My favorite Day of the Year

Christmas eve at my parent's house. We'd just finished our Italian feast with family and friends.

Miceli fam. I love them like crazy.

From Thanksgiving

Yes, It's almost Christmas and I'm just getting around to posting some pics from Thanksgiving. I'm a bit behind, but I'm catching up. Here are some pics from our exploration of the Cornell campus. That's one of our favorite things to do when we go to Ithaca.

We tried to take family pictures. This is one of my favorites...it really captures the essence of the whole experience. Especially the way that Libby is trying to escape my grasp.

We got to tour the new architecture school. The main highlight for the kids was the "slide and the bubbles".

Jer checked it out too.

Here's Libby about half-way up the slope. I should have taken a picture of the boys rolling down it.







And lastly, here is Libby in a chair that belonged to her great-great-great grandfather Albert Libby when he was her size. The story goes that he loved to drag it around behind him and that caused the legs of the chair to become worn down in a certain way. Libby also loved taking it with her, but she preferred to push it in front of her.

Independence

Normally I don't find pictures of messy kids all that cute. They just make me feel really tired. But I had to show you this one. The look of pride on her face while she attempted to feed herself a yogurt was almost worth the mess in her hair, on the chair, floor, tablecloth....etc.

She absolutely wouldn't let me feed her anyway. Libby is a very independent little gal. Now if only she would let me show her how to keep the spoon right side up.

And now a shout out to Pap-pap. He is about to under-go open heart surgery as I type this. We expect great results from the surgery, and hope for a quick recovery. About independent gals...I don't know if I ever will be. A girl needs her dad forever. Here's to mine, and many more days, and many more dances to come.

Vintage Baby

My mom saves everything. Everytime she comes to visit she brings something from her collection. Sometimes this is a point of tension because I live in a little house, and don't have much storage. And I don't like the responsibility of caring for things that she kept pristine for thirty years. However, I'm so lucky to have many of these items. She asked me if I ever use anything. So I wanted to show her some pics and say thank you. I'm glad she chose to save too much rather than too little. Maybe there is a happy medium out there somewhere...

This little handmade dress was mine. I added a little belt to it.

Libby looking at James, the co-photographer, who did not want to be photographed himself. His job was to try to make her smile.

Libby has a very serious expression a lot of the time. My family likes to tease her for it. She makes them work hard for a smile.



She didn't want to take the dress off after her picture, but I was afraid her legs would be cold. So we added some jeans to the dress, for a hip little shirt.

The best thing my mom saved for us is our book collection. She has brought us at least 100 books that belonged to all of us Miceli kids growing up. Many of them have writing inside, like The Beach Book- To Gerry from Susan...Ocean City MD 1984. Or Where The Sidewalk Ends...to me on my 9th birthday. Make Way for Ducklings...Thanksgiving 1985. I know I could read the same stories to my kids from the library's copy of the same story...(Well some of them that are still in print. But we'd loose some real gems like Worried Walrus, or Andrew Henry's Meadow.) I love seeing my hands on the pages and realizing how much they look like my parent's hands turning the very same pages. Don't worry brothers and sisters. I'll guard the books carefully so that you can have the same experience.

These little shoes were mine. They say made in the USA on the bottom, so you know they're old.


And this dress isn't vintage, but it is still from Mom-mom:)

Joy School

I've heard of middle child syndrome, and I think James displays many of the classic symptoms. But, here's the thing. I would estimate that James takes in about 75% of my "parenting" efforts, or attention. You know the saying that the "squeaky wheel gets the grease", well this little boy is very squeaky. Squeaky, hilarious, quirky, and loud. One of James's special activities right now is Joy School. It's a home based preschool program that you can download. A few of us moms are doing it together. James loves his preschool group. He likes to pack his backpack and pretend the van is a school bus. He loves the songs and rhymes we do. This week he and another kid called their farewells as we loaded our vans..."See you at the next joy school!" they yelled to one another.

This week we took a nature walk and it was a great opportunity to capture pics of all the kiddos.

This girl is a little ham. She will smile and pose all day for pictures.

Her sister, harder to capture. But look at the grasshopper on her jacket!

Collecting leaves, and talking about all the colors we could find in nature.

