Touring

 Fear not, we are still deep in training for the tour-de-bridge which is almost upon us. We did some trail training this weekend to see how we fair on uneven and muddy terrain. Turns out, we don't do so well. We don't like to get dirty, We don't like to get wet, We don't like to fall over into a HUGE pothole.

 

After a grueling two miles, we had to stop for some impromptu ice cream from a completely random (and very welcomed) ice cream cart. (we even had/got to order our ices in Spanish-and did pretty well if I do say so myself)

 If you are going to stop for ice cream we suggest the blue kind so that your tongue changes colors.

Also, just because we are concentrating on riding in a straight line and not running over other pedestrians doesn't mean we didn't enjoy the fantastic wildlife that was around us. We stopped every 15 feet or so to navigate around a mudhole (read smallish lake) or to view some animals (frogs, turtles, ducks).

We can't wait to see everyone at the start line soon!

Hey- I Live There

Large machinery has appeared on the scene of our soon-to-be home!
 This week I will be packing up things in the kitchen that we haven't used in the last two weeks.
 And I'll be cleaning out under beds.

Breaking Ground

 Soon to be the home of the Iovino's!

To the right side of the last picture you can see the side of our neighbor and Jimmy's man-crush Jeff's house. The man crush is mutual bizarrely enough.  They are already working out aerating schedules and seeding parties and the contract for C and their son Dylans' wedding.

Our Sand Bucket List

Thank you Miss Brenda for reminding us to make our Sand Bucket List this year... our list is slightly longer than your list-We can't Wait for Summer!

1. Go Bowling
2. Walk the Brooklyn Bridge
3. Sidewalk Chalk with Water Guns
4. Water Balloon Fight
5. Roast Marshmallows
6. Make Popsicles
7. Have a Scavenger Hunt
8. Go to the Zoo
9. Go to the Aquarium
10. Go to the Movies
11. Ride Bikes
12. Paint Something
13. Go to a Mets Game
14. Go to the Library
15. Get a Library Card
16. BBQ
17. Natural History Museum
18. Watch the Sunset
19. Have a Picnic
20. Homemade Pizza
21. Play a Card Game
22. Write a Story
23. Mini-Golf
24. Go to the Beach
25. Make a sandcastle
26. Visit Grandma
27. See GB
28. Breakfast at the Park
29. Visit Grandpa at the Fire Station
30. Mail Something Fun
31. Fly a Kite
32. Make Lemonade
33. Go on a Hike
34. Have Lunch with Daddy at work
35. Catch Lightening Bugs with GB
36. Take a Bath
37. Make Magnets
38. Take Pictures
39. Make Smoothies
40. Paint our Toe Nails
41. Journal
42. See some Fireworks
43. Long Island Children's Museum
44. Learn to make Mazes
45. Visit at least one Aunt
46. Make Milkshakes
47. Get Faces Painted
48. Ride a Train
49. Tie-dye with Kool-aid
50. Family Pictures
51. Have a Craft Day with Friends

Need some help

Quized by a 4 yr old:
What's the opposite of up....
    Right.
What's the opposite of music...
    Right.
What's the opposite of crayon....
     ????
     She's 'not telling' and I have no idea what a reasonable answer to that might be. We are open to any opinions.
Thank you.

Training Hard

Nick and Claire working hard. Training for the Tour-De-Bridge this July! 

We think we may sweep the under 4 category - if it were a race.

 

When you train hard- you crash hard- Nick took a two hour nap through the grocery store after our ride.

Wanna see the kitchen in the Charlotte house?

 

Above is the model so you can see the layout; the pantry and stacked microwave and wall oven are to the left.

mine is slightly different as we extended the island toward where they have a table (since our table will be in that gorgeous sunroom!) We'll have bookshelves on the sides of the island. (I guess I'll have to find some cook books to take up that space) 

 Below are my our choices for cabinets, counter tops and back-splash.

Something bright and airy... and it only took us 2 hours to come to these choices. This was the hardest room to choose because they just didn't have the counter tops that I had in my head at the design center when we went... But that's behind us now.. almost.

