Pre-school Graduation!

On May 23, Gianna graduated from pre-school. It was the cutest little ceremony. We have been beyond delighted with her school. The people are great and she has thrived there! She is VERY excited to go to kindergarten next year (no rest time). 


Here are the graduates processing in


And here they are doing the Pledge of Allegiance

Not a great picture, but Gianna looks so adorable there was no omitting it :)

 

And here are a couple videos. The first is the class singing Grand Old Flag. (They did a bunch of poems and songs. This one is the shortest and most understandable.) The second is of Gianna getting her certificate from her teachers.

Family circus

In the middle of May, Doug's brother and his family came for a weekend visit. On Friday night we ate food from our local Greek festival which was awesome as always. And then Saturday morning, it was off to the circus! The kids seemed to really enjoy it. Our niece Bella loves elephants, so that was a big hit. And Mark's love of horses was only increased! I'm pretty sure he will try to ride on a horse standing if he ever gets the chance...just like the circus performers! In the afternoon more friends joined us for a barbecue. Lots of yummy food and drinks for everyone. And it was a beautiful day so we got to let the kids out for some fresh air too!

 

 

 

Mother's Day weekend (cont)

Did I tell you we got a bouncy house? I thought I'd taken pictures, but can't seem to find any. And both my cameras' batteries were dead. So here are some from my mom. The kids love the bouncy, and so do the neighbors' kids (thank goodness!). And when they're not trying to kill each other they have lots of fun together.

 

And here they are sliding at the Mother's Day Azalea Festival. Gianna loved it, Mark, not so much.

 

Love this picture of them at the festival. I feel like I can see them as teenagers. So cute!


The moms and the kids on Mother's Day.  

In the afternoon we went to the minor league baseball game. It was pretty hot, but we had a good time and the kids were troopers. Especially when treats were involved. Here's Gianna post-water-ice.

The whole gang.

Mr. Cool in his new Yankees ball cap with Mickey Mouse on it.  He's in a hat phase right not and he freaking loves this hat!
 

New bed and Mother's Day

Mother's Day weekend was a super fun one for us! Grandma and Grandpa came up and they came on Friday instead of Saturday like I told Doug. That way I could surprise him with a belated birthday dinner, The Avengers, and a night at a nearby hotel. I had to spoil the surprise a bit since I was late picking him up at the train station (stupid traffic) and didn't want him to think his car was stolen. It was a lovely evening and we are so grateful to Grandma and Grandpa for watching our babies.

But the weekend started with Mother's Day "tea" at Gianna's school. I'm so glad my mom could come too. It was so sweet.

 

 

 

Also, Gianna got a new bed recently (that will eventually house Mark, as well). As you can see, she was very excited and they've been having a ball playing in their "tent."

Other April activities

We have babysat for our neighbor a few times. She's such a cute little peanut...almost 2, but nearly half Mark's size. And boy does she love Mark. She tries to run away from home every time she sees him :)
 

Gianna's class took a trip to a local farm. It was very interesting, I learned a lot. I don't know if the same can be said for the children, but I think they had fun anyway. Here is Gianna with her BFF/obsession/twin.


Gianna getting ready to shell corn (scrape all the kernals off) with her friends. This was really hard to do. Gianna got a cut and my fingers were aching!

Once the corn was off the cob, it has to be ground up to become animal feed.

 

And here's Daddy with his best girl. Love them!
 

Easter weekend

Easter weekend turned out to be really fun. We headed down to VA on Friday morning so that we could go to Aunt Jenny's art opening. It meant a nice dinner out for Doug and me with his parents and then we me Jenn and Steve at the gallery. We're so proud of her and were so glad we could be there. It was cool to see other people admiring her work.



The Easter festivities were super fun. The kids loved looking for Easter eggs.

 

All dressed up for Easter mass. Our family photo is less than stellar.  

 

 

Later Jenn and Steve came to my parents' house for dinner. The highlight (for Mark anyway) was playing swords (from the Easter bunny) with Uncle Steve.

It was a really nice weekend and we're so glad we could spend it with so much of our family!

March...madness that I'm not posting till now

March brought us some really warm weather, so we spent a lot of time outside. The kids especially enjoyed our impromptu backyard picnic.
 

We've still been in the midst of our remodeling, which finally ended with some new carpet downstairs. That meant moving the bookshelf, which turned into an awesome set of tunnels for the kids. And boy does the carpet look awesome! So we're finally done and our downstairs is a shadow of its former self.

 

 

On St. Patrick's Day, we headed to Philly for a trip to a not very good museum, but we still had a good time and got great pork sandwiches on the way home. And don't we all look cute in green?

 

 

And here's my little caveman shooting some hoops. He's so ridiculous. But we're all so proud when he makes a basket :)