SOCCER SOCCER SOCCER

As you all know Marcelo plays, and loves, soccer.  We are in full swing of his fall outdoor season and he’s loving it.  As expected.  So we signed him up for an indoor (in the winter)/outdoor (in the summer) league (which his dad is coaching).  He’s doing so well and we’re so very proud of him. We’re hoping for great things to come!

What we didn’t expect though is that Sofiya has become OBSESSED with soccer.  She talks about it ALL the time.  Is AWAYS kicking a soccer ball (or any ball) around the house and is ALWAYS yelling at someone because they will not kick the ball with her.  She has so much fun if I (or Marcelo, Cody or daddy) plays an indoor game with her in the living room.  We set up little goal areas and we really do play a little game of soccer.  She totally gets the concept and she dribbles amazingly and she has a super hard, super accurate kick!!  We’re really anxious to see how she does once she’s able to play on a team next fall.  And she super anxious to start.  Kalia likes to kick the ball for a bit but tires of it pretty quickly though.  She’s such a girl that it doesn’t surprise me one bit. lol.

Our soccer star..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our future soccer star..

 

Sofiya’s preferred method of moving the ball.

 

Kalia’s preferred method of moving the ball.  ;)

OCTOBERFEST

For the first time since we’ve lived here (5 years) we decided to go to the Octoberfest celebration that the retirement community in our area holds every year.  We didn’t ever think much of it.  Thought there probably wasn’t much to see or do so we never went.  But this year we had nothing better to do so we headed off down the road.  Oh my gosh were we surprised!  It was AWESOME!  It was held behind the buildings and it was huge and best of all… EVERYTHING was FREE!  All kids got free food (although we didn’t get there in time to get it so we’ll know for next year). They offered free pony rides, blow up castle jumps, games, crafts, pumpkins to paint, caricatures, and a petting zoo.  We also all went on a carriage ride with the big budweiser type horses.  And I couldn’t believe that they had all you can drink beer for $5!!  I’m a lightweight so I only had a couple but had we gotten there earlier, who knows..  Anyway.. they also had awesome fireworks that went on to music and lasted a really long time.  Oh and they passed out those light up necklaces for all the kids.  The girls and Marcelo danced around to the music and just had a great time watching the fireworks.  What a great day!

 

I had to drag Kalia out of there kicking and screaming!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cody being goofy..

BRITTANI’S BIRTHDAY

We also had another birthday recently.  My daughter Brittani turned 17 at the end of September!!  One more year and she will be an adult and a senior in high school!  I am already dreading it so much.  I want her to always be my little girl. 

I think she knows what it is..

 

Someone's a little excited about her new coach purse that her boyfriend Cody gave her.

 

Brittani and her new “official” penguins jersey.  She was sooo excited. lol

 

We didn’t have a “1” but we had a question mark for some reason lol.

BABIES TURNED TODDLERS

I’m lame.  I know.  I just have such a hard time keeping up with blogging.  I’m trying to get better.  I promise.  ;)

Anyway. I know I’m not done with my Florida updates yet but I have to interrupt and post about the twins 3rd BIRTHDAY!  I seriously can’t believe they are 3 already.  Where did the time go?

On their actual birthday I made them homemade waffles, we went to a movie, ate lots of popcorn and candy, had chili dogs and ended the day unwrapping a couple presents and had homemade cupcakes!

 

 

 

 

 

Kalia

 

Sofiya

 

The next day we had their party.  Well I say party loosely.  We just had my parents and my grandmother (their great grandmother) over for dinner and cake.  The girls had a great time and got lots of cool presents.  They have grown so much.  I actually had them at the doctor yesterday for their 3 year appt and Kalia weighs 25 lbs and is 35 1/4 inches tall.  Sofiya is 27 lbs and 34 1/4 inches tall.  They are both still barely on the curve but are growing good so he is not concerned.  :)

 

 

 

 

Kalia taking care of her new babies.

 

Getting ready to blow out the candles on their homemade dora (peanut butter) and diego (devil’s food) cakes.

FLORIDA – PART 2

The day after we arrived in Orlando, we woke up early and went to IHOP (there wasn’t one ever around here at the time and so it was a big treat).

The twins after a big IHOP breakfast

 

Then it was off to find something to do.  We weren’t sure what, but we had decided we didn’t want to do the parks or the beach the day after all that driving.  We found a little area outside of Universal Studios that had a few rides.  One was a HUGE swing ride that was so high I would have NEVER gotten on it.  But Brittani and Cody wanted to so off they went.

