Happy Halloween!!!

Sofia the Farmer and Olivia the Mouse, Halloween 2011.

All set with Sofia's old cow costume for Halloween 2009, but Olivia wanted none of that. Luckily we always have a handful of tutus around and Sofia's mouse play costume and she wore that no problem. Smiles all around!

All set to go trick-or-treating with Daddy!!

I love Olivia's tail sticking out the bottom of her coat. Mommy stays home to eat hand out candy to the adorable trick-or-treaters we had tonight.

Olivia comes back home to hand out candy with mommy and daddy and Sofia head back out for some more Halloween fun! And she may have enjoyed a candy or two from her pumpkin.

My little mouse coloring away. The girls were so excited about tonight and they had such a great time. Another fun Halloween under our belts. And some leftover candy under our belts too!!!

love these girls of mine

2 days before Halloween and our first snow

Love

8 years ago today...

I married my best friend and the love of my life.

some from the weekend...

We were in Maryland this past weekend for a whole bunch of fun things. A trip to the gardens for some Fall festivities, a wedding, Nonno Nicky's birthday and just some good ol'down time with the family. It was perfect! 

A morning at Homestead Gardens for some Fall fun with Zio Antonio...

I didn't bring my camera to the wedding, so this is one picture I got from Scott from the evening. Love this picture, it's just missing Chaela! I'll have to photoshop her in!

Baking with Nonna Lisa...

Playing with Chase...

Buon Compleanno Nonno Nicky!

A recent famiglia Pitocco picture from Chase's baptism late last month. Aside from Olivia trying to make a run for it and Sofia being all serious, I think it's a perfect family picture. And a perfect way to say Happy Birthday to my dad who loves his family very much. We love you dad and all you do for us!

More pictures to come from our weekend in MD!!

sweet feet

Love my little girls curled up together, all pajama-ed up ready for bed. Love those little feet that really aren't that little anymore. But they're still pretty sweet.

Lunch Bunch

Sofia had her first Lunch Bunch this past week at school and she loved it. The teachers had told them about it a couple weeks ago and she had been asking just about everyday since when she was going to go. Her friend and Sofia were in there together (along with 16 other kids) and they had a great time. This meant that I got to make my very first lunch for school and I was actually excited about it. Wholesome lunch totally equipped with my first lunch tote note! I remember these growing up in my family and loved them and honestly, I couldn't wait for her to be needing a lunch so I could do this for her. My first note was a little simple and I didn't tell her anything about it when I walked her to her class that morning. But when I picked her up - 5 hours later!!! - she completely mentioned it and said she loved it.

Fun with Play-Doh

Lots of play-doh activity in the house these days. A typically quiet pastime, not so messy unless Sofia decides to make tiny little worms or rolls up little balls and then they pretty much can wide up just about anywhere. Olivia loves being able to flatten her play-doh out with the rolling pin and is so impressed with herself each time she does it on her own.

Daddy likes to get in on the fun too!

Orchid sitting

I am babysitting my mother-in-law's orchids while she is away and so far, so good. I think. You're only supposed to water them once a week and give them some light which sounds easy enough. Hopefully they last until she returns. 

Framed Initial on Scrapbook Paper

Simple project from over the weekend to hang in the girls' room...

Sofia and Olivia have been sharing a room now since the middle of August and it's about time for me to update some things. It had been Sofia's room for just over two years now and everything in there had her name written all over it. Literally. I had brought some of Olivia's stuff - dolls, books, blankets - into the room, but now need to update the walls.

I had a collage of 5 white picture frames all dedicated to Sofia and replaced two of them with this little project, their initials in black cut out and set over scrapbook paper. The paper I had from my stockpile as well as the photo corners. Simply type up the letters in whatever font you choose, print out and cut them with some good scissors. I used glue dots to adhere the letter to the polka dot cardstock and then double-sided tape to attach to the scrapbook paper.

Simple and cute.

It's a pumpkin party!

This morning I had the girls from Sofia's class over for a Halloween pumpkin party and my goodness were there lots of smiles all around. It was a lot of fun to watch the girls running around and just enjoying hanging out outside of school. Of course, warm Philly soft pretzels and cupcakes probably helped bring those smiles out too. And pumpkin painting too. Give the girls some paintbrushes, one of daddy's old shirts and some paint to make a mess decorate and they're good to go.

Sofia with some of her schoolmates

and 4 of the finished masterpieces.

Really concentrating on the indoor craft...pumpkin cutouts to color and foam stickers to decorate.

Olivia hanging with the big girls...all set for a cupcake picnic!

"Happy Halloween!!!" When you think it's not possible for the girls to get any cuter...

decluttering magazines

Don't get in my way when I'm in the mood to declutter. We've been doing some little things around the house and I came across about 57 magazines that were all sorts of ear marked, pages torn out, passages highlighted and so on. Enough is enough and I went through each one this past week and cut out recipes, craft projects, pieces of advice, anything that I thought I might like to keep and tossed the remainder of the magazine. Yes, I recycled them.

My first little project was to organize the recipes. A few years back Anthony bought me this great little recipe holder that is basically a binder. I only used it for recipes that people emailed me or hand-wrote for me and then I would rewrite it in the binder. It came with a whole bunch of pages that were blank and equipped with page protectors. Light bulb goes on and I'm in business. Cutting and protecting business that is.

I love how the most used sections of the binder are the 'Desserts' and 'Parties' section.

Love how nice and clean it looks AND that I got a basket back to use that was housing all those magazines. Win-Win!

And right up my alley, my girlfriend introduced me to the world of Pinterest. It.Is.Addicting. Now, I can stop Bookmarking all the sites I come across online and just "Pin It." Perfect for my Type A side that likes to see everything in neat, little "Boards." If you haven't checked it out yet, it's totally worth a look.

Eeek a mouse!

Boo! Lollipop Ghosts

How cute are these little guys?

I'm having a pumpkin party for the girls in Sofia's class this week and I decided to make these up real quick to add to the little favor bag we'll hand out. Super easy and quick to assemble. After searching around for a little Halloween favor, I found some really cute ideas and this one just stuck.

What you'll need:
Lollipops - I used Dum Dums
Kleenex, cut into squares
Black yarn or ribbon
Black marker

What you'll do:
Place kleenex over lollipop and tie yarn
Using your marker, make a little face on the ghost

Finito!