Mother's Day, 2010

I love everything about being mom, okay almost everything. I don't think anyone really ever gets used to the smell and sight of vomit. But all of the other things about motherhood is amazing to me. I love the kisses, the hugs, and looking at the world through your children's innocent eyes.

This morning I was woken up by my children screaming throughout the house and making the house a mess- all before 6 on a Sunday morning. But, they were so excited to give me their little hand-made presents that they made at school. Aidan was super cute as he gave me my gifts and wished me a "Happy Birthday"!

Just wanted to share all of the cute gifts Gabriella and Aidan made for me. Not pictured is the yummy breakfast and hand squeezed lemondade. Also not pictured is the lovely mess that they made in the living room when I went upstairs to take a nap (with Aidan)or the lovely scrach Aidan made on my face when I told him to take his nap.

I can't wait for Father's Day!

Spring Training

When we live you in New York people expect that you hang out at all of the major NYC tourist attractions. People assume that you have seen every Broadway show, have gone to the torch of the Statue of Liberty and been inside every skyscrapper. I lived in New York for 18 years and I doubt I did any of those things. We have now lived in Arizona for 9 years and I yet to find time to do anything that makes Arizona unique...until Spring Break. Tony and I have always wanted to take in a Spring Training game and thought that since the weather was amazing (meaning not death yet) we should take advantage of our break and take the kids. Rather than seeing the Diamondbacks, which we can see at a regular season game, we decided to drive a bit farther to take in a White Sox game at the spring training site. What always sounds like a great idea, never really plays out well with the Calabretti children.

We got our tickets an hour before the game, ran home to prep (bag of goodies, drinks, sunscreen and a blanket) and then drove 45 minutes to Glendale. We parked the car and were pleasantly surprised by the golf cart ride from the parking lot to the stadium. Thank goodness or that would have been a very long and heavy ride (holding Aidan). We got some hot dogs and found a great spot on the grass.I was so excited- a great day to spend with the entire family and work on my tan at the same time. We expected to stay for a few hours, but our beautiful children had other intentions. Within the first hour, they ate hotdogs, all the snacks we brought and Aidan managed to spill 2 different bottles of Gatorade on himself. We were able to squeeze another 30 minutes out of them before they started majorily complaining about everything under the sun. So we threw in the towel- packed up and headed back to the parking lot. Thank goodness for that golf cart service again- another free ride back to the parking lot. Of course when I asked the kids if they even enjoyed our little trip they both cheered! So I asked what was their favorite part of the day was and their response was- "THE GOLF CART RIDE".

Girls' Day Out

Gabriella woke up on Friday morning and exclaimed that she was getting her ears pierced on Saturday. News to me! Last time I brought up to Gabi about getting her ears pierced was in October and she totally freaked out on me. So when she decided Saturday was going to be the day, we made sure to take her over to the mall before she changed her mind.

We had a great day planned, just Gabriella and mommy. We were going to go to get Gabi's ear pierced, go to Build-A-Bear and then get lunch. However, if she didn't go through with the ears, we were going to head home. Luckily, we had an AMAZING day! What a big girl I have. Now that she got her ears pierced she has been looking at jewelry in a new light. Only diamonds, and they have to be BIG!

Just Say NO!

The next time your husband comes up with a brillant idea to steam clean the carpets on a Sunday- during an important football game...just say NO! What started off as a great idea of steam cleaning some rooms in our house turned out to be complete chaos. First Tony started with our room since he said it smelled of Towson (he sleeps in the corner of our room on a pillow). Out came our giant bed and dressers. Our mattress was now in Gabi's room and the bedframe was in the hall and the dressers were in the bathroom. While that room "attempted" to dry, Tony took his adventures downstairs. Next came the playroom. Mind you I just reorganized that entire room the week before. Anyone who has tons of toys in the house knows that is not an easy task.So, all of the toys that weren't in the closet came spitting up and landed in the small living room. While that room was drying, Tony made his way to the family room. He disconnected the t.v. and moved all of the furniture into the kithen. The house looked a total disaster area. It is now 5 P.M. on a Sunday night. We couldn't even make dinner in the house. So we quickly gathered up the troops and headed to Chinese (of course) and tried to watch the Cardinals game. We got back home and naturally none of the carpets were dry. We still had to get to the kids in baths and ready for the school the next day. Lets just say it was a rather long night. After putting kids to bed and opening every window for the carpets to dry, we still had to joy of moving all of the furniture back in its place. Next time, we are paying someone.

Enjoy the Silence

Moments like these are golden in our house. My kids truly do love each other, but when they have had enough of each other all hell breaks loose in the house. Normally these precious moments of "love" happen on Gabi's schedule. If she is not in the mood to deal with Aidan she lets everyone know. However, when she is being an awesome big sister she is amazing. With Gabi knowing how to read now and Aidan always wanting to be read to, this was truly a beautiful moment in our house. Maybe because noone was in the "naughty chair" or because Tony and I weren't screaming, but because our kids were showing love for one another. I'm hoping to capture more of the moments on film.

it's a snow day!

We headed up north to Flagstaff with some friends to take the kids sledding. We haven't been in the snow for almost 2 years and figured it was time to find out what the cold felt like again. We left Phoenix at 9 in the morning and the weather report had said it was going to be a high of 70. We were hoping that the snow up north was still there. Nonetheless, we bundled up with layers, tried to find warm clothes and left for our 2 hour car ride. For many miles there was nothing, except catcus and mountains. But little by little, we started seeing some white stuff on the highway. By the time we reached Flagstaff we definitely knew we had come to the right place. The town was covered with white stuff from a storm the week earlier.
We had a great time sledding down all the different hills, having snowball fights and building snowmen. We slipped on the ice a few times, lost one mitten and crashed into a few incident bystanders. We had a great day, however, I really missed the blazing Phoenix sun.

Jews on Christmas Eve

Ever wonder what Jews do on Christmas Eve? The answer is not much. We decided to make our own yearly tradition of going to the drive-in movies. Last summer I attempted to take Aidan to the real movie theaters, but it was too hard and long for him to sit. We figured we would give the drive-in a try instead so we could actually see a first run movie together as a family. Normally, either Tony and I take Gabi while the other stays home with Aidan. This time, we were going to go together and if Aidan needed to talk (or scream) or even needed to get out of the car we could do that.We got the kids in the jammies, got some pizza and then headed to Scottsdale to watch the Princess and the Frog. There were only 6 other cars watching at our screen. It was great! The best part of the entire experience (according to the kids) was that Gabi and Aidan got to sit up front in the driver's and passenger seats without car seats! Have no worries, on Christmas Day we went to the Chinese Buffet and finished celebrating Christmas watching a Christmas Story and Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas.