Our new house is almost done!!

We sold our house in May and during that month decided that we wanted to buy new construction.  We'd been looking since January and were not finding a perfect fit for our family.  The houses we were finding were either not big enough, or not in the right neighborhood, or had tiny living spaces, not enough bedrooms, no amenities(no common pool/clubhouse)...and on and on.  Finally, when we heard Meridian Hills was building we had a feeling this was going to be our new neighborhood and after looking through the models once...we were sold.  We actually bought bigger than we were looking for but this model fit our needs/wants perfectly.  We fell in love with the open air, central courtyard and the kids studio upstairs(and mommy loves the butlers pantry!).  The community amenities were just icing on top.  We have a community pool, and clubhouse we can rent out for parties, basketball courts, tennis courts, and a ton of hiking/biking/walking trails right in our backyard! We honestly could not have imagined a more perfect fit.  We've already met some of our immediate neighbors and there seem to be a lot of kids moving in which is awesome!!  We were able to pick some key design features of the house as well as add a lot of our own personal touches along the way.  Designing a house from the ground up is too much of an undertaking so this was the perfect balance!! Our final walkthrough is scheduled for October 20(HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!) and if all is well, we get the keys October 22nd.  This is a new chapter in our family life and we are so so excited to start:)

Whole Foods classes

We discovered that our local Whole Foods hosts the most amazing classes for kids on Sunday's for FREE!!  It's a 3 part series where they teach the kids all about nutrition.  Mama is huge on natural eating and it's nice to have someone else teaching them about the importance instead of just Mama!! They came home talking about "dehydration" and vitamins and they even give them fake money so they can "pay" for the foods they learned about that day.  Daddy brought them the first time since Mama was on a little vacation in Arizona and then I was able to go along last week.  So fun!!

Rockin' Robin

I just figured out that I successfully uploaded Phia's Rockin' Robin video from Las Vegas National to youtube...yay!!(I can hear my voice screaming at the end....crazy dance mommy screaming!).  These stages are so huge.  These girls are so tiny.  They make us so so proud!! This season is going to be amazing!!!

Random School Fun!

Last year at our Casino Night event we bid on the artist opportunities for both the Parent Directory and the Student Handbook and won both!! Preston drew the bee for the handbook and Phia drew all the people on the directory.  We love to bid on these items because they double as keepsakes!! The kids are adjusting really well to the new school schedule.  Preston is having such a great year...moving up on the behavior chart DAILY and Phia(our mini genius) is breezing her way through First Grade.  We love all the "extras" her school offers.  She receives PE 2x/week, Spanish class 2x/week, and formal music class 2x/week(mommy is super excited about the music program!!).  They have separate classrooms and teachers for these extras which provides the main teachers with plenty of time to grade AND provides the children a new environment of which to learn!! So amazing!! Bentley is loved so much by his teachers.  They said he asks them if he can eat lunch with them at their table each day:)  Below is a picture of Preston in a HUGE bubble.  Each year Bubblemania comes to our Preschool/Kinder...our boys school has a ton of fun extras too!!! LOVE OUR SCHOOLS!!!

Nonno's Fair and GDA Parade!

This school year was off to a hectic start but we're managing to have a lot of fun with it.  Nonno's fair is the best way to kick off a new school year and this year did not disappoint.  We went earlier than we had in the past and enjoyed more of the rides this time(since Nonno gives us unlimited ride passes...wohooo!!).  Preston and Phia were SOOOO brave this year and went on some crazy rides that even Mommy and Daddy wouldn't go on.  They went on the 'swashbuckler" ride and some crazy spinnning ride where they were inside a space ship and they stuck to the walls(and they loved it!!).  Phia danced in the SVD parade for Gotta Dance.  They did a hip-hop and jazz dance and although it was hot and a long walk through the parade route, she danced her heart out!!