birthday number nine

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear anna/mommy, happy birthday to you!

we celebrated my mom's 57th birthday yesterday (april 25th) with family all around! we all went over to my parent's house after dinner, and spent the rest of the night there, celebrating in her special day. among the many presents that she received, matteo made his very own for his nanna! he coloured her a picture/card and drew her on it as well (his drawings are so cute!) and we also gave her a small flower pot, where we painted her name on it (nanna) and matteo also painted the rest of it on his own, and even added his own sparkles to it! we ate some delicious cake and finished off the night with some great conversation and laughs. my mom is definitely the best mother in the entire world, and i wish her nothing but happiness, health, love and good fortune for her 57th year and the many, many more to come! much love <3

my beautiful mother with my beautiful daughter =)

pinterest craft night

my friend paige and i have been planning to have a pinterest craft date night for awhile now, and we were finally able to have our first one tonight! we decided to go with three crafts for the night, which in total cost us around $40.00 for all of the materials for two people doing three different crafts. the three that we went with for the night were painted flower pots for spring/summer, a date night jar and glittering our keys! below are some details on the crafts and pictures of each one! i'm definitely looking forward to our next pinterest night! enjoy and much love! <3

the first pinterest inspired craft we did were painted flower pots for spring/summer, which you can find here - http://pinterest.com/pin/99219998010540766/ we bought four bigger sized pots, and six smaller sized pots. as well as all of the paint colours that you see above (we used acryclic paint) the paint showed up really well (we did about two coats for each colour that we used) and dried on right away. the picture on the left is one of the bigger pots, and the one on the right is the smaller one, which my son, matteo painted himself =)

the second pinterest inspired craft of the night was taking our house keys, and making them stand out a bit more by adding glitter to them! the link to that can be found here - http://pinterest.com/pin/99219998010243867/ the link calls for using modge podge, but all we used was plain old white glue and glitter! we applied a very thin layer of glue (if its too thick, the glitter wont stick all over and will go on in globs) and then stuck it down on the glitter for a few minutes. we repeated the same procedure on the other side.

the last pinterest inspired craft was the one i was really looking forward to and have been wanting to do for a while.. the date night jar! which is found here - http://pinterest.com/pin/25473554112277211/ all that was needed for this was a jar (it calls for a mason jar, but we used this as it was all we could find), big popsicle sticks, markers and a ribbon of your choosing. the sticks were then divided into three different categories, which we used three different colour markers for. red sticks indicate more expensive dates, green sticks indicate less expensive dates and blue sticks indicate at home dates. we did five of each for now (you can always add more to them later) and depending on what we want to do that night (stay at home or go out) we will randomly pick out one of those colours. i'm really excited for this one!

pinterest inspired crafts!

eight months old

eight months ago today the sweetest, little thing that i ever laid eyes on came into my life! although looking at the time right now, i still was an hour away from getting to see my baby girl for the first time, seven hours after having her. since then, she has grown so much and is learning new things each and every day! my tiny princess is now weighing in at a whopping 15lbs and 1oz! up until a little bit over a week ago, she was strictly breastfed, so its always amazing to see just how much breast milk she is getting and how great it is for her. and speaking of eating and food, we finally started alessia on rice cereal on april ninth! she may be eight months old, but just turned her adjusted age of six months old on the tenth! she tolerated it really well and has been loving it each and every day! tomorrow we will be starting carrots, and then introducing a new solid/food every three days! it will be so fun to see how she does with them all, and what she takes a liking to the most! on top of that, she has been getting bigger and stronger by sitting up on her own more and more each day (she is at about 10 seconds or so before she falls to the side), moving herself in circles while on her tummy and trying to push herself forward, but with no luck! she just decides to give up and cry out for mama :) lol within the past month she has also celebrated her first easter, her first time sitting in a high chair both at home and in a restaurant and finding her voice (and how loud it can get!) more and more! i am so excited to see what the next month brings, and how much more she will grow and learn! happy eight months baby girl! <3

alessia's first time trying rice cereal!

birthday number seven and eight

happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me.
happy birthday dear lisa, happy birthday to me!

