The Big Time

Sophia had a very important moment at the pool last week...she went down the slide!! YAY, Sophia! The thing about the slide is that you have to be able to swim from the bottom of the slide to the rope and although Sophia did try a few times last year, the lifeguards always told her she wasn't ready. Well after her swimming has made major strides of late, she tried the slide again and was successful! She was beyond excited and went down the slide for about 30 minutes straight! Tonight we were at the pool again with her friends and she was so proud to show them that she could do it too!

A Day on the Plaza

The kids enjoyed some upscale mac and cheese and fries for lunch. I was more than happy to eat the leftovers that included Gruyere and brie! Yummy!

Mmmmm, sprinkle cupcake for Sophia!

nothing but chocolate for The Dude

Sophia loves to take pictures (wonder where she got that from?!) and decided to take a picture of my "new hair" (which looks mostly like my old hair but whatever). I thought this pic was actually pretty good, but then she took this one too.............................

Really, Sophia?!

I decided it might be fun to have a fancy day last week. I had to get my hair cut so I recruited mom and the kids to come along and enjoy a day on the Country Club Plaza, a rather poshy sort of stores of eateries. Sophia enjoyed looking around the salon pre-haircut and picking out some nail polishes, etc. Then mom took them to a fabulous local toy store, they put pennies in various fountains and ended up picking out essentials for their dream bedrooms with all the goodies at Pottery Barn Kids. Then we stopped for lunch at one of my favorite Plaza places, The Classic Cup, and finished off our afternoon with a cupcake from a shop that just moved into the neighborhood. The cupcakes were okay, the frosting was the best part, the cake is only so-so. We were all hot and exhausted by the time to go home, but it was a fun change of pace to our regular routine...next time though, I'm thinking it should be cooler weather!

Blueberry Picking

The usuals included Jodie, Emma, Isabelle, Julie, Massimo, and Luca and newcomers to our bunch were Carrie and her son, Anthony, as well as Jane and her boys, Alex and Eli. Lisa, not pictured, joined us late, after she dropped off Isaac at school so she could pick in peace! Love it!


Sophia already looks pained here, Alex may have a long road ahead of him! ;) She and Alex have quite a relationship going. We are friends with their family from church and they usually sit very near us. We have found Alex and Sophia smooching away over the pew during the middle of service! LOL!

Emma and Sophia get right down to it!

Leo picked more green ones than blue ones, but he was all into it!

here he gets serious with the bucket!

look, Mom, I found one!

Sophia and Isabelle gave up on picking and just skipped through the bushes instead.

Somebody else got tired of picking too

Time for the train ride! Why walk through the fields when you can be pulled by a tractor!

Even though I got some cute pics, this was certainly our worst year for blueberry picking to date. There were no berries. Literally. The patch we pick has many different patches that they open and close each day according to ripeness, etc. They sent us to the furthest possible patch and there were no ripe berries. I'm sure there were some at 7 in the morning b/c we sure did some die hards walking past us with buckets and buckets, but by the time we got there everything was green. Leo managed to find quite a few ripe ones on the ground. I got probably 50 berries or so on my own, Sophia probably got between 20-30 but managed to eat all of them before we even left the picking aisle. Pathetic. I figured it was fine and I'd just go ahead and purchase some of the "we-pick" berries (as opposed to the "u-pick" variety you get yourself) but they were completely out of those as well. Jodie happily dumped her bag into mine and I ended up with about a cup and half. MUCH less than the 2 cups I needed to make the cookies I desired or the 4 cups I wanted to try making a pie this year. Boooo! It was really too bad, but at least the kids had fun. I suppose I can buy store bought berries to make my pie, I mean they are in season, but there's just something about making a pie from berries you picked yourself. And this would have been my inaugural pie so should I slum it with grocery store berries, I think not.

Driveway Derby

go, Speed Racer!
vroom, vroom!

Look, Ma...no feet!!

Trevor just hanging out!

Sophia rockin' the pedal power!

Our neighbor, Trevor, has a motorized 4-Wheeler that he loves to share with Leo and Sophia, and they can't be happier about it! At least once a week or so Jason and Trevor stop by to lay tracks in the driveway. All of the kids have crazy fast (or slow, depending on which vehicle you're riding!) fun. Leo is such a boy...he is absolutely crazy about anything that goes Vroom, Vroom! The other day as we were crossing the street he had to go and investigate a motorcycle that was stopped at the red light. The next day we were going to the park and there was a delivery truck pulled up the pool that was adjacent to the park and we had to trek all the way over there and look at that too! His favorite books right now are his car and truck books...he's "all boy" as they say!

Picnic Dinner

We decided to have a dinner play date last week with our friends. We love Franklin Park so we all met there and played and ate and played some more!

Divine Intervention

This is the "Sophia" plant. Sophia planted this plant for Grandma B. on Mother's Day of 2009. It started out in a small, hand painted pot with just some dirt and seeds. I think it may have had a tiny sprout (we started planting a little late) when we gave it to her. Grandma took such care of it and had it by her window and watered it every day. It had 2 long stalks with just a few flowers on them. She was so proud of it and each time we visited she and Sophia would inspect it and encourage it to keep growing. After she passed, Sue took the plant home and repotted it. After a few weeks TLC she brought it over so that Sophia could have it and wouldn't you know that it has flourished. It's like a whole new plant! There are so many blooms and more and more each day. There is no way this is possible except by divine gardening, because, let's be real...I'm the girl who killed a cactus. It's so pretty to look at every day and Sophia is so proud. She talks about her plant and Grandma B each time she sees it and that makes me very happy. So, thank you, Grandma, for all that you keep giving us.

Lunch Date

Juan and Sophia had a table for 2!

Sophia was cracking up that the cow was wearing pajamas and sleeping cap! She stalked that poor cow all around the restaurant!

Juan and Andres get their cow cuddles in too!

We wanted to meet Cari, Juan, and Andres at the zoo but the day started out so rainy so we agreed to meet at Chick Fil A for lunch instead. It was a great time, but wouldn't you know it, it dried out and we probably could have gone to the zoo, but oh well! I like the Fil A play ground a little better than McD's right now b/c it's smaller and easier to watch Leo. It's also easier for him to maneuver which is better for me as well. Leo was terrified of the giant cow, which is nothing new, but I really think he was traumatized, poor kid! Hopefully we'll get to the zoo soon!