Elena

I apologize again for not writing for a while.  It's hard to remember.


I've put Elena as the title for this blog post because the major things that are happenning around here are related to her in some way.

Papa's started to take the little ones (Chiara, Elena, and Giuseppe) on walks recently.  Somtimes we all go and sometimes Elena takes a baby.  I think that Bity Baby is her favorite.

Giuseppe got a bit tanned from the walks (not that he actually walks).

Now look what this girl managed to do!  I don't know how she did it.  She went to the bathroom where there is apparently nothing sharp and got a deep cut on her chin.  We went to the pediatritian and the pediatritian couldn't decide what to do so then we went to the ER.  At the ER they put glue on her cut which came off it a few days so now she's using band-aids.  Mom got some with princesses on them because she's started liking princesses lately.

Here's Elena again.  It's hard to have something big that doesn't have anything to do with her, isn't it?  Today she brought Bity Baby to the zoo and showed her the animals.

  
Today we saw some ducks wandering around the zoo.

From,
   Maria

Our Geography Art Work

Sorry that I haven't written back in a while but I keep forgetting.
Recently we have been doing art in the evenings and one of our projects is drawing the state bird or flower for the state we're studying in Geography.  Our first bird was the Chickadee.  It is the state bird of Maine.  This was a picture we were using.  I didn't use it but I did get one of my ideas from it.

This is Cati's Chickadee.

This is Teo's Chickadee.

This is my Chickadee but the blog refused to turn it.

The next picture we did was the Mayflower.  The Mayflower is the state flower of Massachutsetts.  The Chickadee is the state bird of Massachutsetts.  This is Teo's picture.

This is Cati's picture.

This is my picture.  I like to play with shadows.

The next state we did was Vermont but I'll let you get the rest of the information from Cati's picture below.

This is my picture.  In the back I put the state flower of Vermont.

I don't have a picture of Teo's.

From,
   Maria

Tonight

Tonight we had quesadilla for supper.  Recently my rose bush started producing bigger flowers so I cut one to bring inside.  Unfortunately, some quesadilla got on the rose.  Do you think that rose quesadilla tastes good?  I don't know but quesadilla and spinach just tastes like quesadilla.  Maybe its the same with rose petals.  I'll ask Cati about it...

CATI THE CATIPILLAR!!

Hey, Cati, what's up with that spinach leaf?

That's an odd way to eat a spinach leaf.

Uh oh, she got antennae!  Is she a victum of an unknown disease that makes you look and act a bit like a caterpillar?  Maybe we should call the doctor if it gets worse.  Right now it's OK as long as it's not...

CONTAGIOUS!

Oh no, it's a family of catipillars!

Oh no, now they're growing more arms!

AND MORE!

I think this is VERY, VERY serious.

From,
   Maria

(Isn't it surprising how far your imagination can go?) :)

Our Evaluations

Today we went to get our end-of-year homeschool evaluations done.  It was taking place at the park this year.  The park had a lot of cool things but most of us prefer the swings.  I don't know why I like the swings but I took Elena because she wanted to swing too.

Poor Chiara!  She can't swing so she pushed her swing.

We enjoyed our afternoon at the park.

From,
  Maria

Catch up post #4: Citizenship

Last Friday Papa became a US citizen.  We all went to Pittsburgh for the ceremony and we arrived around nine o'clock.

But, the ceremony didn't start until 10!  We thought it would start earlier.  Papa had to do some things in the courtroom first.

The picture in the front of the room is an old picture of Pittsburgh.

This is Papa right after he became a citizen.

After the ceremony we went to the zoo in Pittsburgh.

This time Matteo, Chiara, and I went into the goat pen and petted the goats.  We all petted the goats but we didn't a picture of all of us petting it at the same time.

From,

   Maria

Catch up post #3 - Teo's First Communion

Teo received his First Communion on May 6.  We can't find any good pictures of him actually receiving Communion but we have some good ones afterwards.  First the First Communicants took a group picture with Father.  After that the family can take their own pictures.

After we were finished with pictures we went home and had a party.  It was smaller than Giuseppe's Baptismal party last year but we didn't have many vacant seats in the living room.  After having lunch Teo opened his presents.  He got many presents but I think that the present shown below is the best.  I think you'll agree with me.

Mom made some good cakes which we ate after Teo opened all his presents.  The cupcakes were white and the cake was chocolate.  I thought the chocolate one was the best and I think everyone agreed.

From,
   Maria

Catch-up post #2: Zoo

Written by Cati

This is my first post.

We liked the zoo. We were excited that we finally got to go.

Flamingos eat with their heads upside down. They are funny.

The leopard was laying right by the window!!



The maps showed the whole zoo.



 The ostriches were big and had long necks(but not as long as a giraffes' neck).

Giuseppe wasn't too happy about wearing a hat even though it kept the sun out of his eyes.



Elephants stink!!!



The giraffes looked tiny even though they are really big.



The gorillas had a baby. One of the gorillas was funny when he climbed a big rock and looked at us.

Elena liked the zoo and the animals.



The only bears besides polar bears they had were black bears.



I didn't see the eel but Chiara did!





They had BIG fish!

I didn't want to go through the stingray tank but everyone else did.

Giuseppe liked the fish.

The polar bear danced! He was swinging his head back and forth while walking.

The bridge was wery wobbly! You had to hold onto the edge to walk across it!

Teo actually touched the stingray!