Pomeriggio al Parco

Mercoledì scorso, sono uscito un po' prima da scuola, e siamo andati al parco. Eccovi un po' di foto.

Elena sull'altalena:

Dopo aver visto i pesci e gli anatroccoli, il Giuseppe è partito di corsa per andare in cima ad una collina:

Dopo l'ultima foto, mi sono dovuto fare la collina di corsa per arrivare in cima prima di lui (c'è un sentiero con un lago in cima alla collina!). Mi ha battuto di mezzo secondo, ma l'ho preso prima che attraversasse il sentiero.

Un paio di foto sullo scivolo:

E la mia foto preferita con Elena:

Creative Kiddos

The kids created some cute things this week...

 

Cati learned to crochet a little more than a month ago. She made one thing following a pattern. Now she's decided she doesn't need a pattern (anyone who really knows Cati will not find this surprising - she's always been a creative, independent, marches-to-the-beat-of-her-own-drummer kind of gal). She's been creating all kinds of little critters this week on her own. Here's a small sample.

Cati and her bee

 

Bee close-up

 

A dolphin with an artificial tail as in Dolphin Tale

 

A strawberry

Elena and Chiara drew some animal pictures while looking through a library book.

 

 

 

 

 

Elena made a face with kitchen items :)

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Our Little Fashion Designer

Elena (with some help from Cati) made a dress for herself and a crown for me today :).

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Some funny math

Saturday morning, Elena started filling her bowl with mini-muffins. She started counting...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...

I was so impressed! I've never heard her accurately count out even 3 items before, and she just counted 10! Then, she paused, I guess trying to think of what came after 10...

"7, 8..." (Another pause as she looks in the bowl to see if there's room for more...)

"2..." (Another pause as she looks for room for just one more)

"5!" She then said triumphantly!

Oh, well. The beginning was good :).

Actually, thinking about it some more, I think the second part of her counting was better because it gave me another memory to smile about for the rest of the day!

Posted with Blogsy

It finally happened

We finally had an unplanned haircut in our house. I've heard stories of them from others, but we have somehow avoided them here - until today. The wannabe beautician is an almost-5-year-old (it's uncertain that she will actually make it to this birthday!) who goes by the name of Chiara. Her victim is pictured below. And if she continues to wear that hat for the next few months, no one will ever notice :)

Father's Day

Yes, I'm a bit behind on blog posts, but what's new :)

I think Dany had a relaxing, enjoyable Father's Day last Sunday.

The major event of the day happened during supper when Matteo lost his first tooth!

It was rather funny. He was eating when he stood up suddenly, took some food from his mouth, and set it down on the table in disgust, saying, "What is that!?" That unchewable bit of "food" was a little baby tooth. After he got over the shock, he excited made an envelope for the tooth to put under his pillow that night. He didn't sleep well that night because he was so excited about the Tooth Fairy coming :)

Here are some pictures of his new look. These are typical facial expressions from him these days when we try to get him to smile for the camera :)

If you're done laughing at those pictures, I'll move onto the end of supper. While we were cleaning up, we made the mistake of leaving Elena's plate on the table so she could finish up her dessert. Dany's favorite dessert these days is chocolate fondue and fruit. Well, I guess Elena was full but didn't want to waste her chocolate...

Happy 2nd Birthday, Elena!

Yesterday was Elena's 2nd birthday!


Here she was one year ago on her first birthday.

She's grown so much over the past year... she now has a mouthful of teeth and headful of hair and a commanding use of the word "No!" :) She loves climbing on things, going outside, reading books, and she is obsessed with babies! She's putting 2 words together now in her speech and she has starting "singing" over the past few weeks. AND, she draws with her LEFT hand :)

We also celebrated Dany's birthday yesterday. His birthday was last week, during Holy Week, but he wanted to wait until Easter to celebrate.



Elena got a slice of our Easter Sour Cream Pound Cake with strawberries for her birthday cake. I was surprised that she was able to blow out the candles herself!

And she got a bit of homemade whipped cream, which she greatly enjoyed :)

Presents...

Happy Birthday, little girl! I can't believe that our tiny little peanut has grown so much!

Pigtails and the Store

Yesterday, the kids' Friday afternoon classes at St. Vincent started again. That means I got to go to the store with only 2 of the kids instead of all 5! Yeah! That usually makes grocery shopping much easier, but I don't know if it's ever been this easy...



Elena fell asleep in the van driving back from St. Vincent. She stayed asleep as I got her out of her car seat, walked through the snowy cold weather into the store, and stayed asleep as I laid her down on top of the baby sling in the grocery cart. She didn't wake up until I was almost done shopping!


In other cute Elena news...Elena always wants to do what her older sisters are doing, so when I called Chiara this morning to come let me fix her hair, Elena came running instead. This is the result...

her first pigtails :)

This has nothing to do with Elena, but I thought this picture of Chiara was too cute to miss :) She has pigtail braids, so it fits with the theme :)

A Saturday afternoon nap

How she finds this comfortable, I'll never know :)

My little sous-chefs

Chiara specializes in stirring.

Elena is still learning about different cookware

(read, "loves to empty the cabinets").

At least their pay is cheap...they work for room and board :)

So Stylish!

Every girl needs some fuzzy purple slippers and a butterfly diaper :)

And, yes, Elena is 16-months-old and STILL has only 2 teeth!!

Feast of St. Elena

I actually wanted to post this on Wednesday, the actual feast day of St. Elena, but I've been having trouble getting a video to load. I've decided to give up on the video so that you can at least see some pictures!!

Today we celebrated the feast of St. Elena (Helena in English)!

And, celebrating with Dany's mother and brother made it even more special! They arrived from Italy last night to spend a week with us. We had a wonderful first day together.

This is just a cute picture of Elena from Monday night...

Elena will be 16-months-old in just a few days. Can you believe it?!?!