Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Spring Break 2012

 Before the boys began their Spring Break, I jetted off to Puerto Rico with Luca for a few days.  It's always nice to go visit and see everyone, but I missed my boys so much!  Daddy was super busy and they had a good time too though.  Here are a few pictures of my time in Puerto Rico.


Luca checking out the view at Apapa's.  This front porch is a classic picture place for us...



Watching the cars with Abuela.

With my first Geocache.  I sense an obsession coming.  Note Luca was very interested in my find.  =)

The spot where I said "YES!!!"



When it finally stopped raining, I ran down to the beach quickly just to take a walk.  Well, Luca did not want to be contained because he wanted to go play in the sand!  He had the best time.

How blessed!  Luca with two of he great-grandparents!

Super happy to be back with my family.


On Tuesday morning (I got home on Monday) Sebastian, Matteo and I sat down and made a list of all the fun and special things they wanted to do during the break.  It was a long list with some big things and some everyday things.  Below are the ones I was able to capture (or remembered to capture) on camera!

Make flags for a beach sand castle.  Sebastian drew an octopus on his.

Make a sand castle.

Go to the beach.  Luca loves this one.

Paint a big picture of a snake in a tree.

Go to the car wash.

Visit the nature center.

Go on a nature walk.

Go to the library.  Book choices were all in non-fiction - sharks, crabs, dinosaurs, dogs and dolphins.

Go on an airplane.  Now this one tested my creativity for sure, but I created an airplane under our nook table with a sheet and some chairs.  Then I gave them each tickets, seats (cushions), snacks and let them watch Dinosaur Train on the little DVD player.  They thought it was AWESOME.  Even though I know they wanted a real plane, they had a good time with it.

Have movie night and stay up late.

Do chalk.

Luca was totally into this one too.  He tried to eat it all the time though...yuck!

The beach was so much fun that we went back on Paul's off Friday.


Luca is waving at everyone these days, it's so cute!

The kids made this pool for Luca - he was thrilled with it when there was water in there!  The kids would run back and forth with buckets and pour the water in and he couldn't have been happier!  Sebastian did get a little upset though because the pool wouldn't stay full...

Matteo was the smarter worker.  He took the biggest bucket and Angelica and Sebastian would do all the running, give him their water and he would dump it into the pool.  Smart boy, eh!?!
 
Go on a picnic.



A few other things that were on "The List" but I don't have pictures of, included:
  • Go to Sea World (they went with Daddy when I was gone)
  • Go to the Fair (Sebastian went with Daddy, Matteo is too small!)
  • Do big puzzles
  • Blow bubbles
  • Have friends over to play
  • Watch movies with us in them (home videos)
 It was a really fun week and I think we need to do a modified version of our List for the summer.  Maybe an activity jar?  Fun times! I won't promise that this is my return to regular blogging, but I am going to TRY REALLY HARD!!!

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

New Year's Day, plus some...

Little stinker.  So many toys on the floor, but he wants his ball from the basket.




 Luca on the go!
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He's a pro at standing at the kitchen gate already!

Christmas gifts from Auntie Tiff!  They LOVE the new towels!

Love the cooking set from the Cummings!


Sunday, January 01, 2012

Paul's Birthday and New Year's Eve

Happy 32nd birthday!  We celebrated the evening before at Scott and Tina's and then spent Paul's birthday day at Sea World.

Pretty funny!

Both my parents and in-laws all have passes too, so we all went.  Sure makes taking 4 kids to a theme park much easier!

Still enjoying Christmas.

Shaving cream in the bath is the new fun thing.

Luca relaxing in his new chair he got for Christmas.  He outgrew the bouncer, but we still wanted something to sit him in, ahem...contain him, and this is perfect!  He can use it up to 30lbs as a rocking chair too!

The were ready and excited for the New Years Noon party!  We had 10 families and lots of kids to ring in the new year a little early!

Luca's first New Year!!!


Luca was happy and playing as we waited up until midnight.



Love this!  First time with all of them doing sparklers.





Little voices saying Happy New Year.
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Settled in to watch our $10 fireworks display.

It was perfect for the price!

Matteo making music with Daddy's beer.  No, he's not drinking it! =)

The later it got, the wilder the kids.  Here they were riding/dragging Rudolph around the house.

By the end, we were all fading fast...except my Abuela.  She was ready for a party!  Too funny.

Sebastian was determined to not fall asleep even though he was a complete zombie.  He had to stay up for the New Years party.  His brothers crashed around 11, but he made it - this is about 5 till.  Poor guy!

Happy 2012!!  Literally in the last 60 seconds Luca woke up and I didn't want to miss it, so I dragged the poor kid out for the final seconds of his birth year, snapped a picture, hugged and kissed everyone and rushed him back to bed.  Luckily he went back to sleep!