Last week we had the good fortune and fun of a visit from Airplane Grandpa! The kids had a great time. I think _everyone_ needed a nap after the visit.

This is Dad playing "hangman" on a whiteboard with the kids. They loved it! Drew stumped Dad with "why". But then after that, Drew's chosen word always rhymed with whatever Dad had picked on the previous round.

Dad came to visit so Andy and I could go to a corporate black tie dinner -- the Goddard Memorial dinner. Two thousand people were there. The meal was exquisite-- they announced a special dispensation from the diocese for all Catholics so we were able to enjoy both the scallops and the beef tenderloin they served for dinner. Oh yeah, and dessert too!

Here's a pic of Andy and me before we left...

Sophia got her first hair cut on Friday. She seemed excited to finally be getting her own hair cut after watching both Drew and Lauren get theirs done. I think it was harder on Mommy who had to watch all those wonderful baby curls disappear forever. We donated her hair (10 inches) to "Locks of Love", which makes wigs for children who have cancer and have lost their hair. At least someone can wear those cute curls.

The BEFORE picture:


Right after they cut off the 10 inch ponytail (ok, I admit I freaked out a little when they first did it, but I didn't let Sophia see... it was mostly a giant, inward gulp):

After all the cutting and styling, with Mommy (she's wearing stick-on earrings the salon presented her for her first haircut). Just as adorable as ever-- and looks more like a little girl than a baby now...

We were pretty lucky this year, scoring 5 or 6 snow days. I think this was the first one, just before Valentine's day (the day, by the way, that Alex took his first steps). This was just the right amount of snow-- enough to cancel school but not too much for the kids to play in. Lauren and Drew loved having a snow fight (their snow balls were pretty wimpy):


Sophia insisted on making snow angels all over the yard. I thought she would freeze.

Drew's preschool Epiphany play... Drew was the "Star Bearer"...
Cousin Jane Elizabeth joined the family to watch Drew stand with a pole in front of his face (the star) nearly the entire pageant. I think this is Sophia's attempt at that "bored super model" look...
We celebrated Drew's fifth birthday this year... Drew is crazy about Star Wars and now that he can read, he noticed that the book for the cake designs said that this cake featured a "Yoda with blinking light saber" so that's the one he picked:
So we celebrated Drew's birthday at Chuck e Cheese's with 25 of Drew's closest friends. It was pretty crazy and we hardly saw Drew ... (this is the "where's Drew?" picture); however, we did get excellent video of Drew dancing with Elvis moves. If I can figure out how to creat a .wmp of it, I'll post it. It's a keeper for those unruly teenage years!
Nonna, Nonno, Grandma Caldarelli, and Aunt Pam came down for Drew's party and enjoyed spending time with Alex. The children don't really know how to eat until Nonna feeds them.
Alex, hanging out with Nonno:

Ok, it's March already and I'm only now posting Christmas pics to the blog. This year we travelled to Georgia to be with the Hertz family for the holidays. It was wonderful to visit with them and to see Mary Lauren and her family. We even got to spend an afternoon playing at their house. We also of course spent time with Mom, Dad, Aunt Ginny, Louis, and Kwirky (who even smiled for us as long as there were cookies in our pockets). I guess we were so busy spending time with everyone we didn't take very many pictures!

Here are some (in no particular order):


Puglise-Schroeder cousins at ML's house (the girls are dressed up, the boys... are not)

Pre-bedtime movie for the cousins at Mom's house (I believe they're watching Cars)
Alex, attempting to wield Drew's new Light Saber. I think Lauren is helping...
Louis surveys Sophia's choice of footwear (stolen from Aunt Ginny...)
Lauren's turn to model those stylin' boots...
For Christmas, one of Lauren's favorite gifts was an outfit that matches her bitty baby
Oh yeah, and before Christmas comes Andy's birthday (Alex slept through the party)...

Yes, this _is_ a picture of the cake Sophia picked for her birthday-- the red "Lightning McQueen" racecar from the movie "Cars".

Sophia and her siblings (Sophia picked ramen noodles for her birthday lunch).
After watching Sophia enjoy playing with the little kitchen at Drew's school one day, we thought she might like to have one of her own for her birthday. I think we hit a "homerun" (here, making cookies in the oven):
Drew picked out a "Dancing Princess" barbie for Sophia. It twirls and lights up and she loves it, but for this picture all she wanted to do was get back to the kitchen.
...which she did: (the microwave is her favorite-- I _do_ use the oven, but apparently she only _sees_ me use the microwave!) She was putting the dishes in the oven. Either she's noticed that sometimes I store pans in the oven or she thought it was the dishwasher!
Lauren's interest in pretend cooking was re-invigorated with the new gift (actually, this picture reminds me a lot of the one when Ginny got _her_ kitchen set for Christmas one year (she was three) and Mary Lauren was excitedly playing with it too.)

Here are some random pics I took recently:

Sophia having a doll's (and animal's, and car's... apparently) Tea Party:
Andy decided it was time to rake the leaves, to Drew and Sophia's delight. They didn't seem to want to jump in them so much as be buried in them:

I had Alex's six-month pictures made on Wednesday:

... and Sophia's three-year old (!) pictures done the same day:

Ok, Blogger wouldn't cooperate last night, so here are the rest of the Halloween pictures

Drew, the happy knight:



















Sophia, aka Snow White:







































Alex: the happy Dragon (Drew claims Alex is the Knight's pet Dragon)

Happy Halloween!

Here's Lauren (Hello Kitty Princess), Drew (Peter from Narnia), Sophia (Snow White) on Halloween. I think they all loved their costumes.














Here's _everyone_... Drew (the knight), holding his favorite little Dragon (Alex).















Here are some single-kid pics:

Lauren

Hey everyone! I got published. In the Washington Post. Ok, it's a very small piece and it's more human interest than anything, but it's on page 3 of the Metro section! I'm so excited! I sent it in about 6 weeks ago and figured the Post had already ditched it but last week I got a call at 7pm from one of the editors asking for a picture to put with the piece. It went out in today's paper. Here's the online link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/22/AR2006102200943_2.html

It's about my "commute" (if you can call it that since I telecommute).

Sophia found Lauren's old rain boots...

I'm a little late on this, but Lauren lost her first tooth! Here's the picture with her new "Gap"...