Merry Christmas!

And even this year it has come and gone. We had a very nice Christmas at home today. It was cold, windy and rainy, basically the perfect day to spend at home. Alex woke up at 6:30AM and could not go back to sleep. Ryan followed shortly after. Greg and I made pancakes and scones and after Lucas woke-up we had breakfast all together and then it was....time to ope the presents!
This year we were so lucky because Alex is staying with us for the entire holidays, so we could enjoy the entire day all together. A good part of the day was spent assembling toys and testing some of the board games (and eating cookies!!).
all in all, a very nice Christmas.

December daily 14 and 15

A few more pictures of the December daily album. I am trying to keep up with every day. Yesterday was Lucas 3 birthday and today I will be working on the pictures we took yesterday. For now, here are the pictures of the pages for day 14 and 15. Have a great day!

The tree is up

Wow, Yesterday was a busy day in our household. While Greg was putting up the lights outside, we were busy with opening the remaining boxes of the Xmas decorations, then we went to buy the perfect tree(remember Greg we buy a 6-7 foot tree, every year he forgets!). After lunch, while Lucas was napping Ryan and I set up our Christmas village, so cute!! Then everyone helped decorating the tree. I was pooped so we went out for dinner and then drove to San Carlos to see a street where all the houses are lit up! How fun!!

25 days of Xmas

This year I have decided to record the 25 days of Christmas as per Ali Edwards idea. It takes a little bit of a commitment in particular because with the school and work going on almost all day, I have only the few hours left in the evening to record the events of the season. But it is also a stimulus to make the effort to get a little bit of magic accomplished every day, to build some memories for the kids associated with this special time of the year. Here are a couple of pages from the first days. I will keep posting as the albums develops.

As promised

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had Lucas with the fever so we had a really quiet one at home.It was nice and I had the chance to scrap some. Unfortunately this morning I woke up with a bad (bad) cold, so I don't know how much more scraping I am going to do this week-end. I will give it my best shot!

Swim meet and Thanksgiving

Last week-end there was a swim meet and we had planned to work there but did not expect any participation by Alex as he has always refused to compete during the years. On Saturday coach Tom told him that he was going to sign Alex up for the 50 free-style and the 200 breaststroke to be held on Sunday. Alex said OK. I was very surprised and happy. Well, Alex did really well (4 overall in freestyle!) and most important thing...he loved it! So I guess our little swimmer will be competing from now on!
On another note, the kids are out of school today and it is our last day of work before the holiday. I am so excited about these 4 days of rest and guess what?.... I have planned a lot of scrapping this week-end, s sty tune to see some of my work after that. For now, happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Happy Birthday RYAN!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful 6 year old boy!!!

Back from Ohau

I know it feels like this year we have done nothing else but traveling and...I love it!!! We got back last night from what has become our yearly trip to Hawaii. This year we went to Ohau a place new for most of us. I have always been skeptical of this island because I don't like the chaos and this is what I have always associated with Honolulu and Waikiki beach. But what I have found out is the there is a lot more than Waikiki there. First of all the shopping in Honolulu is out of this world!!! But going there with a family and three boys who can't stand the stores, I was on;y able to see them from outside. Well, this would be something I can do next time. We stayed at the Ko Olina Beach Resort on the West side of the island. The resort is very nice and the beach is perfect! The kids can play safely as there are man-made lagoons that allow no wave to come close to shore. Also, if one is passionate of surfing, the North side of the island is paradise for surfing with huge waves and a lot of people testing them. All in all, it was a great vacation, just too short!!

And then it was all over!!

Getting ready for the big day!

Lucas and Ryan are very excited tonight, it almost feels like Christmas Eve. It is almost 9PM and I can hear the two of them talking in their bedroom. The carving of the pumpkins just ended and after each of the boys (Alex too although he does not want a picture taken as he is wearing the mask for his teeth) carved their pumpkin. Everything is ready, the costumes are hanging in their closets and beside the arrival of the rain (expected for tomorrow) we should be ready to party!

The Warriers

Scenes from our household after dinner. Do I really need to say more? Look at the characters running around my house and tell me that you don't feel any sympathy for me?
I rest my case!!

A week in the life

I am a late follower and although I read Ali's blog almost every day (it is refreshing and she has tons of great ideas!) I am also mentally very lazy and when she suggested to take pictures for an entire week to document our lives, I thought it was a cool idea, but I was going to be an observer. Well, after seeing her results and those of others, I have decided to give it a try. So I am doing it this week and it is really interesting, everyone should try!