He was not really sure about me. But such a handsome little guy...wish I could have gotten a better shot of his eyes. They're amazing.

Soccer

Luca is on a soccer team. The kids voted on a name for themselves. They are the Tornados. Luca likes to play defense, and he plays with a lot of determination.

Brothers, Birthdays, and a Bakery

Don't let this picture fool you. The bickering between these two boys is driving us insane. Yesterday, they had a heated argument over a "Neutella spoon". (We won't even go into why my kids would be allowed to eat spoonfuls of that stuff straight out of the jar.) Seriously, there was half a jar of Neutella and a handful of spoons left in the drawer. I think sometimes they must enjoy arguing...like it's some kind of sport, because most of the actual problems between them could be easily resolved. Anyway, there are rare moments when they are buddies like this, and I hope as they get older these moments will become the norm rather than the exception.

And lets add Libby to the mix.

Yep, that's more like it.

And after a few grueling minutes, and just before I gave up, this was the best I could get.



We've started celebrating Libby's birthday. It's probably going to be more like a week long festival at our house.

Here she is with her cake. We made it together...our filling didn't hold up super well, hence the bulging center, but it tasted very yummy.

Libby thought so too.

And here we are with Pap-pap at my favorite restaurant in Baltimore. It's actually a bakery. Piedigrotta Bakery. I still can't stop thinking about this place days later...the gnocchi, lasagna, prescuitto, gelato, the fresh bread, the pistachio cookies. The place is full of eye candy. And it tastes as good as it looks.

They say their hours are till 6 pm but fridays and saturdays they serve dinner from 5:30 till 8:00. You need to call to make a reservation. It's located in Little Italy in Baltimore. Just a block from the Little Italy garage (where you can park for 3 dollars after 4:00.) It's a flat rate for a four course meal. They bring you beautiful plate after beautiful plate. It is owned by an Italian couple, Antonio and Bruna. He sat and talked with us. He told us how he started working in a bakery in Milan at age 9. He told us about his grandmother who had 24 kids, and at one point cooked 5 meals a day for 52 people. (5 meals a day? I want to move to there.)
He took the boys into the back and showed them the kitchen, the pasta machine, the walk in fridge and freezers. He sent us home with some frozen pasta, a big bag of apples, and this picture which he took and burned on a cd for us.

I LOVE this place. For me it feels like sitting down at my Grandma's table again, and the flavors bring back memories that I had not even realized I still had. You can check it out at:
http://www.piedigrottabakery.com/

STAGE

Here is a view looking up above a stage with grid level above, two loading bridges and the fly bridge at the bottom of the image. A ladder leads 60 feet up to the loading bridges from the fly floor (which is itself 30 feet above the stage level)



This is the upper loading bridge. the weights on the floor are loaded onto the linesets to the left. these counterbalance the weight of the stage sets that are suspended beneath the grid floor to the right. the wires overhead connect the two.



This post is for my parents who are still skeptical that I know how to make buildings. But look at this thing: complicated, expensive, precise.. and perfect for a fight scene at the end of a movie. And, I'll add, still standing after a recent earthquake. Guys with too many tatoos are loading in the first show as we speak. If other people trust me to design this, wouldn't it follow that I would also be qualified to trim tree branches, cut hair, or perform minor surgery?

A success

The party was a lovely success...

The most important two people there seemed to be very happy...

As long as the bibby had a shoe to play with she was good...

I made my first wedding cake, had flowers to cover my goofs, and it stayed upright...

James got a few dances with the bride...

and a good time was had by all.

These pics would go really well with a soundtrack... I'm thinking something like: "Almost Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. Life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, blowing like the breeze..."









So the first day on skyline drive looked like this:

Scenic overlook? Not so much.



But when we got to the top of Stony Man mountain, we got above the fog, and it looked like this:

Still a bit hazy at the top.

The next day started out looking cloudy, but we took a chance and went back with Mom-mom and Pap-pap. We climbed Bear Fence Mountain, and scrambled over boulders that as the guide book accurately described, "seemed like they would never end". Jer waited till after the hike to read the section about how this hike is not recommeneded for young children that need to be carried. I'm glad he did, because we made it just fine.