Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day!

It has been 9 years since our beloved Papou passed away. To honor Papou, Cicily had a cookie cake made since he loved sweets.

Of course the cookie cake had to come from the best cookie company aka Mrs. Fields Cookies. Since Papou passed away our family gets together and goes bowling on Valentine's Day to celebrate his life and the legacy he left behind.

Zachary and Dimitri open their Valentine's from the Sharp's.

Dimitri now places his fingers in the bowling ball!

Our little man.

Look at the excitement on his face.

Our big boy!

Our sweet boys!

Mommy and Zachary make a great team.

My two boys that made me believe in love at first sight.

Dimitri and Zachary did a great job!

Baby Bella!

After bowling we went to the arcade.

Yiayia and Zachary.

Dimitri and Yiayia.

Love...pure love!

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing".

Valentine's Day Treats...

The boys and I have been preparing for Valentine's day.

Zachary helped me wrap our gift.

Note: Zachary chose the wrapping paper.

Our handsome boy!

Our silly boy!

If you ask Zachary what the monkey does he will beat on his chest and yell "OOO OOO".

The boys making chocolate covered strawberries.

Making sure each strawberry has enough chocolate.

Zachary was fascinated.

Zachary sampled some of the strawberries and put them down thinking that no one would notice, but the chocolate around his mouth was a dead give away.

Dimitri was cautious while dipping the strawberries, remember he does not like to get dirty.

To make this activity more fun for the boys, I had plates of sprinkles for them to dip the strawberries in.

The boys worked so hard and did an amazing job.

Mommy/Matri is going to LOVE them.

Full disclosure notice: While I was melting the chocolate, I burnt it. My beloved came to my rescue and melted some chocolate chips to save the day. One more reason why we love her.

Mail...mail...mail

Dimitri and Zachary were excited today to find out they received mail.

Grandma Mel sent the boys Valentines.

Zachary found the pictures Grandma sent.

So cute!

Thank you Grandma Mel.

Valentine's Day Party...

Dimitri's Valentine's Day party has finally arrived.

To say that Dimitri was excited to go to school today would be an understatement.

Zachary and Dimitri at school.

Zachary gave Mrs. Romig a special Valentine.

Dimitri couldn't wait to give Mrs. Dean her Valentine.

After school it was time to read the Valentine's from Dimitri's friends.

This is one of the moments that makes you happy to be a parent. To see the excitement on his face when we told him he gets to give a treat to his friends and that his friends were going to do the same. This holiday is filled with mixed emotions for our family but seeing the joy in their faces melts our hearts.

Monsters...

Today Dimitri was in the kitchen and hollered, "Mommy look ...just like a monster". I turned around and this is what I saw:

All I could do is laugh and grab the camera. Guess this confirms what we have always thought to be true, we do have little "monsters" running around the house.

Superbowl Fiasco...

Superbowl XLIV is here!

Our football team is the Indianapolis Colts!

Cousins all dressed up and ready for the big game.

Zachary was very proud of the Mr. Potato Head he made.

While Zachary was playing, Dimitri decided to work out.

Even though we are devastated that Colts lost, we all had a wonderful time and will continue to cheer for our team! The Colts had an amazing season and are still champions in our book. Go COLTS!

Preparing for Valentine's Day...

Dimitri's Valentine's Day party for school is on Thursday so we began to fill out our cards.

Dimitri was excited to start his project.

Zachary making sure his Valentine's are special.

Great team work!

Dimitri has all his Valentine's ready for the big party!

Winterpalooza 2010...

Today we went to Winterpalooza.

Dimitri and McGruff.

Zachary gave McGruff a high five to thank him for the spy kit.

Zachary loves ponies!

The boys met a clown who gave them balloons.

Zachary loved his silly balloon hat.

Dimitri got a sword and a sword holder.

Dimitri and Zachary even met the Ghostbusters.

This was a "team" activity. Now that's team work.

Dimitri was not ready to stop playing with the balloons.

At the time we took this picture Zachary was the smallest boy on the large slide. It was funny to see him climb the steep stairs and see about 20 bigger kids behind him praying he would hurry. We are so proud of him for not giving up and for always believing in himself.

Dimitri and Zachary got so sit in a helicopter...very exciting!

We decided to check out The Living Plant Aquarium booth. Dimitri participated in the shark toss and scored 4 out 5 and scored higher then some of the kids older then him. We were all in shock to see he has a great arm and the hostess said Dimitri should become a pitcher (we assume she meant for the Yankees). Before we left it was time to check out the reptiles. Zachary loved this snake and he would have taken it home if we would have let him. He played with this snake and seemed fascinated by the snakes every move.

Zachary even wanted to play with the snake all by himself. Does this mean we should get him a pet snake for his third birthday or should Zachary write a letter to Santa for a new pet? I assure you his mommy will have a lot to say about this conversation. Another Family Fun Day!

Is it time?

Recently, Zachary has shown an interest in going potty.

To encourage his curiosity we had him pick out his new big boy underwear.

Zachary chose a package of Sponge Bob underwear and a package of Disney's Cars.

Our BIG boy in his BIG boy underwear.

Potty training is not an easy task and this week we have had our fair share of ups and downs. One day Zachary can show interest in going potty and then the next day he is stubborn and wants nothing to do with it. The other problem we have is we told him, "No pee pee or poo poo in pants, it goes in the potty". Zachary has taken that statement to heart when it comes to poo poo. The other day I put him down for a nap and when he woke up he came up the stairs naked as the day he was born and covered in poop. I went downstairs and poop was on his floor and all over his bedding, BUT I would like to say that there was no poo poo in his diaper. Yep, he took of his diaper off to go poo poo! So even though he was a mess and his room was a mess we were proud of the little guy for listening. We have the underwear and the potty watch...we just need to all be on the same page!