Rewind

It's time to play a little catch up. I didn't blog about anything that happened in March and as I was looking at our pictures I realized there were some things that went on. :) So here's the scoop.

Animal in the house

One morning while I was eating breakfast I heard this strange noise from the laundry room area. It sounded like an animal of some sort so Udine's mom and I carefully made are way to that area. Sure enough! An animal had come in the hole from the house to the dryer!! Our part was broken on the outside, so it was just a wide hole any small animal could get in. At first we didn't know what animal, but were finally able to figure out it was a bird. We heard it chirping and struggling to get out. It freaked me out! I called Udine to tell him about it, and had I been there alone, I would have left the bird there until Udine got home to take care of it. But Udine told me to give the phone to his mom and sure enough, she was able to get the bird unstuck and out. It was quite the ordeal. Those kinds of things freak me out!!

This is the hole the bird flew in. It looks like it had been coming for a while because there were lots of seeds in here and in the tube.

Udine's mom trying to find where in the tube it is.

Acting
Diego took some acting classes and put on a couple small skits for the parents and families. He absolutely loved it! We have always wondered what it is that Diego would just love to do and we just might have found it. He was great. The first skit was a narrative play, so there was no talking, just the narrator (teacher). Diego was the main character in this and did awesome. He just has such good facial expressions, it cracks me up. He really did do good. The second skit was one with 3 other boys and they each had speaking parts. He did great in this also. It was a little hard to hear him, but it was hard to hear all of them except one in the group, so I'm sure that will come with experience. It was fun to watch him. I think I am so amazed because that is something that scares me to death. Just the thought of being infront of people puts me in a panic, so I think it's fun to watch him and see him enjoy it. I wish I were more like that.

This was the narrative skit. The pictures didn't really turn out, so I don't have many.
The boys in black were in his skit, one is missing.
Andrew is in our neighborhood and I think they were both pleasantly surprised to see eachother there on the first day. It always makes it a little easier when you know someone. Andrew is a couple years older, so they don't really hang out or anything, but they both knew who the other was, so they had a nice familiar person to be with. I was glad.

Abuelita

Udine's mom came to visit for a few weeks. It has been a long time since she has been here. She had never even met Luca or Mia, so it was nice to have her here and have the kids get to know her. The older boys loved the extra attention. The younger two were a little unsure...but started to warm up to her by the time it was time for her to go home. Why does it always happen that way? :) The first week she was here she cooked all the dinners. Udine was in heaven; he misses the food. I have to admit, I loved having her cook! It gave me more time to get things done, play with the kids, etc. I wish I could hire a cook! Wouldn't that be nice. :) The whole time she was here, someone seemed to be sick. I felt bad, even she got sick. :( It was a nice visit.

Award

Diego received a "Sense of Accomplishment" award at school. The criteria for this award was to be able to accomplish something that was difficult for you. His teacher gave it to him because he has so many challenges, but he is still excelling and doing well in school. It is hard for him and he works hard at it, but he doesn't give up and it is paying off. His teacher has told me on more than one occasion how proud she is of him. Way to go Diego! We're proud of you too!

Las Vegas

Udine and I went to Las Vegas for 3 days with no kids! Woohoo! It was wonderful! The weather was beautiful and it was so relaxing! We left on Monday and that night went to go see The Blueman Group. It was very entertaining. The next day we went to the outlet malls and walked around all morning. In the afternoon I went to the pool while Udine finished some essays and studied for the GMAT. Something he hadn't had time for at home because his mom was here and because there are 4 noisy kids around all the time. He said he got more accomplished that afternoon than he did in two weeks at home. :) On Wed we drove back home. It was so nice to be able to talk, or listen to music or whatever we wanted without tears or screams or needs from the backseat. :) We had a great time. It was wonderful to have a break, but we still missed the kids and it was nice to get back home to them. Even if they didn't want to leave their cousins house to come home with us. :)

We failed to take pictures, so this is the best I've got.

We love St. George!

