What a great weekend!

Friday- yes...we watched Step Brothers. Vince and I were laughing so hard and we are still laughing. Go see it and laugh your butt off. It was great. Cleaned, got ready for Saturday's dig and had a few of the Costa Rica girls over for snow cones.

Saturday- FULL HOUSE. Everyone and their 1st grade teacher came over. It was a good time. A lot of people had snow cones (Vince's aunt Marty had 3- she has the record). Lots of good people to see, even a friend of mine from high school stopped by. Sofia loved the pretzels, snow cones, and the pizza. She loved having everyone over and took advantage of eating all the good stuff around. Vince's aunt and two cousins stayed with us. They are on a road trip from the Detroit, Michigan area to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The oldest of the two boys, Aaron, will be stationed in San Diego with the Navy so they are doing a family trip to see the family.

Sunday- Took Aunt Teresa, Aaron, and Adrian (for the record... such a sweet name) to mass at the Brothers of St. John and loved it. We had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack by the river. I had Coconut shrimp, Vince had a medley of seafood, and Sofia had mac & cheese along with some of our stuff. We walked around the riverfront and enjoyed the view. It's so funny because Aaron and Adrian can't get over the fact that there is so much corn around here. "So, you guys just watch the corn grow here?" Yeah... I guess ;)

After walking around the riverfront, we went to Vince's dad's (Sam) place to hang out. We mostly talked and Vince got a horse shoe game started and then they played Bocci Ball. We had to leave because the mosquitoes/bugs were eating us. Aaron even got a reaction from something out there. What an adventure.

We came home and shared pictures... Aaron was in New York for 6 months for training and we got to see pictures of that. We shared pictures of our wedding and Sofia. We finally went to bed around midnight. It was a great evening... we have really enjoyed having them over. Too bad they live so far away. Here is Aaron, Adrian, and Sofia having a great time together. Sofia just loves her cousins.

This morning, everyone's sleeping but me... go figure. We have to take the snow cone machine back today... it's a sad day. Vince's is on vacation this week and we will be leaving for St. Louis Wednesday morning for our grand family vacation. We are all looking forward to that. We are camping at my parents new place.... yes camping... with a real tent in their living room because they have not moved their furniture there. We are looking forward to it.

I wish Will was my step-brother

Sandra is busy texting so I am putting an update into the blog. Since Monday when Sandra added unlimited texting to her phone plan she has been the "Texting Queen" (sung to the tune of Abba's Dancing Queen song). She has been texting her students and friends non stop. Everytime she gets a text, Sofia and I start singing " Mami is the texting Queen". Besides texting, we have been getting ready for the big pizza party tomorrow. We are picking up the sno-cone machine and the pretzel warmer today. This afternoon we are taking a break from cleaning and texting to go see the new Will Ferrel movie "Step-Brothers" It looks hilarious. I can't wait. See you all at the party tomorrow.

7/17/04

We celebrated our 4th year wedding anniversary today. We had a beautiful day. Our presents to each other were a new digital camera and a GPS. So, now we can take awesome pictures of the places that we go! We got a babysitter this evening for a few hours so we could have dinner together. We went to Basta Mangiare- the restaurant that catered our wedding. I ordered the Chicken Marsala and Vince had the Basta Pasta. We were also given dessert for half off because it was our anniversary (we had the tiramisu). Thank you to all of you that have been such a wonderful part of our lives and have helped us along the way. Cheers to many more years!!

Ice Cream!!!

I am tired of priming and priming and priming. I am ready to finish the kitchen ONCE AND FOR ALL. On a lighter note, we had a lovely lunch today that ended with Amish Friendship bread topped with vainilla ice cream and whipped cream. Sofia LOVED it.

This morning we signed up for life insurance.... well... now we're ready I guess.

Sunday-Monday... The adventures of the Iadipaolo's

What a great two days it has been! On Sunday we went to the HOI fair in the afternoon and boy did we have a good time! It was Sofia's first time at the fair and she was in for a big treat. Her first ride was the bumper boats. As you can see from the picture, she was allowed to drive it all by herself. She loved it so much she went TWICE.

