Gotta love the bumpers!

The three of us went bowling last night for fun! It was a great experience, we only bowled one game, but seeing Sofia try to push the ball down the lane and then watching it slowly roll all the way down to what it seemed like eternity was great. Even better was when she hit a pin or several and got so excited about it. I think the entire bowling alley watched her have fun. She's so funny. Vince won 140... not bad. Sofia got 45 and I barely made 80. What a great night though. It was good family fun and didn't spend that much on our evening.

I have to tell you all about the deer Sofia and I saw in the backyard on Wednesday. It was a buck, with huge antlers and he stood about as tall as me. It scared me, but he ran down the ravine quickly, thank goodness. The first thing I said of course was, "That was AWESOME!!". After Louie went to the bathroom we went inside... here comes the best. Once we got inside Sofia looks at me and says (mind you she hadn't said anything while we were outside),

"Mami, I didn't like that big squirrel." :)

The Cereal Wall

Some of you have seen Vince's "project" at the house. It all started from an idea a few of his roommates had. Somebody thought a cereal name and picture was funny and they taped it on the wall, soon it became a joke to find other cereal boxes with funny names and pictures to put on the wall. What was one cereal turned into hundreds and so they placed different cereals on the wall and it was their goal to keep finding new ones. The summer after the kitchen was covered in cereal boxes the owner of the college house took all the boxes down to paint the kitchen, thus eliminating their precious wall. I remember how devastated the guys were that all their hard work, all that cereal eaten, was gone. Vince suggested that some day he would like to have that cereal wall again. Well, here we are.... 2008. Vince and Sofia (mostly) have been working on this for a few months now. They are over 50 boxes of different kinds of cereals, all unique, all eaten at the house. So, if you want to help us make this wall, you have to come over and eat our cereal... that's the catch... it can only be consumed at our house. I already brought up the fact that we could finish it in a week if I asked my students to do it for extra credit... Vince said, "that's not how it works." I respect that, plus we have to look for all the non-brand name cereals that are spoofs for the name brand ones. For example, Reece's Puffs... we have that and Coco Peanut Butter Spheres... yeah and the cereal box has a purple octopus on it, not sure why. Anyhow... here's how the wall is looking.

FYI: Sofia took the picture on the left. Her and Vince were playing around earlier in the day taking pictures of the wall.

Bing, Bong, yeah it's me... give me the candy! I'm Superman, look at the red pant legs!

Sofia's first year trick or treating. It was tons of fun!! Our new neighborhood gives out GOOD candy, not the crappy non-official halloween candy. All NAME brand candy, it was AWESOME!! We met some of our neighbors too. The lady across the street gave Sofia a stuffed halloween kitty cat toy and the family next to her was giving out NORMAL size kit-kat bars!! Unbelievable, yet amazing... Sofia loved ringing doorbells, she didn't always say "trick or treat", but she knew to stick out her pumpkin so people would give her candy. It was cool. We went around the block and came home. She was getting tired and the pumpkin was getting too heavy (that's a good sign). Oh, and we did have to get back home to our costume party at the house. We had a great crew come over.... a jellyfish that one 1st place, a racket ball guy, a security guard, a pumpkin, a hunter, and even Lou Pinella!! Vince dressed as a police officer and I was a black cat. If you can't tell from Sofia's pictures... she was a white cat, but didn't want to wear the cat ears. Great Halloween!

Doing my job...

Great Birthday Party for a great dog!!

Had a great time. Here we are. Sorry about the delay... I know some die-hard Iadipaolo blog fans out there really needed to see this picture.

Louie's cousin???

Yesterday was Louie's 5th birthday. We lit a birthday candle and put it in a bone I got him. Sofia helped Louie blow it out. There is a cute picture but my assistant is too busy with Dunlap related activities to upload it.
Today Sofia and I went to the store to get the ingredients to make dirt cake and mud for the halloween party next week. Dirt cake is made with oreos, french vanilla pudding and cool whip in case you are wondering. Mud is a cheese dip with rotel and meat. Its awesome. You'll have to come have some if you're intrigued by these dishes.
If sandra ever gets time we'll have a picture of our little party up here. Until then here is a picture of a random pug that had a great birthday. Have a good weekend.

Update: Vince Style

Hey BlogFans. A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks since our last post. First of all- What is up with all the businesses closing??? Our economy is hurting obviously, but when I hear that the best potato salad in the world will not be made anymore cause Danner's is closing, That's where I draw the line. Then you have a big chain store like Linen's n' Things closing too. Crazy Stuff.

Oh yeah, The Cubs laid a tird in the playoffs so we'll have to wait until next year AGAIN!!!
Last night, Sandra, Sofia, and I went to Howl-zoo-ween at the Zoo. It was a little chilly but fun. Sandra and Sofia are in Springfield this weekend. Her uncle came in from Venezuela to visit. I couldn't go because of work. I am already using a day off on November 16th to go to Lambeau Field to see the Bears play the Packers with Jose and Omar. It stinks to have to work weekends and not be able to take off somewhere. But I'm just thankful I have a job and one that pays me to watch TV is pretty cool too.

Lastly, If you don't mind a little raunchy humor I recommend "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". It's a pretty funny movie. Sandra liked it, but doesn't want to admit it to other people. The Dracula Musical was great. Have a good weekend everybody. "Die, Die, Die...... I can't"

Friday & Saturday ROCKED!

So much fun! Friday night we went to Galesburg and had dinner with my high school Spanish teacher, Señorita Pennington. We ate at Happy Joe´s and had a great time. Afterwards, we went to the Homecoming football game, where I got to see Mr. Wolfe (my history teacher sophomore year), a couple of high school friends, and the band half time show. It was a great night. Cold.. but great. I got in free because I got this award in high school where you get into all athletic events for free for life!! I felt so important using that :)

Saturday, Sofia and I went to the Spoon River Drive with Grandpa Paul and Grandma. We found many treasures. Sofia found some heart shaped earmuffs that made us laugh for a while. I had to take a picture. We also found an antique phone that was really cool and I took a picture of that. The Cub Bug was cool, it´s a lawn ornament using a Cubs aluminum bottle. $10.

AND, Sofia and I found some treasures to bring home. We invested in some antique milk jugs that are sitting in our new landscaped garden out back. They are pretty heavy and are about as tall as Sofia. They were $5 each!!!! They look so cool. We also found a statue to add more humor to the outside of our house in addition to our pug statue that is peeping on on of the trees. It´s a hoola hooping FROG!! He sits by our new lilac bush ($4). For the front of the house I found a really cool metal sign of the Cubs logo. Our neighbor across the street has a Sox flag and we just can´t keep staring at that flag when we look outside of our kitchen window, so now he can see our Cubs logo :) That was the most expensive item priced at $30 and last but not least, a really sweet candy dish shaped like a pumpkin for $1!!! It sits on top of our armoire. So not bad on the $ for all I got. I wish the Cubs thing cost less, but it was well worth it cuz it looks so cool and Larry Little (yeah that´s his name) can enjoy it.