Carmen's Birthday

Another fun day. Carmen is a beautiful 23!

Abby's Birthday

Abby had a great birthday. She was very excited to get her own camera, play new games, and have friends spend the night.

Sierra Graduated from Speech!!!!

Sierra got a big surprise this week when she went to speech class. Her teacher informed her that she had graduated and no longer had to be in the program!!

Abby Lost Her First Tooth!!!

It took long enough. She didn't want anyone to yank it out, so she just slowly but surely worked on it until it was ready.

Honor Roll

Caleb made the Principal's Honor Roll this semester and this is from the awards ceremony. it is Scout week so that is why he is in uniform.

Presepe

Here, as requested, are pictures of the large wood carved presepe we got in Germany, the windmill from Austria, and the ceramic one from Caltagirone, Sicily.

Unicorn Homicide

Tonight, the rambunctious three year old kept yelling down to us, after she was put to bed, that she loved us. This usually means she is guilty of something, so after a few times, I went upstairs to check out what she was up to. When I arrived upstairs and looked into the bathroom, I realized that I was staring at a crime scene. The shiny, glittering, ivory color pool and the small footprints leading away from it could only be from one thing, a unicorn that bled out on the floor. What other creature bleeds shimmering ivory colored blood I ask you? That's right, only the unicorn. What a tragedy! What a shame! The poor unicorn bled out and then faded away into nothingness. Hopefully it's family doesn't seek revenge.

But being the dutiful law enforcer that I am, I couldn't come to any conclusions without processing the scene. Maybe the little one had only tried to help and that is why she was in the room. The prints could have been from a killer elf no? So I photographed and measured the prints and examined the bottom of her unicorn blood stained feet. But wait, a clue!! The window was open and the box of bath toys had been moved under the window (the window gate is locked shut so no one can fall out) but maybe the elf was able to morph or squeeze through. I looked down and there on the ledge was an empty bottle of.....that's right...nail polish.

What a relief! There's no need to watch our backs for avenging unicorn ninjas. It was just a toddler pedicure gone horribly wrong!

Snoopy Train

By popular demand, here is a video of my new Snoopy train, a great addition around the tree.

Decorating the Tree

Florence

Here are some pictures from the trip Carmen and I took to Florence. Florence is a great city and we had an amazing time. We spent two days exploring Florence and then drove out to Siena and San Gimigniano. We then drove along the Tuscan countryside at sunset to the birthplace of Leonardo in the town Vinci. We saw works from all of the Ninja Turtles, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. It is a totally different place from Sicily I must admit. We left the kids home with their Aunt Bronwen in our house without running water. Did we feel guilty? Maybe a tiny bit...Nah.

Florence

This was a presepe in a toy shop window in Florence.

Ballet

Here is Ella the Ballerina

Halloween

Here are some pictures of our Halloween festivities, carving pumpkins and decorating cupcakes. We also had our annual Halloween party, but those pictures will have to wait.

Soccer

So we realized we didn't take any pictures of Caleb playing soccer this year. But we did video one of his games so we'll have to send it to ya'll who are interested. Here are some photos of Abby. She was pretty funny this year. Her coach taught them to stand in the corner of the box when they were on defense to get them to stay back and not chase the ball forward. So when the ball came her way, she carefully watched as it went right past here because she had to stand where her coach said. He said to stand her so that's what I'm gonna do darn it!

First Day of School

OK, so I'm a bit slow. Better late than never. Abby started Kindergarten this year and Ella started preschool. No, that does not mean Carmen has more time to herself. Quite on the contrary. Abby was very excited and is having lots of fun. She enjoys the deep plots and multifaceted story lines of Dick and Jane and has officially proclaimed herself, "a reader!"

--------Alpine Slide Garmisch Partenkirchen

The kids were a bit skeptical about the alpine slide until the first ride down. Then they were sold, and six times down was not enough. So sit back, take a Dramamine, and enjoy the ride.

---------------------------Germany Austria

As you can imagine, we have hundreds of pictures from our trip. I've picked about 19. It was very beautiful and we had tons of fun!

---------------------------------Camping on Etna

For my birthday, we went camping up on Mt. Etna. We had a lot of fun even though the Italians thought we were crazy for camping somewhere without bathrooms, showers, and most important, a restaurant. There were a lot of flies in the morning and they like pancake batter! Good times.

------------------------------------------Marcus' Birthday

Fun for all, yummy cherry brownies, and presents. Can you guess which picture we took to gross the kids out?

------------------------------------------------July 4th

For July 4th we went to the beach in Catania. It is a pay beach so the sand is nice and the water is shallow, but it is in the harbor, so there is no marine life and the water is not quite as crystal clear as up the coast. Our good friend Jannelle took these pictures, thanks j. For the exciting fireworks fire later, check my other blog, "Only in Sicily."