Festival Junky

Winter was cold.

Spring was rainy.

But now it is SUMMER!

How can you not like summer?

Warm weather.

Sunny sun.

Playing outside.

Eating popsicles.

Mini pools.

And festivals!

I never considered myself a festival junky but after looking at my schedule and Facebook event tab, I try to attend as many festivals as possible. The kids love to run around and I love to eat greasy food. Win, win for the whole family. Marlee is now big enough for the rides and while Nicky has his moments, he generally likes them too. The weather has been perfect and my work schedule is just feeding into my love.

Apart from festival madness, we have been incredibly busy with a variety of things. Marlee turns four this month and we leave for vacation next week (hallelujah!) so things are not slowing down anytime soon. I am going to do a photo dump here so I can dedicate my next post to my birthday girl!

We went to the Strawberry Festival, Car Show, Italian Fest, Touch-a-Truck in Massillon (not really a festival), and to Atwood Lake for fireworks (also not a festival but still a big party).

 

Apart from the go-go-go of summer, we have been busy at home also.

I am attempting to potty train this yahoo.

It's going about as well as it did when I potty trained Marlee. Probably worse because boys are the worst and I don't know what to do with his peepee. He also decided within the last week that he does not want to be a big boy and wants to be a baby.

Cue the massive sighs and eye rolls.

We also celebrated one year in our house! What a year it has been! So many memories already in the books and I am still so thrilled to call it home. We could not be happier with the choice to move and enjoy watching our family grow.

We also play outside. A lot. The patio and backyard are amazing for the kiddos and we cannot get enough sun and fresh air. We have a sandbox plus two pools to keep the kids busy. Add in some bubbles and popsicles, we are set for the day.

How can you not love summer?!

Next up we have vacation and then stay-cation which will both be well deserved and necessary for my well-being. The kids are excited for the beach and I am excited to sit on my rear and do nothing important.

Both of which make me one happy mom!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

And a beautiful Easter it was!

Before I go any further, I have to give credit where credit is due. My husband dyed eggs, put together the Easter baskets, stuffed and hid all the Easter eggs, made a casserole for lunch at Grandmas, and cleaned the house while I worked and napped before we left. He truly is a gift from God and I am not sure how I was able to get so lucky. 

Thanks Nick. 

Anyways, I digress. Easter morning, Marlee and Nicky did a mini search around the house and Isaac joined in to find the Easter baskets. The Easter bunny brought a ton of treats, candies, and toys and the kids were thrilled. Isaac got a new baseball bag too which he helped pick out but the Easter bunny paid for. (Is that how it works?)

Marlee was running around in her underwear after he bath shouting "Mom! What's dis? Oh mom, look at dis! Mom another egg! What's in dis?". Needless to say, she was thrilled and so excited the Easter bunny finally came. Nicholas on the other hand grabbed one egg, shook it, laughed in delight, and ran into the other room. One and done. 

The day continued with an egg hunt at Grandma Wanda's house and an egg hunt at the Tozzi's house. All the kids had a blast. It is such a blessing to have all the family together. I wish we could get together more often. The baby cousins need to be close. Cousins are best friends first!

Such is life - busy, busy, busy. 

Needless to say, the kids were spoiled with clothes, chocolates, eggs, and kisses. Nothing better than seeing your kids smile. And they did. All day. Laughed, giggled, ran, and smiled. 

It was a great day.

An exhausting, wonderful day.

 

The Costello, Tozzi, Hough Clan

Happy Easter Everyone!

Merry Christmas from Marlee and Me

Let's start this post by being positive since if you know anything about my feelings toward Christmas, it is a rare occurrence to be positive about it. With that being said, Christmas was really nice this year. 

Weather was beautiful. No snow = no dangerous driving around with my family in the car. No snow = no cold, wet feet after walking in and out of the various errands a mother must run. No snow = no shoveling or salt tossing in order to get up my drive way. I could seriously do this weather all winter long. 

Family was obviously the best part of holidays. Everyone was getting along. Everyone came over to the house on Christmas morning to celebrate, eat breakfast, and open gifts. It was really nice and hopefully a tradition we can keep. Being able to see everyone open gifts with such excitement and joy was a wonderful way to start the day. 

This post could easily turn into a novel with all the fun things we did to get ready for Christmas day. We did the usual traditions of visiting Santa, making cookies, and cutting down our tree. Marlee was not sold on any of our traditions. She did not like Santa (takes after her momma), was not so sure about what was going on at the tree farm, and thought icing cookies was some kind of awful torture that she wanted no part of. The pictures though make it all worth it. Sometimes you just have to laugh when those kodak moments you imagine go differently as planned. 

First up is Light Up Downtown Canton where we went to meet Mr. and Mrs. Claus. 

Waiting in line was a breeze. Marlee was a in a great mood and looking so cute in her Christmas hat. 

It went downhill really fast.

Nailed it.

Isaac is a natural. He asked for candy... candy. 

Ok lets try adding Marlee back in...

Nope.

Ok enough torture - cookie time.

Cookies and hot chocolate! Our favorite. 

Next up was cutting down the Christmas tree at Pine Tree Barn in Wooster. Poor Marlee was very confused with the whole trip and her face definitely showed it. I could not get a smile out of her the whole trip. It probably did not help that her coat was a little big and she kept falling down in the mud. 

Her face says it all - "What the heck are we doing?"

I tried so hard to get a smile out of her.

Finally found our tree and Marlee still was not impressed.

We were able to get it home and it looked great in the living room. Marlee surprisingly did not pay any attention to the tree. She did not go near it at all. Like having a giant, shiny tree in the house was normal to her. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining but I was honestly surprised. 

Last but not least was the cookie decorating. I was not even going to do cut outs this year but Nick reallllly wanted them so I gave it. It literally took me weeks to complete since batch one 'chilled' in the refrigerator a bit too long and I had to make another batch. 

Needless to say, Marlee liked being around the icing of the cookies but did not want anything to do with the actually icing. Keep in mind, she hates getting her hands dirty. She was 100% content on her one little pile of icing on the table and I was of course 100% content on her contentment. 

Her faces though are seriously hilarious. She is not shy on letting her face speak for itself. 

Family pictures!

Marlee and her pile of icing. No cookies. No sprinkles. Just a little bit of icing. 

Nick tried to spice it up a bit and give her sprinkles. She did not approve. 

Seriously so distraught over this process.

I did get one smile out of her. Love that hair Marlee!

There is no way that I can look at these pictures and not laugh. She really did not want the green icing. 

Overall, it was a great Christmas. It is nice to enjoy it with family and remember what the holidays are really about. The toys and clothes and cookies and trees will all fade but the memories truly last forever. 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and Merry Christmas! 

Till next year, 

xoxo

Marlee and Me