Happy St. Joseph's Day, Michael!

Today was Michael Joseph Swendsen's Day.  St. Joseph's Day is a special Saint Day shared between my Dad and Michael.  They shared a special phone call and Michael got to pick the dessert of his choice this evening.  Michael thought for a while and then ended up choosing Dairy Queen.  Not a bad choice, in my opinion!

For St. Joseph's Day, Grandpa got Michael a pair of Nike Free shoes.  He is so excited.  We are reminded every year how blessed we are to have Michael and how blessed we are that Grandpa and Michael share such a special bond.  I love both of our Josephs.  Michael Joseph and Ronald Joseph, this day is for you!

May the Toast Be With You

Saint Joseph's Day 2013

There is nothing like Saint Joseph's Day.  It is a lot of work, but so much fun!  I have logged a lot of frequent flier miles over the last month flying home but this was one trip that was going to be upbeat and fun!  I flew in yesterday and literally went right up to the church to begin the set up!  Setting up for this event is a tad grueling.  Don't get me wrong, we laugh and crack jokes throughout the whole thing but it is a lot of work!

I don't mind all the work because being with my family and friends is awesome.  On top of all the setup, we needed to get the skit in order.  Every year, we come up with some hysterical skit.  The pressure is high, but the reward is so great!  This year, the theme of the skit was Natalie's wedding.  The funny part is that she gets left at the altar on the day of her wedding.  Well, funny for a skit anyway.  She starts singing the song, That's Life and then my sisters and I do some background singing and lots of dancing.  Classic Sacco Girl stuff.

At the end of the skit, my Dad (Cicci) says to the crowd, "I prepaid for the food, the decorations and the band.  Now what am I gonna do?"  Then my sister Laura says, "Hit it boys!"  You Suck, our awesome band, started playing music for over an hour to end the night.  Everyone was on their feet dancing and having a fantastic time.  Oh, man.  It was a good time!!!

Our goal with St. Joseph's Day this year was to raise as much money for St. Joseph's Church of Malawi, Africa as possible.  Each year, we improve on the last event and we hoped the same would happen this year.   We packed the house and I can honestly say, there wasn't an empty seat in the place!

Great food, amazing community, wonderful entertainment, and so much more.  This event is so much fun to be a part of and it makes me extremely proud to be a Sacco.  Happy St. Joseph's Day to my Michael and to all of the Joseph's out there!!! 

Emily's March Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I have been a good girl this year.  Could I please have another Slurpee Maker?  And a doll with a brush and you put water in it and it changes Barbie's hair? Lalaloopsy crazy hair?  How do you make toys?  Could I please have a lot of money?  Could I please have a real pack of gum?  Could I please have my own computer?  A real computer!  Could I please have some Skylanders (pronounced Tylanders)?  I want a Mintendo 3DS.  Could I please have a glass of water?  I REAL glass of water?  Could I please have a big bed?  Could I please have another real bike?  Can I please have an iPhone?  A real iPhone.  Not an iTouch. Actually, I want an iTouch.

Love,
Emily

Coaching Claire NJB

I am coaching Claire again in basketball and loving every minute of it.  She is such a great kid and continues to do such a great job while having her Mom as he coach.  We did really well this year!  It makes me beyond happy to be able to parlay some of my experience/skill to young girls and watch them start to really believe in themselves.  Sometimes when I see the transitions they make both in basketball and in their own confidences, it makes me so incredibly happy!

Maroon 5

My husband is incredible.  He told me that we had a date night tonight and that was all that he told me.  If you know me, I hate when people keep secrets from me.  I had no idea that tonight, he was taking me to go and see Maroon 5!

I love them!  Their songs are awesome and always get me in a great mood.  We first went to dinner, and then went to the show.  Honestly, I can't say enough about the night.  I am such a lucky girl to have a guy in my life that knows what I like and knows just what I need.

Thank you, Damien.  I love you!

Gina in the City!