i know i am super late on this post (between birthdays, easter, spending time with family, and even some laziness - haha) i haven't been able to make this post until now. but here goes! i celebrated my 25th birthday on april 4th! its weird for me.. i dont feel 25, yet i don't really know what age i feel. although looking at it, being in a relationship for the past four and a half years and having two kids, definitely does make me feel 25! either way, so far it has been a great 25th year, and it is only the beginning! i am healthy, happy and blessed with an amazing family and on top of that, i also welcomed into the world a new niece, born on my birthday! (keep on reading to see more about that!) i was treated to an early surprise present the night before my birthday from the boyfriend. nothing over the top, just some beautiful flowers! (and what girl doesn't love flowers?) as well as some great gifts from my brother and sister-in-law and my parents! we celebrated the day of low key, with staying in and ordering dinner in, since it was the birth of my niece. we had a re-do on the saturday, going out for dinner to one of my favourite places, red lobster, with some of my family. who doesn't love lobster fest?! all in all, it was a pretty special birthday, and i am looking forward to what my twenty-fifth year has in store for me!

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear giuliana, happy birthday to you!

this is the start to a new birthday in our family! my new niece, giuliana lisa logullo was born at 8:48am on april 4th, weighing in at 9lbs even, making it birthday number eight in our family!she was delivered via a planned c-section and was born a healthy, big girl with a ton of black hair! she is the third child for my brother and sister-in-law, and is the sixth grandchild! i feel blessed to share my name with her (her middle name lisa, was chosen after me since she was born on my birthday) and even more blessed to have another niece! here is to a happy and healthy first year of life, with new first and beginnings! <3

giuliana lisa logullo <3

birthday number six

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear matthew, happy birthday to you!

talk about being a bad girlfriend, but here i am posting this three days late! lol my wonderful boyfriend, matthew turned twenty seven this past sunday (march twenty fifth) the night before, or i suppose early the day of, around one in the morning, i baked cupcakes for him! i set aside four that i frosted and then decorated. i put them in a container, stuck a note on top and left them on his chair in the computer room for him to find when he woke up. once all of that happened, we made our way over to cora, which is a breakfast and lunch restaurant. we met up with the rest of my family, and after an hour wait, our tables were finally ready! the selection was great, and the plates/servings were huge! i would highly recommend it over places like denny's! (and their potatoes that come with the bacon are ah-mah-zing!) after eating, we went into the mall where matthew picked out a new cologne that i bought for him (hugo boss orange man - smells awesome!) we finished his birthday night off with some family time at home, and ordered pizza from boston pizza! so here is too an amazing year.. filled with love, happiness and dreams coming true! happy birthday boo! <3

myself with the birthday boy, back in february <3

seven months old

every month that alessia turns older, i cringe a little inside! haha i just want her to stay a baby and like this forever. i really would love it! (the newborn and baby stage is my favourite!) that being said.. i am a few days late on this post, as alessia turned seven months old on the eighteenth, but late is better then never! at seven months (five and a half adjusted) alessia now weighs 13lbs 6oz! she is growing and getting bigger each day! since her sixth month she has started making new noises and "talking", got into the fake coughing phase to get your attention, found her feet and is always grabbing them and holding them, had her first walk outside and in a maya wrap, and also got to experience her first movie in the theatre, first playgroup and her first time in the exersaucer! and how could i forget! she sat up all on her own today for a good ten seconds! it was the definite highlight of my day =) much love to my baby girl <3

sitting up all on my own!

a new play group

i took the kids out today, to a play group that is located at the huntington hills community association and is sponsored by the parent link centre. because of this, that means that all of the programs that are offered there are free of charge, and they also provide snacks for the kids and parents! i really wish i had known about it a lot sooner, considering it is right by our house and they have the parents and tot program/play group every tuesday from 1:30 to 3:00 (and you can't beat it being free!) i definitely would have been taking matteo there from the time he was a baby! but i'm so glad we finally found out about it and get to attend now! (they also have a baby and me program/play group every thursday from 1:30 to 3:00 that i will probably check out as well!) since it is close by, and the weather has been nicer we took a walk over there. i strapped matteo into the stroller and put alessia into our maya wrap (our first time taking her for a walk outside and using it!) it would have been a lot better walk if it weren't for the damn wind! that made it cold! but luckily we made it there within 10-15 minutes, so it wasn't too bad. and alessia really enjoyed being in the wrap!

