tuesday was such a great day (unfortunately it was mandy's last day in town).
but it started with a trip to the zoo...me, frank, tuscan, matteo, vincenzo, mandy, anthony, kolby, lucia, sofia, mandi, donna, brynn and brylee all packed up and headed to the zoo for a few hours. just to clarify - all those names equals 5 adults and 9 kids at the zoo together! we had 5 strollers between us and we were slightly out numbered by kids, ranging from ages 8 years to just a few weeks. and everyone was surprisingly good! we only ended up making it through half the zoo, partly because we wasted to much time waiting for the sea lion show, but mostly because that many kids is enough to exhaust anyone!
miss sofia
matteo, brynn and vincenzo 
tuscan and lucia
then we all headed back to our house for an amazing dinner and great company. for dinner it was just a few more people...me, frank (who did all the cooking), tuscan, matteo, vincenzo, mandy, anthony, lucia, sofia, phil (mandy's brother), jen (his gf), mandi (his daughter), donna, keith, brynn and brylee (forever friends of mandy's and their kids) and terri and dave (mandy and phil's parents) why were all these people here you ask...because this is just the way it is...mandy and i have been friends for about 12 years now and her family is my family...my summers used to consist of festivals and fairs with the massino's, bbq's in their backyard ("shannon, go in that drawer..." "terri, i dont think im gonna fit!"), tarzan falling in their pool when he was just a pup!baking cookies at christmas time, going to the fall craft shows together, halloween parties, renting horrible 80's horror flix and returning them to blockbuster complaining they were defective so we could get something else instead (remember the one when they put the poodle in the microwave to dry it after a bath and it exploded!! "pookums?") there were nights at the drive in, carnivals...you name it and we were there. they introduced me to the idea of big family dinners (even if it was just fried bologna - it was always amazing!) there were crazy parties, phil cutting his toe-almost off- with a broken bottle while shooting off bottle rockets, bonfires and smores...so many times that we will never forget! so in answer to the question, why were all these people here for dinner...they were here because i finally had a way to say thank you for all that you have done for me over the years. all those times we were out and about places, never once did i have to pay for anything. i was always included as one of the family and that has meant so much to me over the years. it was something i missed terribly when i was in Colorado and its something that i miss even more now, now that you are all in FL.
anyway, the kids had a blast playing together, tuscan was in his glory, surrounded by so many girls! although i realize that we need to work on his temperament when girls are around, he had a hard time controlling himself and calming himself down! i thought he was crazy on a regular basis, he was even worse with all these ladies to show off for! he clung to mandi immediately....trying to push her around and tackle her - i can only assume it was his way of showing his affection and all she could say was "oh my god, oh my god - hes crazy!" she's 5 - so apparently he not only has a thing for blondes but he also likes the idea of older women!! thank goodness lucia is older than him too - considering the fact that we already have an arranged marriage set for the two of them! even after his crazy side came out, lucia said she still wanted to marry him! so they all sat on the swing together, they ate blueberries off the bushes together, brynn picked the apples up off the ground and put them in the wheelbarrow while tuscan pushed it around...tuscan showed off his swimming abilities in his little turtle pool...and then they finally all settled down to watch cars.... mandi and tuscan 
mandi, lucia and tuscan
brynn, lucia, tuscan and mandy
the amazing day was topped off with a night out...something that frank and i have not done since before tuscan was born...and go figure, our last night out was with the same group of friends! phil bartends at a little hole in the wall place that their cousin owns, so we went there for a few hours and pretty much had our own private party going on...he was the only bartender working and almost everyone in there, except for some crazy drunk lady and her bf, were people that one of us knew (i think there was only like 20 people there total!) but it was so much fun...phil was mixing up crazy drinks for us, all colors of the rainbow...swore we were going to be peeing skittles by the time we left! we played a few games of darts, for old times sake - long ago, before husbands and kids it was a tuesday night ritual! and frank and i just loved being out together, without the kids - danny's "gf" lindsey babysat for us...we felt like real adults again! i think its something we need to make time for more often - time for just us, a moment to find ourselves and be just us!
me, donna and mandy - the girls, together again!
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