Welcome home Mommy

I left on a church retreat this weekend, and when I returned home this is what I found:

The poor girl is SICK, just real sick. Does NOT feel good. And really, her brother and sister aren't well either. Daddy's going down too.

She was just crying and crying, and insisted on wearing this huge hat.... even in the bath, becoming enraged when Capri and JD tried to take it off her.

Poor baby.

But, I think they had fun with Daddy & both sets of grandparents while I was gone. Grandma Debbie even took them to the movies and got them each their own Icee's. I've already heard about it twice... "Mommy, we had our own Icee's and didn't even have to share!"

Grandpas make good cheerleaders

I'm beat. Exhausted. Spent.

This has been a long week, I'm glad it's almost over.

Me and Tell have had all we can take.

Looking for good news? I'm going on a retreat this weekend.

Capri on the other hand, is raring to go!

She was in her glory doing a "show" for Grandma & Grandpa in her room.

Can you tell she's wearing 2 shirts, 1 pair of pants, 1 jumper and 1 dress?

Well, she is.

She was crazy dancin' for a long time. It was hilarious.

Then Grandpa got involved.

He even had his own cheer.

"Kick 'em in the right knee, kick 'em in the left knee, kick 'em in the we need a touchdown!"

I knew Grandpa's were good at lots of things, but I didn't know cheerleading was one of them.

But, now I do.

It made Capri's night. How awesome is my dad?

I graciously accept..

a lovely award from my new friend Kristi at Rush Hour. I don't know if it's really an award, or more of a "tag", but either way I accept.

Here is my award:

which requires that I lay out 10 pieces of info about myself, and to nominate 10 bloggers too... but I don't personally know 10, so I'm just gonna honor the first half of the award. Here they are, the facts about me, the info you always wanted:

1. I hate technology. Seem silly for a girl with a blog to say? Maybe. But I hate it. I hate computers, cell phones, ipods, video games, etc. I feel like they are little "life suckers" and infringe on my life much too frequently. I think they take too much of the "personal-ness" out of our lives. Now clearly I use these things, which might be somewhat hypocritical. I don't mind them in moderation (sometimes), but I'd like to go backward in technology instead of forward. Call me a hypocrite, go ahead.
2. I have a handsome husband. A really, really, really handsome husband. We're going on our 9th year of marriage, and he just keep gets better looking. And with this handsome husband, I have a really handsome son, and two gorgeous girls.
3. I'm serious about Jesus, and what He did for me. Do I need to expand here? This should be #1.
4. I'm in a perpetual state of hair crisis. I don't ever know what I like. Wish I had a style that I just stuck to, but I don't. Or maybe even a color that I knew was just right. Jessica does my hair, and does it so well. If I could only hire her to do it every day I think my hair crisis would disappear.
5. I think my kids are awesome. Capri is intense, unique, imaginative and extraordinary. Those really are the best words to describe her. JD is the cutest boy on earth. He's rough, wild, and huge. In my eyes he can do no wrong (which presents a small problem when he harasses his sisters). He melts my heart. Donatella aka Tella, Tell-Tell, or Tellarina is just WILD. Don't let her big blue eyes fool you. She's pushy but sweet, and rough but lovey. And the girl just can't resist a good book.
6. I like plain clothes, not attention getting outfits. I do like to look nice though. See, I might like plain clothes, but I love LOUD, obnoxious, crazy, non-matching purses. Oh, and shoes.
7. I'm Italian, and grew up in South Jersey. Love, love, love south jersey and italians. I have a bit of my accent left, and I like it. I feel like it makes me a little more interesting. I also love greeks, can I sneak them in here too? I have lots of greek friends that are awesome and I just love the food!
8. I have to have something to look forward to. If I don't I start to lose my mind and get weird. Usually I like to look forward to traveling since it's my favorite thing to do. Right now I am looking forward to visiting Jersey in June. Something I'm not looking forward to? Kindergarten. Just in case you were wondering.
9. I'm not very intense or high maintenance. I don't need a whole lot. Except water. I can't go without water. But something tells me you can't either.
10. I love to cook. I love to cook Italian food. I love Giada de Laurentiis because she loves to cook Italian food. She's my hero. And that handsome husband I referenced earlier got me all her cookbooks. (except for the newest one, but it's new. so I'm sure it's coming my way at some point)

Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

When you have....

an older sister this is the kind of stuff that happens.

He's such a good brother. He's takes all the crap Capri gives him really well. And, he even lets her boss him around. I don't know for how much longer though. I think he'll be bigger than her sooner than we think and this kind of stuff just won't fly. Don't you just love him? I certainly do.

Bonjour Butterfly

OK so I was actually able to deliver on the butterfly exhibit last week. See the former post if you don't know why this is a big deal.

Capri loves Fancy Nancy. She has lots of the books, and has most of them memorized. One of her favorites is Bonjour Butterfly. Basically, Nancy loves everything French and always says "Bonjour" when she sees butterflies. I will go to any length to make Capri's fantastic imagination a reality , so we made it a point to see the butterflies for her to say Bonjour as well.

Luckily this time I got to take only Capri. We waited for about 40 minutes in line to get in. While waiting, Capri pointed out thorns on trees and related them to the ones they put on Jesus' head. Then we entered a cave and she told me it was kind of like the one they put Jesus in after he died. My heart was swelling with emotion that Capri was thinking about Jesus all on her own.

