Baking with Nonna Lisa

It wouldn't be a normal visit to Maryland without my mom whipping up something delicious in the kitchen and being a holiday weekend only meant there would be more than usual. Sofia was excited to don her Nonna Lisa's old apron to be her little kitchen helper. My mom is so great with Sofia especially when it comes to cooking since it is something my mom loves to do so much. She's hoping the cooking gene rubs off on her grand-daughters!

A very determined-looking Sofia getting ready to roll out the dough with Nonna and shape the cookies.

Traditional Easter cookies - delicious! Sofia loved picking out the ones she did and I was only too happy to help her eat them!

Dyeing eggs and a very cute bunny

I thought it was very "green" of us to use previously colored on construction paper for the grass to line Sofia's basket. Sofia was able to practice her scissor-skills while Olivia helped to put on the stickers. Sad to say that two eggs were broken in the making of this Easter decoration. I am; however, happy to report that they were immediately consumed and were very yummy.

Love these girls of mine. Sofia was so happy to be "in charge" of dyeing the eggs for the Easter basket she was putting together for decoration and Olivia was just happy. Of course, I think the bunny ears had a lot to do with the smiles.

Baltimore, Hon!

While in Maryland over Easter weekend, we took the girls to downtown Baltimore for some Harborplace fun! An overcast day but the girls didn't mind and loved it all. The Constellation Ship was a big hit for Sofia even though she had no interest in going on the thing, only admired it from afar. Then they shot the cannon off and that sealed the deal of her not wanting to take a tour. Maybe another time...

Even Chase the man came with us to the harbor for some fun! Such a great little baby.

And a trip to the Harborplace would not be complete without indulging in some good ol'junk food. The cheeseburger was bigger then Sofia's hands but she didn't let that get in the way of enjoying it.

Olivia ate up the french fries no problem, next time she'll enjoy them Maryland style with some Old Bay and vinegar - yummy!

My beautiful little girls getting so big, way too fast. Love those faces so much!

A fun-filled morning

A bunch of fun stuff to post from last week and Easter weekend, just little time to actually sit in front of the computer to do it. I'll get there Mom, just be patient and you'll see your little princesses soon.

I took the girls to Linvilla Orchards last week, a favorite spot of ours. We hadn't been in awhile because of the weather but it was a semi-decent day and we went to play, feed the animals and just enjoy the outdoors.

The girls had a great time, as usual.

Afterwards, we stopped into La Locanda to see Nonno Mario and he invited us for lunch. Delicious! So nice for the girls to spend some time with Nonno since they were going to be out of town for the next few days for the holiday.

Olivia ate up the extra attention! Such a little ham!!!

Fun with blocks...Italian style

The girls love their building blocks, spend a good bit of time playing, building and creating. It's fun to hear them talking about what they're building whether it be on their own or with one another. Countless towers have gone up (and then down again), roads have been built for their cars and trains and they make little houses for their animals and dolls. It's already been a great investment!

I love these wooden blocks in particular because along with the alphabet etched colorfully on one side, there are also numbers and animals with their name written in Italian! How wonderful was this find?! I really think that my excitement carried over to the girls because I was so giddy showing them each animal and number and then reading them the word in Italian. I'm sure they already think I'm crazy, but this probably sealed the deal for them.

Buona Pasqua!

We're all ready for some delicious Italian Easter Eggs - pure, dark chocolate in each - and some good home cooking! More pictures to come from our Easter weekend!

Happy Easter to all!

Buon Weekend!

A long weekend ahead filled with loved ones, hopefully some clear skies for an Easter Egg Hunt and lots of smiles. And saving room for some of my mom's homemade cooking and even a piece or two of some delicious dark chocolate. Yum.

Happy Easter Weekend!

Sisters

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves

and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.

-Toni Morrison

My goodness I LOVE these girls!

But Mommy, I'm not tired...

From the time that the girls were 6-8 weeks old, they've been good sleepers. Yes, we had our fair share of crazy nights...waking every 2-3 hours to nurse, teething pain wakefulness and those just because nights where we would walk in their room and they must have thought it was 10 o'clock in the morning and time to play.  But once we established some sort of routine that worked for us, the girls were golden. Successful naps in the afternoon and pretty easy bedtime routine with little to no crying when it was time to go to bed at night.

So, now that Sofia is 4 it seems appropriate for her to begin having some sleep issues. We're transitioning out of the afternoon nap for her, but some days (like the one pictured above), she still definitely needs it. She will moan to me that she's not tired and doesn't need to sleep and within 15 minutes she's usually cozied up in either our bed or hers sound asleep. On those days, it seems to us like she wouldn't need to go to bed at her usual time and so we've kept her up a little later only to find that it will be an hour (or two) before she falls asleep. She got a good hour or two in the afternoon, why would she need to go to bed at the same time then?!

While talking to a mommy friend of mine, with my eyes propped open with toothpicks, she suggested a book that helped her establish a routine for her own daughter and has worked like a charm. I'm all about taking suggestions that may have worked for others and so I'm presently engrossed in Marc Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, because I am all about the 'Happy Child' part. So far I'm loving the ideas he speaks about, stresses the importance of sleep for so many reasons and the study examples he shares give me hope.

I believe that consistency pays off and most of the time, it's worked for us in the past. So, I'm going to stick with a routine that works for Sofia and just hope for the best.

Olivia loves seeing her sister in the morning and after the afternoon nap and sometimes you can really tell that she's missed her. It is the sweetest thing. Obviously in this picture, Sofia was still in the process of waking up.

Ready for Sofia to be up and to play!

Almost 2!

Olivia mia will be 2 next month and I can't get over how fast my baby is growing. Of course, they are both my babies and will continue to be until they are very old, but I still refer to her as the baby pretty frequently. Is that bad? I don't think so at all, it just comes so naturally.

stop to smell the...tulips

Finally! A beautiful day again. And I'm inside on the computer now. Bummer. But at least we were out and about this morning enjoying it and hopefully this time the good weather will stick for a bit longer than 24 hours. One of the first things Sofia said this morning was "the sun is out and it's not raining, maybe we can be outside for a long time today." Poor little lovebug is tired of being inside on account of bad weather. I don't blame her.

So, after breakfast and cleanup, we did just that. Amongst the errand-running, we enjoyed a sweet treat outdoors and some flower picking in the front yard. The daffodils are just about done for the season, but some bright red tulips are making an appearance. Which makes my flower lover, Sofia, very happy. And it makes me happy that something so simple makes her happy.

all dolled up

Yes, I know the sunglasses are upside-down. That's how Miss Olivia prefers them.