Art Show

Luca had an Art Show at school. The Kindergarten class had a book of all their art. I loved this one which is a portrait of himself that he drew. The 1st one was at the beginning of kindergarten and the 2nd one is at the end of the school year. Look how much he's improved and all the detail in the pic. Some recent funny things Luca  said to Corey this weekend.

Luca to Corey "You should cut the hair under your arms (his armpit) so we can be brothers."

 Luca helped Corey pull the weeds out of our yard and Corey said "thanks for helping me with the weeds." Luca responded "Anything for you, brother."

We were invited to my old roommate, Erica's new house for a Memorial Day cookout. They have a nice pool with a slide. We were the 1st ones to arrive and they were still getting ready for the party so they told us to go ahead and head out to the pool. Olivia said "This is the best party of my life!" Even though we were the only ones there. :) Later, she said "can we buy this house?" She just loved the pool and the slide and had such a good time that when we told her we had to go she threw a fit and cried which she hasn't done that in a LONG time. She's usually pretty good about it when we tell her we have to go.

Luca's 1st Play

Luca had his very 1st play today and he did fabulous! When the teachers first sent the script home I thought to myself wow, this is going to be hard for him to memorize his entire script! Then I realized that the narrators didn't have to memorize because they had larger parts. But after Luca's 1st practice at school, he came home and read through his script once with me and the 2nd time he did it without looking at his paper! I was very impressed. He did great, had a big smile on his face and talked very loud and clear. At the very end they did the skidermerinky dinky dink song which got me all teary eyed. I video taped it on my phone, which by the way I just got my brand new Samsung Galaxy S5 yesterday! I am excited to use it once I can figure out how to save all my contacts someplace! :) Anyway, when I tucked Luca into bed tonight he said "Mommy, I love you so much, thank you for coming to my play today." It was soo sweet! I just can't believe how fast kindergarten flew by. His graduation is on June 4th. When Luca and Olivia were brushing their teeth, I overheard their conversation and it went like this... Luca "Olivia, did you know that black dot in your eye is your pupil?" Olivia " I have people in my eye?" Made me smile!

Last Day of School!

I can't believe it. My baby is going to Kindergarten next year. How did the time go by so fast? I'm so sad, because I do love all the time I have with her and I feel like somewhat my career of a stay at home mom will be over this fall. I will still be a stay at home mom but I just will miss having my little shadow following me around and taking her to library story time, the playground, playdates, coloring, playing with her, so many things I do with her every single day and I know I'm going to miss having her be my little shadow. She loved her teachers Mrs. Keintz and Mrs. Johnston. Today I told her what are we going to do tomorrow? She said "Go to kindergarten!" I love her!

I was so happy that our neighbor Ashlin and Olivia were in the same class. They have become best friends.  Her family is really great, too.  This past weekend Ashlin's Mom sent me a text that they had 2 xtra tickets to the circus and she asked if both Olivia and Luca could go!  How sweet are they?  Luca had a soccer game so I told them Olivia could go, then Luca's soccer game got cancelled and he ended up going.  They had AMAZING seats, too.  Front row center! Ashlin has 3 brothers.  1 older and 2 younger than her and Luca gets along well with her brother Michael who is 3.  He always drives his Cadillac to our house and gives Luca a ride, it's so cute. Unfortunately, Ashlin's Birthday is in September so she will stay one more year in pre-school so they won't be in Kindergarten together.  But I'm sure we will be in touch since we are neighbors and all! ;)

Tying Shoes

Today Luca and Olivia had their 1st T-Ball practice.  After school, I played catch with them to get them a little prepared since they haven't really played or practiced since last year.  Luca's shoe was untied and we honestly haven't really taught him how to tie his shoes.  He had velcro shoes the majority of the year and a couple of months ago we bought him new shoes with laces and he will ask his teachers or classmates to tie them.  So I finally just sat down on the grass and tried it with him. It's very hard to teach someone how to tie their shoes. My patience was low after several attempts, especially when I would try showing him and he didn't want to watch and he would say "I know how to do it!"  He finally got it after a few tries!! He was soo excited to show Corey. 

