Happy Birthday, Grandpa Paul!!!

Today we celebrated Grandpa Paul's birthday. Sofia and Vince made him brownies!!! Yummy!

Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go!!

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last blogged. We've been so busy lately and I start SCHOOL tomorrow. Wow... the summer just flew by.

Anyhow, yesterday (Saturday) we went out and had a great time at Grandma Arlene and Grandpa Paul's house (they live in the middle of NOWHERE). We had grilled to perfection chicken, baked sweet potatoes, and steamed peas. YUMMY! Sofia and Grandpa Paul spent most of the early evening in the AWESOME swing set, custom-built by Grandpa.




It is the most amazing, made from scratch, contraption that I've seen for a swing set. Grandpa is very innovative and has created a swing set that can be converted into a shed in 20 some years when all the grandkids are older (little does he know that I will still want to play in it). The area upstairs is designed to be closed off as a "house" and it will have a covered porch, but he is waiting until the older grandkids are a little older. The slide AND the staircase fold up on hinges so that he can mow the grass (so smart!). The upstairs area is tall enough for Vince and I to stand up inside of it. Grandpa put a tractor wheel inside so the kids or myself can drive. The even cooler part is that he has attached a tractor seat onto a milk crate so one can sit while one drives. There are other gadgets inside to play with. I suggested one of those horns from semi-trucks, he has a horn in there... but not a semi-truck one. Underneath the upstairs is a gigantic sandbox that Sofia and Grandpa played TOGETHER in for hours. Yes, Grandpa Paul who is at least 6' is able to get under there and play with the sand. Also a really cool feature, above the swings there are 5 of the old telephone pole covers that were made from glass. There are four clear and one green- they symbolize the grandchildren... 4 girls and one boy. Very cool. Anyhow, I wanted to go down the slide yesterday, but hesitated at the last minute. Maybe next time.

The Iadipaolo's went to the farm and then to the state fair!

Saturday, the Iadipaolo's took a trip to Dahynda... a town in the middle of NOWHERE. It's so peaceful there and very beautiful. Kristin and Grant's farm is located there (I work with Kristin). Besides the endless fields of corn and soy beans, we got to see the pig maternity ward (Grant raises show pigs). Pregnant pigs are not the most attractive creatures of the world, but I must say for being pregnant they seemed just like humans. Tired, grumpy, and needing special attention. The picture of the three pigs is a picture of what are called "guilts", these pigs have not been pregnant before, but will be soon. We also got to make smores!!! Yummy! Grant's sister brought over a basket of all the essentials and I became the official marshmellow cooker of the evening. They also have new kitties at the farm and Sofia loved picking them up.

On Sunday, I had to get ready for our trip to Springfield for the state fair and I found this...

it was dead, thank goodness! in one of our duffel bags downstairs... I was reaching in for two things that I didn't need that were inside the bag and I pulled this out. I ran upstairs screaming my head off (Sofia was in the living room and didn't even flinch). We went downstairs with latex gloves on and put it in a ziplock for Papi to see when he got home. We have set traps downstairs (idea curtosy of Tio Omar), but if they don't work the Iadipaolo's may be going back to the farm to get one of those kitties...

On Monday we went to the Illinois State Fair. First, we went to see Grant and his pigs. We don't know yet how well they did, but it was cool to see all the different "pretty pigs" at the swine barn. We hung out with Abuela Nere at the State Fire Marshall tent, ate lots of junk food, and got to see a monkey!! It was a really cool day for all....

St. Louis Scrapbook

Greetings Blog Fans!!! Sorry that I have not updated, thanks to the boss, you all know we're back. Anyhow, I made a scrapbook of our journey (the scrapbook was a gift from Vince on our anniversary). It turned out really cute and I wanted to share it with all of you (know that if you come over, I'm going to show you the book anyway). I hope you like it as much as I do. I think I did a decent job. I'm not a "scrapbooker", but I'm not too bad. Here it is...

The cover page. The picture inside the frame is the photo index thing that the pictures came with.

