Luca

I just needed to quickly write down this conversation between Luca and I yesterday before I forget.

Me "Get ready to take a shower."
Luca "But I just put on a clean pair of underwear!"

Is it me or is that not funny?  I love how he makes me laugh, but he has no idea why it's funny!

Moms Night Out

I went to my weekly Moms Night Out yesterday and as I was leaving the kids usually will ask me 20 question like Where are you going?  Who's going to be there?  Are you going to be outside?  I said no we are going to have dinner inside because it's too cold.  Luca said "Well then that's Mom's Night In, not Out!" 

I haven't been feeling well this past week and I fell asleep on the couch while the kids were watching cartoons and Olivia would rub my back and give me a hug while I was sleeping.  She is the most affectionate little girl that I know.  She LOVES giving me hugs and kisses from the time she wakes up until the time she goes to bed.  It just makes me so happy how loving she is.  I even see her doing it to her stuffed animals and of course, her baby, Lily.  I just cannot believe she is going to be 4 years old next month. I took her 4 year pics the other day and she is just growing up and is such a beautiful little girl.  She is VERY excited for her Barbie themed party.  Everyday she will ask me "Can we turn the calender over."  She wants it to be the month of June very badly.  Love her!

Kings Island

Since we are going to move to Florida, I have a bucket list of places and things I want to do in Ohio with the kids before we move.  We checked off Kings Island off the list on Monday.  

 It was a perfect day to go. It was sunny and in the 80's.  We met up with my good friend Rachel and her kids(Carson in the orange shirt and Nolan in the stroller) that live in Cinci. We drove with my good friend Rita and her son Croy in the pink shirt.  The kids had a BLAST!  I'm so glad we went.

 Towards the end of the day they were having so much fun they started walking like this all on their own.  It was so adorable and I'm so glad Rachel captured this moment!

 Croy and Olivia.  It looks like they are on a date or something.

 This was when we first got there!  They loved seeing all the characters from Charlie Brown.

 Olivia LOVES roller coasters.  It was so much fun.

 I just love this picture of Olivia. Seeing how happy my kids are melts my heart.

 Luca and Carson. It seriously was the BEST time to go to an amusement park because kids are still in school and there was hardly anyone at the park.  There were several times where the attendants would ask the kids "Do you just want to ride it again?" Without having to get out and go in line because there was never a line.  We pretty much just walked on to every ride without a line.

 Bonding time.

 When Rachel went to take their picture after the water park ride they all wanted to show us their muscles.  They also chanted "Again! Again! Again!" They loved the water canoe ride and the little water park.  So much fun.

Rachel has season passes to Kings Island and she gave us a coupon for $10 tickets which is amazing since their tickets are usually around $50+ a ticket.  I also got lucky and some lady was with a school group and apparently one of the moms didn't show up so she gave me her ticket FREE!  Score!  So it was only $20 to get in, plus we packed our own lunch and parking was $12.  Then we had fast food on the way home for dinner.  Not bad for 

Last Day of Pre-School

Such sad day that today is Luca's last day of Pre-School. I can't believe he'll be in Kindergarten next fall!  :(

 Olivia really loved her teachers Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Oberlin.  They are a perfect fit for pre-school teachers.  They were so very nurturing and loving to Olivia.  I had them write down a little something on Olivia's "Oh the Places You'll Go!" book by Dr. Seuss.  It was a sweet note, I will have to write it on here.

 Olivia's last circle time.  They celebrated all the summer Bday's that's why she's wearing the little hat. Oh and look who I caught her sitting next to?  Owen of course!

 Giving her teacher a hug!  Made me tear up.

 Luca will definitely miss pre-school.  When I told him that it was his last day of school he said "But, I'm going to miss Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. Keintz."  I asked him what are you going to miss about them? He said "They were always so nice to me."  He really loved his teachers and he had a great class. Even though there were 9 Boys and 3 Girls I was surprised at what a well behaved class it was with great kids. 

I'm a little bummed I didn't make their "Last day of School Signs" but check out their 1st day of school pictures.  I also had them wear the same outfits, except Luca's shirt was too small on him so he's got a new shirt.  Look how much they've grown!!  You can also see that Olivia's curls are really loosing compared to her 1st day of school, too! 
http://joanna-andresfamily.blogspot.com/2012/09/1st-day-of-pre-school.html

When is Kids Day?

This morning for Mother's Day Olivia slept in until 8:30 which is not normal.  Corey let me sleep in, but he was trying to wake up Olivia so she would make me a Mother's Day card.  He tried waking her up but she was in such a deep sleep.  So when I finally came downstairs she said she was still making my card and I wasn't allowed to come to her until she was finished.  Then she gave me her card and said "Happy Mother's Day!"  She wrote the card herself and I read it and complimented her on her handwriting, etc.  Then she said "When is it Kid's Day?"  I thought that was funny!  I told her it's Kid's day everyday!

