Dancing, Projects, and the Wild West

This weekend was filled with fun things to do and funny that it started with dancing and ended with my kids and I dancing before bed tonight! Actually, before we even went to dance class Saturday morning we had friends over for pizza and the park on Friday evening. Carmen went to dance class Saturday morning sporting her pink skirt! Gianni and I went to the book store to research the stag beetle because he had a report to do on this assigned insect. The report came out great! In addition to the report, Gianni is "MVP of the Week" this week! We helped him design a poster about himself. He did all of the work and just told us where and what to color.

 He placed all of the stickers and really did a very nice job. He gets to bring in something from home for show and tell. At first he decided on a baseball, but later that evening it changed to a cowboy hat, sherrifs badge, and fool's gold! This was because we ventured out to Rawhide and visited with Uncle Mike, Julie, Cousin Christopher and wife Tracy, and her family. Wow, the kids had a blast. Thank you to Uncle Mike for picking the place. We were there late and didn't get home until 930.

 Mom it is just a fake gun so chill out! This will not turn into a love for guns. Not to worry!

It was a wonderful evening full of rides, entertainment, and some good old cowboy fun! Today it was back to the normal laundry, house cleaning, grocery shopping, and of course football. Congrats to the Bills for pulling off a pretty amazing win! Poor Cardinals : (

Tonight I made my own version of a lemon pasta that I am going to call "Gianni's Lemoncello Pasta". He ate it up! Here is the recipe:

Gianni's Lemoncello Pasta

1. Boil a 1/2 pound of protein enriched spaghetti pasta

2. Warm 2 TBSP of oilive oil in a pan on medium heat

3. Once the oil is warm, throw in 2 garlic cloves chopped fine and remove from the heat

4. Once the pasta is fully cooked, add one laddle of pasta water to the pan with the olive oil and garlic and bring back to medium heat.

5. Wisk in the zest of one lemon

6. Wisk in 1/4 cup of heavy cream.

7. Wisk in salt and pepper

8. Wisk in the juice of one lemon

9. Add sauce to the pasta and mix. Let past sit for 2 minutes to absorb the liquid

10. Add two handfuls of parm or romano cheese

11. Add one handful chopped of fresh basil and fresh parsley

As we sat down to eat I asked the kids if they wanted to twirl their pasta or if they wanted me to cut it. On her own Carmen said, "I want to twirl it like Papa Joe!" I said, "Carmen....do you remember Papa Joe?" She was so little when he died. She said, "Not really, only in my dreams!" I think he has been visiting her and that made my night!

A day to be thankful for family

 I have not spoken to my children about September 11th. It came up today during the football game with Gianni and I sort of danced around it. I explained that something horrible happened and kept it very general. I don't know how to explain such a horrible thing to my children and I am not sure that they need to know the details on this day, but our theme today was definitely just being happy that we have each other. We started off the morning with a family bike ride. The four of us rode almost 2 miles. Gianni said his legs hurt towards the end. 

 Carmen disappeared upstairs for like 20 minutes and came down dressed up. She asked daddy if he would be her prince! So cute! The next wardrobe change was to prepare for the football game.

 We decided to record the game and watch it a little later. We prepared game day munchies together and ate that for dinner basically. Our little party was just the four of us and it was just what we wanted.

 Next it was out back to continue our perfect day.

The kids are in bed now and I am looking at my school bag with a heavy heart tonight. Time to get to work I suppose : (

Nonna and Papa Come to Town and Peter Pan Recital

 Our weekends have been busy since Nonna and Papa came to town. The girls have been shopping and having "girl time". The boys have been golfing! We all have been cooling off in the pool at Nonna and Papa's and it makes us hungry!

 And it makes us TIRED!

 Papa is teaching Gianni to play chess. I am so impressed that he sat through the whole thing and never gave up! He is a very smart little boy!

 Tonight was Carmen's Peter Pan dance recital. She had a small part as a star! It was so cute.

 The girls did so GREAT! Here are the two links to see the show and the final goodbye.

Carmen's Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSLqwNXzXNk

 

Goodbye Wave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0y82mUxqLw

Tears for Mommy

 Well, the kids headed off to school today. Gianni ran off....no kiss....no hug..come to find out later he got a bloody nose before the whistle blew and was at the nurses office but even with that... he said, "mom it was a great day!" The tears for mommy were a reference to the little one. I cried as I left her at extended day. She hid behind me and would not say hello to anyone but once Sophia showed up she was fine and I left before the tears started to flow. She seems so much smaller than Gianni was when he started Pre K. He was 4 years old and two months and she still has two months before she turns 4. A 4 month difference in the ages when they started school but she is just my baby I guess.

