a road trip with no stops?!?

Dad and I took the girls on a mini road trip this weekend to visit our Caporale family in Dearborn/Plymouth, MI. It was the Best Road Trip Ever! This was our first time driving with Mia being potty trained and she did amazing as did her little sissy. We didn't make one stop either way so we made it there and back in less than 3 1/2 hours (each way)! We had a great visit with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Caporale, Great Aunt Sue, Gayle, Jean, cousins Ricky and Steven and Alicia, Great Uncle Doug and of course..Papa! It was a great weekend and the girls are so lucky to have such a big, loving Caporale family :)

Here are some photos of this weekend: caporale girls, Dad putting Mia on the 'door' that measures everyones height, Mia waiting for lunch, girls playing the piano, great aunt Gayle and Annie, Great Grandpa reading to Mia, papa and Mia at the fountain

Pinkalicious and Happy Easter!

Saturday Dad and I took the girls to their first play, "Pinkalicious the Musical" put on at the DePaul Reskin Theatre. Grandma met us at the theatre and Aunt Stacy (who got us the comps) was there with her grandkids. The play was really good, a little different than Pinkalicious the book but Mia loved it! She was glued to the edge of her seat and focused on the entire play - we lucked out, Annie took her nap on me during the play. We took the train home and during dinner, Mia repeated the entire play back to us telling us her favorite parts. It was a fun day downtown.


Friday night after Annie went to sleep, we dyed Easter eggs. Mia had a dozen to color. We wrote our names on each egg, even Charlie and Bosco had an egg.





Happy Easter to everyone! Sunday morning the Easter bunny came to our house and left the girls their Easter Baskets(they got new swimsuits, sidewalk chalk, new bubbles, little egg cars, books/coloring book)...then hide eggs all over for the girls to find. We went to church, took a nice morning walk with the dogs then met mommy's side of the family at Santorini's in Greek Town for Easter lunch with everyone. The girls had a great time, Mia had dolmades and Annie had greek lemon soup that she loved. We cracked red Easter eggs (Grandpa George won) and had yummy dessert too. The girls both received Easter baskets with lots of goodies from Grandma/Papo, Great Aunt Stacy and Grandma's friend Pat. We came home and Mia blew some bubbles out front before we headed inside to play a bit before bed. Annie has been walking like crazy, taking up to 10 steps at a time and then doing this crazy bounce on her knees, moving about 10 inches then screaming with joy - its super cute! She has been babbling like crazy too - lalalal, mamama, daddadad - we laugh because she calls Mia "mama".

Resurrection rolls

Since it's Good Friday, Mia and I did a little recipe project from a friend at Mom's Club. It is suppose to help kiddos understand the concept of Good Friday then Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday. It was fun and very tasty to eat.

You will need:
crescent rolls
melted butter
large marshmallows
cinnamon/sugar (in a bowl)

1. Take marshmallow (Jesus) and dip into the melted butter (represents oils)
2. Dip marshmallow in the cinnamon/sugar mix (represents spices)
3. Then wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll (represents Jesus' body being wrapped)
4. Place in preheated 350 oven for 10-12 minutes (oven represents tomb)
5. Let the rolls cool and enjoy - unwrap the rolls to see that the tomb is empty!



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Mady's bday!

Today the girls and I went to our cousin Mady's first birthday party. They live all the way north near six flags great America. Dad couldn't come as he was filling holes with cement for our new deck (Daddy wrote our names in the cement and had Mia put her handprint in too). The girls had a great time and Mady looked so cute in her birthday tutu. It was great to see everyone on Grandma's side of the family. Annie and Mady are exactly 3 weeks apart!




Yesterday mom ran her first 5k ever and loved it. Dad ran right by her side. The girls stayed home with grandma since it was so cold and rainy out. It was great and we plan to do the Race to Wrigley every year to kick off the baseball season and hopefully more 5Ks this year with faster times!! We took the girls out to Grady's Grill for dinner. They love the play doh they give out to play with.







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New York trip

I'm happy to report that Annie and Mia both did great with grandma while Corey and I were in new York from Sunday- Tuesday morning. It was nice to get away but we misses the girls so much!! And there were babies and little kids everywhere. We want to take them back to NYC since there was so much to show them.

But grandma did a great job, she keep our routines and took them to the park, library, walts and made special ice cream sundaes with Mia.

We arrived in NYC on Sunday. Our hotel was right across from radio city music hall. We took the subway to Greenwich village for lunch and to explore, then later we went to little Italy for pizza. Monday we slept in (ahhhh) then went to central park to run/walk. We saw strawberry fields and the Dakota. We then met corey's cousin Lisa for lunch at the Brooklyn diner. Corey and I did some shopping then got dressed up for the gala. We went to a fundraiser for Our Time, a theatre group that helps kids who stutter. There first was a performance then dinner and live auction. We had great seats and met some great people. Corey met David seidler, the writer of the kings speech At dinner our table was right next to him and Carly Simon! Renee zellweger sat behind us during the performance and Amy Ryan (holly from the office) was there too, plus a bunch more actors. It was very neat. It was very personal to Corey and he was just so glad to see this great group of people helping kids all over the us that stutter.

We were happy to get back to our girls though!










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11 months - Annie

In one month my little baby will be a year old - seems impossible.
Here are a few things she's been doing, even though I probably mentioned a few already.

- loves to knock over chairs and such - timber!
- pushes her baby stroller and walks
- loves music and dancing, flaps her hands when excited
- her first official word has been "hi". She will say it into her pretend phone or my phone. She will say it to people too
- very attached to me and her big sister but when daddy comes home gives him her biggest smile ever
- taking her first steps. Up to 3 good ones now
- started pointing to people she recognizes in photos (pointed to daddy first, and smiled)
- loves coloring and writing in the magnadoodle
- loves pulling books off the shelf, looking at them, especially touch and feel books












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production is down :(

My plan was to nurse Annie as long as possible...but it seems like my milk production is starting to wean her. I have been taking Fenugreek religiously but it's even not helping much anymore. I have been trying to pump a good storage amount for Grandma to feed her while we are out of town but I can't even pump an ounce this week. So I will keep nursing her as much as I can and supplement with some formula (blah!). Luckily I do have a good amount of BM frozen for her to drink while we are away but I am not going to pump while we are gone. Only a month away from when I'd wean her onto milk...so sad! It's like I can see the finish line but my shoes are stuck in mud! UGH!

In the meantime, Mia did awesome at preschool storyhour today! We went to Ms Dee's class (Mia loves her!) and she protested a little...I walked her in and had her sit next to a little girl that looked even more upset than her and told her she would be fine and left. She did great! After the little class is over they come out to the play area and do a craft and all the moms are there waiting. She was so excited to see us and Annie squealed and hugged her hard. Sweet.

Annie is taking two steps now and really trying to walk. Almost time to get her her first pair of stride rites!