Making Valentine's

Thanks to my wonderful mother the boys received a care package that consisted of chocolates, brain teasers, water guns, little soft balls and the supplies to make valentine's. She spent a lot of time making them and we really appreciate them. Today we worked on putting them together to hand out. Of course MomMom and Nana were on the top of the list of people to get one.

What I love the most about this picture is he is using what he learned at school to write his sentence. He is putting his finger down to make sure that he has a finger space between words. He has already internalized the good writers checklist.


This is Francesco's completed sentence, we have the heart, which is after the I, because he made a mistake but we salvaged the card with the heart. The best part was he like that so much he continued that with the rest of his cards.


This is the front of the card, my Mom made this part and then we attached them to the cards.


Nicolo was a little harder to engage in the activity but he did make one card for his cat Aston. He just love that cat!


Making the Valentine's was fun. We have a few to send out in the mail but they probably won't get there till after Valentine's but know we made them ahead of time. (I just hope to get to the post office tomorrow)

Spelunking - well sorta

So we did a little cave exploring today. Headed east to Volcano, CA where they have the National Landmark, Black Chasm Cavern. We ventured down into the cave via very deep steps, but the experience was totally worth it. I have never been in a cave let alone one so unique. This cave had stalagmites, stalactites, flow-stone and columns (when the stalagmites and stalactites meet) but they also had these cool helictite crystals that grow in all different direction due to the porous marble and capillary action.



It was a fun trip, we even did a little gem mining which the boys loves. They really wanted to pan for gold but we were not able to do that this time. We almost bought them Miner's Hats, but we came to our senses quickly. Definitely on the list of place to take the Del Vecchio's when they head west this summer.

Like I need more issues?

So....
Michael thought that Pixel (our 8 year old cat) needed a companion. Not to mention that he is home with her everyday now, but she is not a lap cap (which I think he was looking for). So this past weekend we went to the local animal shelter. We debated over a 4 mouth old kitten and a year old cat. I thought....older cats are harder to place so lets adopt the older cat. So we did, and named her Cali (short short for California).
The only problem was that the cat did not like me, Michael, Francesco, Pixel or even Nicolo for that matter. We tried but no matter what we did that cat was vicious and dangerous. I just could not risk the health (cat bite infection) of my children or my other animal. Plus what is the point of getting another cat (family member) who stays in one room all the time because she can't socialize with any of us?
So, Cali went back and as bad as I felt about the whole thing I had to remind myself that I have to think of my family as a whole and not of just that one animal. Michael took her back and came home with a ~ 4 month old male kitten who is black and white.
More so he is that he is sweet, laid-back, non-aggressive, loves to be handled, loves to be held, thinks Nicolo is the bee's knee's and totally respects Pixel and her outburst - all which consist of a little bit if hissing and a meow (that chick is all talk and no action).
Aston, as we have named him in tribute to our HOMETOWN, is super laid back, knows how to stepback from Pixel and LOVES Nicolo soooo much. It's like they were meant to meet. My photo is Aston, sleeping with Nicolo and this scene is a huge sigh of relief for me!



A day ago my Nicolo was in full blown tears because the psychotic cat we brought home tried to bite him completely unprovoked. He did not understand, he was being so gentle and she attacked him. It is hard explain to your 3 year old he did not do anything wrong, seeing your child break down after being completely appropriate with an animal and they still attacks - is hard. The last thing I need is for my Animal Lover to become fearful of animals. Aston has turned that around completely an we all love him...even Pixel...she just does not know it yet!