The LaGreca Family

As the weekend wraps up I always like to look over pictures I snapped over the two days at home.

Thanks to the AWESOME Youth Auction at our church, we bid on and WON babysitting time from 4 of the High School girls.

Since “Guy” was in town, we took advantage of a Double Date night. The Godfather (super yummy Italian food restaurant) and a few games of pool.

After an eventful Saturday morning – chores and excitement…..

(AJ wore my heels and pretended to be Mommy…while Nicholas begged him not to go to work)

We headed to Chuck-e-Cheese for our neighbors birthday party.

These two boys sure are fun to hang out with…

Lately, it seems like they have gotten SO much easier – especially on the weekend (during the week, it’s still challenging since I get home from work and it’s a mad dash to eat, bathe, read and get them to bed). I love that we get to relax on Saturday mornings, cook a hot breakfast and stay in jammies a little too long.

After church on Sunday, we decided to hike Cowles Mountain as a family. The weather is amazingly beautiful here today and the mountain just reopened after being closed for a few months.

While on the mountain, we were warned that a SNAKE was headed towards our ‘lunch spot’ (pictured above). I nearly burst into tears. I was TERRIFIED! We made it out of the spot alive (barely) and then continued up the Mt (against my will). I felt like I was in prison! As soon as AJ got tired, I volunteered to take him down. Unfortunately, we both fell on the way down. I twisted my ankle and AJ hit a patch of rocks. We made it to the bottom w/o any snakes sightings – thankfully, but my ankle is sore now :/

Fort LaGreca is in full use this afternoon An improvised rope swing was born and I am sure they are setting up traps for ‘bad guy’ out there, too.

Our weekend is nearly over….another one for the history books. May in San Diego sure is lovely.

As you know, Nicholas is in Transitional Kinder this year at a local public school. It’s been really amazing. He is doing SO good. He loves his teacher, he is learning a ton and he enjoys all the friends he has made.

Throughout the school year, different ‘after school’ programs are offered. Nicholas has been doing Soccer Shots for nearly the whole school year (Thursdays). Recently, he came to us and said he wanted to do a Dance class. Joe wasn’t too sure about it — but Nicholas really wanted to try, so we signed him up for that (Wednesdays: it turns out that he REALLY likes it!) And on Mondays he goes to Art Smarts.

The first week was FLOWERS (his art is pictured above).

Then they drew/painted houses.

This past week, he painted an iguana (above). He was really proud Joe & I both love it.

I am SO glad we can sign him up for these extra little programs. He seems to really like it all. It’s fun to encourage him in all these different areas. Yes, Joe, even dance (from the recent ‘Disney Dance Afternoon’ video I posted on fb, you can see that our boys need a bit of help when it comes to ‘moves’)

Little LaGreca turned the BIG 3 last weekend. And let me tell you, I have never seen ANYONE more excited to have a birthday.

He is ALL about monster trucks right now – and of course, Grandma D heard about it. She found FOUR awesome monster trucks – Iron Man is AJ’s favorite.

We spent the morning/early afternoon at the park with family & friends!

The BEST part of the WHOLE day was right after we sang “happy birthday” to Anthony. He was SO excited — he yelled “I MADE IT!! I MADE IT!!” He made everyone laugh, that is for sure.

Both of our boys are also VERY much into Legos. AJ got some FUN sets for his birthday. Monster Truck Rally set for Auntie Dani & ‘Meal’. We got him a BIG helicopter set. And he got a few other little sets, too. This kid MADE out!!

There are so many wonderful things about this boy. He is SO darn cute. He is REALLY polite (for a 3 year old) — he is always the first to say ‘Bless you’ when a he hears a sneeze. If you get hurt and say “ouch” – he is the first one to the scene saying “Are you ok?” He is still an amazing Eater – in fact, he has been know to ask for more the one helping of SALAD! He enjoys being a little brother – loves his big brother to death. His facial expressions are so awesome. His smile will light up ANY room. He is friendly to nearly everyone.

Happy 3rd Birthday Anthony Joseph. So glad YOU MADE IT!!

Today was National ‘BRING YOUR CHILD TO WORK” day. It should probably also be called “The Circus Comes to an office near YOU!”

I work at a really cool place. They certainly don’t have to put all the effort into a day like this — but they do. Our HR team really is great.

The kids all got their own badge. They got a REALLY cute t-shirt and a Peregrine bag full of stuff. They did Zumba. They went on a scavenger hunt for stickers (walking tour of our office, test floor, etc). They had breakfast, snack and lunch. They got to play kick ball in a big empty carpeted room. And they decorated a frame for a picture.

I didn’t get a whole lot of work done today but it was fun to have all the ‘mini-me’s at the office. It was a great game to match the child with the parent

It was a ‘work day’ like no other – that is for sure!

I didn’t want to let Easter pass w/o it’s OWN blog post. After all, it’s probably my favorite holiday of the year!

The weeks leading up to Easter were busy with fun activities. The boys both attended Easter for Kids at a local church. It’s a GREAT free program where kids learn all about the Easter story, and work on crafts, decorate cookies, watch a short video and learn a new song (to sing for all the parents at the end). It was AJ’s first year going (kids have to be 3…so, I got ‘special’ permission for him to go a month before his 3rd birthday). The church served a free lunch to all the families and them there was a BIG Easter Egg Hunt outside.

Then we had Palm Sunday at church and one of our traditions at FHPC is to have the children walk into the sanctuary with Palm branches and then they sing a song in front of the church.

In preparation of Good Friday, Nicholas drew the above picture of his understanding of the events happening on Good Friday. I just LOVE evert hung about his picture. Although he doesn’t really understand the unbelievable significance of that 1st Good Friday, his little brain is soaking up as much as it can. Every year, I can see a difference and maturity in his understanding of Easter.

Another Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday before Easter with friends and family. The boys got MORE candy. And we had a family picture taken with the Easter Bunny (not pictures above…maybe it will be good enough to make it on the Christmas card this year).

We dyed a LOT of hard boiled eggs the evening before Easter. I can’t believe how fast 5 kids dyed 24 eggs!! AJ was excited to get them all done and then he was very concerned about WHEN we would be able to EAT them. I let him have one with dinner that night

Easter Morning!! It was a busy morning at church. The All Church breakfast was first.

Then an Easter Egg Hunt on the playground.

One of my favorite parts of our Easter Sunday worship is the cross with flowers. And I FINALLY remembered to bring flowers this year! The boys each got to put two flowers on the cross to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on Easter morning. The music at church was AMAZING!! Seriously, wow!

We ended the day with Easter lunch/dinner at Meg & Steve’s house…and THE FINAL Egg Hunt of 2013!

Lent was a great time of sacrifice and prayer. It was fun to talk to the boys about Easter and teach them a little bit more than they already knew. Nicholas is starting to have some REALLY good (and hard) spiritual questions!! Sometimes I really have to think about my answer (and try to put it in terms that a 5 year old can understand). It’s NOT easy!

Hard to believe it’s April and Easter has come…and gone :/ Lucky for us, we get to celebrate Easter every Sunday! (But Easter Sunday is still, and always will be, my FAVORITE Sunday of the year).