Easter!

Ok, this year we had a really fun Easter. I think that Holidays with kids make all the difference. We started early on Saturday going to Dimple Dell for an Easter Egg Dive at the pool where the girls take swimming lessons. That was very fun. Each age group would have 15 minutes to get as many eggs as they could, then you would trade the eggs for a big bag of candy and other stuff (silly bands, stickers, tattoos, etc). Dane had to work that day so my brother Daniel came with me since they were separated by ages, but I had to be in the water with them. We went home after and got ready for Grandfather's birthday but we couldn't be at the luncheon since Dane had to work until 1:00pm and he got back home at 2:00pm. We went to the Tree House and Dane was able to spend some time with cousins and siblings playing wallyball and basketball while Leah, Bella and Giada ran all over the place. After that we took the girls to the park because they were so sad to miss going back to Pam's house (we went on Friday night and they loved it there and when we left we told them it was Ok because we were going to go back the next day), then we went to chuck-a-Rama and then we went back home to paint the eggs for the Easter Bunny. On Sunday morning the girls woke up and went egg hunting and they were having so much fun. With the eggs they found presents from the Easter Bunny and a very unexpected letter: I think you all have heard about Leah's school project about Larry the Leprechaun. Well, Leah has been so excited about this project, so much so, that she made a "trap" for Larry with a jewerly box full of green things that he was going to be unable to resist, and once he got in the jewerly box to look at the things he would be trapped inside of it. The letter was from the Easter Bunny telling her that sometimes he likes to bring some friends along to hide the eggs and this year he had Larry the Leprechaun with him. He said that Larry wasn't very good at hiding eggs and that when he was done hiding them Larry was nowhere to be found. He said he had to go looking for him all over the house and finally found him in Leah's room inside of a box and that he had to help him get out of there. He said that Larry told him that he found that box full of wonderful things that he wanted to take with him (among others were a green sock and a tinkerbell Valentine's card) and the Easter Bunny told him he could take the sock but that he had to leave the card since it was from one of Leah's friends from school. I wish you could have seen Leah's face while Dane was reading the letter to her. Also, she had left a little chocolate bunny for the Easter Bunny and she was very happy to see that he had nibbled on it, and she took the letter, with the postcards we received last week and the nibbled on chocolate bunny to show in her school today. The girls spent the rest of the afternoon watching the movies the Easter Bunny got for them and eating their chocolate bunnies and candy. All in all a wonderful weekend, and for the girls a very magical one :) Happy Easter everyone!

This pictures are from the Egg Dive:

And these are from Sunday:

Just checking in.

I wish I was a good Blogger like Jennie who every time she posts you have to read 2 pages worth of posts or like Paula who always has something to say. I haven't been taking as many pictures as I used to and I do the same thing every week, so I feel like I'm just going to bore everybody to death if I post too often... But here I am with a little "I'm still alive" kind of post :)

Dane: He started a diet and exercise routine and he lost over 14 Lbs and then he just started a competition with Justin and he has lost other 5 Lbs since Monday. Yes, I am jealous. I could never loose 5 pounds in 4 days. He is doing all this preparing to the trip to Hawaii on May 2012. I am very proud of him and I can see a big difference not just on his body but in his attitude as well. He brought here yesterday a bag full of "sticky buns" that he got from work, and he didn't even have one. And I must say they were spectacular and I can't belive he was strong enough to resist. He is doing well at work as well, and he's still waiting to start nursing school.

Annie: I am 35 weeks and one day into my pregnancy. I had some tests done yesterday and another ultrasound. Aria is doing well. As I get closer to the D-day, I cannot help thinking "what on earth did I get myself into?" I am excited, don't get me wrong, but I am scared to death of being the mom of 4 little girls.
Other than being a mom, I don't do much. my days are getting up at 7am, get Leah ready for school, and then doing all the things the other 2 girls need, then getting them ready for their gymnastics or swimming lessons, and then get back, give them dinner, get them in bed, go get Dane from the train, get home, watch "Bones" with Dane and go to bed. So that's why I don't blog very often, I do that over and over again. I love it, but since it's always the same, I don't talk about it much :)

Leah: She keeps going to Kindergarten and she is doing great. She is also doing great in her gymnastics where she will start in competition level 3 after her preformance next Friday. The difference between regular level 3 and competition level 3 is, well, that they go to state and national competitions. but you can only get to those levels by invitation only, so we are very proud of her. Regular gymnasts don't start competing until level 5. She also loves her swimming lessons and has learned so much. The other day when we were leaving the pool after class she said to me "mom, you know how you are not very good at swimming? well, I think it is because you have to do this and that..." and she started giving me instructions on how to swim... I guess I do need the instructions since when I swimm I do it so wrong that somehow I start going backwards. I'll have to take lessons after the baby is born.

Bella: She loves gymnastics and swimming as well. When we go to the pool she looks like a little fish, she's just natural in the water! And then she tells me (very loudly BTW) how much she LOOOOOOVES swimming underwater and stuff. In gymnastics she looks like a little monkey. They can only go to level 1 when they turn 5, so Bella has been in Totts and then advanced Totts for over a year now, and not only she knows her stuff well, she's starting to get a little bored and invent her own stuff, to the dismay of her new coach, since the other kids in her class think it's way more fun to do things the way Bella does them than the normal way. Her former coach wants to get her into "mini cubs" wich is a competition level for Toddlers, but now she has a new coach, so we'll se what happens.

Giada: She's such a happy little girl. She talks a LOT and I just LOVE to be able to communicate with her. She understands to a point the fact that I have a baby in my tummy and she gives her baby sister kisses all the time. She wants to see when my tummy moves and she puts her little hand to feel her as well. She sings all day and never goes anywhere walking, she has to run. She wakes up happy and goes to bed happy. Hardly ever cries. She's very outgoing and waves "hello" to everybody outside who happens to look her way. (sometimes even if they don't, she'll wave and say hi just the same) She adores her daddy and she gets upset every time I take him to the train, and starts saying that she wants her daddy to come back "RIGHT NOW!".

I could actually talk about my girls all day, they are my life and my joy. I think I will instead show some pictures i took this past month. Not many, I'll try to do better...

This is the day we took my mom to the airport to go to Italy. In this picture are (other than Dane and the girls) My brother Daniel with his wife Anna, and my brother Gabriel with his fiance Janel and her 3 daughters.

Then, this pictures are of Dane making cookies with the girls. That's a new little tradition we have on Sundays, that I make lunch and then Dane makes some kind of treat with the girls.

These are of gymnastics:

And these are some pictures Jennie took with her phone the day Julia sang the national Anthem for the bees game: