The Malizia Family Weekend 2019 | State College, PA
Weekends with the whole family are hard to come by. I am the youngest of six, and the family just keeps growing, making it even better, but also harder to meet up. With the family growing, everyone working, Maria teaching abroad, and Mauvette back in school, a family weekend is nearly impossible. It was September of 2018 when we had gotten to see each other last, but now that Maria was finally home from Italy, we planned a summertime Malizia Family weekend!
We chose a weekend with no big State College events and a time just for the family to be with each other. Maria got into town first on Thursday night, and everyone else rolled in on Friday night.
As if we weren't excited enough for the weekend to finally get here, we woke up to this video from Em on Friday morning :)
It was no surprise that our Mom had bran muffins and fresh tomato pizzas ready for snacking and soups ready for dinner whenever everybody got in. Around midnight, some of us hit the town to celebrate our cousin’s birthday, and others called it a night.
It’s always easy waking up on Saturday morning when you’re woken up by Micah’s morning body slams (they sure beat my mom’s morning body slams when she’d wake us up for school).
It's a few months old, but it's a great example of MJ's wake-up calls!
After an early morning of playing pool, race cars, and teaching Micah how to drive, Micah headed to the kitchen to make Breakfast Banana Splits with "Mets" (my Mom) and "Baby Mets" (my sister, Mauvette). Meanwhile, Evan and I headed to the Waffle Shop to spend the rest of the morning with Evan’s Mom, Elaine, older sister, Katy, and his sister’s fiancé, Seth. Katy and Seth were preparing for their move to Georgia the next weekend, and we were so glad that we all got to be together before they left PA.
We took this picture of Evan, Elaine, and Katy after Elaine treated us to Creamery Ice Cream! (I know, Waffle Shop AND the Creamery all in one morning! It was a morning well spent in Happy Valley!)
Meanwhile at the house, Micah was busy helping Mets with lunch. After that, Baby Mets and Micah went through Babbo's office and found Babbo's coaching hats!
Harper was busy playing with her new friend, Eleanor!
Everyone, Harper included, was so happy that Elizabeth and Paul brought Ellie over to play!
This was the moment Em thought she won something since she had ALL strawberry gushers! Catherine told her that if that's the case, they should document it! While reading the gusher bag to see what she won, she read the label... "Strawberry".
Once we got back, everyone was awake but exhausted from an afternoon full of playing and eating. Micah and Harper were taking their naps. Since they were sleeping, everyone took the opportunity to get different things done. Joe got a haircut, Maria went to repack all her room, Mom, Dad and Grandma went to mass, Mauvette set up the blow up pool, Anthony and Becca napped, and Evan and I went to WalMart to prepare the next activity.
Nap time was over and the slip n' slide was ready!!
It only took me threatening to call Em "Mom" for the rest of the day for her to agree to go down the slide. Micah was one happy little boy!
I felt a little worried with this setup.
Harper and Ellie also enjoyed themselves in their baby pool that Baby Mets and her friends prepared for them!
After the girls left their pool, "Rinne" had this idea!
"No! No picture!"
We even got Harper on the slide!
Family slide! Maybe we'll do the 6 Malizia kids at once next time :)
Whoops!
Micah was excited to try on Anthony's "Short Steve Button Down" hat. But he wasn't excited to leave the slide for dinner. So we had to get a little creative on our last slide...
While all the slip n' sliders washed up for dinner, my mom's mother, our "Mama" and our cousins came to the house! Once we were all ready, dinner was all laid out for us! My mom had prepared a whole buffet! There was spaghetti, asparagus, tuscan chicken, mozzarella sticks, fresh tomato pizza, salad, and so much more I can't remember it all! All us kids were fighting over the leftovers before heading back to our homes though.
We ended Saturday all together in the sunroom! After setting up the projector, rearranging the furniture, and serving ice cream, we were all ready to watch Disney/Pixar's Cars!
Sadly, Sunday got there too fast and it was our last day of the family weekend, but we ended it like we would any family weekend at the Penn Stater's, The Gardens Sunday Brunch!
And of course, we took some family pictures...
The three generations of Mauvettes!
We were so happy that our grandmothers, Mama and Grandma decided to come to State College for the weekend!
Who doesn't love a scratchy beard? (Honestly everyone, probably).
Thank you Mom and Dad for giving us this big family, and joyfully welcoming others into it. Thanks for all you did to prepare for this weekend and thanks for supplying us with food for the next two weeks after. Miss you all already! I can't wait for the next family weekend! LOVE YOU ALL!
Love,
Manta
