Happy birthday to my favorite 6 year old!

Happy 6^th  birthday to my sports loving, joke telling, cuddly John David! It’s crazy that I’m wishing you a happy 6^th birthday.  6, my baby is 6!  What is going on?!?! 

You love anything that has a ball!  And you are such a natural!  You rocked baseball, we were so proud of you, you did a great job hitting from the coach, fielding, you knocked down those ground balls like a champ, and remember those 2 fly balls you caught, and what made me smile the most was when you cheered on your team, Let’s go, Emeralds, Let’s go _______.  You love to play Around the World with us, you love to throw the football and you have a spiral, and now you are hitting golf balls.  The one sport that you haven’t shown an interest in is soccer. 

You are such a great reader.  We loved getting notes sent home from your teacher about how good of a reader you are.  I’m honestly impressed with your level of reading.  I love how you sound out the words you don’t know and at least try to get the word.

You love making books and you are so creative with your stories.  You go through so much paper it’s crazy.

You are absolutely crazy about tacos! You could eat them every day!  You also, love spaghetti, pancakes, rice kripsies, cheese burgers, brats.  You still love a good cheese, mayo and mustard sandwich :-/. You think you don’t like chicken, but when you do eat it, you like it. Not only do you like to eat but you also like to cook.  I like cooking with you. 

You have a great big heart and are always making us laugh.  You like to tell us jokes, what do cows do on Saturday?  They go to the MOOOVIES.  You tell us this joke a lot and try to change it up too.

We can't forget you're love for texting!  It's so cute to see you text Grandma and Grandpa.  You totally gush all over them and it definitely shows your love for them!

You love to play with daddy.  You enjoy playing catch, Around the World, Basketball games, golfing and joking around with each other.  I love the relationship you guys have.

You have stolen my heart.  The other day you told me you liked my dress I was wearing and today when I asked how my sandals looked with my skirt, you said perfect.  You know how to make me feel special and I’m just so thankful to have you in our lives. 

Happy birthday to my Johnny!

Lucky # 7- Happy Birthday Austin!

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Happy 7^th birthday to our fun and loving boy, Austin.  Ironically, today is also your last day of First Grade. You are officially a Second Grader.  What just happened here?  How did you go from a baby to Second Grader in a flash?  Seriously, weren’t you just taking your first steps and saying your first words?  I say this all the time but I really need a PAUSE button.  I wouldn’t use it all the time, just on moments that I want to cherish longer.  You know like the moments when we are playing basketball as a family, or when we are laughing at the little things, you practicing riding a bike, you reading ( I LOVE it when you read to me) and I definitely want to make the time stand still when you let me hold you.  It’s not very often, but when it happens, my heart is HAPPY. 

At 7, you still have yet to lose a tooth.  I know you feel like you will be the last one to lose a tooth but I do hear that it’s better for your teeth in the long run.  And trust me, we could use some help in that department.  And besides, you are so cute with that baby smile. 

At 7, you love spaghetti, pancakes, steak, hamburgers, ribs,chicken, fruit, cottage cheese, chips (yes, you still love chips).  Let’s not forget about your love for Lemonade. You are still a pretty good eater and that makes me happy.

At 7, you love to read.  You like to read books and have books read to you.  Lately, you have been listening to stories on your Chromebook.  It amazes me at how much you have grown as a reader since last year when you finished Kindergarten.  You should be so very proud of yourself, I am.

You love to be outside.  You could be playing basketball, you know playing Around the World against daddy (and beating him sometimes!), me and John David (that's one of my favorite things to do) soccer, playing with chalk, riding your scooter, building a robot, anything.  I can’t wait for when mommy and daddy blast you with a super soaker. You love going to the park and climbing, swinging and monkeying around on the monkey bars.  

You love to text.  And you're getting pretty good at spelling the words.  I sure do think it's cute when you're texting Grandma and Grandpa.  Some of the conversations are super sweet and them some of them are just plain crazy with all of the emoticons!

 

You love to play games on the ipad, Chromebook, your 3DS, daddy's playstation even board games.  I think you might be a gamer one day.  I think you would play all day if I'd let you.  You get so into it and just want to WIN.

Grandma’s pool is the time when I think you are the most free and happy.   You just LOVE jumping in.  I love making memories with you in the pool. 