After having brunch with friends, we met up with Gina for a nice walk along the Bay and a light dinner.  We figured that we should see her since we were in her neighborhood!  It was a gorgeous day.  Absolutely gorgeous.

We were in the marina area and decided to just walk until the kid's legs were just too tired.  They made it quite a while before we heard any complaining which was great.  There was no fog- just a perfectly clear view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the horizon.

On the way back to the car, we happened upon a few boys who had obviously been wading in the water looking for some salt water creatures.  We saw that they had starfish, little eel looking things, crabs, and a few other items I wasn't even brave enough to get near.  Emily on the other hand, was the only in our foursome who didn't seem grossed out at all!

She walked right up and asked if she could hold the starfish.  Go Emmy!  Then she held the crabs and other creatures.  I was totally impressed!  They boys were so sweet and patient with her.  It was a fun unexpected stop on our walk, but a fun one!

Once we got to the car, we stopped at an outdoor expo that was being held by the Exploratorium.  It was a free event, we managed to find front row parking, and it was so cool to walk around and see all the exhibits.

The first thing we saw here mechanical wheelchairs that had been turned into ponies.  We aptly named then Wheelchair Ponies.  The whole premise was to race your pony over across the pen and ring the bell before other ponies could.  Gina and I really wanted to do it, but saw the line and decided against it.  (Later that night, we realized we should have ridden them.  It was an opportunity lost.  Now, when Gina and I are trying to figure out if we should do something, we just say 'wheelchair pony' and we go for it.  It's kind of our Carpe Diem.  We are also, dorks.)

The girls rode bikes, climbed on cool structures, went into a colorless room where color wasn't predictable unless you shined a flashlight on it, and other cool things.  Totally worth the stop along the way!  We had a light dinner and then dropped Gina off at home.  What a great day in the city!  We are beginning to really love it here!

Cousins in the City!

Today, my girls and I drove up to San Francisco to have brunch with my college friend Kristine, her daughter Ella, and Lani, Megan and Catie!  Emily has been a complete chatterbox about it all week and I was so thrilled the the day had finally arrived so I could stop hearing about it- and just do it!  My girls love their girlie cousins.  This was going to be fun!

We went to a cute little breakfast bistro and for the most part, the kids were well behaved.  While the food was delicious, the speed of the meal was super slow.  This would have been great if I was just with girlfriends but we had five little girls who did great until it had been nearly an hour and still no food!  It took a long time to order, then we got appetizers, and then waited a long time for food.  Luckily, I came armed with the completely impractical but delicious bunny face lollipops.  Obviously, this wasn't my first rodeo!

It was great to catch up with everyone and to see how life has been over the past several years.  I keep in almost daily contact with Lani but we don't get to see Kristine often so it was nice.  After breakfast, we let the girls run around outside and they had the best time together.  I truly wish they lived closer.  Megan and Catie are very special girls to us!

Emily and Friends

There are some things that happen in our family's day to day life that are so important to my kids and their routines.  One of these is the way Emily takes care of her little friends.  She keeps them all accounted for and makes sure they all have a place on her pillow.  She has acquired these friends over time and they all mean so much to her.  They all have names which crack me up.  Either they were named when she got them, or she has come up with a unique name for them.  For posterity sake, I wanted to record the names of her friends so that she never forgets them.

Emily's Friends:
Rainbow Bear
Jerry (the blue fuzzy ball that giggles)
Russ (the walrus)
Goldie (the little yellow birdie)
Petunia (the purple bunny)
Habobble (the turkey)
Unicorny (the rainbow unicorn dream lite)

Sweetie Pie's Trip to the Vet

Unless there is something wrong with our cat, Sweetie Pie goes to the vet once a year for her shots.  She is not a huge fan of the process, but Emily sure is!  We are so high class that we put Sweetie into her state-of-the-art cardboard carrying receptacle.  Yes, that's how we roll.  Could you just crack up that in this picture, Sweetie Pie's eyes line up perfectly in the air holes?