once we got there, we signed in and matteo immediately went to work, scoping out all of the toys. he really enjoyed (and spent most of his time) with the wooden building blocks. its a really cute play room that they have, with several different stations, different toys, a reading nook, an arts and crafts table, a changing table/quiet room, and a play mat for the babies. they provided coffee and water for the parents, as well as water and snacks for the kids (today's snack was fruit gummies) when it was time to leave, matteo had a bit of a melt down, as he definitely didn't want to put all the blocks away and leave.. but that just proves that he really enjoyed it. i'm sure after a couple of visits, he will do a lot better when it comes time to leave. it was a great way to spend a few hours and to get out of the house and we will definitely be coming back every tuesday! much love <3

 

 

 

the st. patricks day clover that matteo made!

my favourite boys

my sister-in-law posted this picture tonight on facebook of my little boy, matteo and my boyfriend, matthew. it is by far one of my favourite pictures ever, and after seeing it, it compelled me to write a blog post! these two are two of the most important people in my life, and definitely my two favourite boys! they mean the absolute world to me and i would definitely be lost without then. each and every day they bring a new meaning to the word love and family. i am so proud to have matteo as my son, and matthew as my bestfriend and boyfriend. each and every day is a new adventure with them, in so many different ways. i grow and learn from both of them, and seeing them interact with each other is definitely one of the highlights of my day. this picture was taken at my dad's birthday party, and we definitely didn't even realize that they would be matching until the day of! haha (but it is super cute, nonetheless) i am so blessed to have such a smart, beautiful, funny, sweet and cuddly little man, and just as blessed to have such an even smarter, good looking, funny, caring and loving man in my life. i love you both so much <3

happy birthday dr. seuss

one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish - in honour of dr. seuss' birthday, here are a few of my favourite quotes by the famous author!

“don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

“you know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” 

“today you are you, that is truer than true. there is no one alive who is youer than you.” 

“sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

65th birthday party - birthday number five

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear franco/daddy, happy birthday to you!

today my dad turns the big sixty-five! we will all be heading on over to my parent's house later to celebrate (again!) however i wanted to make a blog post on the party we had for him this past sunday! we celebrated the sixty fifth birthday of my wonderful, loving, caring and one of a kind dad at the italian club. there were close to ninety family and friends there to help celebrate and that was only close family and friends! (such as my dad's aunts, uncles and first cousins) upon arrival, you were greeted by the guest of honour and we had a big poster board set up, with an old picture of my dad in the middle, and markers around the table so that everyone could sign it! it will be a great memento for my dad to keep and put up in his office!

as we were waiting for everyone to arrive, we took some pictures of my dad with his guests, got a family shot of the birthday boy with his children and also got some great shots of my dad with his five grandchildren.

once everyone had arrived and settled in the buffet was all set up and everyone was able to dig in. sandwiches, salad, cheese, veggies, chicken lasagna, veal, potatoes asparagus.. you name it and it was there! you cant go wrong with the food from Roma Catering :) after everyone had a chance to eat, there was a speech made by my dad's closest cousin, ralph.. which definitely brought a tear (or tears) to my dad's eyes, along with i'm sure everyone else in the room (including myself) after that, we set up the slideshow to show off the past sixty five years of my dad's wonderful life (that i made! i love making slideshows and am the slideshow queen/maker in my family for weddings, birthdays, etc) everyone enjoyed it and it also brought many smiles and more tears to my dad's eyes!

after some more mingling between all of the guests and the birthday boy, it was time for the cake to come out! we got some great photo ops, and then lit of the candles and sang happy birthday to my dad, as he then blew out all of the candles and made his wish.

cake, coffee and tea were served (the cake was amazingly delicious by the way!) and the rest of the day/party was spent with everyone having some great conversations and laughs. it was a really special day for everyone that come and the party was a big hit! seeing my dad interact with all of his loved ones who were there for him was so special, and the smile that was permanently plastered to his face all day was the best thing to see all day :) here is to many, many more wonderful years and a very happy birthday to the best man in the whole wide world.. my sweet, loving, caring, wonderful, handsome dad! much love <3 (and here are some more pictures from the party!)

birthday number four

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear bruno, happy birthday to you!

