Our trip to Italy planning ahead

I never thought planning a vacation was going to be so stressful, Matt has been in Italy working and I'm alone with the kids, well my mom finally came down yesterday to help me out as she is also coming with us to like Marco calls it NITALIA... hahah (not sure why he calls it that). Between figuring out airfare, hotels, packing, finding a place for precious to stay while we are gone, working, and overall trying to maintain the household, I'm not going crazy, I'm officially crazy...

If any of you have any Italy traveling tips please comment and let me know. I would love to hear from you. I 'm not sure if no one reads this or if you are too afraid or don't know how to leave a comment, either way email me and let me know..well, I guess if you are not reading this you can't email me, well yes you can email me but that is not the point here..you see I'm crazy.. yes, and you might ask, if you have no time for anything why are you taking the time to write this..and that is an excellent question and the answer is that writing is a great stress reliever for me and helps me get things off my chest.. OK, there I feel much better. See you all soon.

photo florence

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

It's my fathers birthday today June 25Th, I can't tell you how old he is because of two reasons, first, I don't think he would like me to announce it to every single person on the Internet and second, because I don't really know...Dad when you read this could you please comment and tell everyone how old you are.

I just want to tell him how much I love him even though I don't say it enough. He has always been there for me whenever I needed, no questions asked. He has seen me grow up and I'm sure in his eyes change through the years. I don't think you truly appreciate your parents until you are one yourself. You then realize the meaning of so many things in a deeper level.

OK, I don't want to go on and on. Just a very Happy Birthday to him and may he have many many more..

Bella learns how to swing herself

This is not really news but for Isabella it is a big deal, she finally got the hang of swinging herself on a swing and now she just loves to swing as high as she can. We can't get her down, she feels very grown up. I realize that everyday that passes by the kids learn one more thing. It is so hard to keep up with all of their achievements now.

This summer we have to major tasks to achieve the first one is teaching Bella how to swim and the second is taking Marco's training wheels off, although I think at the pace we are going, Isabella will take hers off way before Marco. But for now we will concentrate on these two wonderful things and I will report at the end of the summer how we did

Pool Party on the last day of School

Well, its all over.. Marco and Isabella are all done with school. They are officially off for two plus months.. they are so excited, and so am I..hahahaa... I love to spend time with them but by the end of the summer I can't wait until school starts again. But, for now they are free from early mornings, extra curricular activities and they have to look forward to days in the pool and beach and long summer nights, eating ice cream and playing with their friends.
I started their summer off today by having a mini pool party in our pool. Marco invited his best friends Marcos, Alvaro, Roberto & Javier and they had a blast. They swam, played soccer, ran around, they were just so happy, it was great to see.

Isabella also had her friend Pablo from her school who happens to be Roberto's little brother.. so she was thrilled.
Here they are all eating Popsicles and making a mess.

I'm exhausted but very happy to start the summer. I wish all of you a great summer too. What plans do you guys have? Please comment and let me know. You can see more pics here

Marco is officially an Orange Belt in Judo

Just a quick note to announce that Marco is officially an orange belt in Judo. He is so proud. He loves going to his judo lessons which he will have a break from now in the summer but hopefully next year he will begin again and go for his green belt. (I think its green next, if anyone knows for sure let me know).

Marco's Graduation

Yes, Marco has graduated from kindergarten and will start first grade in the fall. Today was his graduation along side all his friends. They walked in to the sound of marching music, so proud and with a joy you can't imagine. They performed a little dance and song and then sat patiently as they waited for their diplomas. It was sad to see him so grown up, I could still remember holding him in my arms when he was first born. How time flies by..Isabella starts school next year.. I don't have babies anymore..

We enjoyed snacks and drinks after the ceremony and the kids had a great time letting out some steam. Overall, it was a beautiful experience that poor Matt missed because he is working very hard on the Bocelli show..but thanks to this blog he gets to see all the action as it happens.. Love you Honey.

You can view more pictures here

Isabella's dance recital

Ok, so I was very nervous wondering what little missy was going to do once she was up on stage. Would she cry, just stand there, start screaming her head off, or simply just walk off the stage. It never even entered my mind that she might actually dance..but she did.. a little too much, she did the choreography before she had to but really enjoyed herself. The first thing she did when she got up on the stage is look for me in the audience, as soon as she found me she started to wave and tell her friends.. there's my mom, there's my mom.. hey mom.. and waving.. (pretty embarrassing) but sooooo cute.

Pictured, I think you can recognize her, she is the one with the white bow on top of her head and the skinny legs.

The performance was great and I was very proud. You can see a little clip here.

Thank God for good neighbors

Matt is in Italy with Andrea Bocelli and I'm home with a cold with the kids..I don't have time to rest because there is always something to do..like write this post..so when good neighbors like my friend Elena offers a helping hand I take it willingly. She watched Isabella today (she is about the only one that is not afraid to stay with her) while I took Marco to piano class and ran around doing errands.. It is a great relief having someone like her who loves Isabella and Marco and is always there to help me..her daughter Emma is Marco's little girlfriend, so who knows we may even be in laws one day...

Thank you Elena, she doesn't speak English so I will have to translate this post to her..

