trick-or-treat!

ok, so long story short: russell was supposed to wear THIS:




but apparently he did not like the extra 20lbs of buzz lightyear on his body, so we went with something really simple (and really last minute).

we were going for the skeleton look from the karate kid (you should have seen how excited big russ got when i brought up the idea!) and this is how it turned out:

(click on the pictures for enlargement)

natalie asked to be snow white a couple of months ago and she had been very patiently and excitedly waiting for halloween to come so she could put on her dress with all her accessories and make-up. here is my beautiful princess:

tonight we went trick-or-treating with some very dear friends of ours, barry, alisha and ashton, and although russell was a little grouchy and natalie fell about 5 times - both of which didn't surprise us much - we had an awesome time. here are some pictures:

ashton is only 3 weeks younger than natalie and they have been friends since birth. ashton's daddy has been a good friend of russ's since about middle school (and i won't say how many years ago that was...)

halloween crafts

i decided to spend all day doing fun halloween stuff with the kids today. we had been out of the house running errands all week so i said to myself: on friday, we are staying home! and out came suzie homemaker, one of my alter-egos, as demonstrated in these pictures:

we made hand-traced friendly ghosts:


furry spiders made out of an egg carton:


spider crackers made out of cheez wiz and pretzel sticks (thanks for the idea nicole!):

and ate mummy-wrapped hotdogs for lunch:


we also ran from room to room, practicing our trick-or-treating for tonight, and played with the mr. potato heads with the extra halloween accessories i purchased the other day. didn't have time to squeeze in the pumpkin painting that i had planned, but maybe we can leave that for tomorrow.

the kids had a lot of fun - and so did i!

hApPy HaLlOwEeN !!!

the calascione jack-o-lantern 2008

russ and the kids carved the pumpkin last night! (actually meant to do it the night before but forgot...) we were trying to hold off as long as possible because we learned our lesson last year when we carved the pumpkin too early and due to the florida heat the thing rotted out before halloween! this year russ decided to carve a mickey mouse pumpkin for the kids. daddy freestyled the picture on the pumpkin and got to work carving while the kids helped mommy paint mickey's ears.

natalie is all ready to get messy with the pumpkin

what is it with men and their power tools! he just had to use his jig-saw for this???

after pulling out the guts ONE time, she decided that this sort of thing was not for her!

russell didn't mind helping daddy out though!


Here's Natalie in the scary pumpkin mask this morning, wishing you all a

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


have fun trick-or-treating tonight!
more pics to come soon :)

potty training update

i decided to slow things down a bit after i realized russell wasn't quite ready. i made this decision based on the fact that for the first week or so he didn't care that he was walking around in wet underwear, and then one time i found him playing in his puddle of peepee in my bedroom...

so we are using pull-ups all day and night and we take him to the potty several times throughout the day. he is doing very well on this system and loves putting his thomas sticker on his potty chart every time he goes peepee on the potty (which is every time). GO RUSSELL!

bitter-sweet

so today i met up with my friends tara and heather, and their kids of course :) for a playdate. it was a beautiful, sunny, and brisk day and it couldn't have been a more perfect day for the park.

russell who is currently "anti-kid" starting throwing a fit as soon as he saw the other kids around. after ignoring him for about 5 minutes he finally began to play. PHEW! that was a relief... didn't want my half-hour drive to the other side of town and my picnic lunch i packed late last night to turn into a waste... so the kids are having so much fun playing and and running around for like over an hour - it was great!

it was time for lunch and we walked over to the picnic tables close to the pond because those tables weren't covered, and we wanted as much sunlight as possible since it was a bit chilly. the kids ate their lunch quickly and happily (another thing i was grateful for since that doesn't happen all the time) and then got their halloween treats that i brought (m&m's YUM!). afterwards they wanted to feed the ducks which were close by (probably because we had food) so i gave natalie a bag of popcorn to throw to the ducks and she walks over to the pond to feed them. how sweet... now comes the bitter part:

as she is throwing the popcorn to the ducks i see her edging closer and closer down the little hill towards the pond. at this point i yell at her and tell her to back up because she is too close to the water. in a split second, as she took that next little step forward (she doesn't listen to mommy well), she was in the water. my heart dropped and i dashed over to her to find her sitting in water covered up past her chest. luckily she just landed in the bank and the water was not very deep. and surprisingly, she did not cry or even get upset - in fact i was the one shaking and feeling like i was about to cry! at that point, i figured ok, take her clothes off and just go home - she can ride in the car naked. but here she was standing there soaking wet in her [new and cute] clothes, her socks all sloshy and it was a very chilly 60 degrees out. well, thank goodness for my friends whose brains were working when mine was not. heather offered logan's 18-MONTH ONESIE for natalie to wear since he had a sweater on top of it. and tara offered bryson's old pants that she happened to have in her truck. she even offered some of bryson's old underwear that she was passing down to logan but i thought natalie's panties weren't that wet. anyway, natalie ended up in this really great thrown together boys outfit that i couldn't have been more grateful for! here's the picture i took when we got home:

thanks girls!

p.s. all is well - natalie is doing fine. mommy got her nerves back to normal. and daddy didn't get upset like mommy thought he would (he's the overprotective one, btw).

the best birthday EVER!

