Visit from Nonna and Pop-pop

Nonna and Pop-pop came to visit on what happened to be my 32nd birthday and Pop-pop helped Doug with re-making planters in the backyard. Somehow neither of these events got documented at all. Probably because gardening is boring in pictures, come to think of it, so are 32nd birthdays! Nevertheless, it was a lovely day. I slept in, Doug make a yummy lobster soup dinner, and we had ice cream cake for dessert. (I'm usually a cake/icing fiend, but after the unicorn cake adventure that was Gianna's birthday, just 10 days before, I was kinda over the whole cake thing!) I did manage to document the most important parts of the weekend which were Nonna and Pop-pop spending fun times with our kids. Here's Pop-pop relaxing with his "buzzards" as he calls them, and as they call him right back :)

Here's Mark getting ready to make bird feeders with Nonna. 

Gianna loves this activity!

Mark just liked being close to the action. 

Field trips

After a rain delay, Gianna's class finally got to go to the pumpkin patch. Siblings were not invited, so it was a fun morning for just Mommy and Gianna! The hay ride was fun and there were lots of cardboard cartoon characters to look at along the way.

 Here's her class with their teachers.

Her class also went to the firehouse. This time siblings could tag along. Mark had a blast. It was a walking field trip. So we all walked to the firehouse where the kids watched a video about fire safety, got to climb on the trucks, and even got to spray the hose themselves. The firefighters were so kind.

Yay, fire safety!

Birthday with the fam

Gianna's birthday celebration continued with the weekend visit of Uncle Nick, Aunt Elizabeth, Bella, and Jack. They gave her this "night dress" for her birthday. I think she wore it more than her clothes while they were here. So cute! I was a terrible photographer while they were her so I had to try and snap a few action shots in their last hour here. It was such a fun visit. The kids just love playing together and with the daddies. Oh and Elizabeth and I were there too. Really.

Jack saying "cheese."

Mark and Jack playing trucks.

The girls falling all over their uncles.

Bella in action.

The boys with their daddies.

Gianna's 4th Birthday

Gianna's birthday festivities seemed to last forever, but it was so much fun! She was SO excited about it. But first things first, I must show off my baking skillz. Sorry Gianna, I know it was your birthday and all, but Mommy worked hard and this is my blog so we'll start with me :)
I started by making these cookies for her class at school (this was the day before her birthday since she didn't have school on her birthday).

Then I made this unicorn cake. I FULLY intended to just purchase a unicorn cake, but since I couldn't really find any, I found an online how-to and actually managed to recreate it pretty well, if I do say so myself. And basically, it was unappreciated, because while Gianna enjoyed eating the cake, she didn't seem to really care how cool it looked and kept calling it a pony cake for some reason. Perhaps just to make me crazy, I'm not sure. 

And finally, here's my sweet girl on her birthday. 

We had three friends over for some cake and games. And of course Gianna loved getting some extra presents. 

She got this costume from us. How cute is our Cinderella? 

Mark had to join in the costume-wearing. I happen to think thumb-sucking dragons are the most intimidating, don't you?

Gianna was Cinderella for the rest of the day so she was still wearing the costume when Daddy came home for the rest of her presents. This gift of fairy figures was clearly the day's winner! Wish I got that excited about stuff!

Mark in September

Since the next blog post will be filled with Gianna's birthday adventures, I thought I'd focus on Mark for a bit, even though I'll post his two-year stats in a very short time! He's started going on the potty a little bit. He could probably do better if Mommy tried a little harder, but I just haven't had the perseverance yet. If nothing else, he looks cute sitting on the potty and he likes reading together in there. Fun times.

He's really started talking like crazy in the last few months. He can be tough to understand, but it's been getting better and he has started repeating everything. And even though he can't articulate it very well, I can tell he has his sister's good memory. For example, after his nap the other day, he woke up saying "baby." This was followed by "boo-boo." I asked if the baby had a boo-boo. He said yes. Then he said, "Toe." Then I remembered that a few weeks prior we were chatting with our neighbor whose baby had a hurt toe. I was shocked that he remembered it and managed to convey the memory to me! In unrelated news, here's my post haircut cutie helping me "bake" Gianna's birthday cake.

And his Halloween costume, a dragon, arrived a few weeks ago. He LOVES it! I'm relieved about this, but also annoyed by how often I have to go get it so he can wear it. How cute is this sad little dragon face?! He's definitely a silly little boy. He laughs at everything. He makes mistakes on purpose just to be funny i.e. calling things the wrong color or the wrong animal. And he loves being tickled and rough-housing. We love him to pieces, of course!

First day of 4-year-old preschool and nun-spotting

Here's our big girl on her first day of preschool in the 4-year-old class. She was SO excited to start school again. I was a little nervous because this year it's all day and three days a week and I was afraid it might be too much for her. But she is loving it. She doesn't even complain about "rest time." This was our conversation on Friday:

G: How many sleeps till school again?
Me: Three, but Daddy won't have to go to work for the next two days (a fact she usually gets VERY excited about)
G: (crying-ish) Nooo! But I want it to just be two sleeps till school again!

I'm so glad she's so happy! And I'm enjoying my time with Mark and my alone time when he naps on school days. Big relief!

And I'm so excited that fall temperatures have arrived. How cute are these kids in their fall clothes? This is a dress that Nonna made for Gianna. I think it is so adorable with the shirt and tights! 

And finally, here is a recent conversation with Gianna that I've told many people, but wanted to document it here for good measure.

Me: (seeing a nun in the grocery store and wondering if Gianna will notice; we watch The Sound of Music a lot)

G: (pointing at the nun and smiling with glee when she spots the nun)

Me: Who is that?

G: It's a nun!!! (laughing incredulously) A nun, in the grocery store?! 

Me: Yep. Nuns have to go grocery shopping just like everyone else. 

G: (very excitedly) Oh boy! My first nun in a grocery store!

I didn't have the heart to tell her it may be her last "nun in a grocery store." Since I'm almost 32 and this was my first "nun in a grocery store" I'm thinking this is not a common occurrence!

August in words, but not pictures

We must have been so busy cramming activities into August that I forgot to blog about it or even really take pictures of it! So here it is in summary and very few pictures!

I got a little time away by going to visit friends in Boston, which was lovely. Air travel without the kids is like being a first class passenger. I didn't know what to do with myself. But I had a great time with my friends and their families. Thanks Tammy and Jenny!

We also had a visit at the end of August from Nonna and Pop-pop and Nonna showed me how to make these cute dresses for Gianna. Nonna made her a couple and I made her this one and a couple others. I am NOT a seamstress by any means, so this is pretty amazing. 

We spent a lot of time indoors what with August being monsoon season, apparently. We got SO much rain it was unreal. But the kids played nicely together most of the time! And since we were home so much, we got a little bit started on potty training. (We only had Gianna's leftover pink pull-ups when we started, see below.) Mark likes to go on the potty, but mostly when it's his idea. When we first started, he did great. But he's now lost interest a bit. Once we're settled into Gianna's school routine, I'll have to pick a day and just try potty training for real. I don't have high hopes, but we'll see.

We even squeezed in a visit to Daddy's office for lunch one day. Then Gianna had to come home and build skyscrapers like Daddy's out of her blocks. Mark kept pointing at them saying, "Daddy work, daddy work." He's putting lots of words together. The last month has really been an explosive one for his vocabulary.

 And they like to get in this bin together.