A Summer of Firsts: Part 1

Wow, the summer flew by, and I'm just now getting a chance to update the blog on all that went on. Our summer consisted of 5 weeks spent in Canada visiting family and friends! It all started on the 27th of June--we left at 2:00pm and arrived in Whitby, Ontario at 6am. Yes, my husband drove STRAIGHT through without stopping! Yes, Don is a determined and hard-working man! I'm so thankful he got us there safely! We spent 4 weeks in Port Hope and 1 week in Montreal. While in Port Hope (where Grandma lives), Denis passed a big milestone!! Grandma taught him how to ride his bike!! She bought a bike for him and worked hard with him, pushing and encouraging him to ride his bike in her big backyard. (the perfect spot, since there was a soft place to land.) After much practicing and many falls, he finally did it!!! Yea, Denis!

While in Montreal, we stayed with my cousin Katina and her family in their beautiful home. Thank you Katina and Marc-André for having us at your home! We enjoyed visiting family, and Denis and Amélie attending a french-speaking Christian summer camp at Don's former church. It was a wonderful experience for them and also gave Don, Arianna, and I time to spend on our own where we could tour a bit and also buy LOTS of french children's books!

Also, during this trip to Canada, Arianna had a few firsts--she began to laugh a little and began to blow raspberries--her FAVORITE way to communicate with us while we were on this trip. She would do it so much that her shirt would always get soaking wet, and I had to change her several times a day! It was rare to see her without lots of little bubbles around her cute little lips! She is such a good baby--she traveled so well--we drove straight through and we barely heard a complaint from her--and with all our running around town visiting family, etc., she just went with the flow, always smiling and happy!

Trying to get back into blogging . . .

Hi Everyone,
well, I've tried this thing before and wasn't too great at keeping it up. I am going to try to do better this time so that I can journal for my family and we can look back at this when the children are older and remember all the fun things we did. The days, years, months, pass by way to fast with kids . . . I can't believe how much they have grown.
If you'd notice, I never did update the blog when Amélie was a baby--poor girl . . . I don't have much recorded of her babyhood--just pictures on my computer and facebook. Since Arianna was born (6 weeks ago) I am going to try to make more of an effort to keep up with their milestones!

So here I am, on May 31st, 2011 with 3 children! As I sit here, Don and the children are playing in the pool next door and Arianna is sitting by my rocking away in the swing.

I will update about her birth and post pics of that eventually, but I figured I better start on what is occuring now before I get too far behind . . .

This past week was a busy one! Denis and Amélie "graduated" from their school year (Denis was in Pre-K, and Amelie was in 3 yr old preschool). Below you will see pics of their graduation.





Also, Amelie had her first ever Ballet recital. She was a daffodil and their song was "Spring has Sprung" She was so excited and she did a great job for being on stage in front of so many people! Her cousins and Aunt Stephanie, Yiayia and Papou, and Agnes came to watch her recital.
















Denis played soccer for the first time this spring. . . he was on a team called the Red Devils. He had a great season and played very well for his first time!

Snow Day(s) in Georgia!!!

We have had quite a week this year here in Georgia! It feels more like Canada! On Sunday night, Jan. 9th, Yiayia and Papou came over to play with the kids for awhile while Don and I went out for a date night to Dave and Busters. We got home around 9pm and chatted with my parents for a bit. This was a bad idea, as we were soon to find out. Just as my parents were leaving at 9:30, snow flakes started to fall--BIG snowflakes. 15 mins. later, we get a panicked call from my dad saying that they are only half way to their house and they can't make it up a hill on the major road b/c cars were slipping back and sliding all over the road! Thank God, they finally found a hotel to stay in halfway between our house and theirs, but they had no toiletries, clothes, or anything b/c they didn't expect to get snowed in for not one but two nights!! The kids were out of school for 1 whole week b/c the roads were too icy to leave the house. Well, as you can see from the pics below, we made the best of the snow week! :-)

Denis' 3rd Birthday Party and Doctor Checkup

Ok, so I know I haven't updated this thing in several months. Amelie is already 7 mos. old and Denis just turned 3! I don't know how other moms with more than 1 kid do it--but I tell ya, I don't have much time these days. So, with most of the posts I'm just going to post some pics with a short description. I start with the most updated news, and then I'll try to recount the last few months with pics.

Denis' birthday was august 29th. On his actual b-day we celebrated by going to Chili's with yiayia and papou. The next weekend was his actual party which was with the theme "The Backyardigans"