Life @ the Varriale-Gomez home

Let's Go Swimming!

2008-12-19T14:30:00.004-05:00

Aurora was the cutest little goldfish

@ her school's Holiday show!

She has the sweetest and nicest teachers.

Maria was very proud of her beautiful Goldfish. :) Click on the movie to get a glimpse of the fishies.

Aurora's Birthday week started today!

2008-12-17T22:27:00.001-05:00

Look who is turning 3!!!

Great day @ the Fall Festival!

2008-11-08T00:00:00.007-05:00

My Cowgirl! Mrs. Flores with Aurora

Pink Hair Girl

Wild Thing!

It was a great day at the fall festival, the girls had a great time and so did Luca and I.

I'm thinking again and again that I am very lucky. :)

My girls make my laugh every day.

Visit from aunt Drey Part 1 (Discovery Cove)

2008-10-01T10:57:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday Hanita! Day 1

2008-09-10T12:31:00.006-04:00

Maria and Miss Barton

Today begins a very happy time of the year when we start to celebrate Hanita's birthday (#6!!!). We began the celebration by waking her up to the tune of Happy Birthday and then Aurora handed her a gift contained the much coveted "Butterfly Garden". Maria was so happy!

After that Luca and I went for a nice breakfast at Panera where we saw what looks like an owl, we couldn't figure out if it was real or not.

Then we went to see her at school and have a special lunch with her, she was wearing the birthday girl hat and I asked her if she was shy because she was a little quiet and she said "no! I am just HAPPY!" :)

The Owl

After the storm.... playing outside. 8 yrs. Marriage anniversary today :)

2008-08-23T14:09:00.005-04:00

Today was the first day we were able to play outside, it is raining again right now so we are waiting for it to clear up a bit and dive into the pool before it starts raining again and before swimming season is over. We're going to have to cut down a tree that is falling on the neighbor's house (or our house).

It was a nice yet somewhat rainy day out today. We had fun rollerblading/biking.

Tropical Storm Fay @ the Varriale-G. home

2008-08-22T11:18:00.004-04:00

Maria gives a shout out (Luis Armando style) to everyone.

This is a peek at our front driveway.... our gardener (AKA Luca) has his work pretty much cut out for him. Looks like he'll be working all weekend to fix the garden up.
This is one of our trash cans, the other one ended up about 2 houses away from ours (we've yet ventured out to recouperate it)....
Other than that, we were pretty lucky, unlike a lot of the Sanford residents which have been flooded.

We had a little visitor (about the size of my fist) outside, right before the storm.

Visitors came and went, then came Tropical storm Fay or was it Hurricane Fay? Well either way Fay didn't want to go away. She came and lingered for the longest time, we've had record rain amounts, lucky for us that we haven't flooded (yet). They are expecting much more rain in the next 5 days.

Maria and Aurora have started school, although they've attended only 2-3 days so

far because of visitors or storm related absences. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up, they look soooo cute in their uniforms. Maria LOVES her new school and Aurora loves "Miss Shwabline" her new teacher and keeps singing a "Miss Swabline, Miss Swabline, good morning to youuuuu" song, which is adorable.

That's all for now.

I've been updating some pictures on facebook, for anyone that doesn't have facebook here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=609161716

Sea World 1,2! Sea World 3,4! Sea World 5, 6, 7, 8.... it's GREAT!!!!

2008-07-27T12:36:00.004-04:00

So... Sea World Adventure Camps came and went... we made it through the week, well almost ;) On the last day Luca and Aurora and I went our on ways and just met up with the group for "graduation". Maria had a great time (see pictures) and we saw and touched and fed more marine animals than we've ever done in our lives. It was

HOT, very very HOT. The 10 second drinking rule was implemented quite often (drink for a count of 10 secs) which was quite alright with us as we drank more water than ever. We made crafts, rode the bus, went behind the scenes quite a bit and just had a lot of fun all week through (except for the day when I forgot my stroller because I had to wash it). One of the days it POURED and it got very wet by the time we exited the Sharks exhibit.

Maria can't wait for next year, I think it is her favorite of all the camps. You will see more pictures of Aurora because I was with her for the whole camp and Maria went with other campers and some instructors.

Tennis Camp

2008-07-18T21:25:00.004-04:00

Maria finished tennis camp today, she got a beautiful trophy and she was very excited because it was her first trophy ever. She said we need to put up a shelf for all of the other trophies she will get in the years to come!

Aurora was very excited to see her sister and she was happy to be able to be out and about after being stuck in the house with a fever and a sore throat.

That's all for now.

Swimming through the summer!

2008-07-14T01:47:00.004-04:00

Maria has figured out that if she jumps in with a kicking board, her ears are pretty much safe from getting too wet, so she has been jumping that way.

This was one giant grasshopper that greeted us at Aurora's new school for next year must have been at least 5 inches long!

For those of you who haven't heard... Aurora is now swimming her way across the pool! we didn't do much over the weekend, just stayed in and did a bit of swimming. Maria's ear is infected AGAIN! so... I just put her plugs in so that we could go swimming . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz-WRgfJ4GY

Splashing into summer!

2008-07-11T11:47:00.003-04:00

We've been busy with all summer related activities. Aurora is continuing her swimming lessons and yesterday had a breakthrough... she got on her back and started swimming on her back all over the pool which is something she had been resisting for the past couple of weeks. It is amazing how children absorb info and then when they apply it they feel so empowered and sure of themselves. She had been swimming in the upright position, hopefully she will transition onto her stomach which is how I usually taught swimming way back in the days when I was teaching. Maria has also become more brave around the pool, I got them both doc plugs (special plugs for swimming) they really make a difference in her confidence as she swims.

