off back to work.

Our Super Bowl tradition has now started. I will have to plan a party for next year. The girls will love it.

Attention Shoppers, The Store is Now Closed

The girls and I went out to dinner tonight. C is working and they had a dinner fundraiser at Baja Fresh. Something fun. After dinner we went into Staples. I didn't realize they were just about to close. We weren't in the store for more than 2 or 3 minutes and they made an announcement over the speaker "Attention shoppers. Staples is now closed...."

CK gets a panicked look on her face and says "Mommy, we have to go. The store is closed!!!!" I tell her okay, okay, let me just
look at this thing here. "No we have to go." I tell her "We're not going to get locked in the store. It's okay. I want to look at this printer here." "Okay" she says, "you're just getting those three things? Let's go!" My rule follower you know (just like mommy and daddy).

O didn't seem worried in the least. Especially once I said we would not get locked in. As a matter of fact O said "This is the best day ever!" I asked why. She says "Because we're getting locked in the store." "NO" I said, "we are not getting locked in." CK was fine as soon as we left the store.

Family Visit in Tahoe

Last night Papa's cousin and his family came for dinner. What a fun evening. Papa and his cousin didn't stop talking and visiting the entire time. The girls made a new friend and even got the teenage boys to play their new fishing game with them.

Don't forget you can click on an image to enlarge it. Click the back arrow to get back to the blog. Enjoy!

A Perfect Winter Day in Tahoe

O woke up this morning telling me "Mamma, can we go to our other home?" I started to tell her what our plans were for the next few days. Today, I told her, we're going to walk down to the lake. "Did you bring our swim suits?" she asked. I tried to explain she was not going to want to play in the water, but I don't think she believed me.

We (Nonna, CK, O and me) did walk down to the lake this morning. My idea of the perfect winter day in Tahoe. The sun is shining on the crisp white snow making it sparkle like glitter. The sky is a light blue with cotten ball clouds. It's just heaven.

We stopped at the park on the way down to the lake. The girls possed with the bear carving. As soon as we got down to the lake guess where O went first? Yep! The water. I thought she would fall in for sure. She kept falling face first into the snow. I told her if you fall in the lake, I'm going to take your picture first, then I'll save you.

What a beautiful day. Maybe we'll have to go back down to the lake tomorrow.

Winter Vacation in Tahoe

I have two or three enteries I wanted to do before Tahoe, but never got to them: Santa, movie night with Aunt D and something else. Oh well....I'll do them later.

The girls and I are in Tahoe with Nonna, Papa, Uncle S, Aunt G, and the three kids. Daddy is home working and will join us on his weekend.

As I write this entry, it is snowing while we are all inside watching movies and resting from a morning of sledding. We arrived yesterday afternoon to dry roads and enough snow to play. It snowed overnight and this morning we walked down to our aunt and uncle's house, on the lake, to go sledding. They have a perfect slope on the side of their house.

CK and O have never gone sledding before. They loved it. The pictures show how much fun they had. Uncle S was the first to go down the slope. He had to get the path going. That was his excuse anyway. He was also the last to go down. Had to get the saucer left at the bottom.

The lake is just as beautiful in the winter as the summer. I want to go down and take more picutes of the lake with the snow, but I'll wait for a day that is now snowing. Check for more pictures tomorrow.

Special Friends & a Special Bridge make for Wonderful Memories

We went to a good friends birthday party last weekend. The girls had a great time running and jumping. I had a great time visiting.

On the way home, it was so beautiful, we had to stop at the Golden Gate Bridge. CK had been learning about it in school the week before, so she rattled off how it was 2 miles long. I couldn't resist stopping. O took a great picture of CK and I. My photographer in the making! O also loved the fact the bridge is her favorite color - red. We can't wait to go back with Daddy.

Halloween

Halloween was a very long and very fun day. It started early with O's class party and school parade. She loved every minute of the entire day! She got to wear her costume ALL day. CK had a party and parade as well. She changed at school. Daddy, O and I were there for CK's party and school parade. Of course O was with CK for her school parade. So cute!

That night we joined some friends for a great dinner and trick-or-treating. Always fun to go with a group. Every single house, O looks at me and says "I got candy! They gave me candy!" She still can't believe that people GIVE her candy on Halloween. So funny!

I was dressed in my costume all day. Why not! It's Halloween, one of my favorite holidays.

Mommy Goes to a Halloween Party

Halloween seemed extra special this year. I guess it was all the parties. It lasted longer.

I was invited to a "Black Hat Society" party. What a fun girls night out! K and I had a great time. I even got a tatoo! Lasted for one whole week. My OB/GYN loved it.

Another Visit with Aunt D and Nordie

We went to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival with Aunt D and her boyfriend. Daddy was able to join us, which was a special treat. After the festival we stopped at the pumpkin patch on the way to visit Nordie. It was great to see C and D together. I HAD to get a picture. Going to see Nordie is always a fun treat, especially the girls. Aunt D is teaching them so much about horses.

Girls Movie Night

The girls and I have movie night almost every Friday (since Daddy works). This weekend it was Saturday, since we were out on Friday. We watched a classic "girl movie".....My Fair Lady. Well, half of it anyway. CK fell asleep after about an hour or so. It had been much too late of a bedtime the night before, but she loved the movie. O did not want to go to bed, she wanted to finish the movie (but she had a nap). She loved the movie. She couldn't stop watching it.

When Intermission came up I thought it was a good time to put my sleeping girl into bed and convinced O to join her. We'll finish the movie tonight. I'll rewind so CK can see what she missed. O has been singing "I could have danced all night" ever since. It's just "loverly!"

O Finally Gets her Turn

O has been waiting two long years for this day! She cried on CK's first day of Pre-K two years ago, but NOT today. She was ALL smiles.

She was so excited to go to school today. She went right into her classroom gave Miss M and Miss L great big hugs! (It's nice she has the same teachers as CK did!) She knew exactly what to do....run over to a table and play a game, play with Play-Doh or do a lacing card. She didn't care if we were still there or not. CK, being the good big-sister that she is, tried to help O, but O didn't seem to need any help. She was in HER classroom, with HER teachers and was ready to learn and make new friends!

Mommy and Daddy did great too. I took lots of pictures....helps me not to cry. It worked. I was a little teary eyed walking to the car, but didn't cry. CK cried for me. Poor thing. She was fine, until we were in the car on the way to bring her to school and she started to get sad. I asked her what was wrong, she said "I wanted to stay with O." and started crying. My two sensitive girls. O cried for CK's first day of school, now CK cried for O's. Daddy just smiled and thought, great, I live with three sensitive, emotional girls!

NOW WE WERE FREE.....what to do with three hours! All to ourselves......hmmmmm, what to do. Well, I sat and had a cup of coffee with a danish, C had brought home for me the other night and I watched the Today Show. Haven't been able to do that in five years. C was on the computer for a little while, then went shooting. After five minutes of TV I paid bills....OH BOY.....it was very nice actually. I was able to get my things done without being disturbed every five minutes and not at 10pm (half asleep). It was great! This is going to be great. I hope to get my office cleaned out, catch up on paperwork.....so many things on my "to do" list!

When I picked up O from school she told me all about her day. She made new friends, road the tricylce at recess, did a worksheet and listened to stories. Her favorite thing she did on her first day of school was art! That's our girl.