Next we road the carousel and for the record, she picked this horse. It was fun to wave at papi EVERY time we went passed him. We also met this wicked cool robot that interacted with you. As a matter of fact he asked me to show him the picture that we took of him!!









Next we went to see the elephant encounter put on my the Frisco family. These two lovely ladies are named Dumbo and Gina. They were very nice animals and Sofia watched in amazement as Dumbo played basketball!

Next we went to see the show goats, they were the cleanest barn animals we've ever seen. This little lady pictured with Sofia won in her class. Her name was Snowflake! Then, we went and had the BEST fair food ever... FUNNEL CAKE!!!!!

What great free entertainment was the "Funny Dummy" show. You can see Sally the Monkey with her friend Ken Karter on stage, but the funny part is Sofia standing on Vince's lap in the second to last row loving the entire act.

Sofia wanted her face painted by the Starr clowns and she sat perfectly still and was not afraid at all. Unlike the little girl that is next in line. Sofia choose to be painted as a lion and roared for about a continuous five minutes afterwards.

Sofia just had to play one of the carnival, so she picked up a duck from a pool and then won a duck. Pictured below is the $3 duck.


On Monday we went to Wedgewood with Frank & Kathy and had a FANTASTIC time (Thank you!!!). We were there from 1:00 until around 3:30. Sofia loved the kid pool and spent most of the time there. I also included a picture of Vince basking in the sun (no shame). He is now sporting bright red skin now.

Hello!

Well, I haven't written in "forever", as you may have noticed, it's just slideshow after slideshow for me. We have been super busy trying to get the kitchen ready for the pizza party! You're coming right? We sure hope we can fill up this "giant" house we bought (compared to our last one). Anyhow, our kitchen needed a major facelift. First, we updated all the appliances. We got a new refridgerator (gift from my parents), and we went ahead and bought everything else... dishwasher, built-in stove, built-in cooktop, and hood fan. Next, I tried scrubbing the cabinets, it seems that the previous owner liked cooking with "tar" and everything was caked in this. I scrubbed all the cabinets to get them smooth and shiny again, but the handles were not being so nice. I even soaked them overnight and nothing. So, we had to put new handles on. Next, we pulled the vinyl wall paper off the walls. Except, if you have ever dealt with wallpaper you know that the paste is the hardest thing to get off. Tom and Laura gave us a secret... hot water and fabric softner. It does soften the paste, but one must still scrape the walls.


Here's Vince using his mad scraping skills.....

Then I sanded the walls, and of course one must ALWAYS prime, I've learned this the hard way... I had to do 3 coats in the guest suite. So, the kitchen got TWO layers of prime and then TWO layers of paint. For a grand total of 4 coats of liquid that I did. Lots of work, but the kitchen looks awesome in its "weeping willow" color. Yes... it's more like a sage green. Like the color of any light green car.

Here I am priming...

I have hired one of my students to paint two murals in the kitchen. One is a backsplash and the other one will go on the wall where the stove is. She has worked for three days now and I'm really impressed with how it's turning out. This is the backplash.... yeah... cool

Other than the kitchen, we have not been doing anything else too exciting. We plan on going to Wedgewood sometime (maybe tomorrow) with Frank & Kathy, on Tuesday we want to go to the HOI fair to see the elephants. But, I will leave you with this picture. My mom and my grandparents came over yesterday to hang out while my dad was at a meeting. Sofia wanted to take a picture of the girls. Here's one of their best shots....

Our Trip to Chicago on Tuesday July 8th

Mark your Calendar!!!

Saturday JULY 26th. Iadipaolo House Warming party. The invitations are going out today. It is a pizza party theme. We are also thinking of renting either a cotton candy machine or a sno cone machine. Or maybe both? We'll take suggestions. It will be from 2-8pm and pizza will be served around 5 or so. We didn't put it in the invitations, but a ping pong tournament will take place as well. Winner will get a cool prize. Come one, Come all.

Happy 4th of July

You Gotta Love America!!! Fireworks, Cubs/Cards, and Hotdog eating contests. What else could you ask for. God Bless America.