Once Upon A Dream

We took our first trip back to Staten Island to see everyone and their new apartments....yes!
Grammy and Grampy have a new apartment, and Aunt Mandy and Uncle Steve have a new apartment. The houses looked great. The girl cousins had so much fun together again....Just look at these pictures....especially the ones of Gillian and Isabella. Just looking at them makes me start to hum that song..."reunited and it feels so good"...Like usual...there was a lot of food, fun and cookies. It also warms my heart to see three football fans coming together for cake...(starting from left to right...Patriots fan, Jets fan, and Giants fan).

Meme and Papa have been here for awhile visiting and helping out with the painting and organizing. They went with us to Dance/Gymnastics on Saturday, and you can see some of what Gabby has been doing in ballet....in the bottom video. We also took her to a music school near our house. She has been interested in playing an instrument for awhile, but she didn't know what she wanted to do. She saw three teachers at the school that let her try three different insturments. She tried the violin with Christian, but she is still a little young for formal violin, and she is tiny. Her arm was tired after a few minutes. She still liked it, though. Then she tried the piano with Mike. She also liked that. Last, she tried the drums with Dave, and it was all over after that. He let her go crazy on his drum set, and she was sold. So...it looks like we will be following in the Carten family tradition by taking up the drums...Grammy Eileen is so cool on the drums.

This is Gillian after she woke up from her nap and I combed her hair...We thought she was looking a lot like Gene Wilder from Willie Wonka.

As you probably remember...Meme and Papa have been here helping us to settle into our new house. Papa was very excited about the Super Bowl because he is a huge Patriots fan. We are posting a few pictures of him before the last 30 seconds of the Super Bowl.

Today, Gabby helped to prime the light switch covers and outlet covers... and in her own words..."Mom, I even gave them two coats". We also fingerpainted, and ate blueberry pie!

We had about an inch of ice last night. Here are some pictures of the girls helping with the ice removal and playing this morning. These are for Daddy!

We went to the mall that is closest to us today....closest because there are a ton of them in every direction up here. We just went to play in the play area. There were a lot of nice kids that played at the area for a long time...and the mom's all got to talk. They also received some mail yesterday from Grammy and Isabella. Gabby kissed the card from Isabella because she wanted to send xoxoxo's her way and some for Grammy, too.

The girls had dance class on Saturday morning, and they got completely worn out. They fell asleep on the way home...or is Gabby faking? The snow was falling and the girls were dying to go out to the park or playground. This was Dave's answer to cabin fever.

The girls were acting crazy with Daddy all day long. They also opened some letters from Aunt Mandy and some Valentine gifts from Isabella. All of Gabby's candy flew onto the floor. It was a total sugar fest....Thanks Aunt Mandy, Aunt Lena, Uncle Tony, and Isabella!

Squishy Sticky Window Decoration Thingys.....

We woke up to some ice and snow this morning...like much of the northeast....
It was actually mostly raining by the time we got outside to shovel and clean off the car. Yesterday...we had a visit from our neighbors, Barry and Carol. They are so nice/friendly...perfect neighbors. They brought Valentine treats over for the girls....stickers and chocolate...our favorite. Here are a couple shots of the girls using their stickers and eating Hershey Kisses! YUM - Thanks, Barry and Carol!

Gabby got a Valentine in the mail today from her penpal....Ally. It was home made. Grammy also sent cards...with stickers and a cookie basket that was so cute. Gillian put all the stickers in her hair, and tried to kiss all the cookies. Thanks so much!

The girls and I had a lot of running around to do today including a "Mom's Time Out" and gymnastics this afternoon, but we did a little baking in between. The girls mixed, baked, decorated, and partially ate their own little heart cakes. It was actually an all day project because we had to fit it in between the other events. Gabby spent a long time on her cake... Gillian barely made it passed the decorative icing part when she had to dig into the cake. Daddy sent flowers....and they were beautiful.

We are almost completely done with our pop art playroom. We created (with help...thanks Amy) some Andy Warhol pop art of Gabby and Gillian to hang in the room.

Grammy spent the night yesterday. We were doing a lot of work, but then we had to take a break to go to the Cheesecake Factory!

We got a Valentine package from Ohio a couple days ago. The girls loved all the goodies inside...take a look at their faces when they saw the lolipops, etc. Thank you Grandpa Mike and Grandma Cathy!!!!....Aunt Lauren, too!

We made a snowman today, but he wouldn't stand up. The snow just wasn't right for packing. It was fun anyway.

Milena, Tony, and Isabella came for the first time to see our new house. They stayed overnight, and we partied all night until 9pm (for the girls). They were all tired and fell right to sleep. We hit the mall early in the day, and we had an Oscar party at night. We really didn't get to see any of the movies that were nominated this year. We usually see them all, but this year...between Dave and I, we saw parts of Ratatouille, Enchanted, and No Country For Old Men, which ended up winning. The girls had fun on the mock red carpet with their celebrity gift bags. The feather boa was fun, but it was too itchy to wear around the neck. So aunt Lena found a way to tie it around the waist like a chicken. Uncle Tony was the big winner this year in the ballot category. He guessed 13 winners correctly...pretty good for not seeing many of the movies. He got to take home his oscar trophy. The next morning was rough after all that partying. We fed the girls breakfast, watched Veggie Tales, did playdough, played Hide and Seek, and ate jello jigglers before lunch. Then it was time for Bella and Gillian to take a nap so Tony and Lena left to go back to Staten Island. Here are the highlights:

The girls' bedrooms are just about finished. Here are the latest pictures. Gillian's is pink and brown.....and Gabby's is lavender.

Gillian

Gabriella

It just doesn't get old with this crew. We got a dumping today, and the girls were loving every minute of it. After we shoveled, climbed all the trees in the yard, and ate snow, the girls practiced the drum homework that Gabby had and made stromboli with Dave.