First feeling of Fall and great finding

Yesterday was the very first day with the feeling of Fall here in the Bay Area. The air was crisp, the sweaters came out and the rain arrived. I know it is going to get old fast, but for now I am just loving it! In the afternoon I spent time rearranging my desk, reorganizing stuff around the house, looking at he rain while drinking hot tea and simply appreciating all my family together.This morning (still in full autumn mood!) I have decorated the house with Fall items and in the afternoon Ryan and I went out to look for more. Here are few pictures f the house and the porch.
While Ryan and I were out, we stopped at ROSS where I am always on the look out for some fun stuff to bring home. Well, today I think I was pretty lucky because I have found the cutest little wall piece. I love the color and the look of it and it has already its place on my desk, filled with all my paints and glitters that were in a drawer out of sight until today. I am so happy with my purchase!

A wonderful book

For those out there who don't know, I am an avid reader. I always have one or two books on my night stand and I keep buying more and more. And I am trying to teach this love for reading to my kids so we also have tons of kids books in the house which I consider a wonderful thing. But I am digressing here. ...
My latest reading was a book suggested to me by several of my Italian friends from a Spanish writer. Oh, I almost forgot one of my pet peeves is to possibly read books in the language they have been written because I feel that there is always something lost in translation. So, when I am in Italy I buy a bunch of books written by Italian authors and the same is true for books by English authors. But it becomes more complicated when the books are written in different languages like in this particular case. So I bought it in Italy and bought it again here in the US. Crazy, uhm???

Anyway, here it goes.... the book is called "The shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Trust me this is a book worth reading, a wonderful mix of mystery, love and a hint if history. Just beautiful!!!

The end of an era

Paul Newman
01-25-1925 09-27-2008

More traveling

Greg and I have been in this beautiful city for 4 days. Any idea of where we were? I had a conference to attend and Greg went to meet with clients. I like this routine because it gives us the chance to spend some quality time together in the evening after the working day. The kids were home with Grandma and Grandpa but Luki was sick all the time and he is still sick. It started with an ear infection that we treated with antibiotics and when the fever did not go down so Grandma took him again to the doctor and he had developed a viral infection in his throat. So today, 6 days after the fever started, we are hoping it is going to be the first day fever free. Have a great week-end everyone!!

I am a citizen of the United States of America

So, I guess this is a pretty big deal. I have lived in this country for about 15 years and this morning at the Masonic Center in San Francisco, together with something like 1400 people from 101 countries all over the world I became an American citizen. Greg and I were late because of the traffic on 101, but little I knew that given the huge amount of people 10-15 minutes late actually meant being on time today! So, I went in with all my fellow immigrants to take my oath and become an American citizen. At the end of the ceremony I received my certificate and for the first time as an American I went and did the most important thing: I registered to vote! And as you can tell by the picture that Greg took while I was signing the paperwork, there is no doubt on who will get my vote this upcoming November!

The gift of time!

Oh the things one could do if every week-end was always a 3 day week-end! On Saturday I went shopping, on Sunday we had people over for dinner and today after a bike ride I spent some time scrapping. I have found this old picture of Ryan celebrating his 4th birthday (he is going to turn 6 this coming November) and decided to make a really simple page out of it and here is the result. I still have so much old patterned paper, I really should scrap more and get rid of the old stash so I have a good excuse to buy the new products.

Back to school and normal life

So school started last Monday here in California and we took a picture of the boys right before getting out of the house. This year we have a 7th grader, a 1rst grader and an almost 3 year old who thinks he is in his 20!!
It was a pretty hectic beginning and being all jet-lagged did not help at all. But it is now behind us and we are all back into the routine of every day life. For now we are enjoying this last week-end of vacation feeling and then real life will sink in again. Have a great Labor day week-end everyone!

Back from Vacation

It has been a long time since I blogged. It has been a very beautiful summer for me. First my friends from Italy came to visit us and we had so much fun together. Then, right after they left our family went to Italy and we have spent the last three weeks over there. What a magic summer! The weather was excellent, blue sky all the time and I managed to see so many friends, had lunches and dinners with them and taste again the great food of Italy, from pizza to pasta with truffles and wonderful gelato. We got back Saturday night. School started on Monday. This year we have a 7th grader and a 1st grader! Everything went well and now we are back to life as usual which after all the craziness and traveling it does not sound that bad. It was a great summer, but it is nice to be back!

Finished a project!

Time has been very elusive recently and I have not been able to find the time to do half of the things I wanted to do, in particular scrapping. This hobby has suffered a great deal, but in the past couple of weeks working a little bit at night after the kids bedtime and during the week-ends, I have been able to complete the album for our family vacation to Vancouver. I still have the pictures from Boston and San Diego... I will get there!!! For now I am just glad that this one is done and put away!
On another note, today my 2 friends from childhood are coming to visit from Italy and I am so looking forward to 10 days of girl chat!!!!

