Happy Father's Day!

June 20, 2010- Mark & I woke-up to the sounds of little ones scurrying through the kitchen shhhhing one another. All of them desperately trying to make breakfast for Daddy (without my help) before we came out of our room. So we waited patiently for them to finish and tell us we could come to breakfast...this is the fabulous breakfast that was prepared for Mark by his doting daughters. Everyone had their favorite cereal with toast, marshmallows, licorice, other assorted candies and last but certainly not least sliced strawberries with chocolate syrup drizzled on them! My favorite part is his crown the girls made for him, because as they said...HE'S THE KING, and of course it's red...his favorite color no less!
After church & a little rest for all Mark opened his gifts. All the girls made him cards and they each took turns sitting with him while he read through them, and of course as tradition we also got him a hoops and yo-yo card (which I LOVE...so maybe I do it more for me than for dad...what'd ya think?!)
The opening of presents begin....
Of course, no gift giving would be complete without some type of Firefighter "something or other"...
The 5 reasons Mark celebrates Father's day! Proud pop with his biggest fans!

Father's Day Picnic

June 19, 2010- Father's Day picnic at Ken Thompson park. We spent the afternoon BBQ'ing with family and friends while the kiddos swam and played. It was a great afternoon...the weather was beautiful, the water was warm and we were able to celebrate the dad's in our lives that we love so much! Ken Thompson park is at the very end of City Island and the playground and picnic area are practically right on the water. So of course it didn't take long before all the kiddos were in the water having a ball! Macy being one of the first ones in...
Cousins! Morgan, Macy, Rachel & Megan stop for a brief (& I mean brief) moment so I can snap this photo. This is the only picture that I took that had more than Macy & Rachel in it. Every time I had my camera in hand the big kids were off in the mangrove trails having a blast!
I love this picture! It's Rachel & Macy playing in the shallows together...(they are two peas in a pod...they love each other so much!) I love the background...it just shows how very much we live in paradise. I remember a friend of mine saying "we live where other people travel to on vacation"...that has always stuck with me and I think this photo emulates that statement perfectly!
Aunt Teresa with Macy & Erin with Rachel take the little ones out for a paddle on the kayak. What a great day that day was!

Quote of the Day!

Okay so my bestest of best friends does a spot on her blog called "Quote of the Day" and I always love reading the cute quips her kiddos say...so...I am adopting this into my blog. So here goes with our first one...

This morning Mark & I were in the bedroom, Mark was going through some paperwork & I was changing the sheets on the bed when Macy came into our room.

Macy - "Mommy what are you doing?" in the sweetest most curious of voices.

Me - "I'm changing my bed sheets"

Macy - "Why are you doing that?"

Me - "I have to take the dirty ones off so I can wash them and then I put the clean ones on because it's sooo nice to have a nice clean bed"

Macy - "Ohhhh...I see... Can I help you?"

Me- "Sure, I would love that"

As we worked together to make the bed she stopped turned to Mark & I and said...

Macy - "I know why you change the sheets on the bed...because you want to snuggle me! "

Me -"I do?"

Macy - "Yes...it's okay we're almost done so then you can snuggle me!"

I love that kid! I love that she thinks the reason bed sheets get changed are so I can snuggle her! I love that she has such a sweet heart and that she is such a snuggle bug!

My Fireman!

June 18, 2010 - My (AMAZING) husband is a Firefighter/EMT and has been for 11 years. He is dedicated, skilled and loves his job. He was not a firefighter when we first met...not even when we got married...he started EMT school and then Fire school right before we became pregnant with our first daughter. I was so excited for him and for us. He was first in his class in both EMT & Fire school and ranked high on the list when he tested and was hired by the county. He has served our community well and strives to do the best job he can. I am grateful for his example of strength and hard work.

Mark is the most wonderful, generous, loving husband and father. I've been given such a tremendous blessing to have him as my eternal companion. He has not only taught me so many things about myself but learned from me the things he needed for himself. I truly feel like we are two halves of our "whole". He is always the person I want to talk to (about anything & everything) he is my sounding board, my venting post, my conscience (when needed) he is my biggest advocate and at times he's also my biggest pain in the backside. No matter what he is always there for me and always stands with me. He is my BEST FRIEND and for him I will be eternally grateful! I love you babe!