Austin, we love you.  I wish you knew how much and I wish I could explain to you how much.  One day, when you have a child, you know when you are living with John David and your wives, you’ll understand.   You are a great boy.  You want to do things on your own time and you do have trouble listening to my words and sometimes your teachers, but what 6 year old doesn’t.  I hear  The age that I have been waiting for. Lucky number 7!

Let’s make this a great year.  Let’s enjoy the summer.  Happy Birthday, buddy!

Spring time

I started writing this post a long time ago.  I'm going to leave it and then continue below, so it's kinda like 2 posts.

Yay, it's spring time and that means more time outside, grilling and more fun!  We've had a taste of some warm weather and we have been to the park, playing basketball outside and have grilled, well Kevin has and it was delish!

Baseball is also going to start soon.  If only the weather would cooperate and stop raining and be over 45 degrees.  I feel bad that his practice was canceled, he was so excited and just wants to play ball.  He got a new throw and field trainer and goes outside whenever he can to throw the ball and practice.  We went to the store to buy all of his gear and the excitement in his eyes was awesome.  He met his team, so all that is left is to practice!  So April weather, warm up and save the rain for the hours of  9p.m.-4 a.m.

We have awesome readers on our hand.  I'm so happy that they love to read.  They read before bed every night and just love getting new books at the library each week.  They have really grown.  Although it's hard to get use to both of them reading signs on the road, or at restaurants and we definitely can't spell or they will catch wind.  I'm happy that they are growing so much and a little sad too.

Boys are having a fun time texting from my phone.  So be warned, if you get a text from me that doesn't sound like me, it very well could be Austin or John David.  They love receiving messages too.

We enjoyed spring break.  Boy did it go by fast.  We did a lot  and I'm sorry that it's over.  the boys are pretty amazing and I was lucky to be able to spend a whole week with them. 

I'm laughing right now because, I just wrote about how we just enjoyed spring break, and now we are 1 week out from summer break!  I tell ya, life has been just so hectic and crazy as of late.  Work has been crazy busy and home too.

John David had a great baseball season, we are just beyond proud of him.  He made plays at first as the first baseman,  caught 2 fly balls, stopped ground balls and threw to first and second, hit the ball from the coach and cheered on his team.    He loves playing and can't wait to play fall ball.  As crazy as the season was, practice 1 night and 1-3 games a week, I'm sad that it's over.  We really enjoyed watching him play. And he was way too cute in his uniform.

Austin had a blast playing with his friends from the baseball team.  We've met some new friends in the neighborhood so that's been fun.

School is over next week and I'm sitting here thinking where did the year go!   Just looking at how far both of them come over the school year.  Both are great readers!  Austin is doing fractions, adding, and subtracting and spelling! (much more too). I can't wait to take a picture on Friday to see the difference from their first day of school. 

Both boys start summer camp on the 6th and I think they are going to have a blast.  Lots of fun things happening for them.

Kevin is doing good.  He got his father's day gift a little bit early.  The boys got him a smoker, he's been wanting it for awhile now and it's perfect that the weather is nice.  He can cook for us even more now!  Win win!  


I'm having a hard time with the boys turning 7 and 6 and going into 2nd and 1st grade.  What happened to my babies!?!?!  I'm still thankful, they still like to cuddle.

The next weeks will be crazy with school ending and birthdays for my 2 special boys.

Artinghelli Happenings

It seems as though I do this every year.  I just can't seem to find the time to blog.  So I apologize that's its been nearly 3 months since my last blog.  So much has happened.  We went through the Holidays, which were amazing.  We had a lot of activities surrounding the holidays which always turns out to be fun.  This year we went on a train ride with Santa and his elves, my work Christmas party, made cookies, had a bunch of celebrations and even started a new tradition, driving around the neighborhood looking at lights and going out for ice-cream.  I really enjoyed that.  We were going to send holiday cards oversees but didn't make the deadline, but we did send a Christmas Card to a girl who was asking for them because she lost her family in a fire and was wanting these cards to make her feel better and we adopted a boy who wanted Minecraft toys, just like Austin.   Boys, of course were spoiled with love and toys.  They got their 3DS's from us.  This was the present of the year, and Austin has been talking about wanting it for months. It was great to see their expression when they opened it!  They got a lot of great toys this year and are super super lucky.  We keep trying to tell them that they are lucky and that there are people/kids out there who don't have it as good.  Hopefully, they do know they are lucky.  We had a lot of questions this year about Santa.  Is he real, are the parents giving the toys, he's not the same Santa as we saw, etc.  It makes me sad to think that the innocence and the belief might not be here for much longer.   Hopefully we can get a few more years, and I hope the older kids keep the magic going for us.

