2nd stop.....Florence

After Venice, we took a 3 hour bus ride to Florence. Our hotel, once again, was right in the middle of everything and very nice! There was a rooftop bar that overlooked the city and really great rooms. Our only mistake was not closing the window all the way the first night, nd it felt like Bryan and I moved our mattress to the middle of the street it was so loud! Luckily, we figured it out for the next two nights!

Everything was beautiful and the shopping was great!

We (okay, I) wanted to get our picture drawn. It does not look a THING like us at all. In fact the picture of me looks very similar to the sample he has in the background. And when it was Bryan's turn, I had to walk away a few times b/c I was giggling so much. Oh well-

The first night there, we were walking around while our guide was telling us different things about the city. All of a sudden, he quickly said, "Oh, I'm sure no one cares, but if you do, Snooki from MTV is down there." My ears perked up and I went running to get a picture. Apparently, the cast from Jersery Shore had to get jobs so they were trying to get people to come into the pizza place where they working. Really, no one in Florence cared about them at all. They were walking around with a camera man filming and no one following them.....still fun to see Snooki!

One morning we went to an indoor food market and outdoor shopping market. We did a lot of shopping and bought fresh meat and cheese and had lunch on the stairs of the Medici Chapel.

view from the Uffizi Gallery

And last but not least from Florence........ Bryan made me do this (and if you know my hubby- you know it's true!) We must have been loosing interest in all the art and decided to act like teenagers~! Hehehehe

Ciao Bella!

For the past two weeks we have been in ITALY!!!!! Venice, Florence, Cortona, and Rome. It was the trip of a lifetime (thanks mom and dad) and we loved EVERY.SINGLE. SECOND of the trip. My dad's childhood friends came too, and the eight of us had a blast. We went on a tour group of 27 people and our guide, Russ. Everyone in the group got along and really became friends by the end of the two weeks. Russ was a FANTASTIC guide and made the trip stress free for everyone. He had every hotel, transportation, and tour lined up for us in every city. There was not one bad thing to say about the trip.

I was an absolute nervous wreck about leaving the girls for 2 weeks. I finally had a chance to calm down on the 9 hour flight over! But they had a wonderful time with their Mimi and Granddaddy- so much fun they didn't want to talk to us when we called!!! Thank you so much Mimi and Grandaddy...the girls are still talking about their 'vacation' with you!

We flew into Venice and our first adventure we taking a water taxi to our hotel! We stayed in a little family owned hotel that was in the middle of the everything. It was perfect.

Awwwwww!

We began our trip Gondola rides, tours, drinking wine in St. Mark's square.

The food was GREAT! Bryan and I have a little Italy belly to prove it!

Can you even believe this is real!?

Pigeons were everywhere and kinda gross. They feed them corn with birth control in them so they can't reproduce as much!

The view from the Bell Tower in the square

The people their own boats or gondolas instead of cars! How cool would that be!

More pics of Florence, Cortona and Rome to come!

FUN FUN FUN!!!

This weekend we headed to Ross Bridge for a 'staycation'! We had THE BEST TIME! I wasn't sure how Emory was going to do in the water since she won't move a muscle in our pool at home (ya know- the fancy blow up pool in the backyard!)
Christian was so excited and couldn't stand waiting on us to get settled at our chairs. It reminded me of when I was little and would beg my parents to hurry up!

I was COMPLETELY wrong about little Emory. She was swimming all over the place and couldn't wait to go down the slide. She was squealing at the top of her lungs and laughing so hard her face was turning red!

Can you see the excitement on her face!

She even went down with CC a few times and ended up in a water slide train a few times! I can't believe I was letting my 2 year old go down with the big girls!

We went back to the pool today before we left, and Emory wanted to go down by herself (screaming "ME DO IT" over and over- the girl knows what she wants and won't stop until she gets it- I think she has caught on that if she is in public mommy and daddy might let her get away with more so we don't cause a big scene!), so I walked up with her and got her situated and Bryan was waiting at the bottom to catch her. As soon as she started going I could tell her it not going to end well! She starting spinning around and around, then was head first at the end. As it was happening I yelled to Bryan "This isn't good!". All was fine after a few minutes of crying, but it did bring an end to her water sliding!

No one got much sleep b/c of this little one. She feel asleep fine but then woke up and kept staring at us. We brought her in the bed with us and she would not fall asleep. FINALLY around midnight she fell asleep and they both woke up at 6:30. So we hit the ground running with the breakfast buffet and swimming by 8:30! I guess Emory was tired from the night before b/c around 11:00, she went to the chairs -found her ishy and paci- then looked at Bryan and said 'Night Night" So, we took the hint and headed up to the room to check out.