Also while we were waiting we encountered a man dressed in costume, Dr. Zoolittle. He was handing out deep fried mealworms for the people to try. The kids were going wild for it, but I was sure my shy little princess would want nothing to do with it. BOY WAS I WRONG.

See the progression below:

She wanted another one but was too shy to ask, and I couldn't leave our place in line. How crazy was that? The girl won't eat fruit (at all) but she'll snack on worms?? What?

Anyway...

We made our way to the front, but not before someone tried to cut in front of us. NO, not having that. I stood my ground and we muscled our way to our rightful place.

As soon as we walked in I stuck my finger out to point at the butterflies and one landed right on me! Capri, my little quick thinker, immediately snapped a picture.

She was enthralled and was saying "Bonjour" to lots and lots of butterflies flying by. Here was a near miss-

Poor Capri waited, and waited, and waited. We waited for like 30 minutes. She even tried sitting, and being extra still. It was frustrating because they were landing on people all around us. There were some very annoying people who broke the rules and came prepared with mango smeared on their fingers. Some of the little girls with the mango had 3 butterflies at a time sitting on their fingers. Now, I must admit were we to return I might bring my own mango - at which point I would be very annoying to the parents like me who didn't know that was an option. Not sure what I think about that. Maybe I'll bring mango for everyone! Ha ha!

After all that patient waiting this blue butterfly eventually did climb onto her finger. The excitement was more than she could take. She did get to say "Bonjour", but then it immediately flew off.... of course I blame the little girl on the left side of the picture, and I also again blame those annoying people who came with mango on their fingers.

Eventually she said "let's go mommy", so off we went to take a ride on the carousel...

A special treat to end the day.

Mission "Bonjour Butterfly" accomplished.

Better than a Birthday cake?

Turning 30 is a big deal. James turned 30 today.

I wanted to make it special.

Hence, the surprise party I threw with my mother in law. That was REALLY special.

We had the party a few weeks before his actual birthday so he wouldn't see it coming.

It was great. But, I had one more surprise up my sleeve to help us celebrate as close to the actual day as possible. It had to be monday since we don't really see him on Tuesdays and he was leaving early today (weds) to go camping.

So Monday afternoon I picked this up.

I ordered it a couple of days before.

He ripped right into it. And this was his reaction:

And this is what it was.

See my finger for scale.

A three pound doughnut.... they call it "Texas Style". Had I been able to picture what 3 pounds of doughnut looked like I would've maybe ordered a little less. A LOT less. We could've slipped the doughnut over the baby's head and had her wear as a necklace. It was E-NORM-OUS. Ridiculous. But special!

I think he was happy.....

Better than a birthday cake? I don't know.

But definitely special!

Happy 30th birthday to the LOVE of my life!!!!

The Three days of Easter

Easter Friday, more commonly known as Good Friday

We colored eggs....

Notice a chipmunk that snuck his way into the picture?

Easter Saturday

On Saturday we went over to see my dad who is fresh off the plane from Sudan. We also seized the opportunity to go for a swim, and JD learned a new skill. He's now going under with goggles! He was getting all the way under and swimming around and was wildly proud of himself. He kept exclaiming "I'm going under the sea!"

We did our easter baskets on Saturday because James is gone on Sunday morning. After they searched around they were ecstatic with their finds. Daddy did the basket shopping this year and went big! Whoo hooo!

Capri got the Strawberry Shortcake swimming pool!

JD was THRILLED with his basket & prize... he got video games!

Tella woke up from her nap and got her basket. She was still a little sleepy.

Tella's tummy was bugging her, so I gave her applesauce and let her feed herself. She got wild with it! At least she was having fun, right?

Easter Sunday

Tella in her lovely pink overcoat.

Capri chose her shoes, I chose not to fight her. Doesn't she look beautiful?? I blew her hair out last night so it would be strait and bouncy... love it when it looks like this. now if it just wasn't so much work to have it always look like that.......

I took a zillion pictures to get a good one of the three of them before they got changed and played outside. Not one of the zillion was good. This was the best I could do. The background is bad, but at least they are all semi-looking and not crying.

The hunt!

Tella didn't care much for the hunt, but she did like her bucket!

JD liked the one with money!

Capri got a ton of eggs...

For dessert we had giant costco cupcakes..... pretty good.

Then, we had a lovely earthquake. A 7.2 if I'm not mistaken. Wow did that change the mood. It was only the second earthquake I've ever really experienced. I know it was a first for my kids and my grandmother that just moved here from NJ a year ago. NJ has it share of bad weather - a hurricane, noreasters, maybe a tornado or two.... but fires and earthquakes are unique to this side of the country. Hard to say which is better to live with.... Anyway, no damage around here, but it sure was unexpected! As I'm sure all earthquakes are..... ha ha!

We came home with an exhausted mommy and daddy, mildly tired older kids, and an over-exhaused, maxed out baby. Poor girl was a mess, she was even running a little fever. I put her to bed at 6:30.

Disclaimer: Upon further review of this post I noticed that it appears that we feed our baby junk. Several pictures show her with cheetos, peeps, and a chocolate bunny. Please note that these were "special treats" and her normal diet does NOT consist of these things! Thank you!