We visited downtown disney one day when we went to get Maria's ears checked at Celebration. They played for HOURS at the my little pony workshop area, so much so that we just had to fill one of those boxes with junk (yes junk!) anything and everything that you can think of for dressing and playing princess with the My Little Ponies, we really needed more small pieces in the house... HA! oh well, they are only children once and one day we'll get rid of all the toys when they grow up. After playing we went to get a delicous nutritious Happy Meal at the Mc D's play area there in downtown. They are building a nice Dinosaurs play area for kids there.

Maria is very set on having long hair, last time she cut it we were in San Diego and she was only 4 so she thought that you could go to the salon and make your hair "long again". I guess she got that idea from the Dora princess episode where she brushes her hair and it grows, an episode we've seen MANY times. She has been growing her hair for the past year and now she gets very excited everytime she notices her hair. I haven't been able to get her to go and get the tips trimmed, she refuses every time! She also likes striking a pose when I take her pictures, I guess I've been taking her pic for so long that she is now so used to it and happy to pose for the camera. Aurora on the other hand is a bit camera shy. She likes to throw that big Aurora smile at me sometimes and when she smiles she closes her eyes. Parenting is so challenging, so exciting and just so much fun! I love my girls, they are so nice and are growing so fast.

In other news, we received a phone call from Maria's shcool telling us that she had to be tested again for 1st grade because she is 10 days shy of the cutoff. We went, they tested and then they told us that she was a bit behind on her writing and drawing skills! Oh no she is NOT! you can say many things about Maria but two of her best attributes are her writing AND drawing skills.

Yesterday I got a phone call and it seemed that they are going to go ahead and keep her (gee thanks!) in 1st grade and want us to check in every so often to see how she is doing. There is not doubt in my mind that she will do great. It puzzles me how they would wait until almost the beginning of the year to RE-TEST her. Well, it seems everything worked out and as long as she is in we are happy, we were very stressed the past days about that but luckily everything got resolved.

Waiting for visitors to come!

Until the next blog~

Summer in at full blast! Visitors alert!

2008-06-29T11:55:00.007-04:00

I've discovered a feature on my camera that lets you just press the button and keeps taking continuous pics! that has got me taking A LOT of pics. Instead of 1000 pics I can take 4000!!! with no extra effort... just what I needed ;) Right?

Go Luca go Luca Go!!! Cheers to Luca for carrying Aurora on his back through the Sea World Nets... what a trooper :) now that's "stepping up to the plate" ;)

Aurora has been striking the funkiest yoga looking poses. She is a natural! She does the sun salutation perfectly... a real yoga master!

We've been camping, going to the beach, visited sea world and went to a failed attempt of visiting aquatica (there was lightning and the park was closed temporarily) until we got to the car of course, we heard the announcement that they had reopened. We're going to try to go again today, the park is VERY full and we are heading out around 4p hoping some people will be leaving early. Both Maria and Aurora are covered with bug bites, I've done all possible to keep them from getting bitten (loads of OFF) but apparently I will have to rethink my strategy for combating the florida bugs. Aurora is ALMOST done with potty training, only 1 accident last week which I think is pretty cool~!
The grass is growing at a very fast rate! Luca is having to work on the grass at least once a week. We've been going in the pool quite a bit, Aurora I consider now to be "water safe" although she insists on swimming standing up which I can't figure out how to correct. Other than that she has another week of lessons and then she should be done for the summer. We are VERY excited with the myriad of visitors coming in July, August & September. First my dad is coming towards the beginning of July! and Maria can't wait :)

then towards the end her cousins come and grandma Moops! Beginning of August brings Aunt Anto, Giussepi, Luis, Gi and Giu!!!
September brings Hanita's very own Aunt Drey :) and she just can't wait for all you guys to come and brighten up our days.

She has been counting down for 100s of days!

so... here are a few mixed pics and hopefully

we will have more as the visitors arrive.

Father's Day Weekend and More!

2008-06-16T00:58:00.008-04:00

Last day at school with Ms Aura :)

Last time I wrote was in the beginning of the month! we're into the second half of the month and we've been very busy. I've added a few movies to youtube. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/user/hanivarriale

Both Aurora and Maria ended the school year.

Maria had her 2nd show (Gymnastics) at Show Week.

We visited New Smyrna Beach, it is a beautiful beach. There were a lot of jellyfish which I don't know if they sting or not, they are very small and a girl was collecting them in a bucket. Even Aurora was holding one in her hand. After arriving home and doing a little bit of research I found a few articles on NSB. Turns out that it is the #1 place for shark attacks in the whole world!

Here is a bit of the article I found:

Where Danger can lurk

1. Shark attacks/bites
New Smyrna Beach, Volusia County, Florida: The were 112 incidents of shark-human "contact" in 2007, but only one resulted in a human fatality. New Smyrna, an inlet on the eastern coastline of Florida, had the most attacks, with 17 bites recorded.

Well, now knowing that we will be more careful if we do decide to go back there! I know that chances are we won't get bitten... but why risk it?

We did have the best time there, the girls were like in heaven! They ran free, made all kinds of designs with the sand and in the end they didn't want to come back home.

This past weekend we went to celebrate PAPI to one of his favorite places: Blizzard Beach. Aurora did some great swimming, Maria tackled the obstacle courses and we had a great time at the slides... Aurora went on some of the big girl slides by herself even. It was a lot of fun. Today father's day we stayed in. I went to check on some more cars, (we're looking for a car). But we're still not decided. Then we went in the pool. Luca was not feeling that great today. Something next to his ear (near his cheek) seems to be bothering him so he has been eating nothing but smoothies all weekend long!

Potty training is still going on, I think we've progressed a bit and will work on it hard this week. We got the carpets cleaned this weekend.

The girls got their teeth cleaned last week. Aurora laid down by herself on the chair.

Aurora is entering her 2nd week of swimming. She is progressing very well.