We had so much fun on our 24 hour 'staycation'. We'll definitely do it again this summer!

After we all napped, we played outside. Bryan was watering the new plants in our backyard and all of a sudden we looked up to find this!!! We couldn't stop laughing!

they played in the sprinkler for over an hour! Christian told me she wants to do it every day of summer! So, now we know what we will do on our memorial day Monday and the rest of summer!

Movin' On Up!!!

Yet another change!!!

Emory had her 'moving up' ceremony and end-of-the-year party today!

Someone's happy to party! I'm surprised she still fits in these table chairs!

She was so excited to have her Daddy there! (I couldn't make it since it was my students last day of school! I cried (surprise, surprise!!) at the end of my day with my students....I sure did love to grow my little friends. One of my friends who I spent most of my day with actually cried too when I was saying bye, which made me loose it....not sure what I'm going to do when I'm not having conversations about various tree/plants and I don't hear "Congleton" 2,000 in one day!)

I'm in TODDLER 2!!!!

Emory loves all of her friends! Such a sweet group of little kids

Daddy said she was such a big girl during the ceremony. She sat in the chair the whole time clapping whenever her friends got their diploma. Christian was in the video they showed interviewing the younger kids, and Emory got so excited!

Here is their new classroom:) Looks like they are on their way to sitting quietly in a circle!

Toddler 2 HERE WE COME (where we begin potty training and leaving our paci at home!)!!!!!!

Oh Goodness!

Christian had her dance recital on Saturday, so we put our hair in a bun, put on our make up (including mascara- check out those eye lashes!), and finally got wear our mesh, see-through cat costume (eek!!!)

The music matched the costumes, but Christian had a FANTASTIC time being on stage shaking her tail! GO CHRISTIAN!

(is this part of the dance??)

CC with her friends from her dance class.

We were so proud of her. Minus the costume this year, we really have loved her little dance class and she has learned a lot.

She had a lot of fans come watch her, and it would have been more if she hadn't been on earlier than expected and if the routine was longer than 1 minute! We literally sat down about 30 seconds before she was on stage....sorry Aunt Paige! (she thinks she were there and that's all that counts:):) and luckily she showed you her routine in the restaurant parking lot!!

Emory was there and so proud of her sissy. For the 2 minutes that we sat down, she was really into it and when she recognized the costume she was yelling "Sissy"

(Still having a hard time with Christian being finished with her preschool. She will go until the 31st, when she is officially no longer going.....I don't want her to grow up!)

Graduation Day

HAPPY GRADUATION DAY! Christian is officially a kindergartener! And I somehow survived my little girl's graduation day without falling completely to pieces (I just got it out of my system the night before...:):). It was such a sweet ceremony. The children sang songs, they got a dipolma, and they played a video with baby pictures and activities from the school year. We were all so proud of our graduate!

Park day and an emotional mama

Christian had her end of the year party at the park last week! It was a perfect day for a party and picnic. We had so much fun, but it made me realize that CC only has 2 more weeks in 4K, then she is going to 'BIG' school.

Her BFF, Lydia. They just love each other and play so well together.

After the party, we headed to my school where she will be going for kindergarten. We met her teacher and she absolutely loved her. She walked around the school like she owned the place and loved all the big kids telling her she was cute!

Then it hit me......my little baby is growing up! I cried all night long (and crying now) about her going to big school. The next day at school, I cried EVERY SINGLE TIME someone brought up seeing Christian at school the day before. I'm not sure I am going to be able to handle this transition! Honestly, it makes me want to cry everytime I think about it.
Her graduation is Thursday, and I know I am going to be an absolute basket case.

So, instead of thinking about my little one growing up (and all the things I have to do in the next few weeks), I have been sewing. In the past couple of weeks, I have made 4 bathing suits, 3 dresses, 1 skirt, 2 bloomers, and a few appliqued shirts- nothing like avoiding things, huh?!

We blew up our pool in the backyard and tried out the girls new bathing suits I made- just to make sure they didn't fall apart while they were swimming!

EMory wasn't too sure of the water, and the fact that she kept slipping didn't help!

She finally decided it was fun to jsut stand while sissy ran around her!

"WHEW- it's cold!

They loved it and the bathing suits didn't fall apart! But I'm still crying about CC going to kindergarten....maybe I should home school!