My poor homeless child

This past week-end I had a lot of work to do so Greg very kindly offered to take care of the kids so I could finish writing my grant. I really appreciated that and I happily waved good-bye to all my men (well almost ALL as Alex is still in Delaware) early in the morning on Sunday when they took the bikes to ride to the train station and from there up to San Francisco to ride the bike on Embarcadero. A big adventure for little boys!!! Well, I just had to laugh last night when, while downloading the pictures that Greg took, I saw this one. Apparently, right after lunch Lucas crashed and fell asleep on this bench in Pier 39. Greg and Ryan had to wait for more than one hour for the little guy to wake up so he could get back on the bike and from there the happy group could ride back to the train station.

Can you guess which boy hit a milestone today?

Boston

Greg and I got back from Boston on Sunday night. What a beautiful city! The last time I was in Boston must have been something like 13-24 years ago and it was a great feeling being back. I find this city so appealing. The FOCIS conference was at the Marriott in Copley Place, so in the evening, after the talks were over we were able to walk everywhere. Starting from Newbury street with the fabulous stores and cafes', to the freedom trail, the Commons and Faneuil Hall, I loved it all!! The weather changed abruptly on us, so after 1 days of mild weather, a heatwave hit the East Coast and the humidity made it pretty unbearable. But it did not stop us from going around and see all those beautiful places!

Back from Vancouver and Victoria

Got home at 7:30PM last night and wow, we are tired!!!! It was a very busy 4 days, filled with things to see, places to go and a lot to do. Vancouver was great, Victoria was wonderful and the weather worked with us and not against us. The kids were a lot of work most of the times, but overall a trip to remember. After waking up at 5:30 AM, we still missed our flight on Saturday morning and were put on stand-by (but with very few hopes) for the 10:59AM flight, so we had to spend a lot of time at the airport surrounded by uncertainty. Amazingly enough the 5 of us got on the plane and after a long wait at the custom we arrived to the hotel in the early afternoon. The first day we mostly drove around with the car (a huge Lincoln that the kids called the "police car") and were in ed really early. Sunday was a very full day. First we drove to the Capilano suspension bridge, perfect place to have the kids explore nature at its best. Then we went to have lunch at the Public Market in Granville Island, followed by a visit to the Aquarium. Then back home completely pooped! On Monday we got in the car by 9:00Am to go to Victoria. It is not a short trip from Vancouver as it is a 45 minutes drive to the ferry terminal in Taliesin, followed by one and half hour on the ferry to Schwartz bay and then another 30 minutes drive to Victoria. But it was all worth it as Victoria is a really beautiful town. There we went to the BC Museum (very nice) and walked around town. We missed the 5PM ferry so we did not make it home until 9:30PM. On Tuesday we stayed in Vancouver, went tot he Observatory and Gastown, had lunch and then headed to the airport. It was great, but I am also happy to be back home!!!

Hot hot hot!!

Wow, it was hot this past week-end! So we packed our bags and went to visit grandma and Grandpa in Chico. It was probably even hotter there, but at least they have the swimming pool and that is exactly where we spent most of our time while there. The kids had a great time and they were so tired by the end of the day making the going to bed process a lot easier. When we got back home on Sunday night, it was already cooler down here.

Happy Mother's day !

Here goes another year..

First of all let me say that Great Grandma Elva passed away today and that makes me extremely sad, she was sweet and funny and I really am going to miss the thought of her being here on earth with us (as well as your great cookies, they were magic!). I hope you are in a better place Grandma Elva, finally without all those aches that were bothering you so much in the last few years, and please keep an eye on all of us.
On another note, today I added another year to my already pretty rich collection (jury is still out if it is a good or a bad thing!). We went for dinner to Buca di Beppo and against all odds it was fun. The place is so loud that the confusion kids make does really not a bother to anybody so I was able to relax and have a good time. Greg filmed a short video with the little Nikon camera we had brought with us, I am going to try to upload it, let's see what I can do:

Anticipating summer

I am definitely a summer person. One light layer of clothing, no socks or sweaters, long days, beautiful calm evening perfect for walks, the sun to cheer up your spirit, what is better than all of this?
And the first warm days of spring, those days that make you want to get out of the closet your shorts and T-shirt, the days that seem to call out for summer and bring with them the certainty that summer is almost here..those day make me extremely happy. We had few of those days already here in Northern California and I have been loving them. I got out some summer pictures of the kids and created some pages, just to get in summer mood and I also worked on some more winter like pages (although it is California, so the term winter is a relative one) and I put them near each other to compare the feeling.

