The Princess and the Cow?

This story usually involves the princess and the pea, but not in the Nicastro household.  It's Halloween and finally time to 'trick or treat'.  Ysabella is excited to use her wand, probably, because she thinks it will get her more candy.

 

Very funny Ysabella,... time to practice waving your wand.

 

Excellent work, Ysabella, you made your very own cow appear!

(or is that Anthony Francis?)

 

 Thankfully, Anthony doesn't mind the cow hood as much as Ysabella did last year.

Lets try one more wave of the wand...

 

 ... and make all the leaves fall off of the trees. 

(nobody cares that they are already falling on their own)

Happy Halloween from the Nicastros!

Here's to safe and fun trick or treating and may we all bring home good candy for our parents to enjoy!
And Happy 1st birthday Aiyana Eden!! 

Baby Formula One

Today our imaginations take us to The Nicastro Speedway, where Anthony and Ysabella participate with the CozyCoupe in a drag race.  This drag race doesn't require Daddy to dress up as a woman, but he does have to do all the hard work! 

Anthony is up first to zip down the track, and he's off!

His return race has broken record speeds for this course (no one cares that this is the inaugural race)

At such speeds Anthony quickly looses control and crashes into the wall.  Daddy pauses for a much needed scratch break (or he's admitting he's to blame) and Ysabella helps to tow the car to the pit.

It is in the pit, while the car is being prepped for the next race, that we learn poor Anthony suffers the same affliction as his father, car sickness!

 

After the swaying stopped and his vomit was cleaned up, he went straight to work on the car.  Ysabella helped gassing it up for her turn.

 

Anthony completes the final checklist and she's ready in the driver's seat!

 

Ysabella is so fast that Anthony struggles to keep up!

 

Once the real racing was complete, and Daddy was sufficiently tired, Ysabella and Anthony got their chance to push down the speedway!

 

Well, who was the winner in today's races?

 The proper answer is that we all won by having so much fun.  But Mommy is pretty sure she is the winner because she got to lay on the couch and enjoy all the laughter without the hard work! 

Thanks Daddy, Mommy is feeling much better!!

Xo5oX

One Year Ago...

Our Anthony Francis has officially turned one!  We celebrated with a small intimate gathering where Ysabella continued teaching Anthony about life.  This lesson dealt with what a birthday means, party etiquette and balloons of course!

 

After greeting guests it was quickly time for cake.  Due to recently family illness, it's hard to say if Anthony was showing us he is 'one' or if he was picking his nose.

 

Once we sang a beautiful rendition of the copyrighted "Happy Birthday", (fun factoid of the day), Anthony asked for a little assistance with his candle.

 

Then came feeling out what this "cake" was all about.

 

After Ysabella showed Anthony it was safe to eat, he couldn't be stopped!

 

Daddy said he couldn't watch the mess, but he couldn't resist his happy baby boy.

 

Following the necessary outfit change it was time for presents.

 

And eventually a family photo!

 

Happy Birthday Anthony Francis!

We are all looking forward to watching you learn another year's worth of lessons!

xoxox

Nicastro's Big Top

Step right up, ladies and gentleman, to the world unknown, (but still amazing)...The Nicastro's Big Top Basement Circus!!!  Ysabella always wants to show people the basement and we recently learned what the hype was all about.  First, our athletes warm up around the performance ring chasing each other so quickly that our fancy camera equipment can't keep up. 

Next, our most senior member, Daddy, shows off his high flying somersault...

 

... followed our youngest female performer, Ysabella, repeating the maneuver (sorta). 

 

Where was Anthony? Crying about the crowd noise or his lack of involvement?

The Spectacular Anthony, finally took the stage and attempted to wow us all with a magical trick... pulling an object out of an empty black box.

His magical skills impressed us all when he made that object disappear right before being revealed. (All we could see was his hand)

After the Spectacular Anthony's final bow, the performers moved on to throwing each other high in the air and landing as though they never left the ground.

For their final feat of the evening (as the performers were getting close to their bedtime), a lovely volunteer Ysabella was placed dangerously into position and....

 

...LEAPING, Daddy soars over his stunned volunteer's head!!

The crowd goes wild!!

 While the volunteers (at this particular circus) get right back into performance mode and themselves LEAP into action!!

 

Even the youngest, sometimes sensitive member, completed the final act.

 

We hope you all enjoyed the show here at The Nicatro's Big Top Basement Circus.

Please come again ...and remember, Nicastros, only attempt daredevil feats under parental supervision!

Something Old, Something New

Mommy and Daddy like to take Ysabella and Anthony to the playground for exercise and fun.  The kids usually stick to the same old thing, ...until today.  We used our imagination and saw the usual equipment in a brand new way!  First Anthony had to drive us all to the playground for the fun to begin.

 

Ysabella ran straight to her favorite slide, and got a fresh new static hairdo.

 

Anthony managed to make it out of the stroller and climbed right up to the top of the mountain.

 

Ysabella found an alternate route to the top, climbing the rock wall for the first time all by herself!

 

"I did it, I did it!!"

 

After making it to the top, Ysabella showed Anthony the fastest and funnest way down.

 

Unlike Ysabella's first time on the slide, Anthony loved it and he didn't want it to end.

 The small slide, that Ysabella used to find boring, seemed brand new when you scale up it...

 

and lots of fun going down on your belly backwards! 

 

After letting our imaginations run wild, we had to come back to reality with a Father-Son huddle.

 

  

Always remember to take a break from "reality", little Nicastros...

And keep those imaginations rockin'!!

Teacher Knows Best

Ysabella has been a very influential big sister to Anthony Francis.  She has taught him all kinds of things and today is no different.  While she was coloring, Anthony showed interest in picking up a new skill and walked right over to the coloring table for a lesson. Ysabella was nice enough to share some paper and Anthony didn't even mind that it had been previously used. 

 

This was the time, Ysabella decided, to teach Anthony how to draw and to play "school".  Her first hurdle was teaching him how to sit properly at the table.

 

 

"No, no, Anthony...", Ysabella said.  Sit up straight like this.

 

Next, it was time to master holding the crayon.

 

Thankfully, he was a quick learner and soon enough they each had their very own piece of paper.

Anthony practiced the scribble

 

 

And Ysabella worked on tracing numbers and her name

 

 

Unfortunately, it didn't last long as Anthony found other things to do with his paper and crayon. 

 

Ysabella seemed to find it funny, particularly when the paper covered up his head. 

 

Who knows, Ysabella. You may have a class clown on your hands!