Celebrating Father's Day

Since Brian was going to be away at Officer Candidate School (OCS) over Father's day, we decided to celebrate it the weekend before he left. We went to a big outdoor mall by our house that we have been wanting to visit. We walked around and shopped a little bit before having a nice lunch together as a family. When we got home we gave Brian his Father's day present, which seems to be this year's themed gift....TOMS!!

Summer is here

Boy have we have been busy this summer!! Finally, the Chicago heat kicked in & we have been outside as much as possible. There is nothing like a Chicago summer with the backyard BBQ's & the summer thunderstorms at night to cool off a hot humid day. We have been enjoying the summer by doing everything from going to the zoo to swimming in Nana's pool.

We celebrated my sister Taylor's 19th Birthday by having a scary movie marathon! She loves horror films so we decided to each pick our favorite scary movie & spend a whole day watching them along with some popcorn & candy. It was a lot of fun!! Then, we gave her Birthday presents, which of course Katie & I had to welcome her to the TOMS family!

My Mom, Katie, & I went on a girl's weekend trip to Vegas to celebrate Katie's very belated 21st Birthday (she will be turning 23 this year). We couldn't go away for her real 21st Birthday because I was pregnant with Brooklyn in my 3rd trimester. So, this year we made it happen & enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend shopping & sitting by the pool.

Getting ready to go to Nana's house....

A day at Brookfield Zoo with our friends Cassie & Addisyn....

Swimming in Nana's pool....

The girls swimming @ Nana's....

Our Anniversary

On our anniversary this year Brian planned a fun day of museum hopping in downtown Chicago for the two of us. It was so much fun to go to the museums, because we hadn't been there since we were kids. First, we went to the Museum of Science & Industry where we visited exhibits about everything from weather to trains to genetic engineering. They even had an actual submarine in the museum!

Next, we went to Loyola University's (where Brian attends school) Museum of Art (LUMA). Brian had gone their before as a mandatory visit for one of his Theology classes & couldn't wait to take me there to see the amazing art. We took a tour of the museum, which consisted of learning all about the art that was created during the Medieval, Renaissance, & Baroque time periods all revolving around Christianity. The art was absolutely incredible!! I really enjoyed LUMA. Then, we went to lunch at Ditka's Restaurant, a sports bar/restaurant that is in Chicago. Neither of us had ever been there before so we were excited to go there, because it is owned by the Chicago Bears former coach Mike Ditka. The restaurant was decorated in Chicago sports memorabilia & the food was awesome.

We ended the day by going to the Adler Planetarium. After walking around & viewing all of the exhibits we went to one of the shows called "Journey to the Stars" that was really cool, because the screen was on the ceiling and had images taken directly from space telescopes.

It was a great day celebrating 6 years together & getting to spend time together doing something out of the ordinary.

Inside the Museum of Science & Industry by a train exhibit.

Outside our second stop- LUMA.

The Adler Planetarium where we didn't get to take our picture outside,

because it started to rain.

Mother's Day

On Mother's day we went to the early service at church and then headed straight to the zoo for the afternoon along with Great Gram Sandy, GG, my sister-in-law Nicole, our brother-in-law Brad, & our niece Annabelle. Brian's parents bought us a Brookfield Zoo family membership that we are planning on getting a lot of use out of this year. The weather was beautiful and we had fun walking around the zoo and seeing all of the animals. We took our wagon and it was awesome for the girls to be able to get in and out throughout the day at different exhibits. And the children's zoo was really cool, because the girls could feed the goats & even brush them!

Olivia feeding & brushing the goats.

Family photo....

Group photo....

The girls :-)

After the zoo, we drove to my Mom's house for dinner. She had her family over for lasagna & stuffed shells, which were delicious! Brian & the girls bought me my very first pair of TOMS that say "TOMS <3 Moms" all over them. I love them!! (and I am totally hooked)

My sibilings & I made my mom a book basket, because she loves to read.

So, we each bought her a really good book &

I found a cute basket that said "inspire" to put them in.

Big smooch for Nana :-)

Easter

Over Easter weekend this year we decided to make new traditions in our family. This was our first Easter living in Chicago with the girls so we were excited to spend the weekend with family celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. On Saturday we went to the evening service at our new church Willow Creek and joined our church family in worship & the celebration of Easter.

On Sunday we awoke to find the Easter Bunny visited our house to hide eggs and fill the girl's baskets with presents!! Their little faces were so adorable when they entered the living room on Easter morning to find the bunny or as Olivia calls him-the "Easter Beagle" (from the Peanuts gang) came. However, instead of tearing into their baskets the girls went exploring for Easter eggs first. They both seemed to really like finding the hidden eggs more than anything!! After egg hunting & present opening we all got ready for our "guests" (as Livie refers to anyone coming over to our house lol) to arrive. We decided to host an Easter brunch for our families, because we wanted to just stay home and relax instead of running from house to house. We are so fortunate that both of our families get along so well and enjoy each other's company. We chose to do a brunch, because some of our favorite foods are breakfast food & the girls love eating breakfast foods at all times of the day. It is not uncommon for us to have breakfast for dinner, which happens to be my favorite! So, we served homemade waffles (on my new waffle iron I got for Christmas), scrambled eggs, homemade sausage patties (from the family deli S&T), breakfast potatoes, fruit & veggie pizzas, toast w/various jams, orange juice, & mimosas. And for dessert I made cupcakes:-) We enjoyed an afternoon of delicious foods, prayer, & great company.

The girls finding their eggs....

And opening their Easter baskets....

Easter brunch....

Family pictures....

Beninato family photos....

Giaretta family photos....

(we never took one with my sister-in-law & her family but they were there too)

Opening more Easter baskets from all the Grandparents....

Little miss Annabelle (our niece) had fun opening her baskets too!

And we had to end the day in bunny ears & pj's!!

This is my favorite picture of the day :-)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter <3

Painting Easter eggs

The week before Easter we colored eggs as a family. Olivia enjoyed coloring eggs so much last year that she talked about it for the entire year. So, when it came time to color eggs again she was ecstatic!! And this time around I bought a dozen & a half so the fun would last even longer. We put the girls in some of my old shirts and let them get creative with their Easter eggs. This year Brooklyn got to join in the fun too & seemed to like throwing the eggs into the coloring cups!

Daddy helped the girls paint their eggs while Mommy took pictures.

Let the fun begin!!

Never too busy to stop and give kisses to her sister :-)

The finished product!!

Here is a video of the Giaretta family egg coloring....