School

The kids are LOVING school.  They are the only people I know that get soo excited to wake up to their alarm to go to school.  They are doing great in the mornings where they will take a shower with minimal help, get dressed, make their beds, brush their teeth and they do it enthusiastically, too.  We get them breakfast, pack their lunches and drop them off. These kids LOVE routine. They told me that they play together at recess which I think is so sweet. 

Today when I picked up the kids (pick up is in the cafeteria) I walked to their classes just to touch base with teachers to see how their week was going and how the kids were doing.  Luca's teacher said "he's doing great!"  and Olivia's teacher told me "She's a dream!"  I was so proud to hear that.  I was also happy to see some pictures and work posted on the wall outside their classes. 

Luca said he's taken several reading tests on the computer yesterday he took 3 which is voluntary and today he took 2. They are both in soccer and they both seem to really enjoy it.  Luca has homework everyday and he says it's easy.  Today he had to write his one sentence using a vocabulary word.  He also had to read some sentences and words for me.  I really think having him do 3 worksheets a day all summer really helped as he's flying through his work at school, too.

Olivia hasn't had homework but the teacher did say that they will have math homework.  Olivia is a hugger and she's always hugging her friends goodbye, it's so cute.

They are both very tired and hungry after school. When I pick them up they are soo excited to tell me everything about school that they get upset because they both want to be the 1st one to tell me.   Once they get a snack and I let them watch a little TV they seem to be happy again.

I'm just thrilled that they are having a great school experience so far.

Olivia's 1st Day of Kindergarten!

Olivia's 1st day of school was the day after Luca's. On Luca's 1st day, Olivia had a one hour orientation. The teacher's aide gave the class a tour of the school while her teacher, Mrs. Greiner talked to all the parents about Kindergarten. When we got home I told her I was going to miss her when she's in school. Later on, she was writing all these notes and putting some in my room. She would fold them up and the front would say "Jonn" she was trying to spell my name on her own. She just forgot the 2 a's but that's ok because I love that's she trying. All of the notes said I love you Moma and some said Papa, too. So cute and so so sweet!

She had a great day and when I picked her up she said "I love school!"  She also started singing to me in Spanish by the time we went to the car.  "Buenos Dios, Como Estas."  She sang that song over and over the entire day! She said she loved music class and she liked Spanish, too. 

Luca REALLY wanted me to just drop them off in front of school because HE wanted to walk her to her class, but I told him I wanted to for her 1st day and he was soo upset.  I told him he will be able to drop her off later in the year. Olivia said she saw Luca 3 times, but he told me he saw her more than that.  They both have lunch and recess at the same time but because it rained they didn't go outside for recess.  At lunch they have to sit at separate tables.  Luca said the sweetest thing to her before we got out of the car. He said "Olivia you are going to LOVE kindergarten it is so much fun and you can play with me at recess.  We can play soccer together!"  I thought it was so nice of him. 

Luca's 1st Day of School!

I have been AWFUL with blogging lately because I have been so busy with my photography business. I can't believe I have 20 sessions this month and have a few newborns that might be born this month, too. I just had to take some time out of my day to blog about 1st day of school because I don't want to forget any of these memories. Luca was so thrilled when he found out he had Mrs. Reo for his teacher. The last week of school in Kindergarten they got to meet the 1st grade teachers and I remember him telling me "I hope I have Mrs. Reo next year." There are only 2 1st grade classes so his kindergarten class was split up in half and he seems to have a great class. He had school supply drop off on Monday which is like an Open House where you get to meet the teacher. He was soo excited to have his own desk and that there were books inside his desks. Mrs. Reo had instructions on where to put all the supplies and he was thrilled to have a task and he got so excited when he saw a lot of his friends in class, too. He told me when we got home "I can't believe I'm a 1st grader! I wish school started today, I'm so excited." It made me soo happy to hear this. The night before school started we had put an alarm clock app on his Ipad to wake him up and we were reminding him everything he would need to do, turn off the alarm, take a shower, get dressed, make your bed, brush your teeth, eat breakfast. I told him I would take a few pictures and he said "Only 1 picture Mommy!" I said that's impossible for me to take one pic so we negotiated to 15 and he counted every single pic I took. So here they are....