 After we dropped Carmen off it was time to grab our friend Jonah and head to the play ground. Gianni is a giant compared to Jonah. He is going to be tall : )

 Daddy..these picture are for you! The kids missed you today. Gianni stayed on home base today. He says that is a good thing. 6 kids made it to 1st base for being extra kind and the rest of the class stayed on home. Gianni earned 1 game ticket today. A teacher held the door for the kids and he was the only child to say "thank you" so he earned a ticket for his good manners! I am so proud. He read the book "The Kissing Hand" and had to write a little something after. So cute.

 Carmen said the best thing about her day was the art project at school and drinking chocolate milk in the breakfast line. I quickly explained the rules...no chocolate milk or strawberry milk. Only white! Here is her creation. It is a butterfly.

 Carmen earned two stickers today..one for being a good listener and one for sitting on the carpet and following directions (more detail than I ever received from Gianni). One sticker fell off but she wanted Daddy to see the other.

Well, it is 7:49, time to make lunches, and feed myself some dinner. Abel I have a new respect for single parents and I am so lucky to have you. We miss you very much. See you soon. We will keep posting. Love ya! 

Last Day of Freedom and Missing Daddy

Well, today is the last day of our wonderful vacation. This morning we played some family board games and then the kids and I said goodbye to Abel. We took off on a bike ride/walk. WOW....it was so hot out! When we returned we decided it was even too hot to find a pool so we played tag in the sprinkler. Even mommy ran all over the back yard playing tag as we were cooled by the sprinkler. The kids are very excited about starting school tomorrow but of course Gianni says he wishes he could stay home and play with Carmen. He says he will miss Carmen. This statement makes me laugh since they spent the whole summer fighting...at least that is how it seemed to me. 

 My husband was absolutely amazing yesterday. He helped in every way that he could to make sure that I was ready to take on this rough week by myself. He helped clean the house, laundry, cleaning out cars, organizing the fridge, and he even watched the kids so that I could go to a boxing class. He was amazing. This morning he left and we all miss him already. Abel, we hope you have a safe drive! We love you and we miss you! We will do our best to send you messages and pictures of the kids as they start this special week. WE LOVE YOU!

Supper Club and Hall of Flame

The Roseland's hosted our 4th Supper Club last night at their home with a beautiful summer theme along with bright food, bright drinks, and time by the pool. It was a fun evening although we were down a couple which was strange. We missed you Butler! The menu consisted of:

Cool Blue Hawaiian - Kristin and Abel

Spice Grapefruit Margarita - Holly and Adam

Cajun Crab Wontons - Holly and Adam

Red Chili Shrimp Salad - Kristin and Abel

I really loved this salad! Here is the finished product.

Cajun Halibut with Praline Sauce along with Dirty Rice - Chad and Jenni

Strawberry Sorbet - Holly and Adam

Abel and I had a really nice time. The kids were with Uncle Justin who brought over an entire bottle of bubble bath so that the kids could make "bubble bath hats".

Enjoying some time by the pool.

Although I could not get in the water due to my lovely toe, I was able to prop it up by the side of the pool and still cool off a bit.

Switching gears, today my children and I took a drive to Phoenix to explore the Hall of`Flame Museum. It was a wonderful little museum which was very affordable and we were there a little under two hours although the kids played for much of that time. 

 There are 4 galleries where you can see old fire engines from the 1800's up to current times. Many are from the United States but there were engines from other countries as well.

 

 There were clothes that the kids could put on and trucks for them to play on and explore.

At the end of the museum is an area for kids. They show a video about fire safety, they have a little house with obvious hazards that you can discuss with your kids, an area devoted to all of the different patches and a place for kids to design their own patch. They even had a pole for the kids to slide down.

 Kind of like the Musical Instrument Museum, this museum made me realize all of the "teaching" that I still need to do with my kids. We do not have a "home exit plan" and we need to put that in place. It was a good learning experience and it opened up all kinds of discussion with both of the kids.

 The main reason I wanted to come to the museum was for Carmen. As many of you know, she wants to be a firefighter. It is the only career she has ever talked about, she gets excited every time she sees a firetruck, and even will go out of her way to approach and talk to firefighters that we see when we are out and about.

After the museum we were practically in Tempe....so....ok we went to Ted's. I only had one hot dog with mustard and onion. Gianni loves the cheese dog (just like me when I was a kid). They were in heaven! Eat your heart out PAPA!