We also went to birthday world, a indoor party place with roller coasters and other rides.

That wraps this blog

Happy Father's day! to all dads!

Show week June 2008 Day 2...

2008-06-03T21:29:00.008-04:00

Today was the first show for Maria. She did cheerleading and she is very good at it. Aurora watched and copied for a bit but then she started to get tired of watching. She did some great cheers and I will download some for you to see. Tomorrow she has the Jets Gymnastics team performance, I will report on that also.

Family & Summer

2008-06-02T10:56:00.007-04:00

My Family looking at the Moon and Stars

by Maria Aidee Varriale Gomez

Aurora had a great time at her Show Week

This past Saturday marked the beginning of summer school break. It was also Aurora's show at the Little Gym. She did all the skills and more with so much energy. Next school year she will start ballet/tap gymnastics class by herself which I will think she will love as her favorite teacher (Miss Lori) will be teaching it. Maria has her shows tomorrow and Wednesday, she is very excited and so are we. I've signed them up for summer school as well as swimming and that will leave us some time to do some fun stuff together. We are also doing Sea World camp this year. That was Maria's favorite from last year so we are doing a repeat this year and also Aurora and I will be going to a mother daughter style camp there, that should be a lot of fun too!

Yesterday we went to Magic Kingdom in the morning and by 12 noon we were thinking of leaving because of the heat. We ended up leaving at 2, but we should start planning that so that we go in the evenings to tolerate the heat.

That is all for today and hopefully I will have some new posts this week reporting on Show Week.

We are eagerly awaiting the visitors that are coming in July! Counting down the days!

A whole month without posting....

2008-05-24T11:39:00.008-04:00

A lot has happened since the last post (back in April). Maria got another set of tubes in her ears but it seems like her ears keep bothering her, right out of the operation she had an ear infection which lasted for about 2 weeks!!! argggh! Aurora has started to dress up as a princess. Maria won a webkinz coloring contest, she got a gift card which she traded for the webkinz samoyed dog. We had a drought of 5 weeks and it has been raining for 2 days straight. Our garden got brown spots all over and we had to turn on the sprinklers and use the hose to keep it from turning all brown. We started going in the pool. Maria went to her friend Olivia's birthday party @ Birthday World which we loved... it has an indoor roller coaster and all kinds of indoor games, getting to disney is getting pretty expensive with gas prices these days! so we might just go down there sometime instead and it is good if it rains because it is all indoors. Aurora and I have been going to the park while Maria is @ school. We are getting ready for show week at the gym (starts beginning of June). Aunt Drey sent a beautiful gymnastics leo to Maria and Nonna Oli lined Maria's Cheerleading outfit because it was scratchy. Maria graduated from Academy of Learning and is going to 1st grade next yr. Maria sang very beautifully and loudly at her graduation ceremony. Aurora actually wore her fancy dress and they both looked beautiful. This is memorial day weekend and we are laying low as we don't want to encounter the weekend crowds and Aurora has a little cold. We will however go in the pool and maybe grill outside. Hope this gets everyone caught up and I think everyone will like the pictures. Oh and there have been all kinds of animals lurking outside. Many racoons, some large and some small snakes, we have a hornet or wasp nest right outside our front door, which is pretty scary considering I was stung by one last year and I know that pain already! There was a bear a deer and the latest addition to the animals outside was a giant pig which I later learned is a wild boar. I'll try to get a picture of him/her as it likes to drink water from the retention pond outside. yuck!

I'll be trying to update more regularly.

Thanks for watching the blog :)

Got some visitors :)

2008-04-17T23:41:00.004-04:00

We've had a busy couple of weeks and have another 2 more busy weeks to come. My in-laws are in town visiting the girls (and us) and they are having a good time with them. Also my friend Arlene came to visit from Manhattan Beach, Ca. with her two daughters Renee and Renata, we got to visit them at Disney World and Maria played with them a lot. She keeps asking when they will visit again or when we will visit them. Also next Monday I get a root canal (yay! can't wait) and on Tuesday Maria goes back to get tubes in her ears in hopes that they will ease her pain. She has liquid in her ears and keeps getting infections. Aurora wore some Minnie Mouse underwear today and seemed to do a lot better in the potty training dept. My friend Arlene gave her a Minnie Mouse dress that she keeps putting on and taking off all day. I'll have to get a picture of her with her Minnie dress. We went to Hollywood Studios (former MGM) and Maria saw Fantasmic for the first time in about 2 yrs and she loved it. We also met her friend Mirella @ Magic Kingdom who turned 5 and went to her birthday party over the weekend. We also saw the spectromagic parade which Maria loved. Aurora has added one more dress to her list of "will wear" dresses which was formerly composed of 2 dresses (Dora & Minnie) now she also accepts Cinderella! :)

Spring Fling @ Aurora's Preschool

2008-04-03T23:21:00.007-04:00

Spring Celebration!

We officially kicked off Spring vacation time with the "Spring Fling" party @ Aurora's school.

Maria skipped school in order for us to go together, meanwhile Luca was taking a test (work related). The day was beautiful and the girls had a great time. There were animals, painting and all kinds of arts and crafts. Aurora went on the pony ride 3 times. The pictures really say it all...

Easter (part 2) "Egg Hunt"

2008-03-25T00:15:00.003-04:00

Easter Sunday 2008 after E.B. visited our house we went to an Easter Egg Hunt hosted by the Dady's. The eggs were scattered outside the yard when we got there and the smaller children went first. Aurora had just woken up a minute before and refused to pick up any but I helped her to pick up a couple. Then the older kids came out and they had a lot of fun finding the eggs.

Here is Aurora in high heels (which she was for most of the event).

She kept those heels on and she climbed right up to the slide in them!

Looking for Easter Eggs

My beautiful baby girls!