For the past 2 years I have chalked their grades on the driveway and took a picture.  I usually chalk the night before b/c it takes so long and I did it for Luca and of course it rained and washed off so I will have to do them next week when there is no rain!

My handsome little guy!

When I picked up Luca he said he had a great day at school and that he loved it.  He told me that Mrs. Reo read 3 books and one was about the Gingerbread Man which I can't believe I've never read that book to him out of all the books we've read at the library.  He was able to recite the riddle in the book.  He also told me that they got to do a scavenger hunt and he found the Ginergerbread Man.  H said he had gym class and he sat with his friend Mikey and Matthew at lunch.  He is soo good at telling me everything about school, I love it.  I have a feeling he's going to have a great year! :)

Shoot!

I've been soo bad about blogging because I can't keep up on pictures, I've been so busy with photography stuff that I haven't even edited my pictures from Olivia's Birthday Party, our lake pictures from our trip in Michigan and our latest trip to Pennsylvania from a couple of weeks ago. :( 

So, I had to write this down because it was kind of funny memory and conversation.

Me "Oh, Shoot!"
Olivia: Isn't that a bad word?
Luca: No, Damn it, is a bad word.

I couldn't help but laugh and I of course told him not to say that again.LOL

Potion

Luca said the cutest thing today.  "Mommy when you and Papa get really old I am going to make a potion for you to drink and it will make you young and will make you feel good so you won't feel old."

Olivia's already planning her Bday Party for next year.

So tonight when I was trying to get the kids all showered Olivia said to me "I know what kind of party I want next year for my Birthday."  In my head I was thinking she was going to say something like...Hello Kitty or Lalaloopsy or something.  Nope she said "I want a naked party!  Everybody will come naked and we'll sing Happy Buttday.  My mouth dropped, wasn't expecting that at all but on the positive side she's a very creative girl, I mean she came up with Happy Buttday?  That's pretty creative for my crazy and wild girl.  She cracks me up.

Happy 5th Birthday Olivia!!!

I love this little girl so much!! I cannot believe she is 5!! It feels like yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital. She makes me so happy and I'm so proud to call her my daughter. She is beautiful on the inside and out and she is more than the little girl I've always dreamed of having!!!

I was so happy to see these two when I picked them up from the airport yesterday from their one week trip to Florida with Corey to visit their Grammy and Poppy.  It's funny how sometimes you long for some alone time and then when you have it you start missing them.  I've never really had the entire house to myself for a week with no kids.  I kept myself busy and ended up having 5 photo sessions and edited 3 sessions from the previous weeks so I mostly worked and I did celebrate my good friend Amanda's 40th Birthday,  which her party was a lot of fun, too.  But I was very excited to see my Birthday girl and celebrate with her.  We had Chipotle for lunch and then she wanted her favorite, Mac N Cheese for dinner.  She also requested a Baskin' Robins Cake which was my favorite growing up.  Her cousin Gabriella had it in Florida and she said she wanted the same cake.  Since they don't do Frozen themed cakes I just had them frost it in Frozen Colors and added Elsa on top of the cake.  Her Birthday party is this Saturday and she is soo excited!

Corey had some great bonding time with the kids while in Florida. 

I just love this picture.  I literally had 5 minutes with her because I thought it would be cute since her Birthday theme is Frozen to have her hold 'fake' snow and blow it into the camera.  Well, when she went to blow it she took a deep breath in and sucked the plastic pieces and started choking and that ended our session pretty quickly... but she's OK and I learned that I probably should never use that stuff again for my kids or clients as it is a HUGE choking hazard!

I don't think I edited this photo and I have more that I haven't even worked on because I've been soo busy working on my clients stuff.  I am so sad, too that this is the 1st year I didn't finish her yearly book that I give them on their birthday because I've been soo busy.  I used to keep up to date with it every month but I honestly think I haven't updated it since October and haven't done her 5 year old interview yet.  I need to work on this ASAP. 

