Once Upon A Dream

Ode to my mom:

Thanks for teaching me to grow tomatoes!

PS - What constitutes an Ode anyway?

A couple of bubble blowing mermaids with wedgies (how does that work) showed up in the backyard this morning. They watered the flowers and tomatoes with their tail splashing.

We have another blooming tree in the yard. Just found out that this is a Rose of Sharon. Here are the girls before we went to church.

Here is Gabby's account of what happened next......

"It all started when we went out side and started taking pictures of our body. It was funny, but Gillian didn't want to do it anymore so we went on the swingset and then inside for lunch. The End."

Thanks Gab...I couldn't have said it better. hahaha

Inevitably, this eventually turns into something like....

THIS....

We tried to play inside a little bit before going out....It was so hot...Don't they look sweaty? Not too sweaty to pick flowers though.....Who can resist these two angels?

Gillian is going through a very strong...dress up....princess stage. She has to be dressed up all the time. She used to always pretend that she was a dog or a frog or a leather back sea turtle, but now she is just a princess. She told us all at dinner that Dave is a dog, Gabby is a cow, I am a duck......So I asked her what kind of animal she is and she told us, "I am a princess". It has even gotten so bad that she has to wear this crown to bed. Usually we are pretty clever to hide it well before bedtime, but this night, we were not on the ball. Dave tried to remove it from her head around 10pm. She usually sleeps like a rock, but the second he touched it....she started moaning...."my crown, my crown"... So Dave gave up. Finally around 1am we were able to get it off her head.

Gabby has continued to take her drum classes over the summer. She is doing really well, and she is ready for a drum set. Up until now, she has been using pillows, chairs, and anything else that would work. So we are on the drum hunt....Does anyone know a good choice for a small child.....It doesn't have to be professional grade or even an adult set....HELP!

Our friends....The Payne family...came over to play and have lunch today. Adam works right down the street with Dave, so the dads came over for lunch with us. The girls played all day long and left no stone...or toy unturned. No naps and early bedtime...life is good for mom and dad.

The Olympic torch passed through our house earlier this evening before heading into Beijing. Gabby ran it through our living room first, and Gillian did later....after she licked if for awhile. She thought it was a funky ice cream cone.

We decided to let the girls stay up for a bit to watch the opening ceremonies....and we were glad that we did. They loved it. It was beautiful...and perfect for Gabriella (Drums and glowing drumsticks). The ceremony was amazing!

We lost Dave's grandmother (Nana Nuzza) on Saturday morning. She was 97. She was a beautiful lady.

Gabby was working on some of her drum skills with her teacher during class today, and it was getting pretty silly....I can't believe she actually learns as much as she does. Gillian wasn't with us because she was at home practicing some pretty amazing skills of her own.

Dinner with Aunt Mandy, Uncle Steve, and Grammy...

Our Pizzolo cousins...aunts.... and uncles
xoxoxoxoxo

Crime rates rose almost 100% at our house yesterday. We arrived at the scene of the crime...

The perp left the scene of the crime. She was quickly apprehended, and after a very short hearing, she served a very hard two minute timeout....

As one witness later described the crime...."Mom...she did a bad thing, but at least she made her very first perfect heart".

We spent most of the day cleaning the house and doing odd jobs that needed to be completed. Cleaning is so much more fun when you're dressed in disguise....

Instead of tracing around our bodies...like we usually do. Dave traced the girls' shadows in the driveway, and it turned out much more interesting. Both drawings look like gum drop monsters, but can you tell who is who?

Gabby drew a creature with big teeth...with the sentence..."I'm a going to eat you" to keep the neighbor boy away....He laughed.

We went to the annual Block Party at our church today. There were tons of people. Gillian wanted to go into the dunking tank. Gabby just wanted to bounce in the bouncy house the whole time.

The girls took us to the park today.

The Maddalone clan came over for some fun today. Here are some shots of lunch, the swingset, the bonzai slide, and our artwork.....We ended it all with a bike race. WoooHooo!

Gabby was roller skating and trying to ride her bike without training wheels during Gillian's nap today. She was going about five feet, but would put her feet down...because she was afraid to fall. She wanted to ride so bad. She is going to keep trying. When Dave came home, they practiced some more. Gillian wanted to race on her bike...so Gabby raced her on foot.

We visited Schenectady's Rose Garden in Central Park today. The roses were amazing. We saw every color you could imagine. The girls had to smell them all of course. I am just glad that Gillian didn't try to pick them.

The Music Mobile with Ruth Pelham put on a program near our house today. It was our first time attending one of these shows, but it came highly recommended. The children sing and dance and make musical instruments during every program. Today's instruments were made from paint sticks. All the kids glued sand paper onto the sticks....along with other embellishements to customize their instruments. The kids tapped and rubbed the sticks together to make different sounds to accompany the music. I would never have thought that paint sticks could become so cool.

Our cousin...Bill, turned 30 recently and he graduated from the state police academy in Mass. There was a big bash and a quick trip to Boston last Friday. There was a lot of shenanigans...etc. Mostly it was just great to see Bill so happy, and it was fun to see all the cousins.....

We traveled to St. Marys on Saturday to celebrate Kailey's 8th bday. We are so proud of her. She is starting 2nd grade this week. The girls also got to play with their cousin, Connor. Gillian made a really good cat friend - Oomie. She was absolutely in love with this cat and would not leave him alone.

Meme and Papa gave the girls a Barbie Jeep to ride around their property. It was one of the many highlights of the trip. If the battery was charged....those girls were in the jeep. They also had a sleepover....that resulted in a lot of very tired/crabby ladies.

My family spent a lot of time on this lake while I was growing up, and it was so much fun to take the girls over the weekend. We found a wild blackberry patch and picked as many as we could hold. What they really wanted to do was go swimming. They had to settle for mud pies.

On our way home from meme and papa's house, we stopped at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. The place was incredible. There was so much to see and do. Here are just a few of the highlights:
There was a butterfly pavilion....thousands of butterflies flying all around us. There were many unique musical instruments to play...like lazer harps and pipe organs. There were a few major exhibits......Sesame Street, Clifford, and the Berenstain Bears. There was a mini Wegemans with all the same working features as an actual grocery store...down to the conveyer belts for your cart full of groceries to the receipt that you got after checking out your food. There was so much more...too much to list. The girls were exhausted on the way home.

Sleeping.....Yes.
Baby......Not so much anymore.

These are pictures taken of the girls at approximately the same age. Gabby's were taken early summer of 2005, and Gillian's were taken a few weeks ago. They are wearing the same dress. Amanda took both sets of pictures. Very cute! XOXO thanks Aunt Mandy! If anyone is in the Staten Island, NY area and needs pictures taken...we highly recommend her.

Gabby always wants to buy big canvases at the art store and paint like a real artist. Who are we to crush her dream. Today, she and Gillian each had their own little canvas and acrylics to create whatever they chose. Dave and I held the paint....and for Gillian...(we pointed to the white spots)...They had a blast....and of course we had to hang them. So we put them in our bedroom. Move over Marla Olmstead!

We had dinner at our neighbors house tonight. Barry and Carol are the best neighbors, and we are so happy that they live next door to us. The two kooks in the pictures had a great time eating at someone else's house. They ate lots of food and ran all over the place.