Easter Weekend!

2008-03-23T23:53:00.007-04:00

Easter Bunny dropped off a basket full of goodies and a nice long letter for the girls. :)

Maria and I went on Test Track (Maria's favorite) and for the second time on Mission Space. She wanted to go on the movement one but I thought it would be a good idea to wait a little bit more.
Sitting cute waiting for the fireworks to start.

Aurora surprised me with her determination and strength. She watched her sister climb up the rope wall and did it herself too! All the way to the top :)

Tink @ the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival 2008 Sitting pretty at the Butterfly garden.

I packed the whole weekend into one big blog.

Easter Bunny came and went, here are a few pictures to share with everyone.

Day at the park :)

2008-03-21T00:12:00.002-04:00

The beautiful Aurora smile :)

We are getting into the good Florida weather season, right before it is too hot and just after it is too cold. So we are visiting the park every time we can. Yesterday we went while Maria was at school and I got to see how Aurora has grown, all the new things she can do, it was really a treat of a morning. Is it me or is she getting a bit big for the bucket style swing???

Bunny Pics!!!

2008-03-20T23:11:00.011-04:00

Aurora warmed up to the camera for just a little bit.

Maria on the other hand was a big ham as usual! She loves posing for pics :)

Finally after battling endless viruses (cold or flu?) we seem to
be getting back in the game. We ventured out today to take the yearly
Easter Bunny photos. Aurora was in a very nasty mood and I was not sure if
she was even going to want to take any pictures but in the end we got a couple
of great shots which is really all we need.

Some sisterly interaction.

Normaility in the horizon?

2008-03-11T23:36:00.002-04:00

We've been battling sore throats and what not... hopefully tomorrow Maria will be feeling good enough to go to school or at least to they gym in the afternoon!

Today she said she didn't want to go to school again until she "is 29 yrs old"!!!

I guess she likes staying at home and playing!

Aurora is talking a LOT! I need to remember the funny things she has been saying. Her favorite phrases as of now are

"oh NO!" & "Papi did it" or "Hannah did it" or "I'm stuck" and her new favorite seems to be

"I don't want it THANKS" and her very favorite "oh no... Hannah is crying" then she goes over to console Maria. She also has a whole bunch of favorite "Dora the Explorer" episodes... and I have to guess which one it is when she said "I want Dora paint" or "I want Dora Fish". Luckily I have Maria who translates to me which episodes she is talking about. The funniest thing happened yesterday when I was getting stuff ready for the Spring garage sale... I came back to check on Maria and Aurora and they were both sitting at the computer and they had found the Dora Spy episode which they had been waiting for forever! apparently they are playing it on the Nick Jr. Website. I asked them what they were doing and Aurora said "Dora Spy... there it is!"

I wonder what things the dynamic duo will come up with in the years to come!

Bugs and more bugs!

2008-03-10T16:22:00.004-04:00

Aurora was sick last week and Maria is sick this week

and we all have sore throats so no blog until we get better ;)

Here is a picture of Maria from last week taking a long bubble bath when she was feeling better and another of the two sisters lying together. They are playing together a lot lately! Could be because we've been together 24/7 for the past 5 days!!!

one more game of hide and go seek???????

Maria has been trying to learn the U.S.A. States,

there you can see her with the map

Breaking news special blog entry!

2008-03-07T01:20:00.003-05:00

Boy Oh Boy!

We would like to welcome to the world

the ever so cute Jose Ignacio Gomez, born on 3/5/2008! (making an early entrance)

Welcome and enjoy your stay here in the world :)

Congrats to my brother Ignacio and his wife.
___________________________________________________________

In other news the yearly Teddy Bear pictures are in...

Maria has grown sooooo much this year.

She is turning into a very beautiful young lady.

Can't believe she is going to be a 1st grader next yr. Next thing you know...

High School Graduation!

A few things happened over the weekend...

2008-02-25T17:47:00.010-05:00

On the way to the show.

Waiting for the show to start @ the Bob Carr.

Posing for pictures
Maria and I went to see the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra playing Peter and the Wolf. We won tickets and Maria had a chance to sit in the orchestra next to the harp player and she was presented to the audience and at the end of the show the Maestro (Andrew Lane) greeted her and they took a pic together. It was a very nice experience. You can maybe see her if you pause it... sort of like being an extra in the Titanic, but she was there and she loved it.

With the Maestro
_____________________________________________

Maria has taken on Cheerleading class, she is loving it!

Meanwhile Luca took Aurora to see the My Little Pony show in Kissimee on Sunday, although they enjoyed it... he said it was very very cold there.

In other news, Maria got promoted one level up (to the no helmets group) in skating! yay!

she loves skating so much.

After skating we went to Delaney Abcarian's 8th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese where we had a great time.

__________________________________________

Somewhere Over the Rainbow (or maybe under)

You've got to love the February Florida weather :)

There was even a rainbow to go with the beautiful day out

Today we went to the new Trailblazer water park where the girls had a blast and I took some GREAT pictures... I haven't seen them up close (I am downloading them as I write) but there was this beautiful rainbow and I hope I got the shots that I think I got.

Aurora did some nice climbing,
she even went on the super skinny slide which I don't have any pictures of because I either took pictures or was there in case she fell.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside... Aurora and I went to the park in the morning and we just happened to pass by this water park and thought the girls might enjoy it a lot, which they did. The only problem was getting them back home. There were 2 very sad girls on the way back (tears and all) because they wanted to stay there "forever". I promised I'd take them back on Thursday and Maria said... "how many days until Thursday?" I just KNOW she will be counting the days!!!

Aurora started off by just looking on but soon enough she joined in.

5 days w/o blog!!! ok ok... here it is......

2008-02-19T15:56:00.009-05:00

DS is a BIG hit in the car!
Sisters playing together :)

Webkinz World!

