dylan & nichole visits (continued)

unfortunately, it rained A LOT while they were here. lots of afternoon summer storms/showers.

here we are making the best of an afternoon shower...playing in the driveway in the rain.

natalie spent the night with nichole at nana's house, which is the one thing she kept asking to do while her cousins were visiting (well that, and camping out in the backyard, but i'll get to that story later...). she LOVES nichole, always asking what nichole was doing and when she was coming over, and she was practically glued to her hip whenever we all went out together. so spending the night with her was like a dream come true!

since natalie was at nana's house, we decided to make it fun for little russell by making it movie night for the boys. they watched a movie picked out for russell, while munching on popcorn, and then camped out in the living room that night. he was so excited!

(here's a crappy picture to document that time)

THE MALL.

we made a couple of trips to the mall while the kids were visiting. i think it's nichole's favorite place to be -- shopping! her and nana went about twice more than we did :)

the kids inside the hurricane similator at the avenue's mall:

trip to the st. john's town center for some shopping and ice cream:

hello, goodbye

you may [or may not] be wondering where i've been the last 3 weeks...

well, russ's nephew dylan and niece nichole were in town visiting from virginia so i decided to take a break from the blog. nichole left to go home last week since she had to go back to work, and dylan left just this morning. just like that they're gone, and we miss them already.

they have been coming to visit the family in jacksonville just about every summer for the last 5 years or so and as they get older each year, i keep thinking that this year will be the last. eventually they'll be "too cool" to spend their summers with us, ya know? (hahaha)

we squeezed quite a bit in while they were here, but i always feel like it's never enough. it's not easy keeping older kids entertained!

dylan stayed with us, and i've joked before about how he's like our third child (although not very realistic in age...) because he fits right in with us. the kids absolutely love playing with him, russ has his buddy to hang out with in the evenings, and i get someone to talk to and keep me company during the day (aside from the kids).

all in all, we had a great visit, and i think dylan would agree as well :)

best buds

pictures from our calascione cookout at our house:
it was miserably hot and the flys were even more miserably annoying, but we made the best of it.

uncle phil caught a fish in the backyard ryan fishing:

nana, nichole and aunt micki:

nichole and russ, having a heart to heart:

horseshoes:

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 :)