letters to and from santa

Just wanted to record the letters between Santa and the girls. 12-01-2009
click on images to see them larger.
Enjoy!

My Special Vieves!

Tonight I was treated to a very special treat by Genevieve.

Let me start by saying that a few months ago, we were finally able to move Genevieve to a preschool closer to home, and one that is really known for it academic curriculum. Tonight was our first little treat as to just how special this great school is.

In Vivi's class, there is a student that has a hearing impairment. To help all the kids to communicate with each other better, all the kids in her pre-school have begun to learn some basic sign language. The other night at the dinner table, Vivi surprised us with a special song. She started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", but was doing some hand gestures. Immediately, we realized that this was some of the sign language Vivi was learning. We were pretty impressed, and just continued to encourage her to do it again. Her shyness was so charming and endearing, we just wanted to see the realness of it over again.

Well, tonight after we had dinner and walked over to Ben and Jerry's to treat the girls to a little ice cream, we bumped into a fun group of people. I guess this group of people studying sign language and others who actually have hearing challenges, meet at this ice cream parlor for a fun gathering every Tues. night. One of the Girls came over and began conversing with Vivi in sign language and she kinda understood what this girl was saying. We then asked her to try out her song, and after a little encouragement (some of the strongest from her big sister Bella) she began to perform the song. It was so cute and the girl got a big kick out of it. THEN... Vivi stepped it up...

She got up the courage enough to go with her Mom in front of this big group of people there for this weekly gathering and perform it for them.

It was very cute and very special. She still had a little bit of that shyness which really added to the charm of the performance.

Congrats Vivi- that was a great job.

I am very proud of my girls for so many reasons, and this one fits in to some of the top examples. Thanks for making me a happy Dad.

Turkey Day's a coming-

The Girls are awesome troopers helping out with making the place setting markers AND helping cook up the brine.
YOU'RE THE BEST IN THE WORLD, GIRLS!

You make you Papa proud!

christmas stuff ALREADY!

1 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff is already going up around the house.

Bella and Vivi got these at Michaels this weekend, so we thought, what the heck, let's put them up already.

I ALSO went outside and put up some hanging ornaments from the front tree- took too long, but that's why I started it already- have too much to do before Thanksgiving, and would really like to start off the day after Thanksgiving enjoying the Christmas season right away.

I'll load up more photos once I take them.

Some Halloween pics and Bellas KARATE TEST

Sorry- gonna keep this shorter than I'd like to- but at least it's something :0

Halloween was Fun... Awesome... Spoooooteeeee!

I wish I had taken night time pics of the house- hope to next year. Girls look cute though.

Vivi and Bella Strikin' a pose

Declan, Aubrey, Gemma, Bella

Josie and Vivi

Spooooteeee, Spooooteee

Josie, Vivi, Erin, Declan, Gemma, Bella, Cooper, and Ryan

Karate- Bella tested for her Purple belt tonight and passed with flying colors(no pun intended)
'CONGRATS BELLA'

Lolo was there to offer his never ending support for Bella.

"Strike!-Strike!-Strike!"

Bowing and getting their Belts with PRIDE.

Proud Bella with Sensei Marcello.

YAY! Vivi and Bella with their proud Lolo.

Rent

After a long wait we finally took Bella to see her first REAL musical... RENT.

Although we knew it would be too adult in it's subject matter for her, I think she really enjoyed hearing some of her favorite tunes LIVE!

Here's a pic

Oh yeah- and here's a quick pic of the backyard set up for halloween- Hopefully Lynn will blog about that a little more in the next few days.

Alphabet Adventure

This past weekend, while Lynn was swamped with work, I tried a fun adventure with the girls that required a check list of the alphabet, our cameras and some imagination. Our goal was to go for a long walk through our neighborhood and see if we could spot the letters of the alphabet in ordinary things we pass everyday. Although we began to find some pretty easy cheats here and there, we really tried to challenge ourselves (ok... after about 1/2 an hour... MYSELF) to look for clever ways to find these letters. Our goal was to make them pretty obvious to the viewer, and we even hope to make a fun little book for Bella and Vivi's cousin Koa when we're all done. Well, we still have a few letters left to find, but I had so much fun I felt I had to share the first results.

Enjoy 'em:)

bella's 1st day of first grade:)

Sisters

Hi All -- It's Charlene,

Today, Bella decided to do something really wonderful for her sister. She decided to write her a card. I won't even begin to try and describe it, I'll just post what she made for her:

Just to officially translate, it says:

Dear Vivi

You are such a great sister

I love my great sister

I love, Vivi

Bella did this all on her own, with absolutely no help from me whatsoever. To say that I'm a very proud mama right now would be a huge understatement. Bella was so excited to give Vieves her card. Here's a photo of that moment too:

Sometimes, the girls really can just totally blow me away by how loving and thoughtful they both can be. Now the trick is making sure they behave this way more often, and fight less!