Aurora loves lolipops!

Hanita loved Underdog and Cinderella II which were Drey's Valentine's day gifts :) Thanks Aunt Drey!!!!!

We went on a little walk around the block while Maria took her singing lesson. Aurora was as cute as ever! :)

She is picking up speed & balance :)

Singing lessons are going great :)

Making cookies with Aurora!

2008-02-14T00:18:00.009-05:00

Today Aurora and I made choc chip cookies, they turned out ok. Aurora had lots of fun making them. I've downloaded more vids than pics so that you can catch the highlights of the day.

There are also some vid messages for some people.

Enjoy! :)

and Happy Valentine's day to everyone!

Smiling and cooking :) Smiling on her way to the gym!
Baking cookies

I've downloaded a few and will download the rest tomorrow (or shall I say today).
I'm off to zzzzzzz for now ;)

Valentine's day is comming up...

2008-02-13T10:54:00.008-05:00

Maria's beautiful composition and drawing from school made 1/29/2008
Maria always strikes a pose!

Aurora not too excited @ school... but at least she has Princesa Dora!

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and Maria has a Valentine's party today at school, she was very excited because she will get to play games! Aurora is still getting used to going to school, once she is there she has a great time, it is just the separation that gets her. In other news, Luca will be gone for 2 days: Tomorrow and Friday, I'll get to celebrate with the girls and with Luca next weekend :)

Twirling :)
Happy Valentine's Day

Weekend @ WDW with Nandis!

2008-02-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

It was Hanita's first ride @ Mission Space, we had gone the night before but when we got to the front of the line she decided not to go on it because she "didn't know how the seats are arranged". Maria was the Pilot and completely loved the ride, she kept asking to go back to the Mission to Mars!

The group separated and Nandis went to the Japanese pavillion while we visited the Mexico Pavillion and rode on the Mexican Chalupas.

For the longest time Maria has wanted the pearl that the girl gets @ Sea World... after going into Japan and seeing how the lady opened the pearls it was her turn to get one and she waited very patiently and observed everything. Her pearl was a very pretty blue/silver color and she was delighted!

Back @ the hotel Aurora tried to go into the pool but she was not used to the sand, she kept saying "yuck, dirty pool" so we opted out of the pool, Maria stayed in and slid down the water slide over 10 times and went around and around the circular motion part of the pool while Aurora and I played with the water by the edge of the pool.

Oh yes! freedom runs! We had quite a time trying to catch Aurora... can't wait til she turns 3!!!

Aurora and I hit the sunday shop while Maria played @ the Sand Castel camp for a couple of hours. Aurora had the greatest time with the mickey Sundays... they were very cute.The oddest thing happened on the last day... Nandis and Maria got matching boo boos. They were in the pool for a long time and neither of them could recall where it had happened.

Cousin CSD's Royal 24k visit to Orlando :)

2008-02-10T14:36:00.000-05:00

Sometimes dreams do come true...

when you wish for them.

Princesses Aurora & Maria, cousin CSD and me sitting pretty in the Parlor @ the top of the castle suite

Maria was mesmerized by the golden (and it WAS real gold) carriage on the floor right outside the elevator.While Aurora enjoyed her ice pop. (corner lower left)

Aurora's favorite spot was the basin with fresh flowers.

Magical moments @ Magic Kingdom

Luck's Your Key To Cinderella's Magical Suite and we were lucky enough to be invited up for a tour by the concierge thanks to cousin Nandis' VIP (very important princess) connections ;)
Thanks to her and the nice guy that invited us up we were able to go up and see all of the suite, Maria kept looking out the stained glass windows that overlooked fantasyland.
It was definitely a wonderful treat. We were all spellbound.

Hannah Montana again... this time in 3D!

2008-02-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

Luca and Aurora had some time together outside playing today, they are really becoming an awsome team. Aurora didn't even want to come with me today... I guess she was tired of seeing me all day.

Aurora's new favorite friend Maria and Aurora ran lots of circles

around the ENT's office while we

patiently waited for over 1hr.

Gotta love the rockstar wave!

Today we headed over to the movies to watch Hannah Montana: The 3-D concert film Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds which it seems has been a big hit at the box office. It was sooooo much fun! We got there 40 mins before showtime and the theather was already full. The movie started and Maria turned on her little concert light and I guess she felt like she was in the concert. The effects were great and I have never really seen any movie like it! It should win somekind of breakthrough or innovation award! really... it was great... did I mention we liked it?

We met Hope and Isabella, Nikki and Delaney there. Maria had popcorn and twizzlers. It was funny to hear how the other girls were so into the Jonas Brothers (who sing three songs smack in the middle of the movie). We did however miss Maria's favorite song "Pumpin' up the Party" but I guess they might be saving that one for the dvd. It was a great G.N.O.!

In other news... tomorrow we are headed to disneyworld's yatch club hotel to meet cousin CSD (aka Nandis). She is on a mission to report from various fun places @ the house of the mouse. She's already done a photo shoot of Cinderella's castle and has been searching for giraffes in the Savanah at Animal Kingdom. Will report on it when we get back as she has invited us over to stay for the weekend.

Gotta love those smiles!

Vegas in under 36 hrs!

