Valentine's Festivities

This year Valentine's Day seemed to carry on for a week!  Lizard valentine's were prepped for Giada's class. What kid doesn't love a sticky lizard!?

I had Stella work on a special "LOVE" project for Matt & Steph. She is by far the messiest painter I've had the privilege of working with, which is saying a lot considering the last time we painted Gino made his hair red! This was just the start before she did the real damage, good thing she is so cute!

 Always glad that I sign up for Stephanie Moe's Mini Sessions for the year, it forces me to take pictures all year with the kiddos.  As I have mentioned before, Giada has mastered that fake smile and encourages Gino to participate so they can go get ice cream! I'm always down with a kid bribe! This time it was raining so we had some fun outside with umbrella's too.  Gino almost blew away!

Last but not least, Gino's new favorite grin!

 

On actual Valentine's Day we went to visit all the grandparents and great grandparents to bring them some Valentine's treats. The kids even did some painting at Grandma Carols, good times at her new digs.

We also took some cousin pictures with Bre! (BW Photography). Nonni & Nana love the pics with all their grand kids in them. Of course we all look like a circus act trying to get them all to even look in the direction of the camera! If everyone is looking, it is considered a success!

 

I told Gino to "freeze" meaning stay still and quit moving his body around for 2 seconds so we could get a picture...and this is what we got - lol!

While we were waiting for everyone to get there Gino brought the chair over and did some lounging, while Giada took a momentary break from trying to get candy out of the jar next to her.

We took the kids to Graeagle for a couple of much needed days to do nothing! We made some delicious dinners, watched movies, and played. No snow yet, odd for this time of year. Last year we were snow shoeing!

The bear had his winter coat (tarp) on so tight we couldn't even see his face! 

I'm always happy as long as I see some deer. This time we saw a group of about 9! 

Lounging with dad in our new matching Graeagle PJs

Happy 5th Birthday Giada!

Happy Birthday Giada! Our little girl turned 5 and couldn't have been more excited.  We started the day off with a new bike, then my sou chefs helped bake our traditional rainbow cake.

 

 Her buddies Seve and Stella were going to be out of town on her birthday, so they took her for an after school ice cream treat. She loved it, and was so excited to start celebrating her birthday early.

 School Birthday Celebration

Shocking as it is to most people, our kids have not been to Disneyland. We had decided to not have a party for Giada and head down south to the big D.  Well, the timing of that changed, so we had a little celebration with a few family friends at every little girls favorite place - The Serpentarium! It was very fun for our reptile lover. They brought out about 10 animals for the kids to hold/touch, and then did some LIVE feedings to a couple big lizards upstairs. DID NOT know about the live feeding. It was quite the experience for all!

Best we could get, that wiggle worm Gino doesn't sit still!

 

 The grand finale!
 

 Make a wish!!

Kim Duke with Old Vine Bakeshop did a fantastic job with my snake request.
As always thank you Kim!

 Giada loves seafood. She would eat shrimp every day if she could. We thought she would love a crab feed, so we took her on a special date the other night.  It was a hit, just takes me longer to eat since I am shelling crab for two! Love that she will try most anything. Mike and I are pretty adventurous eaters in general, and so glad the kids are picky!!

 Things Giada is currently loving, stats and Giadaisms
- Height...tall gitl 45.25 in (92 percentile)
- Drawing...and she is good! Very detailed. A favorite to draw lately is people, flowers, rainbows, trees.
- Loves puzzles
- Loves playing outside and getting wet and dirty. Drawing in dirt, jumping in puddles
- Loves gathering things for her "collections" feathers, rocks, etc, then she wants to keep them all :-)
- Writing letters and words (mom, dad, gino, giada, pops, nana) She said to me the other day."Look at all these letters, do you think I am ready for Kindergarten?"
- Enjoys school and wishes it was every day
-"Reading" stories to her brother
- Still needs and takes a nap if we are driving somewhere. If there is no nap, there can be some rough periods in the afternoon, then she gets a second wind and stays up way too late
- Enjoying gymnastics and the new class now that she is 5. She gets to go out on the big floor, and is very proud of her almost cartwheels, & back bends.
-Soccer and tball starting soon.
- "those pants with this night gown, you've got to be kidding me"  I'm think uniforms for school will be a good thing, then this opinionated girl will only get to choose her pjs and weekend outfits!
- "Gino come get your pizza or I'm going to throw it away....she smiles....That always gets him"
-"Ill save my money for Dylan so he can take it to Disneyland since I never get to go"
-" I need privacy so I can talk to god"