father's day

breakfast in bed for the ever deserving king!

world's greatest dad!

how did they know?!

i spent the day with my three favorite men: russ, my dad, and russ's dad. i'm so blessed to have them in my life; always looking out for me and the kids, always taking care of us, loving us.

thank you and happy father's day to you three, and to all!

*possible pics to come from our dinner at carabbas (hint, hint mom...)

natalie, natalie...

i have to be honest. i tend to lose my patience with natalie. more often than i'd like to admit. she will talk your ear off about the most random things, in her tiny squeaky voice, ask the most random questions, and interrupt you from whatever you're doing, even if it is with an "excuse me?" she does this constantly. all day.

okay, so, i'm sure i'm exagerrating just a bit...maybe not ALL day, but sometimes it sure feels like it.

apparently, natalie is just like i was when i was a kid. my mom says all the time: "like mother like daughter!" and all i can think of when she says that is "mom, i'm sorry i put you through that!" because now i know how it feels. (mom, i know you are just loving this post!)

with all that being said, i try so hard to look past what i consider "pestering" to find what truly lies beneath in natalie.

she is so loving, so sweet, so considerate, so SMART, so creative, so corky, so goofy, so beautiful, and so much more.

every day she does something or says something so AWESOME that makes me forget about all the other things that i get annoyed with.

i thank God for her.

... and i thank natalie for helping me to strengthen my patience. we are all a work in progress and i am reminded of that every day.

here's what she did the other day.
i walked into the living room to find this set up just so:


(this is just one of the bazillion crafts she does WEEKLY)

here she is working on crafts today:

i love you natalie. you never cease to amaze me!

happy birthday uncle phil!

we all went out for dinner to celebrate uncle phil's birthday last tuesday, and of course, me being the paparrazi of the family, i managed to get everyone together for some group pics :)

uncle phil won all of these stuffed animals from one of those claw machines!

calascione cousins!

the calascione clan:

the two who started it all...
natalie, striking her "Hannah Montana" pose:
(she has never even seen the show!)

a fun-for-kids kinda weekend

our weekend was quite relaxing. we stayed at home most of the time, but we certainly made the most of it.

on friday we decided to try something different...instead of eating at brooklyn pizza, my parents took us to eat at the Red Elephant. the kids love this place mainly for two reasons: 1) they're amazing funnel-cake-like, melt in your mouth, cinnamon-y dessert they call "elephant ears" and 2) because they have a [teeny tiny and overly priced] arcade room which the kids think is the coolest thing ever. if they didn't tell you this already, THANKS GRANDMA & GRANDPA!

on saturday morning we headed over to Borders for a Toy Story event they were having. they played the Toy Story 1 movie and handed out freshly baked cookies and mini milkshakes for the kids and also gave out toy story activity books. the premiere of the new Toy Story movie is right around the corner and the kids cannot wait. in fact, we are all excited about going to see it when it comes out! we didn't stay for the whole event at the book store because russ had a lot of yard work to do that day. when he finally finished with all of that, we set up the backyard for some water fun for the kids. The weather was perfectly hot and we spent all day out back. the kids had fun in the blow up water slide/pool while russ and i slaved in the hot sun bleaching our fence and cleaning some areas in the front of the house. it was a good work out but definitely rewarding in the end. later that evening we grilled out some hot dogs and nana and papa walked over to join us for dinner. papa and russ decided to fish afterwards, while natalie and russell helped and then we fed the ducks. i have a feeling the kids slept really well that night!

after church on sunday (and then a dreadful trip to wal-mart) we stayed at home to relax. celena came over to hang out for a while and natalie watched [the old] Alice in Wonderland. later that evening we took the kids out front for some more playtime outside. they're favorite thing to do lately is to play on the driveway and ride their bikes. russ even breaks out his ancient roller blades to "ride" with them or he'll pull them on the bike trailer.

it was a great weekend for us...a tad bit hot (more like a scorcher--and it's not even officially summertime yet) but i have to say, i LOVE relaxing weekends like that.

our sunflowers are about to bloom!

