the birthdays begin...

over the weekend we had another great party at the park, this time celebrate TWO birthdays: elliana turning 4 and ralphy turning 2! we had a great time with wonderful family members, great food, gifts and weather that was not too terribly hot...the kids were perfect and they had a great time...but they were worn out by the time we got home!

elli officially turned 4 on tuesday and had her first day of preschool! all went well and she enjoyed sharing birthday treats with her new friends and teachers...after dinner she opened more presents and ate more treats! we can't believe that she is already four...when she woke up on her birthday, she said, "will you call me 'elliana...birthday girl elliana?'"! i guess now that she's four she's going by her full, grown-up name! ralphy was confused as to why they both got to open presents at the party, but only elli got presents on monday (from grandma & grandpa g & uncle joe) and on tuesday (from gram & papa & us)...he'll have to wait 2 weeks for his fun!

elli dressed up in her dorothy costume from her new wizard of oz dress up trunk

the first day of preschool!

more presents!

we took the first round of birthday pictures at "elli's waterfall"...we'll wait for another cool, overcast day to do "ralphy's rocks" pictures...

i thought i'd better post some pictures from the last month since we'll soon have lots of birthday pictures to share! these two are getting big in a hurry...elli starts preschool next week! i can't believe how fast the time flies...

aunt kate's wedding

we had so much fun taking part in ralph's cousin kate's wedding ("aunt kate" to our kids)...we are so happy for kate and tom as they begin their lives together...they are two amazing people and we're so happy they found each other...

ralph was an usher in the wedding, so i didn't get any pictures during the ceremony (i was busy trying to keep ralphy quiet!)...the rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception were all beautiful and elegant...we had a wonderful time and the kids were so great...my mom was "on call" during the reception because we thought we would let the kids stay at the reception for a little while and then pass them on to my mom & let them spend the night...but they really love a good party - we all stayed until the end of the reception! from the moment elli put her feet on the dance floor, she was spinning and twirling with her new little friend, helena...ralphy danced, too, but was more interested in the 2nd band that played (tom's favorite band, the vulgar boatmen)...he stood right in front of the band and watched for quite a long time...it was a great time...

splishin' & splashin'

that might possibly be the longest slide show ever, but it's been awhile!
we went to my mom & dad's farm at the beginning of july...as you can tell from the pictures, we spent a lot of time on the tractor and in the creek...during one of our wagon rides, elli and i hung our heads off the back of the wagon and pretended to be laura and mary ingalls in our covered wagon going across the country...we played in the creek and found lots of rocks to bring home...

about 3 weeks before our weekend at the farm, one of the hens at my mom and dad's (the white one that elli calls "spirit") started sitting on her eggs (this was the first time this had happened)...a couple of days later, "red" started laying AND sitting in the SAME BOX as spirit...so the two continued to incubate (together) about 10 eggs (spirit's were white, red's were brown)...
so...21 days later (july 5th) they were due to hatch...this was the weekend we planned to be at the farm...so...while we were at the farm, the first chicks hatched...over the next two days, a few more hatched, giving the two proud mama's 6 chicks to share...it's the craziest thing...though they seem to only be sleeping under spirit now, they were all huddled up together for quite awhile...and the chicks still stay close to both hens...during the hatching process, we got to let the kids hear one of the chicks peeping from inside an egg...and then they got to see it hatch...ralphy still wants to listen to every egg he sees!

so..since then, we've done some caving (the tame kind - not the extreme kind that ralph and i did in colorado long ago...), we've relaxed poolside at schmidts' and at ralph's parents' subdivision pool (elli is getting really brave in the water and ralphy is trying to keep up), we've played in the creek (ralphy really likes crawdads!) and hung out "down by the river" (i can't tell you how much sand we bring home each time)...

summer is so wonderful!

God Bless America

we had a great time at the park celebrating the Fourth of July...

the kids love to stay out late, which we've done a lot this summer! ralphy has become quite fond of rootbeer, which we let the kids have on very special occasions, like trips to the river or nights with a campfire...after the grandparents went home, we stayed a little longer because elli wanted to dance on the street in front of the bandstand...

at one point the band announced that they would need a couple of ladies to help them with the next song (mustang sally)...elli said, "i'm going up there...are you coming, mama?" i said, "noooo..." and she said, "i'm going!" and she certainly did, without a backwards glance towards me or ralph...she stood front and center for the entire song, looking to the band members for "her cue"...the sax player took care of her and held his microphone down for her every time they sang "RIDE, SALLY, RIDE!"
she was in heaven...she didn't move her feet at all because she was so focused on singing her part...on the way home she told us she wants to be a singer when she gets big...she said she'll be "a veterinarian in the day and a singer in the night!"

after our big Fourth of July, we woke up the next morning to go to my parents' farm/cabin 2 hours away...we took great pictures of our time there...i'll post those next time!

the kids: in action!

here's a video of ralphy doing his favorite thing: swinging a bat!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

and here's elli doing her favorite thing: singing "All American Girl" by Carrie Underwood (for a long time elli thought it was called "Tall American Girl!")

Untitled from Jennifer Gianino on Vimeo.

summer days

The Race for the Cure...

Last weekend we walked in the Komen Race for the Cure...

We walked in honor of Ralph's Aunt Rachelle who is battling breast cancer currently and in memory of his Aunt Debbie whom we miss dearly...

There were so many people...If you look at the street in the picture below, you can see a solid crowd of people all the way to the horizon!

The whole experience was unbelievable and emotional. While it wasn't my first time, it was a first for the kids and they handled the long walk pretty well (only a few minor meltdowns)!

We hope to make this a annual event for our family, so if any of you want to join us next year, let us know!

busy bees...

we love summer!

cool mornings....days at the park...fishing...visiting area attractions...staying up late...eating outside...having "campfires" in our yard...going to the creek...going out for ice cream...catching tadpoles...going swimming...having ralph home more...meeting friends...riding bikes...going to the river....

we love it all! and we've done it all, plus some!

we've been outside so much that i haven't been speding much time at the computer, which explains why i haven't posted any pictures for a long time! one of the cool things we did recently was catch a bunch of tadpoles at the creek...we brought them home and i set up our small aquarium and we have been watching them turn into frogs...within 2 days we had about 4 frogs and so far we have released 19 frogs back into the creek....we still have one big bullfrog tadpole who can't seem to find his legs yet...elli named all of the tadpoles and we made a poster with all of the names...here are some of them: glittery, taco, karen, clara, ess, tomato, brick, butterfly, sal, chip, double u, and a snail named shase...we have all had a lot of fun watching the metamorphosis..

below are a whole bunch of pictures of the kids having fun!