Before and After the Magic of the Bribe

As you can see by the before and after pictures of the kids playroom ,a bribe goes a long way. There are many methods in which I get the kids to clean up but none works more efficiently that the bribe, not even a spanking gets there attention as well. This weekend was a little rainy so we didn't go out to play as much as we usually do on the weekends, so as you can tell by the before picture things were not as neat as I like them to be...

But after they realized they were not going to get anything they wanted until they cleaned up and I told them if they cleaned up they would get a "premio" (prize) they quickly put everything away The bribe is an excellent tool but is there a better way? Please, comment and let me know any suggestions.

Here is a video of the clean up process with Bella commentating in Spanglish..

It's 10:30 PM and Isabella is asleep

shhhhshhh... please don't make any noise.. Marco has been asleep for hours but the surprising thing is so is Bella, I think this is the first time in her entire life she has gone to sleep before midnight.. Matt is at work right now, and I can't hear a sound. I don't know what to do with myself. I have that ringing in your ear, like when you come home from a club and are drunk but you can still hear a faint ringing...do you know what I mean?

Anyway, if any of you have any suggestions on how I could get her to go to sleep before midnight, please let me know. We have tried turning off all the lights and all going to sleep, but she just gets up puts the lights on, turns on the TV and tells us she will go to bed when she is ready, if we put her back in bed then she screams at the top of her lungs for hours and hours.. the neighbors don't like that too much, we have tried medication to calm her down prescribed by the doctor but that seems to give her more energy..

Well, for now I'm going to go have a glass of wine and enjoy my mini vacation.. good night to all......

Matt in his Studio

So far in this blog I don't think I have mentioned poor Matt yet. We are both so busy with things sometimes I forget he is even here. He has been working nonstop in his new studio , it is actually a recording studio called Audiogenia, where they are in the process of building him his own mini studio. It is in Alicante about 15 minutes from Playa San Juan, where we live. So he goes in to work around 10 am and doesn't come back until past midnight...

He is currently working on two projects. The first is with a young singer called Estefania, she is amazing and the second is on a show with Bocelli in the Teatro del Silenzio in Italy on July 5th. we are actually all going with him so we can see a little of Italy.

So, there you have it a quick Matt overview. I'm actually going to start a blog just for him and his music stuff, because there is a lot to share there.

School IQ test

Since it looks like I'm always writing to brag about my beautiful kids, I think many of you think I only write about all the great things they do and achieve but we all know in life nothing is perfect, specially us or our children.

Today we had a meeting along with all the other parents of Marco's class so they could prepare us a little bit for what it to become of our little ones, once they start 1st grade in September. One of the things they presented us with was a sort on mini writing and vocabulary skill IQ test which was given to them some weeks ago and showed a graph with the median score of the entire class and where our children fell. Once I heard handwriting test I knew we were in for a bad report and boy was I right.. Poor little thing.. the graph was struggling to get to the median and never quite reached it. Looking around all the other proud moms flashed their children's report which showed how off the charts they were.

I'm not sure if handwriting is something hereditary but I should have been a doctor with the handwriting I was blessed with so if I passed that on to my children, I'm sorry, I'm sure someone passed it on to me..

OK, so what do you think about IQ tests? Should I worry?\

photo google

Bella's new haircut

Ok, so its not a great picture, she doesn't stand still for more than 2.3 seconds so its hard. The haircut itself was actually painless, I thought it would be much worse..She stood as still as she possible could...Afterwards, she told every person she saw on the street that she had gotten a hair cut and that she was very "guapa" (the word for pretty here)..

I actually liked her long hair but the detangling part of it was not much fun. She is a screamer and I think the neighbors will be much happier now..after all, summer is here and she will be in the pool all day long, I'm not detangling chlorine hair daily.. thank you very much.

Another day, another story.. A lot of you have emailed me letting me know you enjoying reading my blog but are afraid to comment.. I promise I wont bite..

June Gloom

So the kids started their half day at school, getting out at 1 pm (usually 5pm) and they are very excited that summer vacation (all of July and August) is almost here (me, not so much). I love hanging out with them, but with work and household stuff, it is very difficult to get things done.

I'm a multitasker but somethings gotta give..so, if anyone out there has any suggestions on how to make the long summer, not so long, please, please leave me a comment and let me know......

picture google

Marco is reading up a storm

Marco will start first grade in September but he already knows how to read in Spanish, English will come next year, they say it is better to do it one language at a time so there is so confusion, so when he is fluent in reading comprehension in Spanish, we will jump into teaching him to read in English.

He loves books and wants to read everything he could get his hands on, it is great to see. Isabella imitates him and pretends she knows how to read, which kind of annoys Marco and the daily fights start.

Ok, that is it for now...

Marco's first piano recital

I know I'm a proud mother but today was just overwhelming. Marco had his first piano recital and I have to say he did it the best..not because he is my son, because I'm very critical and realistic, he was the only one who did not make a mistake or stop or ask for help or cry because he didn't want to do it...He was brave and had no fear, he just walked right up to the piano with his sheet music (which he didn't even use, because he memorizes the music) and started to play.

His song was short but was flawless, you can see a video here

My dad created his own blog

My dad was the first to jump on the band wagon and create a new blog. I'm so proud of him, he left his fear behind (which I wish a lot of you would) and just went for it. His blog looks great and his content even better. I think he has found a new career or at least something to keep him occupied during his retirement years.

His new blog is called tonypmiamibeach , check it out!!