our garden plants have grown SO tall!

well over their heads:

playing in the backyard after we "closed" the pool

(i was too afraid that russ would get another ear infection)

enjoying a homemade popsicle, courtesy of titi celena, on sunday afternoon:

i can't believe her hair has gotten so long. we may have to cut it because there is just SO MUCH of it!

russell multi-tasking :)

the new canoe

so, it's not exactly "new" (actually, it's quite terribly old and in need of a facelift) but it's new at our house. Russ' friend, Talbot, let us keep his canoe at our house since we have a lake behind our backyard. We bought the kids a life jacket and Russ has enjoyed taking the kids out on the lake, one at a time, mostly to fish. Natalie seems to enjoy the fishing more than Russell does, but he still loves going out on the canoe.

Russell's first trip --

He was too scared to sit on the seat so he sat on the bottom

at the far end of the lake


Natalie's first trip

looking cute and girly with her sunglasses and umbrella :)

in the kitchen

have i mentioned how much russell loves to cook...

(see his shopping cart off to the right... it's all about food for this kid!)

dirty or clean, i just love his feet

another day in the kitchen:
same hat, same apron!

playing with the sunday comics and her silly putty

celebrating memorial day

Russ had to work on Memorial Day so we spent the Sunday before at my parent's house for a cookout. My dad cooked ribs on the grill, my mom made her fried rice, I made a pasta salad and Celena made a festive Red White and Blue pie. All of it was delicious. It was a beautiful day and a nice way to celebrate and honor the people who fought and died for our country, the real reason for the holiday.

leave it to my mom to get all the holiday props!

the clan hanging out back:

anthony & natalie: russell helping make coffee:

On Memorial Day Monday I took the kids to Pump It Up, a bounce house warehouse. They were doing special things for the holiday like airbrush tattoos, snacks and crafts. The kids had a blast and surprisingly, it wasn't as crowded as I had anticipated so it wasn't that bad for me either :)

my camera takes horrible pics inside because it's so dark, and there's so much movement, but here's a video i took of the kids going down one of the slides:

HOPE YOU ALL HAD AN ENJOYABLE MEMORIAL DAY WITH YOUR LOVED ONES!

growing up too fast

One Year Down, 12 to go...

Natalie is a pre-school graduate.

I cannot believe how fast the school year flew by. Thinking back to the very first day I sent her off to school seems like AGES ago, but at the same time it feels like it happened just yesterday. When did she get so big, so grown up, so smart, so beautiful. We are so proud of her.

When Natalie started Pre-K, she was quite ahead and very smart academically. However, we got many reports back from her teachers stating that her interaction in the class, during lessons/activities, and with her peers, was was definitely lacking. Natalie worked very hard throughout the year and overcame those obstacles. Towards the end of the year, her teachers told me how well she had improved and was now playing and interacting with her friends and having fun together. I was able to witness the improvement during my visits and volunteering throughout the year. Despite her initial inability to "connect," her teachers found remarkable how well she was able to absorb all of the information when it appeared as if she wasn't even paying attention. They also expressed how full of joy and content she was, stating that she always saw the good in everything and everyone . Natalie's sweetness, spunk, and happy spirit definitely won them over! She certainly has her way with people.

I am so thankful that she was able to attend our church's school. St. Joseph's has proven to be such a wonderful faith-based school, with caring teachers, down to earth people and great facilities.

Natalie will be attending Kindergarten there next year. KINDERGARTEN?! Really, where does the time go?

Next year it will be Russell's turn in Pre-K. As far as I know he will be in the same class that Natalie was in, with the same teachers. We're looking forward to seeing what a year in school will do for him, because if it's anything like what it did for Natalie, we're in for another great year!

Enjoy these pictures from Natalie's End of the Year Program on 5/24/10:

our little graduate:

showing off the quilt she worked on in class for months:

russell was extremely shy for the first 10 minutes:

Natalie with her teachers, showing off the gifts she painted for them:

grandma & grandpa celebrated with us too :)

and finally, a picture of Natalie on her very first day of school:

August 2009

what a difference a school year makes!