2008-02-05T00:19:00.000-05:00

We got there somewhere around midnight and found Erika pretty quickly.
We were not counting on the long taxi line, nor was I aware that the climate was in the 30s and 40s, needless to say I had no jacket. Luckily Cindy had an extra one and I was able to find a sweater the next day to keep me warm.
We got to the hotel (Planet Hollywood) checked in and went to freshen up a bit and went down to play a bit, or should I say for quite a bit of time ;)
We played mostly roulette, Erika trying to hit the number "7" and I trying to hit the "28" which is my birthday. I did good but then I hit the slots and the slots didn't seem to like me much during this trip. We got to the room a bit after 5 (yes 5) am! and we set up the wake up call for 9am. We woke up and I headed to the salon to get my hair done and the rest of the group stayed for the buffett. Erika arrived @ the salon to check on me at about 1 and she waited patiently for about an hour or more until I was done. I loved how my highlights turned out. I was very hungry so we did a pit stop (or so we thought) at a sushi bar there.
The place is called Hyakumi and we talked to the sushi maker throughout our meal, he was an old guy from Mexico City. We had a whole bunch of rolls and I had miso soup. It was a yummy and big meal. Then we headed back to the hotel for some R&R before heading back to the Caesar's Palace for the Jerry Seinfeld show. The show was amazing, I laughed so hard that I was in tears. The guy in front of us had the funniest laugh and that just made us laugh some more. Erika had seen the show a couple of times before. Jerry did the "Hello Newman!" and was very very funny throughout the show.
After the show we returned to our hotel and proceeded to play. Erika played roulette and I went to the craps table where I did ok. After a few hours of losing my craps money on the slots I found Erika where we continued to play roulette. I was down to my last monies when I started hitting my numbers! It was really good because I got to come home with a bit more than what I left with! YAY!...
We hit our pillows at around 4am and got up at about 8am. We went downstairs for a quick breakfast and then headed to the airport. We were held on the aiplane for an hour before we took off but we still got home on time. Erika on the other hand wasn't so lucky, it took her well over 7 hrs and an unscheduled trip to Los Angeles (to pick up some gasoline for the plane) before she was home. All in all it was a great trip and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Which leads me to back at home...
Luca was exhausted with the girls, he had poker night on Fri night (he came in 3rd) then the next morning he had gym class with both girls and ice skating with Maria followed by a birthday party at a roller skating place in Deltona. Aurora I guess got nauseous from the smell at the roller skate place and threw up on the car on the way back home. Then they stopped to buy a cake on the way back. The girls woke up at 3 and 4 am (probably with tummy aches!) and Luca called me at about 8am of Vegas time asking me to get back ASAP so that I could tag team with him as soon as I entered the door!
I got home and the girls were very happy to see me and very happy to get their surprises.
I missed them all!

The Highlights

The Chocolate

Cindy and Hope

Off to Vegas today!

2008-02-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

We're leaving tonight and coming back Sunday night!
wooooooo hoooooooo!
Will report on trip when I get back.

Drey's visit Part 2-My Birthday @ the Hannah Montana Concert!

2008-01-29T22:42:00.000-05:00

After Chef Mickey's breakfast, Luca took the girls to MK while Aunt Drey and I had some r & r time @ the spa. Drey treated us to the hot stone therapy massage... it was veeeeery relaxing. :)

Then we headed back to the hotel room to meet up with Luca but he wasn't there yet, I guess he was having too much fun with his girls. We waited a bit and then they arrived.

Aurora was passed out (sleeping) in the car and Maria was all excited about the concert.

Maria and Andrea and I headed to the concert to meet up with her friend Mirella who in the end stayed with her other friend Valentina because there were some seats next to them where they were sitting.

We got there at about 7:15 because of traffic but the concert didn't start til' 8.

There was a mass of screaming girls, it took Maria about 2 songs to get into it and then she started singing and dancing and jumping up and down. She was a bit unsure of which singer would come out (Hannah or Miley) and kept asking which one I thought was next.

Maria kept asking wich poster she could hold up and ended up holding both up because it was too confusing for her ;)

And I thought I had the biggest screamer!

Pumin' up the Party!

After the concert was over we headed over to Planet Hollywood for some dinner and I got a birthday sunday and Maria ordered the chocolate brownie which she loved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl7ilugKjqQ

I miss You I miss your smile and I still shed a tear, every once in a while and even though it's different now your still here some how my heart won't let you go And I Need You To Know I miss you :(

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January 29th, 2008

We dropped Aunt Drey off @ the airport at 5:00 AM. Maria was still sleeping but Aunt Drey still gave her a kiss and a hug goodbye. She has been sad ever since her Aunt left and says she wants to move to Tijuana.

Thanks for the visit Aunt Drey! we'll see you in 120 days!!!!!!! (and counting)

What a weekend!! Part 1 :)

2008-01-29T22:01:00.001-05:00

Jan 25th, 2008
It was an Aunt Drey weekend through and through. She arrived on time on Thursday and after taking a 1 1/2 hr shortcut home they played a little bit (made some puzzles) and went to sleep in preparation for the big wknd.

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January 26th, 2008

Next day after Aurora refused to attend her gym class, we headed to Maria's ice skating lesson where she did great and got to show her Aunt her new learned skills.

Then we went grocery shopping and ended a peaceful day @ home.

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January 27th, 2008

Friday morning it was off to Disney!

First we visited Animal Kingdom, then Aurora and I went back to the hotel for some quiet time while Maria and Aunt Drey went to Epcot to ride the "Fast Cars" Test Track, Soarin' and other rides.

We met up @ MK for the extra night time hours and ended our day @ 12 midnight.

Aurora put on her 3D glasses!

Monday January 28th, 2008

We met up with Luca at the contemporary hotel for Chef Mickey's Breakfast. The girls were very happy to see him and the characters too!

... we still had the Hannah Montana Concert that night ...

Oh those molars! and ... TGIW!!!!!

2008-01-23T23:05:00.000-05:00

Aurora is having quite a time with those teeth coming in!

As you can see, we've got a brand new pijama, we've added a couple of dora pijamas to the collection in the hopes that she will be a happy child even when she is not in the purple pijama and also because sometimes we DO need to wash it!

You have to get creative with these kids and their ideas.
Wow! she loves her Dora Dance pijama!