We break ground as soon as the per-appraisal is completed in about 2 weeks. :D
Then it's 4.5 months or so till we move and you can come visit!

My Birdie Sings...

Claire and I did a sneaky thing... It involved the post office, felt, googly eyes, tacky glue... let's just say it involved everything wonderful.
It was really hard not to share this right away but since it involved the post office (which isn't exactly speedy) and was a surprise for a few of the people who read this (OK maybe my entire readership) we are typing it right away and posting it poolside.

We made some chickens... Some puffs with eyes and felt beaks and feet.. simple enough for Claire to do herself but just adorable enough to be super exciting.

After we made a few we felt the need to differentiate between boy chickens and girl chickens. Felt bows are difficult.

Three tries later we had one that was acceptable to the chicken-supervisor who was very specific about how chicken bows should look. One of the rejected bows looked like a super mask so then we had a super chicken and from there they all took on their own personality...

Turns out dressing chickens up is a lot of fun!

After making them all I felt like Jillian Jiggs, it was difficult to part with our wonderful, marvelous Chickens.

But we had gone to the local CVS and bought huge eggs to put them in... so in they went. We taped them up, added some labels and headed for the post office...

That's right, we mailed huge Easter eggs to friends and family and inside them were chickens!

Ba Ha HA!

I'm tickled just thinking of you all hatching them and being so surprised.

Happy Easter!

Some specifics and things we learned or would do differently next time:
-Use packing tape to seal the egg shut the entire way around the seam.
-Attach your addresses with sticky labels would have been a better idea than taping them on with packing tape.
-It cost us under $2 to send each egg and some went to CA.
-The postal officer didn't blink an eye just mumbled something under her breath at us about 'oh, you're sending them just like this?'... she was not amused, even by the toddler who wore a Easter Bunny mask to deliver the eggs to the post office... bah-hum-bug
-we like sending strange items and now that we see how easy it is watch your mailboxes...

Tired

I thought about posting about the design choices we made for the new house but then I just couldn't do it.. My mind is all a jumble. Jim is away this week and we are joining him for a much needed vacation later next week. Claire looks in this picture just about how I feel right now.. off to bed for me :)

Hopefully more pictures of granite, tile, cabinets, hardware, lighting and much more to come soon.

Moving South

Some of you know and some of you had no way of knowing that we are moving down south. Jim's company has an office down there and we have considered this move for almost a year before requesting it this past fall. Once the wheels started moving it seems like this tiny idea picked up speed rather quickly. And now we are barreling headlong into this great adventure.
We have decided to build a home, because you can build it for the same price you can buy it used- why inherit others problems when you can create problems of your own?
We have a plot of land - something I never had on my list of life accomplishments but it's a pretty good one to add and then cross off.

They will build it in 5 months- making moving day sometime around early to mid August. Next week we will spend 4-6+ hrs picking out all the finishes (door knobs, tile for bathrooms, light fixtures, flooring, windows....) We plan to then spend the next 2 weeks in couples therapy.
When it's all said and done it will look something like this





So stay tuned for all the adventures and inevitable mishaps as we journey into home building.

Birthday Imagination

'Dan Dan No Hand The One Eyed Wonder Horse' is turning 100 today!
Happy Birthday to the most eccentric addition to our house.

In other delightfully imaginary news:

Harvark (C's invisible friend aardvark) and his mother went with us to Charlotte but missed the return flight and had to rent a car. They arrived safely home this morning.

My REALLY Nice Valentines Day

Our little family had a great Valentines Day. We made valentines, and fancy dinner (Beef Wellington in puff pastry with a side of stuffed zucchini) and then we had a candlelit 'fancy' dinner. You know it's fancy because we ate in the dark and we used fancy words like 'Darling' and 'Crudite'.
At school the next day Claire told her teacher all about our fancy dinner and the fancy talking and the candles. They thought that was fabulous. So they prompted Claire to share her fabulous story with Dr. McDonald (the principal).
At the end of the story Dr. McDonald asked Claire what her Daddy got Mommy for Valentines Day. Claire got a coy look on her face and laughed out 'Yoou Knoow!' Ms. Kamen winked at me at the end of telling me the story and said 'I'm glad you had a really nice Valentines'.
Of course Claire meant flowers which is what Claire thinks you HAVE to get someone you love/like for Valentines Day.

