Our Visit to Grandpa Jack's Pumpkin Patch

Grandpa has been growing pumpkins for the kids for a lot of years! It has become a tradition to pick pumpkins at Grandma and Grandpa's house. This year my dad out-did himself! His pumpkins are big and beautiful! He etched the names of each of the boys in a pumpkin for each one of them about a month before we picked them. You can see the results in these photos! It's really a great look! I think I'm "off the hook" for carving pumpkins this year because these are so cool looking!

Grandpa and Christian and his personalized pumpkin.

Grandpa and Julian with his personalized pumpkin.

Julian's washing the pumpkins so we can load them in the car.

Andrea with Johanthan's pumpkin. Johnathan was home recovering from having his wisdom teeth pulled. Ouch!!

Cousins are Cool!

Our children are blessed with a group of very special cousins--5 on dad's side and 7 on mom's side.  On dad's side, we count the Mannucci kids as our adopted cousins.  I thought it would be fun to show some pictures that were taken during the last year when "the cousins" have been together to help them all remember how lucky they are to have such a beautiful family!

Is this a fun-looking group or what?!  Feb 2008--We are playing at the pond at Grandma and Grandpa Simas' house.
Feb 2008--This is the party bus that took us on a tour of Grandma Glenda's life for her 70th birthday.
Nov 2007--Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Simas's house. Julian, Austin, Christian, Cooper, Sam and Cannon.
Nov 2007--Julian's Baptism. Our American cousins were all there for this special occasion.  Johnathan performed the baptism for Julian.
Nov. 2007--Julian's 8th birthday with his cousins.
Aug. 2007--Florence Italy.  Zio Guido, Julian, Danielle, Alice, and Christian at Ponte Vecchio.
Aug. 2007--Florence, Italy, Our last day with the Italian cousins.  Danielle in the front and Letizia, Alice, Christian and Julian in the back.
Aug 2007--Ceparana, Italy.  Hanging out at the pool. Christian and Davide.
Aug 2007--Ceparana, Italy.  Hanging out at the pool. Andrea and Johnathan.
Aug 2007--At Carlo and Alessandra's house taking a "cookies and milk" break. Alice, Letizia and Julian.
Aug 2007--Viareggio, Italy.  Playing Bocce ball at the beach.  Christian, Julian, Danielle and Johnathan.
Aug. 2007--Follo Alto, Italy.  Playing war games at the house in the country.  Friends Miriam and boyfriend, Davide in disguise, Johnathan and Andrea.

Disneyland

Andrea and I took Julian to Southern California for a trip to Disneyland over the weekend. We had a 2-day hopper pass to see both Disneyland and California Adventure. We enjoyed seeing it all through Julian's eyes as he got excited to see the characters and belly-laughed on his favorite rides.  His favorite was Grizzly River Run in California Adventure (I bought a poncho!), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (We went 4 times) and the Matterhorn at Disneyland.  He closed his eyes all through the Pirates of the Caribbean and was brave on the Indiana Jones ride even though he didn't like it much!

We also had a chance to stop and see our friend Sue who lives in West L.A.  She took us to a fabulous Indian restaurant called Bombay Cafe in Santa Monica and then we did some shopping on Abbott Kinney in Venice where we bought shoes from a Japanese store where they carried the Japaneses line of Nike and Puma! Oh yeah, Sue cut our hair too! She's the best at it! Thanks Sue for hanging out with us-we had a blast!

Babe Ruth Baseball Spring Opener

Saturday, March 29th was opening day for Babe Ruth Baseball league.  Christian is playing on the "Hooks".  They won the game 9-0.  Christian played 3rd base for the entire game.  He enjoys playing infield so it was a good start to the season for him.  Christian is also playing the drums for the High School musical "Grease".   It's a challenge for him to balance his schedule and give time to school, baseball, and the musical, but with the support of mom, dad and Johnathan (who drives) we're all working it out!

SABATO 29 marzo Christian ha iniziato la sua stagione come giocatore di Baseball. Gioca negli "Hooks" che hanno vinto per 9 a 0. Christian suona anche la batteria per il musical "Grease" presso la scuola superiore. Grazie al sostegno di Johnathan, Michele e Andrea che lo accompagnano in macchina alle varie prove, riesce a giostrarsi tutti i suoi impegni.

Julian's FIRST Pinewood Derby!

Grandpa Jack helped Julian 

make his Pinewood Derby

 car the night before the big race!  

The car ran well considering the

 last minute effort!  Thank you 

Grandpa Jack!

Julian and 2 of his favorite

 friends, Isabelle and Garrett,

 are always up to something!  

It's fun to have close friends!