*DISCLAIMER: the content of this post may cause annoyance and/or mild nausea due to the boastful and overly sentimental subject matter


today i entered the last and final year of my 20's. a little scary, but i think i'll be okay.

we had a busy weekend planned but my mom specifically planned a little birthday dinner for me with the family on saturday night. i was tired. really tired (had one of those nights before where natalie kept waking up for no apparent reason) and after drinking that first glass of my favorite wine (chenin blanc -- can you believe a nun introduced me to it :D), i was ready to call it a night. and we hadn't even had dinner yet! i *forced* myself to stay awake for the food (HA - who am i kidding, i could never pass up EATING!!!) and then spent some quality time with the family opening gifts, chatting, and watching the kids at their best -- being silly. (there is no need for entertainment when you have kids around, for sure!) thanks to: mom and dad for the wonderful dinner, my MIL eileen for making my favorite dish of hers (ate the leftovers for lunch today), and celena for actually making me a cake - MARBLE, my favorite!

today, on my actual birthday, russ asked me what i wanted to do after church and i told him: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. all i wanted to do was relax! he had planned to cook dinner for me tonight and i could not wait :) normally, i do all the cooking around here, not that russ doesn't know how to, it's just that i'm one of those controlling people in the kitchen and i'd rather do it myself, if you know what i mean. russ is great at doing the dishes, and i am more than happy to hand that chore over to him! (we make a great team in the kitchen!) but tonight, he was cooking me filet mignon, baked potatoes, and steamed sqaush and zuccini -- i was so excited! meanwhile the kids had already eaten their dinner (fishsticks, noodles and lima beans - am i a bad mommy for that?) and they were watching their favorite movie (toy story) in their room. we figured that would keep them occupied long enough for us to eat our dinner. russ set the dining room table for two, started some music -- our wedding CD, poured our glasses of wine and we sat down to eat the feast he had just prepared. PERFECT. then here comes natalie running in the room, her eyes getting bigger and bigger as she approaches and sees what's on the table -- fresh sourdough bread and olive oil with herbs for dipping -- one of her favorite things to eat. how could we refuse??? - we pulled up a chair for her right in between us and the three of us shared our romantic birthday dinner for two. anyway, dinner was DELICIOUS thanks to my wonderful hubby and i ate waaaay too much. oh and special thanks to eileen for the olive oil canter and dipping set. we definitely put it into good use tonight!

i almost forgot to mention the absolute best part of my birthday: it happened when i was picking up little russell from the nursery after church this morning. when he looked up and saw me standing there he said "HI MOMMY". my heart just melted - that was the first time he's ever said that to me on his own (without being prompted) and it was a moment i had been waiting for, for a loooong time! and then, as if he knew it was my birthday or something, he was the sweetest, most affectionate and loving kid throughout the whole day.

i have to say i couldn't have asked for a better birthday than the one i had this year!

* thank you to my dear friends and family for all the birthday love ---> e-mails, phonecalls, cards, e-cards, gifts... i was even serenaded a couple of times with the birthday song - thanks heather & ryan, and eileen ;)

admiring my pretty [bright] cake

(those corona bottles really make the picture...)

fall festival with the cousins

we met up with aunt micki and the girls at their church today for some festival fun.

the kids absolutely LOVE hanging out with their cousins and they can't get enough of each other!

natalie, russell and cheryl jumping around

he started sticking his tongue out like this recently -- how cute!
natalie & cheryl and shelby & russell holding hands...

natalie got her face painted like a "princess" and her hair painted hot pink (after this picture)

our trip to MOSH

Also known as the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville.

it was a rainy day on friday, which meant that russ was home :)

we decided to take advantage of weekday family time and planned a trip to MOSH. it was the kids' first visit ever and our first time there in years. there was lots to see and do and the kids were very well behaved the entire time so it was a good day had by all!

at the friendship fountain - circa 1965 - right outside the MOSH

mommy i painted my nails!

she brought me her nail polish earlier today and asked me to paint her nails. since i had just painted them yesterday, i told her: no, natalie...not now. no more than 30 minutes later, she comes running to me with a big proud smile on her face and says: MOMMY I PAINTED MY NAILS! i was so shocked i didn't know whether to be upset, worried, or proud! i looked at her nails [and how nicely they were painted] and just smiled real big and said: "why yes you did!" then i said with concern: show me the bottle. -- with the worry in the back of my head that the bottle had spilt all over the floor or something... but no messes! not this time...

look how pretty!

admiring her nails

russell looking all cute -- and yes, we cut his hair (last night)

***as always, click on the picture for a bigger view***

BFFs

my friend brittani brought her kids over yesterday to hang out. her kids are practically the same ages as mine, so we like to get together as much as possible for playdates. while russell and isaac play independently (it's more like RUSSELL likes to do his own thing), natalie and isabella have lots of fun playing together.

here they are playing dress-up:

goergeous weather calls for backyard fun!

thanks to the drop in temperature, we have been able to enjoy playing outside for a change! usually i loathe being out there -- unless we are at the pool or beach -- because during the summer, just running errands (getting both kids in and out of the car) makes me break into a sweat!

anyway, here are the kids doing their thing:

(once again, lining up the cars)

we are some pumpkin patchin fools!

and this is what happens when you tell them to get together for a picture:

(she looks like she's ready for some knife throwing)

what can i say -- we like fall!