Gianna Turns 6

Our little princess Gianna

Gianna and her little BFF Brenna

Gianna's little friends in front of the Tea House

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY GIANNA!!!!

We had such a fun time celebrating Gianna's 6th Birthday. It started on Friday with Brenna spending the night; we headed to Lampost Pizza where the girls had a blast "playing" the video games and trying to get candy from the "claw" candy machine. Saturday was the main celebration. Three of her little friends(Brenna, Ashlynn and Presley) helped her celebrate at the Tea House at Los Rios. Geoff and I discovered this tea house when we first moved to Ladera Ranch. It was so cute to see these girls drinking their "tea" (apple juice and lemonade) in their real tea cups. I had little teapot cupcakes and cupcake cookies made for each girl from Cinderella Cakes and they all loved all the icing they got to partake of. After tea we headed over to the little park next door where we used Gianna's new butterfly catcher to try and catch some butterflies....unfortunately they were all too fast for the girls. On Monday for Gianna's actual birthday we headed to....where else....Disneyland. It was Memorial Day so it was a little busy. For lunch we celebrated at Gianna's favorite Downtown Disney restaurand...Rainforest Cafe. I can't believe how time has flown by. Gianna has become such a bright, fun, caring little girl. We are amazed at how much she loves to read. She devours the Junie B. Jones books and loves the Josefina American Girl books too. We are so proud of her. Happy Birthday Gianna! Daddy, Violetta and I love you sooooooo much!!!

Happy Father's Day

One guess for what we did for Father's Day......it has become our tradition without really realizing it. Disneyland has become as part of our family as Christmas and mexican food. We did have a very fun day and the girls just love the time they got to spend with Daddy.

Happy Anniversary

So on June 5th Geoff and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. It was a very special day for us because we got to spend it witnessing my oldest nephew, Eric, marrying his lovely fiancee, Martha. It was such a beautiful day. It was so fun to be going through the whole feeling of getting married again without the stress that comes with planning a wedding. It was definitely the most emotional and romantic way for us to celebrate our anniversary by welcoming such a great couple into the world of marriage. We wish them as much happiness as there is possible and we are looking forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with them. To my wonderful loving husband I thank you for all that you have done for us. I am looking forward to many more years of love and happiness with you. You are my heart and soul.

Catching up

Gianna enjoying her trophy.

Violetta all grown up.

Fun in Santa Monica.

Legoland with Abuelita

Easter

I can't believe we are already in May. Time keeps flying by. We made it through a teacher strike a week ago and have been keeping busy. Gianna had her last dance team competition a couple of weeks ago and her team got first place in her age group. Mom and Dad were able to come and join us that day and made it an extra special day for Gianna. Between dance and teacher strikes we've been enjoying Southern California as much as possible with trips to Santa Monica (Gianna got to go to work with Daddy during spring break), Disneyland (our favorite place) and Legoland. Easter brought lots of fun with all the cousins in Craig and Nicole's new home. Now we have May and Gianna's 6th birthday to look forward too. Wow!! Time really does fly by.

Update

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!! We had a nice day celebrating Geoff's birthday and ended it by having a delicious chocolate ganache cake.

Gianna's dance team had their first competion in February. They got first place and she was so excited to be getting her own trophy. On the ride home she even fell asleep holding it. It was sooo cute.

Happy Birthday Violetta!!

Violetta 2 years ago

Violetta today.

I can't believe my baby is now 2 years old. It's gone by so fast. I wish I could make time slow down so I can forever remember these moments. As much as I try to engrave it in my brain I know that there are so many things that I will eventually forget. We have had a wonderful three days of celebration. On Sunday we had a small gathering at our home, we enjoyed being with family to celebrate our little girl's "no birfday". Apparently Violetta wasn't very thrilled to be turning 2. Everytime I asked her who's birthday it was going to be she would say "No birfday! No birfday!". On Monday, Gianna, Violetta and I spent the afternoon at California Adventure where we saw Playhouse Disney and the parade. On Tuesday, Violetta's actual birthday we had our good neighbors Lora and Wayne over for dinner. Geoff 's been away for work the whole week so it's been just the girls and I. We've had so much fun even though we've missed him a ton. I am so grateful to have had this time with Violetta; to see her grow, to hear her laugh, to watch her play and get into trouble. I am looking forward to the next year, I'm hoping that Violetta's little determined personality will soften a little..just a little.

Little Princesses

For Thanksgiving we had my family over and my little ones decided to take advantage of the opportunity to show off their royal garments. My nephew's little girl was such a sport letting Gianna and Violetta dress her up.

Christmas was a busy time here. After two weeks of sickness it was refreshing to be able to spend some time with friends and family. Christmas Day we had Mom and Dad and Tina over for dinner. I baked my first ham and experienced the joy of two days worth of cooking and preparing.

My mom has been in Mexico for the past three weeks so I've been missing her terribly. It is true absence does make the heart grow fonder. During the holidays I came to appreciate how much my mom does for all of us. I feel so blessed to have our family, health and friends. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Now that Christmas is sadly over I want to wish everyone an amazing and prosperous New Year 2010!!!