I love this one of her because she's laughing, she was shaking her booty but I just captured her laugh.  She's so sillly!

Luca's Kindergarten Graduation

Luca had his graduation this past Wednesday. It was so cute and I'm not going to lie, I did shed a few tears. Especially when they walked in and the played Canon in D.

The quality of these photos are the worst.  The lighting was so bad in there and I didn't bring my flash and we had awful seats in the back.  You can see Luca looking right at me. 

The part I loved the most is the songs they sang was so sweet.  Here he is getting his Kindergarten diploma by his principal Mr. Wickman. I loved how he got down on their level to shake their hands.

Proud boy.  He said he had happy tears. He's so sensitive that it can be cute (sometimes)!

This is why I'm usually behind the camera.  My photos are more centered the other two pics Corey's head was cut off LOL. Oh well.

Luca's teachers - Mrs. Eckhart is retiring this year and Mrs. Gallagher.  Luca loved them both and said they were always so nice. 

I think Mrs. Gallagher really liked him because she would always tell me how good of a boy Luca is.

The graduate.

The graduate and his proud sister.

She loves him so much.

I was glad that Nonno and Nonna were able to be there for this.  Luca was, too!

Olivia wanted in the picture, too. Now he's off to 1st grade in the fall!!!

Olivia's 5 Year Well Visit/ Dance Rehearsal Pictures

Since we thought we were going to be moving last year, I realized that I never scheduled a well visit for Olivia because I thought we would be in Florida.  Anyway, I called to make an appointment and their 1st availability was in LATE July! I asked them to call me if any appointment cancelled to get in sooner and we were able to get her in today, even though she has 12 more days until she's 5!

She knew this appointment was going to be the shots appointment.  She started to get really anxious and I tried to walk her through what the doctor was going to do and that it was just going to be a pinch and the shots would mean she could start kindergarten in the fall and not get sick since there is a mumps outbreak here in Columbus with over 400+cases that started at Ohio State which is 10 minutes from us!  Anyway, she did AMAZING.  There were two shots and the 1st one she did great, then she looked for the 2nd one and cried for like seriously 2 seconds and then the nurse distracted her by asking about her nails and she started to talk about her dance recital which is this weekend. 

Here are some of her stats from the doc.  She weighed 41 pounds which was in the 50th percentile.  She also was 43" which is in the 60th percentile (which is odd b/c Luca is in the 25th percentile). Her BMI was in between the 50-60th percentile. Olivia has had some issues with "growing pains" the past three years.  She will on occasion wake up with leg pain.  We recently noticed that when she points her left toe you will hear a bunch of cracking noises.  We noticed last year that when we had our trampoline up she would always hurt that same left foot.  We even didn't put up the trampoline this year because we just didn't want her to get hurt again. He recommended that we take her to an Orthopedic to get xrays and check out the ligaments, etc. He didn't think it was anything serious but thought we should get it checked out since she does complain about it hurting.

As I had mentioned her recital is this weekend!  Here are some pics that I took from her rehearsal.  I decided that I am not going to take any pictures during her actual recital so I can sit and enjoy the entire thing. 

She just is so beautiful to me. I love her so much.

She loves her costume. The entire theme is International and Olivia's dance is from New England, her song is from The Beatles "I want to hold your hand"

I took this pic around 3 or 4 on a super hot sunny day so the sun was harsh and I wanted to try my new reflector so I had my little assistant help me, well, you can see how that worked out. :)

I told her to dance and I just love this.

This is at her recital during her performance.  When I cropped it like this I thought it looked kind of funny and the lighting wasn't great so I had to include the original picture so you can see how much she stood out from the rest.

I couldn't get the other 2 girls that were in the dance, but she definitely stands out.  She was making eye contact, didn't even have to watch the teacher, had a smile on her face, her form is great and toes are pointed.  She's a natural!!!!!  I honestly always dreamed of having both a little girl and boy and I always wanted to be a stay at home mom who took her kids to soccer practice and ballet classes..I'm living the dream!!

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!