The Mazzola's

Monday, May 06, 2013

Lucky 7 and Celebrating 10 Wonderful Years...

Hello Family and Friends,
Our last blog was dedicated to my sweet Chasers!  This blog is a double dedication to my beautiful daughter and my amazing husband. 
Our celebrations started at the end of March as Joe and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  We spent that evening reminiscing together with the kids and Joe's parents about our wedding day.  We still get the biggest smiles on our faces when we think about our wedding day and what an incredible day it was.  We certainly don't take the last 10 years for granted and we feel so blessed with all the amazing gifts we have been given.  I look forward to the next 50 years together.
A short six days after our anniversary we celebrated Emilia's 7th birthday.  Seven is E's lucky number, hence the subject of this post.  Our family has a way with having extended birthday celebrations.  We tend to celebrate birthdays all week long and that's exactly what we did for Emilia's birthday.  Emilia got to celebrate an early birthday with DayDay, who also has a birthday a few days before hers.  Emilia  and DayDay have been able to celebrate their birthdays together for the last two years.  I think we might be starting a tradition.  Emilia and I made a dolphin cake for the two of them, half vanilla for Emilia and the other half chocolate for DayDay.  Emilia then got to spend most of the next week with Bebia for her spring break and pre birthday festivities.  I took Emilia's birthday off work and we got to have a Mommy daughter day shopping and had lunch with Daddy.  Thank you for a fantastic day, Emilia. She had a small birthday party with some close friends.  We took the kids to a pizza place and then walked to the movies. 
In the midst of our anniversary celebration and Emilia's birthday Chase started his new daycare (preschool).  We decided, why not throw more excitement into our lives!  It has been quite an adjustment over the last 4 weeks.  He has great days and still tries to turn on the waterworks when I leave him some mornings.  He always tells us "I had fun at my big boy school today", it's pretty cute.  His teachers seem really great and Chase seems happy, which means Joe and I are happy.  The "challenging threes" have certainly kicked in for Chase.  I don't know why people say "terrible two's"- it's not "terrible two's", it's "challenging three's".  I think I must have blocked out the year Emilia was three or maybe since I was pregnant with Chase, it all seems like a blur.  Well here we are again, and WOW what a challenge it can be at times.  I really feel bad for three year olds, trying to control emotion, express emotion, be independent and in control is hard for me at 35 years old sometimes, so I can only imagine how hard it must be for a three year old.  Lots of deep breaths and patience and this too shall pass.
A couple weeks after Chase started his new school, Joe and I skipped town and headed to San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma for 5 days to celebrate our anniversary.  We had an amazing trip together!  I'll let the pictures tell the rest, or I would be here all day telling you all about how beautiful it was, how awesome the food in San Fransisco is and how delicious the wine was in Napa and Sonoma.  Thank you to both of our amazing parents who watched the kids so we could go away together and reconnect. 
As soon as we returned from San Fran, I was home for six days and then hopped back on a plane and headed to Denver for four days with my Dad for our annual conference.  While I was in Denver Joe and Emilia went on their Y-Guides Indian Princess camping trip to Camp Seafarer.  They shot BB guns, played tennis, zip lined into the lake, as well as bonded with each other and friends.  Chase got to hang out with Bebia while we were all away.  He had a great time and kept telling my Mom " Bebia, I am having a really fun time at your house". 
Joe is heading to the coast this weekend for a guys weekend  and then we all head back to the coast with Joe's family to celebrate Joe's birthday and Mother's Day the weekend after. 
Life is certainly busy and tons of fun but I am looking forward to relaxing at home, enjoying the spring weather, dinners on our porch together as a family and getting ready for another school year to come to an end. 
One last thing, I have a lot of people in my life recently who are going through some really tough times.  As busy as life gets, always remember to love each other and to be grateful for all the wonderful blessings in your life. 
"It's not what you see when you look out the window, it's who you hold hands with". -unknown

https://plus.google.com/photos/100686975836685272573/albums/5875057057475665089?gpsrc=gplp0&partnerid=gplp0#photos/100686975836685272573/albums/5875057057475665089?gpsrc=gplp0&partnerid=gplp0

Life is good, we love you all!

Les, Joe, Emilia and Chase