For spring break we went to St. George for a few days. It is always a perfect time to go because I am soo sick of winter by the time April is here, so going to St. George gives me the warmth and sun that I so desperately crave. Plus, the kids just LOVE it there and everyone has fun. It's not too far away so it makes it possible for us to make the trip. I think this is the third year in a row we have gone with the cousins that live here. It is always so much fun. We played racquetball, played at the park, went to the pool, shuffleboard, tennis, the kids collected snail shells, played basketball, played games: Dominion being the popular one this year, the list goes on. It was a wonderful get away and something our family looks forward to every year. I'm so glad we have some family close by and that we are able to take these little trips together. It makes me so happy to see all the cousins playing and having fun together. They are building friendships that will hopefully last the rest of their lives. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Our trip started this year with Alessandro loosing his first tooth on our way there. He was thrilled!!!

We shared a condo with Peter and Amanda's family this year.

We love the beach!

On Friday we spent the day at Sand Hollow and played on the beach. It was just perfect! Peter and Amanda brought a big canopy which worked great for the babies. Matt and Jamie brought wave runners, which were soo much fun!! I haven't been on one since I was 14, I totally forgot how much fun they are! Everybody had a great time on them...even Mia and Luca went for a couple of rides. We had lots of sand toys for entertainment and a fishing pole with a fake fish on it which seemed to provide endless amounts of fun. It was a great day!!

Luca was still a bit unsure at this point

Fun in the sand

Mia didn't like falling in the water

Ready for a ride!

Collecting shells

Snack time!

I don't know why, but I love this picture

We love the pool!!

This was our last day in St. George and we spent some time at the pool. It wasn't as warm as we would like it to be (for the pool), but the kids still had fun. Luca played hard and then wore out pretty quickly. (I think the late nights and no naps were catching up to him). Mia had fun in the water but was definitely more cautious. I didn't take any pictures of the older kids. I don't know why!! :(

We love Custard!!

While we were in St. George we went to eat custard twice! mmm mmm good! Yes, I know, we were only there three days, but come on! It's custard!! :) The first time we went I was planning on sharing with Mia instead of getting her one for herself. Well, once she saw everyone else getting cones for themselves, the fit began!!!! And it didn't stop until it was time to go home. She would rather throw a fit than share one with me. So she got none that night. She spent almost the whole time sitting outside with just me or Udine because she was being so dang loud!! Stubborn girl!!!! But the second time we went, I didn't want to deal with it, so before any tantrums began we got her one of her own and she was very happy. :)

Happy Easter

We had an Easter egg hunt with the cousins at Matt and Jamie's house the day before Easter. The kids always have a good time with this. Mia and Luca got tired pretty quickly and plopped down to check out their loot before they even found all their eggs. The older boys were terrible lookers and took forever to find all of theirs! :)

During the Easter egg hunt there were some juice boxes for the kids to pick up. Mia was so funny when I'd try to put the juice box in her basket.

April Fools!!

April Fools Day is one of the favorites in our house. Udine always has soo much fun pulling pranks on the kids. Last year he did so many on them that they were expecting it this year. Unfortunately we were out of town until the night before April 1st, so we didn't have much up our sleeves. But once we saw they were so excited about it, we pulled some last minute pranks that didn't take much prep time. It was great. The boys tried to get us with using the pranks we did on them last year. They need to learn to be a bit more discrete though. :) For example: Alessandro put paper in my shoes so I couldn't get my feet in. So he brought me my shoes and said "Here mom, put these on" and Diego saw that our toothpaste was red so he put ketchup on our toothbrushes and said "I put toothpaste on your brushes, go brush your teeth." hahaha Not only were they tricks done last year, but the way they presented them cracked me up. I'm sure we'll be in trouble once they're teenagers though. :) Here is a clip of the classic prank that worked wonders on Diego. I laugh everytime I watch it, but I'm not sure if it's because he was taken by surprise or if it's Udine's laugh that busts out the second it happens. hahaha good times.