Austin is rocking with the reading.  I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of him.  It's amazing to hear his sweet voice read to me. He's comprehending too, which is awesome.
A funny story, so for school, Austin had to write about which book he preferred out of 2 books he recently read about ducks.  He had to say why he preferred the book, what he would say to someone who was asking.  So, my little guy, said he liked one of the books better because it was a shorter book.  Little stinker.  I laughed to myself, but then he had to redo the work because his teacher said, that wasn't a good reason!  Hahaha.

Austin is really loving basketball!  He wants that ball to go in the hoop and will keep shooting til it's in there.  He likes to count how many shots he can make in a row.  Can't wait for it to warm up a bit so he can do this at home and not after practice.  I feel bad for him because he is the smallest on the team and it's definitely hard for him to get and keep the ball because everyone is so much bigger.  

Both boys love watching Impractical Jokers.  They just crack up at all of the things the jokers need to do!  It's nice to have a show, we can all enjoy watching.  Not just those pesky cartoons.

We have been enjoying playing Minion Life.  It's definitely different than the Life we played growing up, but it's a lot of fun.  I love playing games as a family.  Uno attack is another fun one, love it when the boys get blasted with cards, haha!   I'm sure Kevin can't wait until we can all play Monopoly!

John is also doing an AMAZING job with his reading too.  I love listening to him read.  So proud of how good he is with sounding out his words.





We signed John David up for the travel league for baseball.  We can't wait to see him out there.  He can't wait either.  He was so good at t-ball, can't wait to see how he does off the tee.  Can't wait to see his arm in action!!!!!  And we are also getting ready to sign him up for flag football.  I know he can't wait for that one!  He is so excited about sports.  Well, John David is excited about everything, he really is just a well rounded kid!

I think we are all ready for it to be nice outside again.  While, we have been blessed with a mild winter, can't wait for spring/summer, when we can be outside!  I miss the burgers and brats Kevin would grill and having the windows open!  It's coming, I know it! 

Happy

We are very happy.

Boys are doing well in school.  They both just seem to love it.  They both love their teachers and are filled with excitement.  Austin has homework just about every night and now that there is a good routine he doesn't seem to mind.  He has spelling words every night, lightening words (where you have to quickly read the words and are timed, reading and one math sheet.  Austin has taken off with the reading!  I'm just so proud of him that I can't even begin to tell you.  It's like something clicked.

John David has popcorn words at school, so they work on 2-4 words each week, that are constantly showing up that week during the lessons.  Well, while we are reading John David is pointing out his popcorn words.  It's great.  I just know soon we are going to have 2 awesome readers on our hands.

We just love our neighborhood.  The boys are always outside playing with the kids in the neighborhood.  They ask to look outside to see if they are outside playing and quickly run outside.  What amazes me, is that our neighbors are a little bit older than our boys, but that doesn't seem to matter.  John David can hold is own when playing football and they both have really gotten into playing hockey which is great because they all seem to like it.  Kevin and I have loved having the basketball hoop because it gives us something to do when they are outside playing with their friends.  Kevin and I have enjoyed playing HORSE and PIG, although I don't think I've won a game yet, but I do give Kevin some competition.  Boys are loving playing basketball too.  It truly has been great.  We have also noticed that our neighborhood likes to decorate for Halloween. It's crazy, we have put up a sign and some pumpkins and that's about it, but I'm sure next year, it will be different and I can't even imagine the decorations when it comes to Christmas time!  I can't wait.  Although, we will need to go buy some outside decorations.

We had a great time at the Red Raiders game a few weeks back.  It would have been better if it wasn't cold though, the boys weren't too happy.  Next time we go when it's a little chilly out we will be more prepared with blankets, we were bundled with hats, gloves and coats, but were still cold.  John David even saw his teacher, which made him so excited!  I think Kevin really enjoyed going to the game, although it might be another year or two before they can handle a Michigan game!  It was just great being out with all of the excitement.

Buster is happy too.  When we are outside in the front, he needs to be with us.  If he's not, you can hear him barking by the garage door and jumping on the door.  We have to be careful, because he has been known to lock us out.  Good thing, the back door was open or we would have been in trouble.  So we just let him out front with us, on his leash and he just loves the attention he gets from all of the kids. 