1st page: The St. Louis Arch, the temperature gauge in the car reading 101 degrees, the Maryville sign, and Lola our GPS (her name was inspired by the GPS in the movie RV which is also named Lola)

2nd page: Our campground. The picture on the upper left is Vince inside the tent holding all the poles waiting for me to place them. The picture with Vince giving a thumbs up was taken by Sofia.

3rd page: The left is our adventure at the Abuelos' neighborhood pool and the right has pictures of Angela our friend from St. Louis and the lower right is Sofia and Abuelo enjoying an ice cream sandwich.... yum!

4th page: Sofia on a slide at a mall that we went to and on the right is my FAVORITE page- a combination of all the characters that we found at Six Flags. Notice on the left side next to the margin a picture of Sofia and Vince with Batman and Robin.

5th page- The many activities that we did at Six Flags. Sofia got her picture drawn my Micheal (on the right page) with air brush it is displayed with Vince and I's caricature drawing in our bedroom. You will also see Vince with a giant hammer on the left page, he won Sofia that Batman cape.

6th page- Our visit to City Museum- in summary it's a gigantic juggle gym for adults. You may be able to see the outside of it on the lower left hand side of the page.

7th page- Our activities at the museum. They had blocks for the kids to play with and a giant area for crafts/painting. Vince painted the purple tulip on the left page. There was also a ball pit and the right page shows pictures of that.

8th page- The Wax Museum which is up for sale if anyone is interested ($1.7 million- Charlie the owner said if you bring cash he will throw in all the wax figurines). Pictured on the left page: Pope John Paul II, Moctezuma, Dali, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Vince staring at Genghis Khan. On the right page: Charlie's wax figure, Snow White, Babe Ruth, Dopey, and Micheal Jackson.

9th page- On the left is the many faces of Sofia at Bobby's (the greatest frozen custard place) located in Maryville. It was delicious!! On the right some pictures of Busch Stadium (Vince, Grandpa Paul, Abuelo, and Tio Omar went).

10th page-Our favorite stuff, I'll explain. Cool spray painted trash can at the city museum... so cool, maybe I'll do that for ours. Who can resist fun signs- the Lost Parents is just funny if taken out of context and the Scoop the Poop needs no explanation. My thumbs up to Funnel Cake (Sofia calls it funny cake) and a random guy at this place called Morgan St. Brewery where we ate having a beer sampler platter: 5 beers of the day for $5.50). Pictured on the right is Sofia sleeping after a long day at Six Flags (not only did we do the attractions at the park, but we also swam at Hurricane Harbor).

Last page- Home... our favorite getaway. A picture of the Peoria County sign on the bridge. I couldn't find a Welcome to Peoria sign on our way in. Bummer.

Hope you enjoyed it!!

Back from Vacation...

My assistant, Sandra, should post some pictures soon of our trip to the St. Louis area. We camped out at The abuelos house in Maryville,IL which is about 20 minutes east of St. Louis. Yes I said camped out. They haven't moved into the house yet so we set up a tent in the basement and roughed it on air mattresses inside in the tent. We spent thursday at six flags. Friday was about 101 degrees in st. louis so we did indoor activities at a wax museum and the city museum downtown. That evening we met up with a college friend, Fox 2's own Angela Hutti. She is a meteorologist in St. Louis. We had dinner at a pizza place in maryville and had frozen custard at Bobby's. It was awesome. You have to see the pictures.

-Saturday was mulch day.
The abuelos bought 50 bags of much to do landscaping in their frontyard. Only 20 bags were needed. 5 they kept and 25 went back to "Lowell's" Yeah it's Lowe's but its fun to say Lowell's. After helping with the landscaping we took a dip in the subdivisions pool, "Very Nice". And then the men- Jose (aka abuelo), Paul (Grandpa), Tio Omar, and myself went to the Cardinals/Phillies game. Yes I wore my cubs hat and the Phillies won- Nice.
Sunday was break up camp day. The tent was taken down and dirty clothes were gathered. We went to mass in Maryville and headed home. I've said enough you'll have to see the photos when sandra gets some time.

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.