And what lovely flowers I got- I did have a really nice Valentines Day.

Valentines

These come with a little kaleidoscope (like the kind in the party favor section at the party store)

Jimmy thinks they are creepy - with more contemplation we decided that a lot of Valentine messages border on creepy.
I think they are cute :)

*C wrote her name on them all and glued the eyes on and picked out what color kaleidoscope each child in her class should get.*

Fabric and Paper and Pizza- Oh My!

Today Mother Nature was featuring winter, giving us one of the coldest days we've had for a while... but still not cold enough to allow our plans of sled riding to come to pass. :( So we spent the day crafting... We started with a trip to Staples to print Claire's Valentines (more on those later maybe) but they couldn't print the 6 pages today so we'll have to come back tomorrow and pick them up and finish them Monday.
Then we went home and broke out the sewing machine to complete this little project:

T-shirt Dolls

A delightful way to use up your used up Tshirts. Simply cut out a doll shape (letting C draw hers first made it even more fun). Sew around the edges. Turn it and color with fabric markers (crayola makes some that are washable till they are heat set). Then cut up the rest of the shirt you didn't use and stuff it inside the doll to fill her out.

N's on the Left- C's on the Right
TA-DA!

After that project wrapped up we cleaned the table and moved on to paper craft - VALENTINES! Claire practiced her penmanship and Nick refined his fine motor skills while we enjoyed making some lovely valentines that will ship out tomorrow for destinations all over the country, and possibly some international ones if we can find the addresses we need.

Then we made green pizza to round out the 'Most Perfect Day EVER!' ~C :)

Tomorrow is just as full of fun and we aren't even there yet. What's on your to do list this weekend?

Nick and Daddy's Big Day Out

Claire and I went shopping last week leaving the boys at home alone.

Once we left they got restless so they got dressed and went out... and got on a bus

and rode till they couldn't ride anymore because of a parade for Chinese New Year

Then they got on a train-

and another train-

and another train

and rode to Grandma's house in Brooklyn

Where they called us to come and get them.

Self Timer

Thank goodness for the self-timer features on my camera. Otherwise I'd only have pictures like this:

oh wait, that last one is my mom. It's pretty much the same because when you have kids you are at the mercy of your husband to take pictures of you and your children; and this is what you get.

p.s. My dad and my husband are wonderful guys who I love very much.
p.s.s. You're welcome mom for posting this awesome picture of you on the internet ;)

Nick's Newest Milestone

"I do it again mommy!"

Can we count 'finally goes down the curly slide all by himself' as a milestone?

Truth

Today we went to a family get together. I took 5 gifts, I received no gifts. I felt great!

Where is Everyone Else?

Today we unwrapped our "First Christmas" book that GB and Pappi sent us last year.. Claire and Nick spent the first three pages saying things like "We know Pappi" and "I love you too!". At the end Claire told me she loves her Pappi 100. (That's high praise, she loves me 20 and Jim anywhere between 8 and 15.)

We have been reading all about that First Christmas, Claire is really enjoying it and asking some really good questions that make me think....

Today while we read about the wise men she counted them in the book... One, Two, Three. 'How come there's only 3?' Because there were 3 kings who came to see Jesus, remember they followed the star from very far away. 'But where was everyone else?'

Knowing what we know now, it is amazing to her that not everyone followed that star to meet Baby Jesus.

This weekend we'll be going to see all the bright lights of Christmas but my little girl reminds me to always remember the first bright light of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Battle

This is what happen when I clean my kitchen. I find the makings of swords... and who can resist that?

Triumph!