We have been enjoying the fall weather.  We went to Goeberts and the boys had a blast with their friends, we got pumpkins that we are looking to carve tonight, Kevin is enjoying his Pumpkin Spiced Latte and we are all enjoying Apple Cider Donuts!

Football is now over for John David.  It was more of a basic type class which was too basic for Johnny. It seems as though he got more out of playing with the neighbors than the class.  Next year, it'll be different though, maybe flag, we'll see.  He has a great spiral, can catch the ball and can even punt it.  It's just crazy that you give him a ball and he knows what to do with it.  We were at the park and a high schooler was there with a friend with their lacrosse sticks.  Next thing I know, John David picked up a stick and was catching and throwing.  Just crazy at how natural he is with balls.

Austin started Karate and he is loving it.  He got is gi 2 weeks ago and looking more official.  And he is starting basketball next month, hoping he likes that as he loves shooting hoops outside.


 Our little munchkins sure do keep us busy and we are enjoying it.

Back to School

It's hard to believe that summer is over and that school has started.  With all of the anticipation of school coming, it's hard to believe it's finally here.

Friday was the boys last day of Day Care.  It was definitely surreal.  I really LOVED this daycare.  Austin and John David went in there after running the old daycare and this place quickly whipped them into shape.  No not literally, but they definitely were strict!  After nearly 2 years here, it was so bittersweet to say goodbye.  The boys absolutely loved their teacher and were in tears as we drove away.  I felt horrible.  Before we left, they each gave the kids a hug and hugged their teachers and it made me smile knowing how much they were loved. Thank you Learning Tree for teaching my kids, guiding them and most importantly loving them.

I took Monday and Tuesday off before school started.  We went on a Chicago adventure with grandma on Monday.  We went to Maggie Daley park and visited the Bean.  The boys love Chicago. They love looking at the tall buildings, pointing out the taxi's and buses and watching the hustle and bustle.   On Tuesday, we went out with friends and enjoyed the day and had John David's last t-ball practice!

Austin had a great first day.  He got on the bus, and had THE BIGGEST GRIN on his face as he drove away.  The excitement in his wave made the drop off easy.  As we walked away, John David started crying.  Just like last year when we dropped him off.  And just like last year, I didn't anticipate it.  I knew I would be sad, but not Johnny.  We got home and played and he was much better.  That kid wore me out.  We played with his stuffed animals, played catch, got my new license, picked up some stuff at Aldi, went to breakfast, mini golfing, made Austin cookies, played more catch and went to the park!  I'm exhausted just writing it.  I just wanted to make his last day special with mommy.  And was it!

Austin came home loving first grade.  His teacher gave him a Popsicle.  The way to a kids heart--Popsicles!  He said he loved it.  He ate most of his lunch, and ate the rest when he got home.  After the cookies of course. He talked about his day and was looking forward to going back.  He was a bit crabby before dinner as to be expected and was in bed by 7:30.  

John David has a great first day too.  We took him to the bus and when the bus got there, he didn't even look back.  He got on the bus, just like he was suppose to.  I waited for the bus to leave and saw Austin in the window seat. Again, big smile and a big wave, and I saw him tell John David to look out the window and I saw a big smile from him and a big wave.  I just know my Austin was looking out for his brother.  We met John David at school.  He knew we were so I'm hoping that's why he didn't even think to give me a hug goodbye.  We waited outside his room for him.  He looked so small in the hallway as he was walking down it.  It was important for him to do the bus the first day so he would be use to it.  All of the parents were in the hallway waiting for the kids to make sure they got in the room.  We walked him in.  Right away, "good morning, Ms. ____  Just hearing him say her name is so sweet.  We went to his seat, made sure he was good and gave him a great big hug.  He said, "Mommy, daddy wait", Oh no I thought to myself, he came up and said "one more hug", gave us a hug, and sat back down and say "bye mommy and daddy"  No tears, what a big boy he was is.  I got home from school, and went to work.  Wow, was it quiet.  I could hear myself think and Buster snore.  The day dragged on.  I was working like a bee but as expected kept thinking what is Johnny and Austin doing now.  The bus was late dropping, as to be expected, making sure everyone gets on the right bus, and that was the hardest wait.  Just wanted to see how their day was!  We got them and drove to get ice cream and talk about John David's first day.  He loved it of course and couldn't wait to go back.

Now, I officially have 2 kids in school.  The fun has begun, making lunches, checking the backpack daily, emails from teachers, spelling words start this week and homework soon, I'm sure.

They are ready to learn and fly.