Yes, Wednesdays is sometimes my beloved movie night, tonight we headed over to the mall and saw Mad Money, it was OK, a little bit of time to myself is nice sometimes ;) and helps me refocus with daily life activities.

We're off to school tomorrow, first to drop off Maria then Aurora... hopefully she won't acuse me this time around of changing her out of her pijama. Last Tuesday she was very vocal to her teacher (Ms. Aura) and told her all about what a mean mommy I was that I took her purple pijama off and made her wear the red Dora Dress!
After that I am hoping to hit the gym in hopes that Aurora will stay @ the play center for a bit. Last time I tried that (a couple of months ago...) she cried the whole time and they had to come and get me after 10 mins on the treadmill.

Friday Aunt Dreeeeeey comes and we just can't wait! I hope that all our activities pan out. We've got a bundle of things to do and we have to pack it all into that one weekend! That's all for now... thanks for reading my little blog. :)

T-1 for Dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!!!!!!

Waiting for Friday!

2008-01-22T21:23:00.000-05:00

Maria loves ice skating! specially when she gets to the wall 1st!

Aurora had fun interacting with the big birds!

Bye bye birdies!

Today I dropped off Aurora at school, then went to the gym for a bit. Then picked up Aurora and toured her new (next year's) school. It seems very nice and the teachers too. Then we picked up Maria a little bit early from school and came back here to play. Luca came back here @ 5:20 and we went outside because the 4 big birds were visiting and Aurora just loooooves looking at those and any other birds. Then Maria had to hurry to her skating lesson which she will start taking on Saturdays from now on because she has cheerleading on Tuesdays.

Another weekend @ Home :)

2008-01-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

Not too much to report today. We got the carpets and tile/grout cleaned, it turned out really good and gives a bit of more light to the house. We only left the house to go to the store and I went to the gym once. Maria and Aurora played a lot together this weekend. We spent some time playing hide and go seek which can be challenging when you are trying to hide with a 2 yr old following you around!

Aurora was drawing circles and triangles on her etch a sketch and said "look..circles" "triangles" which was very cute (of course I would think it is cute because I am the mom).

Next week on the 25th Aunt Drey comes for a weekend long visit.

Oh! I got a letter saying that I needed to send $168.82 in order to fix the battery door of my old camera which they said was impacted and indentations around the lense... followed by NO WARRANTY :( after I paid the "extended warranty" for it.

so, instead of paying the near 170$ (for an old camera) I opted for buying a new camera (early Birthday gift from Luca). Hopefully I will get it for the weekend :)

Meanwhile I am using Maria's camera which was a gift from her Aunt Drey.

Aurora doing the Maria picture pose.

Aurora biting anything that is within her reach (molars coming in).

All in all it was a good day!

2008-01-18T21:45:00.000-05:00

Today was a hectic day, emotionally draining and it ended on two good notes. The first one is that we got the call from the school where Maria will be going next year, they said she was a joy to have around and they accepted her. She will be going to first grade and I am very pleased with that because I think she can really do well there. The second note is that I joined a gym... pressed by the fact that I entered a 5K walk/run on 2/10/08. So I'll be training and hopefully I can make it past the finish line ;)

That is all for now. Thanks for viewing the blog.

Aurora's show week day @ the Little Gym

2008-01-18T10:55:00.000-05:00

A helping hand is all you need :)

To be able to do it by yourself!

Over and over again!

Today was Aurora's turn to show us her acquired skills @ the Gym, unfortunately she was not feeling very well, she is getting her molars and I suppose is in considerable pain. Fortunately I was able to snap some pictures of her @ Maria's gym show and because of that I am able to show a bit of what she has accomplished this semester. Miss Lori was her teacher and she loves Aurora and Aurora loves her so much. That is all for now, hopefully she will get those teeth out soon!
Now that's balance!

This picture pretty much sums it up! She cried for 10 mins and we ended up going back home, where once changed to her pijama... she was happy again! After we got home we went to see the birds.

Maria is at her trial day @ next year's school. I'll report on it in the coming days.

Show week Day 2 part 2

2008-01-17T14:49:00.001-05:00

Our fantastic teacher Miss Lori! :)

Ready for her number

Maria was all dolled up and ready to go for her second and final class show.
First up was ballet, the song was one of those that make you want to cry and you start to realize how soon they grow up. Then they changed into their tap shoes and tap danced to... YMCA! yes... ymca! it was interesting yet refreshing and a lot of fun to watch. Then they went on to do some beam stunts followed by some fun antics @ the bars. You can tell that the teachers have a lot of fun teaching the classes. Maria has grown from being a bit shy to being very confident and oh so strong! Super strong!

Another semester has gone by!

Show week Day 2!

2008-01-16T20:35:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Wednesday's Shows!

but first... here are some pics of Aurora ;)

Hi!
Am I a cutie?
Aurora and I relaxed at home today before we picked up Maria from school. I took these cute pics of Aurora which show some of the very cute faces that she makes.

yeah! I'm cute!

Today was Maria's show day for Performance dance and Tap/Ballet and Gymanstics.

Gotta get that hair done first!

First up was Performance dance. She did a groovy disco dance but unfortunately I couldn't record it with the camera I have since they turned off the ligts and put a disco ball and there wasn't enough light for my camera to see the dance. But I did get some shots of her with her black/blue leo. Luca went to the gym for a bit but ended up staying longer because Aurora wanted to walk on the beam over and over again.

upside down again!

Maria had a great time and we were very impressed with her new tumbling.

Ice Skating Lesson #1

2008-01-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

I was very happy with how Maria just loved her ice skating class. We headed to the sportsplex at about 5:20 and got there right before class started. She tried on the 13s but they were too small so she put on some 1s!!

She was smiling through the whole class and @ the end of the class she stayed a bit more to practice. She really wants to do it again!