I can't believe Olivia's last day of pre-school is tomorrow.  I can not believe my baby is going to Kindergarten next year.  I feel so unprepared because we recently headed a petition in our entire neighborhood to do a land transfer for schools.  After submitting it, we heard from the Ohio Board of Education Legal Department that they would consider it!!  So, now we have to wait 30 days for Southwestern Schools to reply and then most likely we will have a hearing and the Board of Ed will decide.  We are really hoping it works out.  We love the private school that Luca goes to, but trying to put 2 kids in private school is not cheap and will be costly for the next 8 years that we could be saving for college instead. So with that, I have no idea where she will be going next year.  I don't have her registered at any school (we lose the deposit at the private school if we don't end up going there).  I sort of feel like we are at the same stage as we were last year when we were trying to move to Florida and I had no idea where Luca would be going to school! Same feeling.  Crossing our fingers this transfer happens.  Corey thinks we have a good chance especially because our school district that we live in just built a brand new building that is 8 miles away and we would have to cross 4 rail road tracks to get them to school.  The school we are hoping to get transferred to is one of the best in Columbus and is only 1.1 miles away - no railroad tracks to cross.   Wish us luck and that we can find out sooner than later!

Jello Jigglers

Olivia "Mommy, your booty jiggles when you walk."  Obviously I haven't been to my kickboxing class for a while because I was training for the half.  I guess I need to work on my bootilicious workouts. LOL

The other day Corey drove my brother-in-laws BMW convertible and took Luca home in it from soccer practice.  Luca said "This is the best day of my life!"

Pre-School Conversations

Olivia told me that she was talking to her classmate, Kane, that she really likes.  Another classmate, Jack, came up to her and said "I want to marry you!" 

Olivia said "Well, do you have a ring?"
Jack "Yes, it's at home!"

Then Olivia told me "I don't think he really has a ring at home!"

Where do these kids come up with all this marriage talk!?  I think it's still cute, though.

Make Up Class

The other day I took Olivia to take a make up class for dance because they missed 2 classes due to snow days.  When we were done with the class she said "When do we get to put make up on?"

Another funny thing she said that I have to make sure to put in her book is that Corey took her to school on Monday and we pick up our neighbor Ashlin on the way.  Well, Corey was late and said something like "we are a little late." Olivia responded to Ashlin "Sorry, my dad was pooping."  Ha!

FLORIDA!

Since we had such a brutal winter, we decided to go to Florida to visit my parents and finally see some sunshine!

My sister and brother-in-law picked us up and we drove all the way down to Florida!  Corey was not able to come with us, with his new job and just recently taking some time off for New York.  He had a lot of work to do but we missed him.  I miss his teaching schedule and all the time he had off and I miss the hours he used to work.

Ready to color some Easter Eggs!

Olivia waiting patiently...

Luca drawing on his eggs.

We also were there on Gabri's Birthday.  My parents wanted to celebrate and bought her a yummy ice cream cake.  It was nice that Luca was able to celebrate since he didn't want to go to her tea party birthday because "tea parties are for girls." LOL

Waiting patiently for cake!

Gabri kept saying "I'm 4!"  She is very excited to be 4 years old now!

Blowing out her candles.

My kids are so blurry in this pic.

Happy Family

Nonno and Nonna in the picture.

Easter Egg Hunt!

I couldn't believe it, but it was in the 60's on Easter in Florida and it was 70's in Ohio!!!  Really!??

I love his face, he was soo excited that he got soo many eggs.

The Easter Bunny in Florida puts dollars and coins in the Easter Eggs!

I love this picture of them on the beach.

Olivia LOVES to do cartwheels and she will do them all day long.  She has mastered how to do it one handed and also can do three cartwheels in a row!  I'm thinking of enrolling her in Cheerleading because she can dance and learn to tumble rather than having her in dance classes and gymnastic classes which are both really pricey. 

I liked it in black and white, too.

My handsome little guy.  I loved the hat my Mom bought him, it's so cute.

Pure joy, they LOVED the beach.  I realized how much I wished we could've moved to Florida when we had the chance.  If only our house would've sold. :(

Happy! Happy! Happy!

Olivia and Gabri are so cute together. 

They just had taken a bath and we were about to watch their new Tinkerbell movie that they got from the Easter Bunny.

Nonno taught Olivia how to body board.  She loved it.

Heading out to Bonefish Grill for Nonno and Nonna's 43rd Anniversary!

The Bellestri's

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!