Morgan Takes Us To Greece...

June 1, 2010 - Morgan's 3rd grade class did Ancient Civilizations projects at the end of the school year. Morgan's group had GREECE. So between Morgan & the three other children in her group they put together a power point presentation...
Built a replica of the Parthenon...
Made authentic Greek cuisine...
Made their costumes...
That night we made a Greek meal in honor of all the hard work Morgan had done for her project. These are the kabobs Mark made with a traditional Greek seasoning and then grilled to complete PERFECTION!
That was an AHHHH-MAZING feast!!! Morgan gave it a definite thumbs up!

Memorial Day

May 30, 2010 - Another holiday that my mother-in-law graciously let both Parisi clans "crash" her pad to have our holiday fun. I was obviously having such a good time that day that these are the only pictures I took that day. It was at the end of the night and our "two peas in a pod" cousins, Rachel & Macy, were playing in the baby doll crib grandma Penny has in the playroom.

I do not know what they were playing but the pictures that ensue are some of the cutest and funniest I have seen of my niece! Her faces over the next few photos are absolutely priceless...
Cringes & giggles...
AWESOME!!! Absolutely awesome! That's all I can say about this picture...makes me laugh every time I see it! Man oh man I love these two!!!!

Mother's Day

May 9,2010 - We spent Mother's Day (after church) at Grandma Penny's. It was a wonderful afternoon spent together with family and friends...as you can see from the above picture the older kiddos and cousins were enthralled with something on the computer. It never ceases to amaze me how a small technological device has such a "magnetic" pull.
The little ones (Macy, a family friends daughter & Rachel) spent their time outside in the backyard. There were a few moments like this one where I would look out to check on them and all three would be sitting so sweetly on the bench just watching the lake and enjoying one another. Definitely one of my favorite photos of the day!
The grill master hard at work!
Uncle Jeff loving on baby Mckinley (7 months old).
Sweet picture of Uncle Mark & our nephews, J.P. & Garett.
Not so sweet picture of Uncle Mark & our nephews... well... Garett still looks sweet :)
Mark's momma...Grandma Penny & Mckinley
The two red heads checking each other out...
My momma...Grammie!

We are soooo grateful to our mother's. We love you so very much! Thank-you for all you do for us. Happy Mother's Day!

Elementary Chorus Performance

May 6, 2010...Marin and Morgan were both apart of the elementary chorus throughout their 3rd & 5th grade school year. This was their end of the year performance which we took a group picture of at the end of the show.

Of course no Parisi photo shoot is complete without a "funny face" picture which the music teacher graciously agreed too...we love great teachers!

Our two song birds!

Megan's Art Show

Megan and her art teacher Mrs. Herbert with her artwork that placed "Best of the Best" at the Sarasota County Student Art Show on May 3rd.

Meg and Daddy in front of her art piece at the exhibit hall.

Mckinley and Mommy give a quick smile for the camera while waiting for the presentation to begin.

Macy giving Megan a hug before she heads up to be acknowledged during the presentation.

Megan's winning artwork! Great job Megan! We're so proud of our little artist!

Happy Birthday To Me...

My yummy cake...

My man and my baby...

My sweetest of sweets...

My birthday loot!

Turbo Kick Training

The weekend of April 17th we packed up the whole family and drove to Gainesville to do my TKB training at the University of Florida campus, it was a super fun overnighter that we made a little getaway out of it. We drove up the night before spent the night and while I was in my class/training Mark took the kiddos to the pool all afternoon (with a little break to sweetly bring me lunch then back to the pool) then after I was done we had a great dinner and drove home. This is a quick photo of Alli giving us the "low-down" on some TKB moves.

Me with my AWESOME presenter Alli Vaughn!

The whole gang!

Meg Turns 7!

Our beautiful birthday girl!

Think she was excited to receive her stamp set?!

The birthday girl LOVES dolphins...so her dolphin cake was a must.

Making birthday wishes are serious business!

Blowing out the candles! Happy 7th Birthday Megan! We love you!