7 Quick Takes, vol. 5

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Today is November 30th! That marks the official end of NaNoWriMo which all 3 kids successfully completed! AND is marks the end of my month of daily blogging! I posted on 29/30 days - not bad :). Now I have to decide on a plan to continue blogging. I know my family really appreciates the pictures and updates of the kids, so that keeps me motivated. And the ease of this blogging app makes it practical!

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We started editing the kids' stories a few days ago. We are reading through them together slowly, looking for grammar errors, and giving content advice when appropriate. It's a lot of fun reading their work! I can't wait to see the finished product!

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We spent a good bit of time cleaning today and preparing for the Advent season which begins on Sunday. It will be a short season, so let's use it well!

 

Maria sorts ornaments for our Jesse tree

 

Advent wreath

 

 

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We are going through our first illness of the season. Elena has an ear infection and is quite miserable. No one else has been sick, and hopefully, it will stay that way!

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I wrote a post about our favorite Giuseppe sayings. Well, my favorite Elena saying right now is "Idea!" She says this one word instead of, "I have an idea," whenever she thinks of something. It's pretty cute.

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We're still working hard on Christmas gifts around here. A package will be ready to mail to Italy early next week!

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Go, Dawgs!! (Hey, it worked last week!)

 

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Elena's work

Elena loves to draw. It's one of her favorite pastimes along with playing with babies and working with play dough. These three things keep her occupied all morning while the older kids do their school work. After her naps in the afternoon, she loves to paint and play outside.

 

 

She generally doesn't draw anything that's recognizable to anyone, but I love how she always fills her page with lots of color!

 

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Chiara's Story

While I was having lessons with the older kids this morning, Chiara came to me with this drawing she made. She told me about her drawing and I offered to write it down for her.

 

 

Then she disappeared and came back with some added elements on her drawing and had a whole story for me to write!

 

I was going to type out her story since you probably can't read it from the picture, but we've got a super-sad sick kid here, so I just don't have time tonight :).

 

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Winners!

 

Maria, Cati, and Matteo are all officially NaNoWriMo winners! They all made their word counts!!

Maria - 12,650 / 12,000 words

Cati - 5,078 / 5,000 words

Matteo - 1,247 / 1,000 words

 

I am so proud of their work this past month, and I'm actually surprised at how pleasant it was. They are all talking about doing this again next year, so I'd say it has been a positive experience.

Now, we will work on editing and then they will get free copies of their books (the reward from NaNoWriMo). Once we get their stories in their final forms, I will post them here as PDFs so any of you who are interested may read them.

 

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Favorite Zeppee Sayings

"Zeppee" is our most common nickname for Giuseppe. He is also known as "Zep-a-Bep" and "Zeppee Beppee." Yes, Americans have thoroughly butchered another Italian name.

Giuseppe after his new haircut

 

Here are some of our favorite Zeppee sayings:

Family names: "Ria" = Maria, "Cati" = Cati, "Teo" = Matteo, "Car-Car" = Chiara, "Elna" = Elena.

"Bubbles" = bar soap that he loves playing with in the bath

"Apples" = apples, grapes, or cubed cheese

"Cheese" = shredded cheese (his favorite food)

"Tareful" = careful...what he says when thinking about stepping off something high and our cue to come quickly!

"Mackerel" = Nursing

"Bapper" = diaper

"Side" = outside

"Panda. Ciao!" = what he says if the kids are watching the Italian Little Pim DVDs.

"Heh Meh" = this can mean 'Help me' or 'Hail, Mary' if he sees a Holy Water Font, a Rosary, or if we are praying.

Ow-ie!!! = This means 'My feet have come out of the footie part of my pajamas' or 'I can't get the pots and pans out of the cabinet.'

"AMEN!" = His emphatic ending to prayers :)

 

 

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Sunday night

 

 

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Snow!

We did get a little snow last night and during the day today. The kids were very excited, but they are really wanting to know when we will get snow deep enough to play in!

 

 

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