My 365 Project - 74

I have been slacking at the picture a day goal, but I'm going to attempt to get back on track. This is by far my favorite picture from today. Or maybe it's this one...

Sofia's favorite type of picture. The funny face.

Fantastic time today celebrating Sofia's 5th birthday with our families. Love.

Time to get FANCY!

We had a fantastic time this morning for Sofia's Fancy Nancy birthday party with her schoolgirls and their mommies (and daddies) and siblings. 20 friends got together to help celebrate my little girl turning 5 and it was lots of fun from start to finish. Mommy gets a little carried away in the details but it was a lot of fun for me and Sofia and Olivia loved everything so that's ok.

Since it was a Fancy Nancy party of course we had to up the ante and bring a little of our own fancy flair...silver platters, flowers here and there around the house, snacks in cute little white cups served on trays, lots of pretty pink sugar sprinkles for the cupcakes, white little paper doilies to dress up our seats at the table, and of course our guests all dressed to the nines in their fanciest! So much fun!

Cute little cupcake toppers that literally took me a second to make and stick together and our favor bags for the girls. Fun little bags from Target for $1/each filled with bubbles (who doesn't love bubbles!), fancy little bracelets and a baggie of nail polish and toe separator.

And the younger brothers received a bag too just with bubbles.

We had coloring of Fancy Nancy pictures I printed out from online...

a lot of fancy cooking by adorable little fancy dressed girls...

Cutest baby award went to Bennett who loved being with the big kids...

and our activity was to make necklaces. A fun little activity for little fingers and everyone got to take their own creation home.

Time for lunch! Mommies served the guests from trays and the little girls loved their fancy wrapped napkins tied with a pretty pink ribbon. Tea sandwiches, veggie straws in fancy little cups, a snack mix of goldfish and pretzels and a fruit tray.

After lunch we had some more play time while we cleaned the table to get ready for cupcakes. The girls serenaded us on the piano (seriously every kid that comes in our house loves this thing!).

Time to sing to Sofia! She was so cute while her friends sang to her with her shy little smile.

Love this picture. A big GRAZIE to my hubby for staying home today and spending the wonderful morning with Sofia's friends. She loved having her daddy as part of her party and I'm so glad he was there to snap a few pictures for me.

Sofia handed out the favor bags to her guests and after hugs and thank you's, everyone was gone. Such a whirlwind of 3 hours but so worth it. Just goes to show that simple little things (even if a lot of simple little things) add up to lots of fun and huge smiles.

My big 5 year old! Love her so much!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Sofia Mia!

Sofia Vincenza turned 5 today. Where did the last five years go and since when does time move so incredibly fast?! She woke up to a decorated house (prep work for tomorrow's schoolgirl party and then Saturday's family party) which she loved. I never knew how excited my girls could get with a roll of pink crepe paper. Homemade brownies for school snack today was followed by a big surprise for my birthday girl. Daddy met us for a fun-filled afternoon of waiting in a line for a book signing to meet a special person, Giada De Laurentiis.Sofia and I used to watch her cooking shows On Demand and Sofia would actually request a cooking show at times over a cartoon! She loves flipping through my cookbooks, especially Giada's and can point her out in any magazine or online.

It was a surprise up until 30 minutes before we entered the store and when we told her I can't even explain the look on her face. It was a combination of complete happiness, shyness and surprise all at once. She didn't know what she was going to say to her but she did want her to know that it was her birthday.

Giada was very sweet with Sofia which always makes me heart melt when people are nice to my girls. They talked for a few seconds about today being her birthday and turning 5 and then she turned to her daughter and shared it with her too because it was also her daughter's birthday. The girls said happy birthday to one another and then after another minute or two of chatting about cooking, we were off. It was such a fun experience with the girls and for me too since I love her as well.

As Sofia was telling our families later on what she did for her birthday, she definitely mentioned meeting Giada. And made sure to tell them that "I met her for real."

Sofia the photog

I've mentioned before how Sofia likes to take the little point and shoot and snap up pictures around the house. We've begun saving them in their own folder because some are too cute to delete...and share with all of you.

