Vince's 2nd Birthday

Vince turned 2 years old on June 17th! I still can't believe how the time has flown by, and our little baby boy has turned full fledged into a toddler. His birthday was on a Thursday, so he spent it at daycare. We made it a fun day for him and his friends at school as Mike took some time off and went with all of them to get ice cream at Baskin Robins!

Here's everyone loaded up in the awesome little toddler cart that Vince's school has, equipped to carry 6 toddlers safely in belted seats. It's so ridiculously cute to watch these strollers carting around toddlers while the kids just hang out in their cart!

A chocolate faced Vince demanding more ice cream from Daddy, while buddy Jon looks on in mild shock.

Then at home that night we had our own little birthday celebration with a chocolate doughnut (of which he just played with more than ate). Happy birthday little man!!

The real celebration happened on Saturday in our backyard where we hosted about 40 adults and 20 kids to a day of eating and swimming and playing around in a jumpy castle. It couldn't have been a better day to have a pool birthday party! The sun was out, the sky was clear and the pool was nice and cool. I was praying for good weather on that day since I sent out the evite, and that's exactly what we got. It was a long fun day of running around and swimming, Vince made it through the whole day like a champ... no nap at all! Of course he fell asleep by about 6pm and that was it for him, but he pulled through like a little party animal!

We were so busy having fun and running around that I didn't even take one single picture of the whole day! I can't even post anything from that day! I do have a video of all of us singing happy birthday but the document is so large that I can't even down load it onto my computer... so oh well!! Does anyone happen to have any pictures from Saturday? If so, send them along!

And last but not least, here's the latest picture in our tradition of putting him in Mike's Italia t-shirt every year on his birthday! He's growing into it for sure!

June 2008

June 2009

June 2010

Birthday Celebration at Together in Motion

Ok, here's the third and final chapter in the story of Vince's first birthday (can you tell we only have one kid... the next one won't get this much attention I'm told)! On Saturday we invited about 40 people and 18 kids to come help celebrate with Vince at Together in Motion. We originally had thought about Vince's first birthday party as being a fun couple of hours in the park with friends and kids, able to hang out on the grass and the playground. Well hello!! What is up with the weather out here people!? I'm getting sick of the clouds and the rain!! Don't even get me started on the weather out here in New England....

Anyway, we ended up scrambling at the last minute to find an indoor place to move the party so we wouldn't have wet kids running all over the place outside! We found this great little kids space area that has all sorts of obstacle course blocks and giant balls for kids to play with. Sort of like a giant padded crib or indoor playground where you can let your kids run around like crazy! Needless to say, it was pretty much a perfect spot to have a party. All of Vince's friends had a blast in the play area (crawlers and walkers alike), while there was also space for adults to chill out and talk in another room and look into the play area where their little monkeys were getting crazy. All the kids made it through the party without a hitch, minus one casualty of our friends little girl falling face first into the ground..... right at the edge where the play mat stopped and the cement started. Nothing that a little watermelon and cake couldn't fix. Let the photos begin:

Here's the tunnel, one of Vince's favorites

Following one of the older kids through the tunnel

Vince and Isaac scale the stairs

Getting some help across the bridge from his favorite sitter Kathryn

Two sets of twin girls! (Clio and Elsa, and Natalie and Megan)... quickly became friends and played ring around the Rosie


They couldn't wait to get to the falling down part

And now to the cake... well, we forgot to take a photo of our masterpiece watermelon cake before Vince mangled it... you can sort of see the other half on the table in the background of the picture! Mike had the idea when we discovered how much Vince loves watermelon. It was complete with colored cream cheese frosting- with white and green for the rind, and raisins for the seeds! Mike and I are soo bad at thinking about taking pictures!!

Adam's helping out

We forgot to take any sort of photos of any of the two cakes we had... let alone any photos with his grandparents who were at the party! But at least someone helped us remember to get a family photo with the first birthday hat on...

Happy Birthday Vince!

Last night, right before falling asleep, Mike reminded me what we were doing at this time last year. I kindly smacked him on the head and let him know I'd rather remember the immediate time AFTER his birth.... not the 48hours prior.

Either way, we can't believe our little boy is 1 year today! Where has the time gone? It doesn't seem like we should have a 1 year old on our hands that's for sure. This morning Mike and I snuck into Vince's room and woke him up by singing happy birthday... we do have it on video but I'll spare you our morning singing voices. Vince seemed pretty amused however.

Here he is this morning, coming into the living room to find a new dump truck to play with!

We'll have more birthday pictures later, it's going to be a busy couple of days. We'll pick up my mother today as she is coming from California, Mike's parents will be coming on Friday, and we'll have Vince's birthday party on Saturday.

For now, I can put up a few pictures of our trip to NY this weekend to visit Nonna and Pop Pop. Vince got his first taste of a grown up size piece of watermelon and devoured it! He loves watermelon so much that we've decided to make him a birthday cake in the shape of a watermelon, complete with pink food coloring and raisins for the seeds... (pic to come later)

Where can I get more of this stuff!!

Enjoying the sun and grass on Aunt Donna and Uncle Charlie's lawn

Opening up a birthday present from Nonna and Pop Pop, we started celebrating a little early!

Vince is 4 Months Old!

Vince turned 4 months old on the 17th. Here are a couple of pictures:

Vince hanging out with Dad.

Rock on Vince, rock on

Happy Birthday Mike!

Yesterday marked Mike's 35th year of life, as well as his first birthday as a father. He awoke in the morning to a card and a present that Vince had gotten him at the mall the day before! I had to drive him there, but he knew exactly which sweater he wanted to buy his Daddy. I think Mike liked it because he wore it proudly to work that day, and let everyone know his son gave it to him for his birthday. To celebrate the occasion further, I knew Mike would really enjoy a night out to a nice dinner... without having to hold a squirmy little boy while trying to bring a fork to his mouth.

I arranged to have a friend of ours watch Vince (thanks so much Karen!), and we headed over to the Temple bar, a restaurant not far from our house. It was such a nice night out, and we were able to sit right by the open window. I have to say that we REALLY enjoyed being able to take our time and enjoy a meal... without having squirmy baby Vince. It was a nice opportunity for ourselves. We did, however, end up talking about Vince much of the time and how cute he is and how happy he makes us. So even in his absence our lives pretty much revolve around our little boy. I suppose that's how it happens when you have kids... and we are just fine with that. We did talk a little bit about how we want to spend our 25th wedding anniversary... it ended in the plan of renewing our vows in some distant exotic country (to be determined) that everyone will have to travel too. So be prepared for a destination re-wedding in 25 years :) All in all, it was a very nice night... and although it was only about 2 hours in length, it was enough time to bring us back to ourselves and recharge our batteries for being able to take care of the little one.

Happy Birthday Bro

So today is my brother Charlie's 50th birthday. Wouldn't it be great if the baby makes it out today as expected, and they'll share a birthday? This coincidence gets even better. Charlie's oldest child Amelia was born on my 30th birthday!