Emily always wants Sweetie to sit right beside her in the car.  Sweetie is normally a super quiet cat but she continually meows for the whole ride.  It makes me kind of sad, but she needs her shots.  The appointment was quick and easy.   Emily begged me afterward to go and show Sweetie Pie some of the fish in the pet store.  I told her that cat love to eat fish and that Sweetie might go nuts.  Emily's face was so precious and I could tell she really wanted to expose our cat to bigger and better things.  Since Emily won't ever have a baby sister/brother to torture, she might as well be able to torture our cat.  Right?  I'm happy to say the fish viewing process was a happy one.  Our kitty is healthy and Emily got to show Sweetie the fish.  It's a good day, for sure! 

HOWDY!

Claire had to dress as a cowgirl today.  Her confidence mystifies me.  She loves going for it!  She didn't care if she was wearing a miniature cowboy hat from a Toy Story Woody doll.  We attached that little hat onto a headband and poof!  Claire was ready to give a yeehaw!  I love my cowgirl!

Biking Babies!

Since we live right across from the baseball park, we love to ride our bikes over there!  Baseball games can be very long so the kids love riding along the paths between innings.  Emily also loves to push the limits to the point where we think she is going to crash and burn.  I mean, CRASH AND BURN.  Fun times.  Baseball to these little two means catching caterpillars, riding around in circles, taking trips to the snack shack, while intermittently cheering for Michael!

One thing that is becoming evident is that Emily is severely outgrowing her bike.  I think soon we need to pull the training wheels off and upgrade!  We love watching Matthew and Emily play together.  They are starting to have more in common and are becoming better friends by the day.  We are loving baseball season . . . and it's just begun!

Claire's Got Matthew Covered

While Damien and I were in Seattle for Nana's funeral- Mark and Marlene took care of the kids.  I tried do as much as I could ahead to time to alleviate any possible stress on E and Papa or the kids.  I turned in Matthew's homework folder (which is due on Fridays) on Wednesday.  Just wanted to get it out of the way so no one had to remember to put it in his backpack.  On Friday morning, Claire walked Matthew into Kindergarten.  When she noticed that there was a box for all the homework folders and after checking Matthew's backpack and not seeing his folder- she did what she thought was best.  She wrote a note.

It read:  Matthew Sw. forgot his homework and homework folder today at home.  He will bring it in on Monday.  -Claire Sw.  

Today (Monday), I came to pick Matthew up from school.  The teachers asked me if I could stay around for a few minutes.  Then they came out and told me about the note Claire had written.  They told me that it warmed their heart to see that Claire was trying to fill my shoes and fix a problem while I was gone.  They all taught Claire when she was in Kindergarten so it meant a lot that she had done her best to make sure Matthew Sw. was covered.  

Thank you, Claire for making sure Matthew was well taken care of.  You are such a sweet and responsible young girl!  We love you!

(For the record- there are four Matthews in Matthew's Kindergarten class of 30 children.  And to top it off, there is another Matthew S.  Hence the fact that Matthew has to be called Matthew Sw.)

Emily sings, Britney Britney!

 

I don't need to worry that she has too much personality, right?  I mean- I think this is perfectly normal sass and attitude for a four year old, right?  I sure do love this girl and can't wait to see where she goes from here!

A Girl and her Godfather

Just a typical day with Emily and her Godfather Dan.  Dan and Christina met us at Round Table Pizza tonight for some yummy dinner!  The kids mostly played games while we hang out with our very dear friends.  

Somehow at the end of the evening, this mustache mania broke out.  To some, this might look weird.  To us, it's all part of a good night's work.  

We Just Keep on Rolling

After Michael's game this afternoon, the kids ran over to the giant hill at the ballpark.  We love his park.  One block from our house.  It's convenient for the boy's baseball games (been here twice for two games today) and it's also a great place to let the kids run around.  The hill is the 'big draw' these days so it didn't surprise me that they bee lined straight for it.  Here are some pics on the go.  Totally casual shots, but these pictures sure do capture these three kiddos.  (We didn't forget about Michael.  He was with his team, meeting after his game.)