Another Busy Weekend!

We had another action packed weekend this past weekend.

Friday night we went to Chuck E. Cheese for Ella's "potty party". We promised her that when she was 100% day potty trained that she could have a party at Chuck E. Cheese. She's really been 100% potty trained for about 2 weeks but with Ricardo traveling so much we haven't really had a chance to go.

She had a blast! She played a ton of games, ran around, and even want potty there. I also learned that she can count backwards from 10. When we got in to the car I asked her to countdown again from 10 so daddy could hear and she did and this time ended it with, "It's time to go to bed now." HA! She learned to count backwards because we do it when it's time to end something...as in, we're going to up to bed in 5 minutes...3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minutes, 30 seconds, 10, 9, 8, 7....See, she does listen! :)

Saturday our good friends from San Diego, The Fenilli Sisters, Marianna and Monica, AKA: Mar and Mon were in NYC for a Bachelorette Party so we drove in and met them in Central Park.

It was so great to see them again. Mar and Mon came to the hospital when Ella was born. And they haven't seen her since she was 6 months old (when we moved from San Diego). They also have never met Sofia in person and of course she charmed the pants off of them.

Mar and Mon with Ella the day after she was born

Monica taught Ella how to ride a trike!

Trying to take pictures with Sofia....

Oh, you're pretty

Oh, but you're pretty too

Oh, I'm supposed to look at the camera?

Mar, Sofia, and me

The girls with Mon and Mar...poor Ella was just spent. It was about 3pm and she obviously didn't have her nap. So tired.

Our attempt at a family photo...yup, that's about right.

Marianna is getting married in September in Coronadoand we are so sad that we won't be able to go. Not only because we love her...but the Fenellis KNOW how to throw a party!

Sunday (today) my amazing neighbor came over to "teach" me how to mulch. We have a ton of weeds so she was showing me how to lay down newspaper to block the weeds from growing. She took me to a wholesale market and garden center in Clifton called Carrado's on Thursday to place my mulch order. 100 bags! I thought she was crazy but we used 60 bags on the front yard alone!!!

Unfortunately, we had a crazy storm pass through for the majority of the day but around 3 it cleared and when I went back out to finish what we started in the morning before the storm hit, Susan was out there too and she didn't just teach me, she worked her butt off next to me laying down the paper and mulching. It was hot and humid and we were both sweating up a storm but every time I told her to go sit down or go home, she just shooed me and kept mulching. When it comes to neighbors, we hit the jackpot with Susan and Rick. They take such good care of all of us (including Mikka-they watch her whenever we go away). I don't even know how I can begin to repay them. Ricardo says we just need to pay it forward when we're in our 50's and a young family moves in next door and is as clueless as us!

This is what our front yard looked like when we bought the house in June 2006-look how bad the grass was!

And now-June 2008. Now that the mulch is down, I need to plant some pretty annuals to add some color, but still a MAJOR improvement.

Ricardo leaves on another business trip to LA tomorrow. He won't be home until 1 amish on Friday morning. Ella also started camp tomorrow, so hopefully the week will fly by for us without Daddy around.