Movie night is back :)

It's been too long... WAYYYY too long since we've done a movie night. So- last Friday night I decided to get us all geared up for movie night. Lynn picked the movie, we ordered the Pizza, I made our movie tickets at work, and collected them using my normal- cheesey french accent- and we all sat down to watch....

Happy Feet

I guess no one in the world has seen this movie or else I'm POSITIVE I would have been warned about the nightmare I was about to experience.

The movie started out with some crazy-assed singing from a deep in outer space shot that eventually made it's way into to a bunch of penguins signing. After seeing one big star name after another in the opening credits, I had hoped that this confusing opening sequence would eventually pay off and we'd settle into some comfy warm penguin cuteness.

Well after explaining wtf was going on to my girls every 2 minutes, there FINALLY was a little bit of cuteness 15 minutes into the movie when the little Happy Feet guy was born. But within minutes, that was destroyed by BS story telling with characters and plot that I had NO attachment to what so ever. Within minutes, my girls and I were like all WTF again as the movie continued to piss us off and hurt our brains for the next 2 hours.

You can tell by the photos that this movie night went from wonderful anticipation



to complete hatred and disgust.

(Vivi's so out of it, she didn't even sit up for the picture... poor thing)

Sorry girls- we owe you big time:)

SO watch out everyone- this movie does nothing but tell you what you SHOULDN'T do while making a film.

Luckily I've figured out how to make it up to them.

In MY household, I save all Christmas movie watching for Christmas time only.

That way- I can continue to keep the special magic of those films alive for me and our family and hopefully we'll never really get too tired of watching them.

Well- that rule is being broken on Saturday night!

I'm pulling out the big guns to make up for that horrible film and we're doing Christmas in July. Christmas themed PJ's, Food, and snacks are required for this special viewing of one of our favorites...

That's right

ELF!

Who else can make us forget that horrible penguin movie than Santa's funniest helper EVER. Laughter and songs will fill this house next Saturday and I truly can't wait.

Hopefully the pics from that night will blow the ones posted here out of the water.

Sorry again girls, but look at it this way- If we didn't have these crappy films to watch, how would we know how great the great ones really are:)

Till then...

Crazy Day!

It's Charlene again...

Just thought I would write about our crazy day. A few weeks ago, Bella and Vivi got invited to a birthday party for their friend, Erin, who takes karate with Bella. We RSVP'd that we'd be there happily at 2:00 to help her celebrate. Then we found out that Papa had the day off today. Bonus! A relaxing morning with Daddy, then off to the party, then relaxing at home for the rest of the day. But then we found out that Vivi's favorite show, "Brother Bear," at Disney's California Adventure Park was closing. We found this out from one of Bella's karate teachers, Mr. Thurmon, who happens to be the lead in the show, and today was going to be his last day performing it! We knew Vivi would totally get a kick out of seeing Bella's teachers in the show so we decided to head out really early, drive down to Anaheim, catch the show, and high tail it back to Burbank to get to the party in time. Bella loved the show and was called on stage to 'assist' Mr. Thurmon, Vivi on the other hand suddenly got totally freaked out by the Kenai bear character that joined them on stage and begged to be taken out of the show area by Daddy. (And yes, that's right, Vivi was the one we drove all the way down there for.)

After sitting in traffic for 1 1/2 hours, we made it to the party which was fun. The girls tired themselves out on Erin's water slide and bounce house. But then we remembered that we promised to also take the girls to the grand opening of this new candy store that opened up a block away from us. They sell sodas from all around the world and tons of different kinds of candy. (I know, Zac's version heaven, right?) So after a sugar filled morning, and afternoon, it was time for more sugar from the candy store.

Oh, and then Bella got the bubble gum that we bought from the candy store stuck in her hair. Note to self: peanut butter actually does work in getting that stuff out.

So, it was a crazy, fun filled day of sugar, traffic, bears, more sugar, bounce houses, and peanut butter. And it's only Friday!

Here are a few pics from our nutty day :)

Getting ready to start our day!

Bella with Mr. Thurmon AKA Shaman Assistant

Vivi had to leave in the middle of the show because she was so scared of Kenai. Mr. Thurmon was nice enough to see Vivi after the show, take some pictures...

And give her a consolation hug :)

At least Bella wasn't scared of Kenai!

The Vieves

Hi all.... it's Charlene.

It seems as though the last few months, it's been all about Bella and all the wonderful accomplishments and adventures she's been on. It was starting to feel as though Vivi was getting lost in the shuffle, so I wanted to take a minute to write about her.

Vivi has been through an amazing journey these past few months. She seems to have gone from my toddler, to a little girl. Her vocabulary is outstanding. I forget that I'm speaking to a three year old sometimes. A typical conversation will go something like this:

VIVI: Mom, I don't know why Bella doesn't like chocolate. I know it's not healthy, but it's so tasty. I love it. I don't know why Bella doesn't like chocolate.

Her musings really are priceless.