YAY! success :) It was a joy to watch!

Go Go Go!!

Show week Day 1! :)

2008-01-14T19:19:00.000-05:00

January 14th, 2008!

Welcome to show week!

Getting ready for the big show

THE TWISTERS -show week day 1
First we went to get Maria's hair done. She wanted the hairdo to have lots of curls.

Aurora was great while she waited for Maria's hair to get done. It took over an hour because the first lady didn't know how to do it and was sort of in a bad mood. Then we got a nice lady to work with us and I think she did a great job! We got to the gym a minute or two before the show started.

Aurora kept wanting to join Maria.

Maria showed us all her moves and Aurora and Luca and I cheered her on.

Don't try this @ home!

Maria has learned some GREAT stuff this semester.

Superstar!

Well done!

Nice Sunday @ Home...

2008-01-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

We spent today mostly @ home. Maria's ear is still bothering her, off to the doctor on Monday it is.

Aurora had her first big success in the potty training dept. She still needs to work some more on it but she is about 55% there.

Luca watched a lot of football today. It was a rainy day outside.

Tomorrow is Maria's "show week" for the Gym.

Maria spent a lot of time today in the new "play room" which was Aurora's old nursery and has now been transformed into a toy room where Maria spends countless hours playing with her barbies and other toys.

Aurora on the other hand spends a lot of her time in front of the mirror (that Grandmother Moops gave her) playing with dora. Today the potty fairy brought Aurora a new Dora phone which she also loves :)

Here is a little movie that everyone might enjoy... specially Nonna Oli :)

Not much to blog about today...

2008-01-13T01:26:00.000-05:00

Went to sign up the girls for next year's school year. Then I came back home, Maria played a little bit of Hannah Montana Wii in preparation for the concert (on Jan 28th) which btw is my birthday! She unlocked Malibu and surpassed 1 million fans!

Aurora also joined in the dancing, it was a lot of fun!

We ordered dinner in (didn't feel like cooking) and everyone ate except for Maria. She just had her soy milk @ night (which is what she usually has).

That's all for today .Hopefully the next blog will be a little bit more action packed. :)

It's Friday! Jan 11th, 2008 :)

2008-01-11T11:10:00.000-05:00

Purple "dress"

Are you talking to ME?

Luca is working from home today.
I took Aurora to the gym, had to wrestle her out of the Dora purle "dress". We headed to the gym and she was decked out with sunglasses and wouldn't hand them over.
Next week is show week @ the Little Gym, my official camera is @ the camera doctor recovering from minor injuries but I will use Maria's camera to take a lot of pics! we just LOVE show week.

Aurora, Maria and Luca just went to Toys R Us for some necessities (card collector's books). Card collecting seems to be Luca and Maria's new hobby. They are also collecting pins from Disney... and they have decided to use Maria's room wall as a nice place to exhibit their new found activity. They've only been collecting for a year, so I can't even think of what that wall will be like in a couple of years!

The Pins Wall

Maria had a fairly good day at school today, although she has been uncomfortable with ear aches and what not all week.

This is an old picture of Maria showing us her gym/ballet moves.

Nice pose but is she grabbing the bottom of her shoe???? GERMS!! eeewwww

anyways... we were @ Animal Kingdom that day 11/10/2007.

That same day Aurora was all dressed up (way back in the days when she didn't want the purple dress) and ready to trade pins!

They are back from Toys R Us... Aurora got a bonk on the forehead while running back to the car. Hopefully the swelling will go down by tomorrow. Oh Well! another day in the life of the Varriale-Gomez household.

Today, first day of the blog

2008-01-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

Off to school in the morning... wearing what else! DORA! can you say ddddd Dora!?!?

THE Dora purple "dress"

(Aurora insists it is a dress and that she should wear it every day, everywhere!)

Aurora was playing peekaboo today with me.

Aurora was a very happy girl playing in the front yard, she is wearing Dora which has been the norm for the past month. @ least we were able to get her out of her purple dora pijamas which she has worn for DAYS at a time.

Today is the first day of my family's blog.

I thought that it would be very fitting to start the blog with THE purple dress aka Aurora's Dora pijama, which we have seen a lot of lately!

I suppose I should write the blog in three languages but I'll start with English for now, until I get the hang of it, as I get older and wiser I might have a bit more time to translate it.

After the in-laws left (they were here for Christmas vacation), we started to return back to normal, or at least try to. The girls do miss them. Maria said that we were going to go back to be "all alone with no one" and I asked her what about her dad and I and she said... "that's what I mean... JUST us". So I guess she does feel sometimes the need for some family here.

Today FINALLY! everyone (except for those of us over 5yrs old) is asleep. They fell asleep by 8:25 which is a BIG change from 1am or midnight which was bedtime during the Holidays.
I've been fighting some kind of a cold bug with a cough for the past 2 weeks and I feel like it is probably in its last few days.
I took Maria to school this morning, then took Aurora to her school and she hung on to me while she cried, a minute after I left she was fine and her teachers told me she had a great day.
Luca worked from home today and will also tomorrow.

Maria had her first voice lesson of 2008 today, Aurora and I went to play outside while she was taking her class and when we came back in she was singing "My Favorite Things"from The Sound of Music which I guess is very appropriate considering that she IS Maria.
I took some pictures of her and of her sister today which I will post when I am done writing this thing.

We are VERY looking fwd to aunt Drey's visit (on the 25th of Jan) and hope to have pics and posts very soon.

You might think that there are a lot of Aurora and no Maria pictures today, but worry not you Maria fans... soon I'll have some Maria pics up too :)

That is all for today, if the girls go to sleep every day @ 8:25 I guess I'll have a bit of time to blog and what not. :)

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

Silver white winters that melt into springs

These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel so bad

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