Noah with the hose and popsicles...

Ever since I remember Noah loved playing with the hose. He can spend hours playing with the hose and spraying water everywhere. Leah is no better. I bought a new plastic pool for them couple weeks ago and you can't keep her out of the water. Every time she goes outside, i turn around and next thing i see is Leah sitting in her clothes in a pool. Most recently Leah had her very first popsicle and she LOVED it! Now there is no way that somebody can have an popsickle if she is not also eating one. Both of my kids are ice-cream monsters (just like their mommy :) At least couple times a week, we sit outside (mostly naked or at least half-naked:) and enjoy some form of ice-cream. Of course i prefer to get the sugar free version but many times we just get a bluebell and enjoy it to the fullest! I love summer :) I can't wait until our pool is open so we can fill our days with daily visits to the pool. Last year Leah was too small to really enjoy the pool but this year she will have much more fun i think.

 
 I love this one. LOL

 
Noah had already finished two when Leah was working on her first one (He did end up eating half of Leah's)

Mother's Morning out petting Zoo

This week Mother's Morning Out program had a special surprise for the kids and instead of going to the playground like they normally do, all kids and some of the parents got together to watch and pet on different kinds of animals such as snakes, giant turtles, lizards and crocodiles. I had so much stuff going on right now that i completely forgot about this event and i didn't bring my camera with me (i bet babcia and Leah would have a blast-my fault). I had to rely on a mercy from other moms to take couple shots of us but we don't have pictures with all the animals. Nevertheless we have some and I am happy that i was there with Noah. All the kids were super excited and had the best time in the world seeing all these strange and unique animals. The animals were very well behaved and didn't mind being held or petted on. I especially liked the snakes. They had different kids of snakes there but the cutest one was this huge, green python that was like 15 feet long and it took ten people to line up and held him (me and Noah included). What a great and educative morning for the kids and mommas!
Getting a kiss from a giant lizard :)
Noah petting on a lizard.
Noah petting on a real crocodile.
I am holding a baby crocodile. The guy had to hold his face in case he would snap :)
Snake...He was kind of cute :) We all held this huge python (i don't have pictures of him) and he was not slick at all. I always thought that snakes are slicky but he was soft and kind of rough.
My brave Noah :) However he didn't want to put the snake around his neck :)

Swimming classes.

Couple weeks ago Noah started to take swimming classes for beginner tots. He wasn't too happy at first but after a first lesson he eased into it and he now loves it. The class runs twice a week for 30 minutes. I cannot even tell you how proud I am of Noah. He is a leader in his class and although he has some problems with paying attention to the teacher (doing his own thing like splashing other kids with water or basically wandering off to another corner of the pool when everybody else stays with the teacher) he always does all exercises correctly and he is definitely the best swimmer in the whole group. Some kids take this class for the third time in a row but this won't be a case with Noah. He is very natural and confident in a water (yeah he is a Scorpion so naturally he should like the water). When i tried to teach him to submerge his head under the water while we were taking a bath together not too long ago, he refused it and didn't want to try it. I thought he was not getting the idea of holding his breath under the water. Well, in a class he got it almost instantly. When all the other kids (the same age)just blow bubbles in a water, Noah is already under the water with his hands stretched out like an airplane and he does it over and over again. The teacher is very impressed with him and Noah is now presenting how to get under the water for all other kids :) Soon he will be teaching me how to submerge under water without holding my nose. I swear I cannot do it but want to learn at some point. Anyways, i think Noah is very motivated to swim so he can swim with dolphins one day :)I promised him a while back that one day, I will take him to Florida and we will swim with dolphins. Not sure if i will ever be able to afford it but I will come up with money somehow for him. We went to the aquarium the other month and we saw a dolphin show and Noah was just mesmerized by the dolphins and the people who swam with them. I know he would have the time of his life if one day he actually had a chance to swim with dolphins...and he will. I promise... and when i promise something, I ALWAYS keep my promise.



Blowing bubbles.



