Big Birthday in NY

To cap of our month of May, we all loaded up into the Aura and took a road trip to NY for 2 weeks!

Not only was it our annual trip back, but we were also headed there to celebrate a HUGE landmark in time...the oldest Raymond ever...Uncle Ken's 60th, surprise birthday party.

The "boys" went out golfing on Saturday morning and came to meet us at the Relief Pitcher for lunch afterwards! What a great job Aunt Sharon did...and of course Uncle Ken's speech...priceless...I am sure we will all not too soon forget that he's a "finisher!"

So, here's to you Uncle Ken. Keep tacking on those years so that current and future Raymonds have something to aim for!

Mommy Oy! I'm A Big Kid Now....

We've done it....

We've celebrated our 1st graduation of many to come!

Dominic Jr has officially "moved up" to Kindergarten....what happened to this....?

I swear that was just yesterday, and look at him now!

Here he is receiving his certificate of completion, after joining in with his friends to put on a great show for the proud parents. The next picture is him with two of his four teachers, followed by pictures with his best buddies, RJ & Tanner. Here is a small video of one of the performances. (He's in the red)

Parenthood is the COOLEST!

Celebrating the Green

Now that we are in the ups and downs of Summer here in the North, I must say we are celebrating the green that surrounds us here. That is one thing the desert will never have (naturally) that I can't get enough of here. The vibrant and alive green! Above are the trees that I have shown before going through summer, fall and winter and now shown in spring.

Below are some pictures I took at the park down the street from us. We go there to practice baseball and just run around.

Two Be Gianni...

Why do parents truly believe that there is a "Terrible Twos"?

I am pretty sure it begins once the walking begins...

Here is why I believe this...walking=independence...it's that easy...once they can go somewhere under their own volition, then it's on....

With that being said, our little munchkin turned 2 in April and he hasn't looked back. I will tell anyone who meets Gianni, that my favorite way to describe him is "He wakes up on fire and goes to bed on fire!" But, he does have one thing going for him....see below....

See what we are working against?

Anyway, we will survive and enjoy every second of it too.....

Which brings me to the point of my story, our little guy has been living in the 2's since April and here are a few pictures of him at his birthday party we "threw" together!

He requested a Diego cake and so Mom had to pull something out quick, but he told me "I Love it!" and that was all I needed ;)

Cake was followed by presents and he was ever so cute and appreciative!

Easter Bunny Rewind

Again, I find myself having to rewind the hands of time, to share with all of you the fun things we have been doing. So, I guess, for all of you that have been BEGGING me to update our site...hold on tight....

Welcome Mom, Jon and Craig to BEAUTIFUL MN in April.

(seriously, they brought beautiful weather with them...)

We celebrated Easter this year with some of the fam., thanks to plane tickets that had to be used before the end of April! We also threw together a birthday party for Gianni too (info & pics to come).

While they visited we of course took them to do some "touristy" type stuff. The picture above was taken by St. Anthony's Falls and the beautiful stone arch bridges that cross the mighty Mississippi.

After visiting the falls, we then went home and did some old fashioned egg decorating....although, I don't think my boys will appreciate Mom's fashionable outfits she had them in for decorating....just wait till they have girlfriends!

On Saturday we packed the day full of excitement. We began the day with a VERY crowded Easter Egg hunt in Excelsior. Craig got some great pictures of the chaos that ensued when the church running the hunt thought that children ranging from 0-12 would wait patiently for each age group to go before their age group was called...Once the word GO was yelled through the microphone for the 0-3 group to go...everyone went! Here are a few pictures of my cuties after the big race for eggs.

Once everyone was accounted for, we made our way back to the house to go for an Easter egg hunt of our own...in a more "controlled" environment!

Maple Syrupping

Sorry for back-tracking...but I was looking through my pictures and there are so many things I have to post...UGH! If I only had the time to do this everytime we did something super-cool...well...there just isn't enough time....

But I digress....

In March, when Teresa came to visit on her Spring Break, we decided to join in on a spring tradition here in MN, we went and tapped a Maple and learned the "traditional" method the American Indians used to create maple syrup and then finished the whole experience off with pancakes and maple syrup made from the process! It was too cool!

Here is Dominic helping with step 1...tapping a tree,Followed by Teresa and Jr looking for a full bucket that had been collecting the sugar water to get burned down to become syrup.

In order to burn the water down, you have to learn how to start a fire, right? Well, here is Dom & Gianni trying to do just that....Here are Dominic Jr and I watching the burning off of the waterThen we went and heard the American Indian legend of how maple syrupping began.This would be Dominic Jr working on a S'more from the big campfire, a sort of pre-pancake treat!

Finally into the lodge to have a few pancakes with yummy (and pure) maple syrup, followed by crafts.

Here is TT with her kakuk (according the legend, the holder used by the crows to put water into the Maple trees). Everyone loved the experience!

Happy Birthday Benny!

Introducing Bennu "Benny" D'Arpino!

He actually arrived at Casa D'Arpino after our trip to Arizona in February and has been an interesting addition to our household...to say the least!

We adopted Benny from Northern MN and have had some blips along the way, but he has come a long way and he is the cutest thing ever....Even with the annoying barking for newcomers! When he finally warms up and lets you love on him, he is quite the snuggle bug.

Because he was older when we adopted him, he just celebrated his 1st birthday with us on Monday when we returned from Keystone, CO. We love our Benny and wanted to share some pictures of the new kid in our house!