The little patient

All done! Yesterday was surgery day for Alex. In and out in 2 hours. Not bad. We arrived at the hospital at 1PM, and shortly thereafter we were called in the pre-op where Alex had has baseline values checked and selected the anesthesia. By 2 PM he was in the surgery room and we stayed with him while he went under anesthesia (he selected the orange flavor for the gas). It was fast and right after Greg and I left the room. Surgery went fast in 30 minutes the doctor came out to tell us that everything went smoothly and we all moved to the post-op. Alex came out of the anesthesia pretty fast and started drinking juice and water right away. By 3 PM we were ready to go home, where my big little boy went to sleep for a couple of hours. All in all, a pretty smooth surgery and recovery.

Ahhhh!!!

What is with my kids and colors????
This time Lucas did it all by himself and Alex who was sitting near him did not even notice until it was all done. Lucas was extremely happy of the results.

Little bunny FuFu

Someone is ready for Easter around here.. would you try to guess who that person is????
I have learnt at Halloween how responsive Lucas can be to holidays that include searching or asking for treats. In fact, in October, I got out of the house without the basket for Lucas because I thought:" he is too little too care and probably won't want to knock at nay house and stand in front of people he doesn't know". Oh well, was I wrong!
At the second house he got the hang of it and I had to run back and get his basket. After a few more houses he fell down on his face while stepping out of one of our neighbors houses and he got up right away and screamed: : "my candies!!!" and tried to collect as many as he could from the content of his basket now on the ground.
He came home today from day care with his little Easter Basket full of eggs and little candies, and he managed to open them right away and when we told him no more candies...this is the face we got!!!

Saturday morning

We are all relaxing around the house for now. I have just finished a page that has been sitting on my desk for at least one week and needed some love and care to be completed. Here is the final result. The pictures were taken during our week-end in Santa Cruz. I particularly love the picture of Lucas head taken from the back with the Ocean opening up in front of him. It really shows how little he is in the context of everything else around him.
Next week is Alex's birthday, so today we are all going to celebrate it together and he gets to choose where he wants to go. Stay tuned.

Cenci

Last night I received another cooking book from Tessa Kiros . This one is entitled Twelve, a Tuscan Cook Book. The name twelve comes from the months of the year and for every month there are recipes with ingredients one can find that months of the year in Italy and appropriate for the climate. I have to say it is another really solid cooking book and it the recipes bring so many memories back to my mind. So, today I tried the first recipe and here is a picture of it. These are called "cenci", and they are little pastry strips fried in oil and covered with powder sugar. They are a classical recipe from Tuscany made during the month of February.

Week-end in Santa Cruz

Beautiful sunrise this morning! My dad took the picture as he is the one who wakes up early and keeps company to the 2 menaces in the family. This picture was taken this morning but right now is already raining. The place we have is great, the view of the beach is amazing and we have already spent lots of time running on the beach. The weather has not been as horrible as from forecasts, so yesterday we took advantage of every single minute of sun. Here some pictures of us relaxing. More to come.

Resting

It looks like today is a good day to rest around here. Have a great President Day!

Cards

Usually I am not a big fun of the card making process, don't know why, maybe because I have always been one of those people who goes to birthday parties without a card (oops!) or that never thinks of buying cards and keep them in the house just because. But I have a lot of left over papers from previous projects and I thought it could be a good idea to start making some cards so when the occasion arises, I am not going to be without card anymore. This is my first card made this morning. Not sure I like it, it doesn't really reflect my style but at least is done. The good thing is that it really doesn't take much time and one goes through a lot of unused item. I may start liking the idea!!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Attempting creativity

After we finished remodeling the kitchen, we repainted the living room and the library. That was hte perfect moment to change things around a bit. So, I left the wall over the couch totally bare waiting for the perfect idea to pop into my head. Recently I have been all into pictures and personal memories rather than art for the sake of art. This is why in the dining room I have created a composition of sepia family pictures; they create a special warmth.

The result was wonderful, I got several different size frames and mixed them together to create balance on the wall. We all love them!
Given the successful results, I decided to give it another try in the living room. This time, I went for less personals photos but still used pictures we took and that had a special meaning to us.

So, last week I bought some very rustic frames and I used Shutterfly to print some 11x13 pictures we took last summer during our vacation in Tuscany. They represent places we have been and views that we are very fond of. Well, after playing arund with the composition on the wall, this is the result...They fit perfectly! Last night I bought a nice candle holder at World Market and I am going to hang it on the right side of the pictures. Hopefully everything will work together as it does in my head.