Painting Pumpkins!

A couple Saturdays ago, the kids and I headed out to buy our pumpkins. We were given our first set by my in-laws but made the mistake of leaving them outdoors and within minutes, the squirrels devoured them. The squirrels in our neighborhood are ruthless and so not afraid of anything. Especially loud moms throwing things at them. They just sit there on their hind legs and SMILE at me. Did I mention they were obnoxious?

Ok, enough about the squirrels.

So out we went, all three piled in the car to get our pumpkins. Produce Junction for $2 a pumpkin? Don't mind if I do. Thankyouverymuch.

Home to use some leftover paint from our mudroom beadboard project and the girls grabbed some foam brushes and away we went out back to paint some pumpkins white!

I love the orange pumpkin look myself but we were going to try something new this year and paint them all white, allow paint to dry and then paint a letter on each pumpkin. Now, this is hard. Can you guess what we'll spell out on the pumpkins? 3 letters and has to do with Halloween? Guesses? Bueller... Bueller... Anyone?

That's right! BOO! Cute, right. I saw a picture on Pinterest. Which that phrase "I saw a picture on Pinterest" is how I begin most conversations these days. Not annoying at all.

Someone had A LOT of fun painting. The pumpkin AND her hands.

Really not as messy as I thought it was going to be. Thankfully we were outside and I let them just have fun with it.

White pumpkins. Not going to lie. Kind of just like them being white. But we are going to still do our original plan of painting BOO on them, but the day before Halloween so we can put them outside. AND hopefully keep our obnoxious squirrels away from them!

Stay tuned for our finished project!

whatever makes you comfortable...

how I walked by and saw Olivia reading through a comic boo. that girl is so funny!

11 years ago today...

...I married the love of my life. 3 kids, 12 trips to Italy together, some tears, lots of laughter and always love. Wouldn't change a minute of it either.

 And this bit from our wedding song says it best:
"You are my best friend
And you are where my heart is
And I know at the day's end
I get to come home to you"

De-Cluttering School papers and projects

With a 7 and 5 year old that like to hold onto just about every piece of paper that comes in the door from school, it's suffice to say we've accumulated a lot. They each had an under-the-bed box to collect their papers and just about anything that came in the house from school, went into their boxes. Just having begun 2nd grade and Kindergarten, those bins are way past capacity. The girls' suggestion was to get more bins, but mommy had another thing in mind.

We spent a couple hours on a Saturday morning in their room as a family and emptied the bins, took pictures of favorite crafts and projects, held voting for ones they wanted to keep and tossed out a whole lot. Having the girls do it with us was a huge help and it was nice to get their input rather than have me do it all on my own.

 
We let them have fun, make their mess, search through and rediscover old projects. We oohed and ahhed how far they've come in drawing and penmanship and at the end of it all, there were no tears that things were getting thrown away, both girls enjoyed looking through it all and deciding on their favorites and mommy was happy to not have to buy more bins for the school projects and crafts to come. 

See that little hand? Mario had so much fun crawling around the room with the papers flying everywhere!

The girls actually took turns throwing out their old papers and projects.

We got hundreds of papers and crafts down to one under the bed box! Woohoo!

Fall is in the air!

We had the most wonderful day out of the house today exploring a new-to-the-family town. If you're ever up for a cute main street with tiny shops and restaurants, Doylestown, PA is your place to go. The perfect fall weather this morning only encouraged us more out of the house and into new surroundings. Leaves littered the sidewalks much to our 7 and 5 year old's delight as they crunched them on the walk. A used book store and a casual outdoor lunch topped off our morning adventure to a new town.

My little model. Olivia wanted to be in the picture a lot today.

A yummy lunch at Pag's Pub of brick-oven pizza put smiles on our faces! Olivia said sitting outside and eating pizza made her think of being in Italy. Love that she puts those two together!

And the baby...Well, he was awesome. Happily strolled along, taking it all in and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and fun sites as much as the rest of us.

Afterwards, we visited a couple markets. First stop was Sandy Ridge Farmer's Market. The girls played on their playground, we enjoyed some apple cider donuts and the fresh air.

Mario enjoyed the playground too! 

Daddy and his son

Next stop was an awesome garden store that the girls loved! Mums, holiday decor and pumpkins - oh my! Perfect combo of Fall shopping!

While in the garden store, Sofia picked up a flier for a Fun Fall Day going on at the nearby Market at Delaware Valley College. Who can resist a flier that reads "Mazes, pumpkins and a farmer's market"??? Not us. Off we went on our final stop of our fun-filled fall day!

The girls posed with hay people...

and even a hay pig!

A great day spent with the family and enjoying the season. The chill in the air, pumpkins at every turn and plenty of fun sights for us to take in. Happy Fall!

Reading with Mommy

Seems like we might just have another book lover in the family. Just like the girls, Mario loves to be read to. He also enjoys grabbing at the book and trying to eat it too. But that's ok. He's teething.

Ok, Daddy. Enough with the pictures, let Mommy read.

Porto Cesareo

a few more from our evening stroll through Porto Cesareo...

An evening stroll through Porto Cesareo

No trip to Puglia is complete without our traditional visit to Porto Cesareo. Located about 30 minutes from Mesagne, Porto Cesareo sits right along the Ionian Sea and is the perfect little coastal town. Lots of little shops and restaurants, great views of the sea and just an overall feeling of calm. I love it here.

Mario enjoyed his first trip too!

The girls love peeking over the side looking for creatures, Sofia practices her ballet...

Olivia gets in my net shot

My kiddos!

Love the shadow shots! My little dancers do too.

Had to snap a picture of this bar.

Big smiles for Olivia with that gigantic nutella crepe

Cotton candy for Sofia and Mommy gets a huge smile from her too!

I love mirrored doors! Perfect to capture us all!

Nonna is off buying some fish and the girls go peek at the ones still moving around...

My smiley baby boy!

Nonna Lisa and the grandkids! Love these trips to Porto Cesareo!

I love that the girls enjoy this place as much as I do.