Cati at Field Day

Cati's favorite game at Field Day was the Hoola hoops.

Matteo at Field Day!

Last Friday, we went to a homeschooler's Field Day. The kids had lots of fun! Matteo was asking today when we will have another Field Day :) I've decided to organize the pictures for each child, so expect 3, maybe 4, posts on this subject. (Chiara's rather fussy, so I don't promise them all tonight!)

Beginning Still Life Drawings :)

We started the Still Life section of our artbook yesterday. We were lead through a picture of a still life in the book, which is still like drawing a contour, but it's a start :) Soon, we'll have some real still lifes!

Here's the one from the book. For their level, they were only supposed to do the teapot and vase with flowers. They added some things from their imaginations !!

Cati...

Maria...

Matteo... (with A LOT from his imagination, but he insists on being in on all of his sisters' lessons during the day!)

The kids are proud of their work. They are amazed when they see their drawings on the computer :) :) That means that Cati and Matteo have been making drawing after drawing, expecting me to scan them in all day!

Sidewalk art :)

One day last week it stopped raining long enough for the kids to use their new sidewalk chalk & paint from Aunt Mary. They had a lot of fun! Hopefully, the weather will clear up and warm up soon so they can draw outside again :)

More bird art :)

Here's Maria's latest bird drawing.



Cati was inspired!
Here's another one by Cati...

Chiara's check-up

We went Tuesday afternoon for Chiara's 6-month hip check-up and x-ray. Everything looked great! However, the doctor said that current thinking is that kids with hip dysplasia should be followed until they stop growing. So, she AND Cati will have a check-up again in November. After that, they should only have to be seen every 1-2 years.

In other Chiara-news...She starting running a fever Sunday afternoon. I took her to the doctor yesterday, since she wasn't getting any better, and she has a double ear infection :( Good news is that it's not contagious, of course. I was afraid the fever would just be from the flu and that everyone would get it. (The kids all had the flu the last time Dany was out-of-town.) She started her antibiotics last night. She should be feeling a bit better by tomorrow, I'm thinking.

It's not supposed to rain this afternoon, so Maria's been working quickly on her work this morning so that they can all go outside to use the sidewalk chalk and paint that Aunt Mary sent :) :) Thanks, Mary!!

We're looking forward to Dany coming home in 3 days!!

13-months!

Look, Mom! No hands!!

Chiara turned 13-month this past Thursday. And, she started standing alone this week, and she's very proud of herself :)

Chiara will have her 6-month hip check-up and x-ray on Tuesday, so please pray that everything will be normal.

Happy Mother's Day!

I was checking out all of my friends' blogs and noticed that I'm the only one who hasn't made a Mother's Day post! BTW, I love reading everyone's blogs and keeping up with your families!


First of all, here are 2 pictures of our kids as we honored our Blessed Mother at a May Crowning this week. Maria was excited to have the opportunity to wear her 1st Communion dress again :)



For Mother's Day this year, I got Chik-fil-A (a personal fave) from my husband for supper last night, extra graces from God for the extra sacrifices this week while Dany's in Utah, early morning greetings from Chiara from 4am - 5am (she has a yucky cold), lots of cards from Cati and Matteo (I'm afraid they have killed many forests in the process), and lunch from Maria (she made sandwiches for everyone!).

This is a picture of Maria modeling the skirt I made for her while Chiara slept late this morning (since she was up for a while last night :) ). (Please ignore the messy playroom around her.)


Happy Mother's Day!!

Matteo rides his bike (video)

Here is Matteo riding (walking!) his bike :) :)

Cati rides her 1st bike (video)

Video of Maria learning to ride her bike

Here's a video of Maria learning to ride her 1st bike without training wheels. She's doing very well!

Cute video of Chiara :)

Here's a video of Chiara from the day of her birthday. I tried several weeks ago to upload this video, but it wouldn't work, but today it did!

Bike riding

We also went bike riding while Ginny was here. The kids all have bikes now, so we tried to teach them how to ride :)





This is Maria's 1st bike without training wheels. She's getting the hang of it and doesn't get too frustrated. She just needs a little more confidence and practice, and she'll be riding away!





Cati and Matteo really just want to walk around with the gear on :) Cati can ride her bike (it has training wheels), but she goes very slowly since she's always on the look-out for bugs!

Matteo really looks like he's riding in this picture, but he actually needs a little more coordination and strength to get much of anywhere. He'll get there soon, I'm sure!

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so hopefully we can ride again!

Ginny visits!

We had a great week this past week! Ginny came to visit. We ate out, did art projects, and shopped for material for the summer dresses that she wants to make for them. The time went by too fast!

Thanks so much for your visit, Ginny!

Happy Birthday, Papa!!

Happy Birthday, Papa!

Well, Dany's birthday was actually on April 20th. I'm just really behind on pictures :)