i feel terrible that i am a day late on this, but happy birthday to my big brother, bruno! yesterday he turned a year less then my sister.. and if you remember from my sister's birthday post, i wasn't revealing her age, for fear of her coming to hurt me! haha. so here is to all of your dreams and wishes coming true for this year! much love <3

my brother bruno, with alessia!

six months old

six months ago today, at this time.. my baby girl was a little over three hours old. and i still had not seen her little itty bitty face, her teeny tiny body or her bald little head. its hard to believe that she has already lived half of her first year of life, and before i know it.. will be celebrating her first birthday. time is going way too fast! i wish i could make it stop. however, this little precious miracle is growing and learning every day and is an amazing little person! i'm not quite sure how much she weighs at the moment, i'll find that out on tuesday at her rsv shot but i am positive she is over twelve pounds as she was eleven pounds, six ounces about a month ago. she sure has grown from the little three pounder that she once was! since her fifth month of life she has hit numerous milestones! some of which include being able to rock herself in her chair, sleeping for a new record of eight and a half hours straight, turning herself on her back in a circle, pulling herself up from a sitting position, talking, laughing and yelling a whole bunch and rolling to her side.. almost on to her back! because she was born premature by eight weeks, we are still uncertain about starting solids at six months or waiting until her adjusted age of six months.. but when the time comes for that, i'll be sure to blog about it! i can't wait to see what new milestones she will achieve, going in to her seventh month of life! i love you baby girl! <3

valentine's day

butterfly bows

i decided to bite the bullet tonight and make my very own, first bow ever! and of course, i went with the easiest one that there is, the butterfly bow. i had three different ribbons kicking around, so i tried my luck out with all three of them. and for a first timer/virgin to the bow world.. they aren't that bad! (at least to me, and hey.. thats all that matters! haha) with a little more practice, i'll be there! i'll be grabbing some alligator clips tomorrow to finish them off, as well as some other ribbon! i'll be at Michael's (the craft store) anyways to pick up a few things for an order of a headband holder that i have, which i am super excited about! here's a few pics of my first three bows.. ever! =)

headband holders

i have been meaning to make a blog post on this for awhile, showing off the headband holders that i make.. only to realize that i either a) didn't take pics of the ones i made or b) i did, and they have been deleted. yea, i know, i'm shaking my head too haha. so anyways, i did have one headband holder here that i made for alessia that i took a picture of, so that i could share it with you all! i make these in different sizes (this is the small version), with different fabrics and different flower toppers! i think they are so cute, and a great way to keep all of her headbands in one spot. and hey, if you are interested, or know anyone who would be interested in one, let me know! much love <3

birthday number three

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear claudia, happy birthday to you!

and the beginning of the february birthdays start! today was my big sister, claudia's birthday! (if i revealed how old she was turning and she saw this post, my life would be over! haha) so here is a big happy birthday to her and lot's of happiness to come. much love <3

with my big sister and my daughter <3

birthday number two

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear anna, happy birthday to you!

on friday night we celebrated the second round of birthdays in our family! it was my niece anna's fist birthday celebration (her actual birthday was on january 30th, but my sister-in-law was sick, so they had to postpone it) we started off the night by all heading over to Rea's Ristorante (an authentic italian eatery) for dinner. it was great food and great conversation (i had the pollo sandro, which came with two chicken breasts topped with a white wine sauce, mushrooms, peppers and onions and a side of pasta) after spending a few hours there, we all headed over to my brother's house where we celebrated the rest of anna's birthday with cake and presents! this little girl was lucky enough to get two cakes as well, just like her big brother. and my mom made another one of her famous cakes! this time a chocolate cake, with chocolate chips in the icing! anna made out great, with tons of new clothes, shoes and books! and i really enjoyed getting her a bow board, with a bunch of new bows and clips attached to it! here's to another year of learning and growing little one! much love <3

