Weekend in D.C. - Sunday

On Sunday, we had a needed day of rest! We went to Mass at their parish, which is beautiful! Then, we went back to their place. Chiara took a good nap--Yeah! Unfortunately, Matteo did not, despite needing it TERRIBLY!! :) The kids played with Kristen for a long time while Dany and Andy had an exciting game of chess. During the afternoon, we went to their friends' house for dinner. It was yummy, and it was lots of fun meeting new people! They have 5 kids around the ages of our 4. Their youngest is named Caterina Chiara! Oh, I forgot to mention that it was an Italian family :) And, they are homeschoolers. We had no problems finding things to talk about :) :)

Weekend in D.C. - Saturday

On Saturday, we went to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It was beautiful!!


They have many gorgeous mosaics, such as this one. There are mosaics covering entire domes and walls!

After touring the Shrine and attending Mass, we had a picnic on the lawn followed by a game of tag :)

Then, we were off to the JPII Cultural Center. I loved seeing many things from his life and papacy. There were even fun things for the kids to do.

It was a busy day, but wonderful! I highly recommend visiting these places if you get a chance to go to D.C. You can even drive there...they have parking!

Weekend in D.C. - Friday

We spent the past weekend in Washington D.C. with our friends, Andy and Kristen. We had a great visit!

It's a 3.5 to 4 hour drive from our house to theirs. Here are the kids in the car.


No, we didn't leave Cati and Matteo home. They were in the far back seat, and it was too difficult to get a good picture of them.


Chiara spent all the time at their apartment doing her best to destroy the place! She just wanted to give some child-proofing recommendations :)

Here's a video of Chiara and Andy playing, and an opportunity to see her improving walking skills!

Vacation Bible School

The girls went to Vacation Bible School at our parish last week. They had a lot of fun and were very disappointed that it only lasted 4 days. On the last day, Thursday, they had a Mass, picnic, and play to end the week.

Here's what Matteo thought of the whole thing :) At 7pm, he's done for the day and ready to sleep :)

Here's a video of Maria in the play. You can see Cati in the background standing in front of a pew. Kindergarteners did not get speaking parts.

Chiara's 1st Steps :)

I looked at the videos we have of Chiara's 1st steps. They were all very short because she fell down after only a couple of steps. So, I put all 4 videos together as one, and made a pretty cute and funny movie, I think :)

Enjoying time outside!

Chiara LOVES to go outside! She loves to just sit on a quilt and watch Dany and I work or watch her siblings play. She'll sit there a long time. She never gets off the quilt because she doesn't like the grass. So, it's a nice place to put her because she's happy and contained!

One day she stayed on that quilt for nearly 2 hours while Dany and I planted 12 tomato plants...

...and my butterfly garden! Now, stop laughing at my butterfly garden :) I know it looks like a spot of dirt here, but the plants are bigger now. I'll post another picture in late summer / early fall, hopefully with some butterflies on it!

Chiara's walking!

Chiara started walking last week. We're having trouble getting a video, though. By the time we get the camera out, she's already fallen down and decided to crawl. We'll keep working on it, though.

For now you can watch a video from about a month ago of her walking with help.