 

 

 

After that we stumbled upon some alligators and the girls LOVED them.  They seriously wouldn’t let us leave! 

 

 

 

After we DRUG them away from the alligators, we headed home for a quick dip and a little sun tanning at the community pool. 

 

We then got ready and drove (5 MINUTES) to Downtown Disney.  LOVED DOWNTOWN DISNEY.  It was free to get in and there were tons of little shops and restaurants.  We ate dinner at the T-Rex place (exactly like the Rainforest Cafe’ but with dinosaurs).  The kids ALL LOVED IT!  It was kinda pricey, but well worth it if you have little ones that LOVE dinosaurs like we do!  I must have forgotten the camera because I have NO pictures of this :(   .  But I did get a picture of this cool writing in the sky.  We watched him sky write the entire thing as we drove.  So cool!

LONG TIME NO SEE AND FLORIDA VACATION DAY ONE!

Ok so I know it’s been a VERY LONG TIME since I’ve posted and I could come up with tons of excuses as to why, but just suffice to say that I’ve been a little busy with things as of late.

So what have we been up to?  Well for starters our trip to Florida that we won from the TUESDAY BLOG PARTY (I could NEVER thank the townhome owner enough).  OH MY GOSH did we have a BLAST!!  The townhome was BEUATIFUL and 5 minutes from DISNEY!  I swear it was one of THE BEST vacations I’ve ever been on.  The only thing that would have made it better is if it was longer!  (Isn’t that the way it always is though??)

So anyway.. about our trip.  We decided to drive down because for one, I’m still afraid to fly and for two, it would have been too expensive to take all the kids on a plane.  So it was a long drive from PA but we did it ALL in ONE day.  Sooo much better than taking 2 days from our vacation to be in the car.  All the kids did great!  Even the girls!  Well ok.. the girls did have a few breakdowns but a stop at Wal-mart for a couple Dora videos and all was well again.  :)

 

There were plenty of beautiful views along the way though!

 

My mom and dad (who left a day earlier than us to drive down) arrived at the townhouse about an hour before us and when we finally arrived, we ordered some dinner, then all went to bed.  We were EXHAUSTED!

 

STAY TUNED FOR DAY TWO!!

AND THE WINNER IS.....

'Shaken, not stirred' from Honest to Blog

.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

And a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone

who entered the Tuesday Blog Party!

TUESDAY BLOG PARTY!

From now until May 12th, I am holding this give-away to help benefit the Tuesday Fiona Whitt Foundation.

Tuesday was the beautiful twin daughter of my dear friend Jessica Kate who bravely fought and sadly lost her 8 month battle with stage 4 neuroblastoma in January of this year. My friends and I from Jess' multiples group have decided to put together an annual blog party to help raise funds to fight pediatric cancer, specifically neuroblastoma, as it is the least funded of ALL cancers yet one of the most fatal. :(

I am auctioning off YOUR CHOICE of ONE of these beautiful items!!

Ladies' black PEDIATRIC CANCER AWARENESS shirt (sizes S - XL)

OR

TUESDAY CERAMIC MUG

OR

TUESDAY TRAVEL MUG

All you have to do to enter to win this auction is simply leave me a comment letting me know you are interested in winning one of these awesome items and then, be sure to donate $1 to the Tuesday Fiona Whitt Foundation. You will not be entered into this auction unless you donate the $1.



Also, head on over to the Tuesday Blog Party to see what other fantastic items are being auctioned off by clicking the image below.



There are lots of great auctions going on and all it costs is one dollar to enter each one.

If you would like to make one donation, instead of many individual donations, please feel free to donate however is easiest for you. If you end up donating $10, but only find 5 auctions you are interested in, you can use those additional dollars as additional entries :)

Thank you so much for supporting a great cause and remember to have fun!

Good luck!

FANTASTIC GIVEAWAY

Check out this giveaway for an awesome stroller!
http://3kidsandus.com/ultimate-stroller-giveaway-bumbleride/#comment-16525

Also check out the ste for Bumbleride.. they have really AMAZING strollers!
http://www.bumbleride.com/

BRITTANI’S FIRST VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

Brittani has been playing volleyball for the school since 7th grade, but this year we put her in a league.  She loves it and even though they didn’t do well at the tournament, she still had a great time and got lots of experience. 

    

SUPERBOWL 2009

I’m sure you all know this by now but I’m gonna say it anyway…

THE STEELERS WON THE

SUPERBOWL!!

Anyway.. we didn’t really do anything special.  Jeff had Stephanie over and we made a bunch of appetizers and goodies to eat.  Totally disturbed the neighborhood with our screaming though!