Boyfriends and St. Joseph

Here is Owen to the left and Parker on the right.  Olivia says they are her boyfriends at school.  I know that I think it's cute now, but I won't think it's cute in a few years.  When I came back from my Chicago trip,  I saw a little note on the kitchen island.  I thought to myself, how sweet the kids wrote me a note b/c they missed me.  It was a note from Olivia to Owen with hearts all over it and Owen's name on it. It still was super cute and they do make a cute little couple.  They also play soccer together which I will have to take some pictures next Saturday.  Corey got to meet Owen for the 1st time and he even thought it was so cute when Owen saw Olivia and started tickling her.  Then he would always stand right behind her in line.  He would also take his finger and say "Boop" to Olivia's nose.  So stinkin' cute!

 So, it's been well over a month is this crazy busy housing market and we haven't sold our house yet.  We were in contract last week and the buyers pulled out of our contract.  :(  So, I bought a statue of St. Joseph so maybe he can try to help sell our house! 

 Luca praying to St. Joseph.  It's funny b/c you are supposed to say a prayer when you bury him and when I told him we were going to pray he did this. He definitely learned this at pre-school.  They have prayer before snack.

 He was peaking at me.

 Olivia had no interest in praying, she was all about the bouncing! Look at the muscles on her legs!

 She loves bouncing!

 Trying to do a toe touch!  My future cheerleader.

 Look at how high she can go!

 I can't believe she's going to be 4 next month.  Time sure does fly!

Chicago!

A handful of my friends and I went on a Moms Weekend Out to Chicago last weekend and it was SOO much fun!  There was a total of 6 of us which was a perfect number not too small, not too big.  We all had a great time and everyone just went with the flow.  I only have pics from my phone which I need to figure out how to download them, but since I posted some on FB I am able to post them on my blog.

This was the first night when we arrived we headed out to a bar to let loose and dance!  We had so much fun!  Starting from my left is Salwa, she used to live in Cbus and was in my Moms group but moved to California 2 years ago and is now moving to Denver. She has 3 kiddos and she also owns SNO couture check out her FB page she sells some awesome scarves.  Natacha is next to me and she's a working Mom/entrepreneur with 2 kiddos. Our kids are different ages but we like to socialize at the MNO's.  I'm next (obviously) then Valerie is a SAHM from Texas of 2 sweet kiddos.  Her daughter Alina and Olivia are really good buds.  Then my friend Rita is all the way to the right.  I met Rita when our sons were 4 and 5 months old.  Luca and Croy have been buds for 5 years and we are obviously very close, too.  Rita is a flight attendant.  Then Sam is taking our pic.  Sam is a Stay at home Dad of Sofia and Ethan which they are good buds with the kids, too. 

 Natacha and I shopping on Michigan Avenue.

 This was at the Hancock building.  It was such an amazing view!  We were shocked because we were standing in the longest line to get a seat and all of a sudden someone grabs us at the end of the line and asked us how many were in our party and gave us a seat!  We were so lucky!! :)

 I was super excited to eat at RPM Italian.  I'm a huge fan of Guilianna and Bill Rancic and I told myself if I ever go to Chicago I want to try this place out and we did.  The decoration, food, and service was amazing!  I highly recommend it and I was surprised at the cost, too. Very affordable.

 We all bought a ton of appetizers and split them and I had to have Mama Di Pandi's pasta and it was so delicious and fresh. We also ate at Giardano's pizza, had Ghiredelli's Ice Cream and Garrets popcorn.  So we had some fun, good food and great shopping.  A perfect weekend away!!! We decided we have to do this annually...where will we go next year? :)

Making snowmen with sand

Luca has such a creative mind, I love it!  We were in the car today and he said "Since we won't have any snow in Florida, can we make snowmen with sand on the beach?"  I thought that was very creative.  Then Olivia said "Yeah and we can make snowballs out of sand, too!"  I give them credit for not complaining about it not getting snow in Florida, but thinking out of the box.

April Showers Brings MAY flowers!

 I usually update Luca and Olivia's yearly Shutterfly book each month so that I am caugh up and I realized that I hardly took any pictures of the kids for the month of April. I think we were just so busy trying to get our house ready and staged.  Pluse I was so busy selling and taking pictures of a bunch of stuff on craigslist that I just neglected to take pictures of them. So, today it was a beautiful day out and I put O in her new little spring dress that I bought. Luca said he didn't want to take pictures until I brought out the sunglasses then he said ok you can take a picture of me with my glasses on!

I love it when I can get a laugh out of her.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture.  She's so adorable with all her accessories which she LOVES to wear everyday.  She loves rings, bracelets, necklaces and sunglasses.

He always wears a helmet, I promise! I just told him to take it off for a second so I could get a good pic of him with his glasses.