Noah  floating under water :) I am sooo proud!

Like an airplane :) My little leader!

Studio Lighting Class

I just started a new workshop this week "Studio Lighting for Beginners" and I have already learned so many cool things i had no clue about last month. I have purchased a new studio equipment and I can now use the Softbox, meters and wireless triggers. I am soo excited! This weeks class was about getting a nice catchlights and after trying to make all my equipment work for hours and hours I finally produced my first professional images :) They are not the best (best are yet to come :) but I am very proud of them. Noah modeled for me (in order to get an ice-cream). My favorite part of those pictures are Noah's scraped up knees . . . .O'h how I love love love little boys. The picture says it all . . .the hair . .. the knees. That's my boy and I am soo proud of him (and guess what, he was bottomless on these pics :)LOL Check out those fancy rectangular catchlights :)

Happy Easter!

What a happy day! SO many things to be thankful for this Easter. We started the day with an Easter basket blessing at our church, as we do every year. It is our tradition to color the eggs, make the baskets as pretty as possible with different decorations and take it full of food (for next day breakfast) to the church for a special blessing. This year i had a help from babcia and babcia really knows how to decorate and make everything pretty. She did such a fabulous job on the baskets, even saw in the bows so they don't come apart. She picked up fresh flowers and decorated the baskets with them. I think we had the prettiest baskets in church :) The kids did great in the church because it was a quick service. Leah didn't even get up from the altar :) After the church, we came home for a quick lunch (barszcz prepared by babcia) and off we went to a park with kids to take some pictures with their Easter baskets. When we came back from the park, it was time to go to the annual neighborhood Easter Egg hunt and it was fun as always! Leah went after one egg with her age group, but she was just content with one egg in hand and she desperately wanted to eat what was inside (Iza helped Leah get more eggs so she ended up with more than enough in her basket. Noah was in the 2/3 year old group this year and he wanted to take off even before they said , "GO". He was up on the hill and moved rather quickly from place to place. He filled up his basket completely and we were so impressed with him!

On Easter Sunday, we woke up to the wonderful smell in the house from babcia's cooking. The kids found their Easter bunny gifts and then we had a family breakfast together. Leah loved the soup my mom made and Noah did too. We had a freshly made vegetable salad, ham, eggs, and two kinds of soups. Everything was delicious! After our breakfast we went over to our neighbors for some more Easter egg hunt. As always Noah had so much fun with his friends Izabella, Thalia and Sean. Leah was also very content and didn't need much supervision. She just watched the other kids and played quietly on the floor while we ate Polish cakes and drank coffees (i drank tea since I am no longer drinking coffee). We had a great time. We came back from Ania's and it was almost the time to go to a church. We went to a Polish church in Lawrenceville (almost an hour away from our house) but it was a very long Mass today (two hours) and the kids were getting very antsy, just to say a little bit :) We had to constantly chase them and keep them quiet, which was almost impossible because Miss Leah acted like she was high on sugar (she probably was :). Anyways, I am very glad we visited the church and attended a ceremony. We had a full weekend of Easter activities! It was truly a happy weekend and we are so blessed. Happy Easter!

Kids at the church with their baskets.

Noah already eating kielbasa :)

Looking for something else.


Noah and Iza.


Bible reading.

The Priest blessing our baskets.


Soo cute!

Leah's basket.

Noah's basket.

In the park...













Good times :)






Love this one.



Noah at our annual Easter egg hunt in our neighbors house.

Leah having a separations anxiety b/c mommy had to step back to take a picture :)

My back-lit beauty.


Leah Easter hunting for the first time :)

Checking out her egg...


"Ok forget about hunting, I already have an egg to eat".


Noah on the GO!



Not a minute to waste.






Leah checking out Noah's eggs.

Play time.

Love it.


Climbing the trampoline. Leah loves the trampolines, although she can't jump yet, she just likes to walk on it (she never really walks on ours because when Noah sees her, he starts jumping and just keep knocking her down). Maybe next year Leah!!!