Rest in Peace

Prayers and lots of hugs to my dad. His mom passed away Saturday morning just about a week after her husband, my grandfather and the girls' great-grandfather. It's hard with the loss of one, but with two so close to one another, it's indescribable.

Grateful for the time we were able to spend with her in the past and holding onto the bittersweet thought that now my grandparents have again been reunited. Just after a week of separation, probably the longest they've ever been apart in their 63 years of marriage.

My 365 Project - 73

Happy Spring!

Merry-land

Another fun few days in Maryland with the family this past weekend. Yes, I realize another weekend is almost upon us and I'm just getting around to posting these but it's been crazier than usual around here. Girls were able to hang out with everyone and they were very excited about that. Lots of snuggles, hugs and playtime which is always a good thing. Oh and plenty of mom's incredible home-cooking. Yum! Lots of playtime outdoors since it feels like June around here now which the girls are loving too.

SO, Olivia has a pet squirrel. He comes to visit my mom's bird feeders all the time and Olivia remembers him with each visit to their home. She stands on the chair looking outside, directly into the bird feeder and there he sits and eats away while Olivia tells him stories. It's about the cutest thing ever.

Good times with their Zio's that we don't get to see very often but love it so much when we do!

And then there's Chase. What a cute little man he is and he just loves the girls and the girls love him right back. A very smiley little one-year-old for sure!

The three amigos

Just relaxing in the backyard while the girls run wild. So nice!

Chase Nickolas and Nonno Nicky hanging out. I love this picture!

Both girls now waiting for Mr. Squirrel to come eat. I think this squirrel eats a little too well at my parent's house and that's why he's always around.

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Sofia's new pumped up kicks!

My 365 Project - 71

I know all parents say this about their kids, but I'm just going to put it out there...my kids are pretty cute. Especially when they're in full crazy imagination mode and they come up with the silliest things. After dropping Sofia off at pre-school this morning, I came home to lots of cleaning. Just brushing the surface of the Spring cleaning that awaits me. Thankfully, Olivia is pretty independent and lets me do most of what I need to do. Occasionally, she grabbed a wipe and followed right behind me cleaning up too. God bless her. But then when she got bored with that she went into the other room and just played on her own and I loved listening to her singing to herself or making up stories with her toys. As I peek in one time, she's sitting on the couch with all the toys around her. She has a string from one of our lacing toys and it's dangling onto the carpet from her hand. When I ask her what she's doing she responds "We're on the boat and I'm fishing for fishies." How could I not stop dusting and go give her a big hug and ask her about the fish she caught?

Buon Compleanno Chase!

A very fun long weekend in Maryland being with family and celebrating Chase's 1st Birthday! Seems like just yesterday I was on my way to the hospital to meet my brother's little boy. And here is he 1 already! Love that little face, just wish I got to see it a lot more often than I do.

He was not as interested in the gifts as he was in the cool straw cups that Chaela picked up for each of the kids. A fun yellow straw is the way to go and next year he will get 100 of them! And he tried the cake, not sure what he thought of it but he tried it and was so adorable about it too.

Sofia loved the cupcakes!

Sofia and Olivia with sun face trying to get a picture of all the kids. Pretty tough but they were all so cute in their adorable birthday hats!

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Chase turns 1 AND begins taking steps. What a big boy!

My 365 Project - 69

The three ladies celebrating with family as little man Chase turns 1! Weather couldn't have been more perfect, great day from start to end. Happy Birthday Chase! We love you very much. More pictures to come.

My 365 Project - 68

My little traveling buddies. Since day one they both have been pretty good sleepers in the car on our rides and I love looking back in the rear-view mirror to this sweet little image. Especially when just before this image it's an image of complete chaos. Someone's looking out the other's window, a book fell on the floor and it's the end of the world, the sun is coming in the window (oh no!) or even better one is completely engrossed in something reading or coloring and quiet and then the other starts poking, prodding and completely annoying the other.

I would like to say that I was driving while I took this picture on my phone but I was as safe as possible about it. Sorry Mom. I won't drive and take pictures again.