Today, when I picked her up from preschool, there was a Development Assessment waiting for me. Her school does one every few months for every child. It's basically a form which observes a child's progress with her cognitive, language, social, emotional and physical development based on her age. The observations range from 'O', meaning observed regularly, 'E' which means emerging/occasionally, and 'N' meaning needs more time.

Vivi got 'O's all the way down.

I kind of knew all of this as I've always felt that Vivi was way advanced for her age (and that's not just me being a proud parent.) She did everything so much earlier than Bella, it was no surprise that she was doing so well at her preschool.

But here was my favorite part of the evaluation. There's a section for teacher's comments. Her observations described Vivi PERFECTLY. Here's what she said:

Vivi is very independent.

She adjusted quickly when she went up to Rainbow Fish. (Vivi's class). To her, it was just like going up one step higher, and that was that. She instantly made new friends.

She is also firm in doing things on her own. If Vivi does not agree with what you are saying, she will give you her signature 'stare' - a long penetrating one that speaks.

Vivi is very smart. Her knowledge of letters and numbers is a plus. She is able to match similar letters or numbers and recognizes each of the them. In doing her art, she quickly follows directions. If she does not understand, she will always ask help from the teacher. She does not need to be told twice. It will be a pleasure watching her progress more and more in the months to come.

I am so proud of Vivi and the young lady she's becoming. It's hard to believe (and to accept), but I don't have babies anymore. The days of baby talk, baby smells and baby food are long behind me. Now my little ones speak (and argue) like adults, smell like sunshine and play and order from the big kids menu when we go out.

Everyday the two of them just grow smarter and more independent. I only hope that I can continue to instill in them kindness, empathy, responsibility to themselves and others, and openness to new ideas along with all that wonderful intelligence they already possess. If I can manage half of all of that, then I think I would have done my job.

Judging from what I'm seeing from Vivi, I think she's well on her way...

Just don't want to lose this one

I helped her with the spelling (even though she forgot a letter or two... takes after me), but she figured out what to say.
Pretty cute- pretty cool. I'm sure the reply is posted on here somewhere (scroll through the achieves).

Other than that- The girls are great! Bella has been enjoying some summer activities, and is loving her enrichment classes at St. Francis with Mrs. Wargo and Mrs. Vitali.
Vivi is excited for her swim lessons towards the end of summer and is getting ready to go back to 3 days a week at SWCC for preschool:)

All is good...


Here's Bella's first written letter to Santa (from12/2008)

KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION???

Kindergarten Graduation, huh?

REALLY???
Really.

So after kids finish a year of playing with blocks and coloring, we need to have a "Cap and Gown" ceremony for them?

Really.

Well, that's what I thought at the beginning of Bella's school year. I was actually kinda secretly mad about it.

"Oh great- I'm gonna have to go and waste my time celebrating a minor milestone in my child's life just because some yahoo decided we should."

Then the school year began.

Bella was one of the youngest to enter kindergarten, and boy did it show. She was wonderfully polite, quite eager, and very smart for an almost 5 year old (yeah.. she technically started kindergarten at age 4), she just wasn't developmentaly up to the speed of her classmates.

Although preschool introduced writing letters that year prior, she really had just been introduced to the process. But, her kindergarten class began learning how to write each letter of the alphabet properly (upper and lowercase) while also practicing the sound they make. Their homework (yes homework: 3-6 pages per night) had them practicing their numbers, finding words that started with the the sound of whatever letter they were working on that week, and learning to cut paper with surgeon like precision, (ok.. a little exaggerated, but it sure seemed that way at first). They also worked on listening skills and learned how to stay in control and in their seats when told. I'm sure they also played with crayons and paste, ran on the playground, etc. etc., but they did A LOT more work than I could have ever imagined.

Concerned that the class might be too advanced for Bella, we did some research, asked our friend Dr. Dousette, and met with Bella's teacher, Mrs. Wargo. They reminded us she was almost the youngest in her class and assured us that Bella was going to click in, and just work a little harder with her a long the way. and to just give it time.

I began doing flash cards of sight words, and made up letter and sound flash cards, too. We would practice on STARFALL.com nightly and I'd draw pictures to have her color and cut out gluing to other papers to make fields of flowers, all just to try and help things along. Plus, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Lynn continued to guide her with her homework and helped instill the right kind of approach needed to excel in that department.

Then, in what seemed like over nght, it happened: she popped through into the next level of development.

And in true Bella fashion, better than anyone else her age (even better than some of the older students.)

You see- Bella is VERY intelligent.

Besides having her wonderful disposition, her beauty and her miles of charm, she is SO very smart.

I was so proud of all the hard work she put in, and it blew me away to see all the efforts pay off.

So, when we came around to her kindergarten graduation actually happening, I had to cave.

She DID accomplish a pretty hard task, and put in great efforts to reach this goal.

So yes, on the day of her ceremony, I stood there on the sidelines, taking picture after picture.

Being as proud as I could possibly be of my graduating kindergartener.

Way to go, Bella! I'm so proud of you and I'm certain this is just one of the thousands of times I'll be saying that.