la la la

i haven't actually sat down to write a "real" blog entry in awhile. there just doesn't really seem much to write about it seems. don't get me wrong.. life is good, i have two amazing kids, a great boyfriend and loving family. but i guess there could be a few changes. and that would make life even greater.. and especially not so boring and repetitive. i love being a stay at home mom and spending as much time as i can with my little family. but hey, it would be nice to actually interact with someone who is in the same age range as myself. i do it daily, day and night, online with a great group of women, but sometimes that just doesn't cut it. i'd actually like to have some close, in real life friends to hang out with. to just sit down and talk with, or watch a movie, or play games or even go out for a walk with. it seems the people that you are the closest to and would love to hang out with daily, are always so far away! things change, people change, lives change.. and because of these reasons.. its been hard to keep close friends. i used to have a great group of friends who i would see on a regular basis.. at least once a week. we would have game nights at my house, go out to dinner, go bowling, go for icecream, you name it. it would be really nice to have that back (and not necessarily with the same people) but just the idea of all of that. it sure would help with boredom, and make things a bit entertaining in my life (aside from the kids and the hubby) there are only so many posts, pins and games to keep you sane! much love <3

who knew...

you could love someone so little, so much <3

all eleven pounds six ounces of her

remember when...

looking back at 90's toys

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doodle bear

this gem right here was super popular back in the 90's. it came in various colours including purple, pink and blue and was a must have! along with the bear, came markers that you could use to "doodle" (draw, write, whatever your heart desired) on the bear! the great part about it? nothing was permanent! all you had to do was throw the bear into the wash, and you would have a clean slate to start from again!

pogs and slammers

now who doesn't remember pogs? pogs were bought, sold, collected and traded by almost everybody that you knew! i'm sure we all can remember playing with them during school hours, and even more so after school hours. the game consisted of each player contributing an equal number of pogs to the pile (face down) and then came the slammer. the player in turn would throw their slammer down on top of the stack of pogs, and whichever pogs land face up, that player gets to keep. the game would continue on until all of the pogs were claimed. (pogs and slammers all came in different colours, patterns, or with different pictures/art)

troll dolls

some found these little guys creepy, and others found them just plain cute! they were originally created in 1959, but made a huge comeback in the 90's. as shown above, they came with various different hair colours, as well as different eye colours. and each troll doll contained a gem in the middle of the stomach, consisting of a different shape and colour. some of us had just one or two, and some of us had a whole collection full of these magical little dudes.whatever the case, i find them pretty darn cute!

tamagotchi

before there was facebook and such games as farmville and mafia wars to keep us entertained, there was the tamagotchi! it was a handheld, keychain sized digital pet that you took care of (by only using three buttons) from birth to adult hood. the pet started off as an egg, which then hatches into a baby pet. you are there to help this little creature grow and thrive by feeding it, entertaining it, keeping it happy and healthy and making sure that it catches up on its daily amount of sleep. failure to do so would result in your virtual pet biting the bit, and essentially dying.

my little pony

my little pony was a brand of toy ponies, that were more specifically marketed to girls. each pony was truly unique, coming in different colours, and manes with a unique and different symbol(s) on one or both sides of their body. most also came with a brush, to brush their mane, as well as other accessories. they were launched in 1983, with popularity in both the 80's and 90's. like troll dolls, they were a collection and who doesn't remember having at least one? the new generation of ponies can still be found today. along with a 'my little pony' tv show.

cupcake dolls

now really, weren't these dolls just genius? they started off looking like a cupcake, coming in many different colours and patterns, that ultimately turned into dolls. the cupcake would flip out, producing a doll, with the wrapper of the cupcake becoming the dolls dress and the frosting on top becoming the dolls hat/bonnet.

furby

i suppose i saved the best for last? or quite possibly the creepiest? but definitely one of the biggest fads and toys of the 90's! the furby was a robot toy that resembled something between a hampster/owl/rabbit/cat/who the heck knows. it was a must have for every kid out there, and one of the biggest sellers for toys. their main language of course was "furbish" which they start out using and gradually start to learn and speak english. and of course, they could talk to and interact with other furbies, causing us to buy more then just one (well, some of us anyways) along with many of the above toys, they came in different colours/patterns of fur. but let's face it.. they were simply creepy and we were all just as crazy for buying into this fad! kudos to the American makers Dave Hampton and Caleb Chung!

arts and crafts

just wanted to do a quick blog post on a few more arts and crafts projects we did! the first is a butterfly made out of a painted toilet paper roll, with heart shaped wings! and the second is a painted heart with arrow, courtesy of my little cupid, matteo =)