Precious Pumpkins

First, the big news..........Sophia is walking!! She started walking exactly 10 days after her birthday, which is exactly when her big sister started walking too!! Strangely, they were both wearing the same OSU cheerleading outfit when the momentous occasion arrived!

Sophia is saying "cracker" for everything she wants to eat or drink and "dada" for daddy, mommy, mama, etc. Also, she says "Aya" for her sister and any princesses, barbies, etc. Too funny! She can identify her nose, does the hand motions to "where is thumpkin?" and puts her hands in the air when asked, "how big is Sophie...........so big!" The spaghetti picture shows Sophie's famous "cheesey face," which she does on command.

Ava is really doing well in preschool and dance class. She has taken a particular interest in singing lately. She knows every word to every song from her new Barbie the Island Princess movie! She also has a passion for watching "Dancing with the Stars," too! She is definitely going to be a performer when she gets older! She puts on a great act when she wants candy corn (her favorite snack). She comes up to Mike or myself and says, "Can I have some candy corn, my highness??" We hope that people don't think we told her to call us that?

The girls went to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and had a great time. Sophie wasn't particularly fond of the hay ride, but enjoyed trying to pick up the pumpkins. Ava loved painting the pumpkins the best. As you will see in the pics, Ava is a princess pumpkin, Sophia is a kitty-cat pumpkin, Mommy is a witch pumpkin and Daddy is a pirate pumpkin. It's important to note that Ava's pumpkin has pink glasses like her.

And.............Sophia will be Tinkerbell for Halloween, so stay tuned for pics!

The girls new ride

Here are pics from a few weeks ago when maw maw and ta ta gave the girls their joint birthday gift.........a new princess pontiac solstice to match maw maw and ta ta's! They were a little afraid of it's speed at first, but soon began to have fun with it! We hope that "fear of speed" continues until their 16!! Daddy is going to put together a movie of their first ride.......stay tuned!

Island Princess Barbie meets the DeCastro sisters

The girls went to the zoo this morning to see a "sneak peak" of the Island Princess Barbie movie and take pics with her. They also had a few animals that are featured in the movie. We had to get there 45 min early and wait in the freezing cold just to get a seat, but it was worth it. We couldn't get any good pics of Sophie with Barbie because all she wanted to do was stare at Barbie instead of daddy taking the picture! Ava thought it was pretty cool...........we see the purchase of an "Island Princess" dress, movie, doll or something in our near future. The girls also got to sit with their buddies Caroline and little sister Charlotte. It was definitely a "girl's day", so big thanks to daddy for joining us!!

Sophia is 1!

Sophia Caryn has turned 1 year old...........mommy had a little cry, but I'm fine now! She had a lot of fun at her party until she got too much icing in her eye and then she was mad. The icing in her eye was probably the result of her eating her cake "mouth first" with no hands! As much as she loves to tear up toilet paper rolls, she really didn't care that much about wrapping paper. That's where her big sister came in! Sophia loved the baby grand piano from mom and dad and all of the other wonderful gifts from family and friends. She got her 8th tooth over the weekend and we go for our 1 year doctor visit tomorrow, but I believe she weighs around 23 pounds (about 3 pounds less than her big sister was at 1 year).

Also.......Ava preschool update.........Tuesday was a great day for her! She told me before we left yesterday that she would be a "good listener and say good morning to everyone" and that's exactly what she did! She also got to be the calendar/weather helper.

FYI- Sophia will be on 10tv's first birthday segment on Friday around 6:50-7 am.

Also, look for Sophia's #1 diaper cover on the video clip, too cute!

Ava starts pre-school!

Well, our first born started pre-school yesterday and she surprised us both by crying when we started to leave. The teacher had to hold her to keep her in the classroom. We were not prepared for that! She was just fine when we dropped her off at Vacation Bible School a few weeks before...go figure? Now then, when we picked her up from pre-school, she was singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with her new friends! We walked in the room and when she saw us she said, "You came back!" "I was crying yesterday because I needed you!" Too cute!

Ava's first art work...

Sophie's ready for her shot at the big leagues...

Also, here's a pic of little Miss Sophie at the park. She just had to go through the tunnels like her big sister!

One is a dancer, the other a cheerleader...is there anything these girls can't do? Go Bucks!!!

Ava says: "Thank You Berry Much!!!"

Ava had such a blast at her party last week that we made a video together to relive the memories. Ava wanted to make sure that we put it on the "tatuter" for everyone to enjoy.
Thanks again for all of the love & gifts...we'll see you next week for Sophie's turn.

-MD

Ava is 3!!

Our beautiful firstborn is 3!! We can't believe it!? She has been so excited about her Ariel party and the day finally arrived. Ava loved her Ariel cake that Ma Ma made, her gifts, and playing with all of her friends! She had great birthday week also. She started dance class, got her first haircut and her first pedicure with mommy. Mommy really enjoyed sharing our birthday this year because we got to do things together now that she's a little older. All day she kept saying, "Who's the birthday girl??? Ava!!"

Sophie really enjoyed herself too and had great practice eating a cupcake. She was a little fussy from teething and as soon as the cupcake was placed in front of her, all of the teething pain subsided and she was in icing up to her elbows! She took a step on her own last week and started saying "Ava" which made her big sister's day!

In two more weeks we will party again for Sophia's first......stay tuned!

Sophia "bruiser" DeCastro is 11 months old!

Sophia is 11 months old today and her parents feel they have aged 15 years since her 10 month birthday! Our sweet little girl is into EVERYTHING! She loves opening cabinets, drawers, reaching in the toilet, shredding toilet paper, eating dog food and the list goes on............ and as you can see from the pics, she has received her first black eye, which happened in the bathtub, yippee! Sophie is pretending to talk on the phone, she can say several words, and is standing on her own for small amounts of time.

Ava had a very busy week last week. She attended her first vacation bible school. This is the first time she has been away from mommy for hours at a time at a strange place. She did awesome! No crying, no accidents, and loved every minute of it. She had two friends from Little Gym class go with her and she wanted nothing to do with them once she got there. She was truly there to learn and take in the whole experience. However, she did make a new friend (as you can see in the pic), Cowgirl Jessie. Ava was Cowgirl Jessie's biggest fan everyday and pretended to be her every evening. It was pretty cute! Ava has officially learned how to say "yee-haw!!"

Cedar Point

The DeCastro girls made their first trip to Cedar Point and they decided to get their money's worth. We were there from 10am-7pm. I was practically dragging Ava out of there. Sophie finally decided to take a mini nap around 4pm, but not for long, she didn't want to miss anything. Ava's absolute favorite part was her "mardi gras"makeup or facepaint. She asked if she could take her makeup home with her, of course, I said "yes". They even got to walk on the beach for the first time. Sophie was going crazy when the waves splashed on her. I set them back on the sand for a pick and Sophie started crawling right back towards the water! Ava had lots of fun on the rides and on the "frogger" ride, she saw the big kids putting their hands in the air when the ride went down, so she did too! Very cute!