Birthdays – Page 2 – Pellegrini Page

Happy 8th Birthday Enzo!

An update on Enzo’s 8th birthday, including his party at home, then our big night out at the UNLV basketball game.

Yesterday the awesome Mr. Enzo turned eight years old! Normally I like to write a family blog post on the day of our kids’ birthdays, but this time it wasn’t possible due to the big night out Enzo and I had on his birthday evening. Since his birthday fell on a Saturday this year, we were able to have his party at home on the day of his actual birthday. It was a bit chaotic, as many of his friends from school were able to attend, but he had a great time.

Earlier that morning, he opened presents from family, and that’s when I finally broke the news to him that we would be attending the UNLV basketball game later that night. Over the past few months, Enzo has grown a love for the game of basketball, and he regularly asks me if someday I could take him to a game. Once I saw that UNLV was playing a home game versus their rival, the University of Nevada Reno, on the night of his birthday, I splurged a bit by purchasing great seats for the game. I originally thought they were in the third row because our tickets say Row C, but it was more like midway up in the first level. The seats were still excellent, though.

Enzo Pellegrini on the morning of his 8th birthday — Enzo with his new basketball and UNLV t-shirt from Uncle Jim and Aunt Brenda

I’ve only been to one other college basketball game in my life, which was when Jessica and I went to a San Diego State game many years ago featuring a young Kawaii Leonard, who would later become a huge NBA star. When I broke the news to Enzo, he gave me the biggest hug and wouldn’t let go. You can see it in the video I made for his birthday. I was a little surprised at just how happy he was about it, and I got a little choked up by his response.

We arrived an hour before gametime so we could take our time walking around the Thomas & Mack Center and check everything out. We watched the teams during shoot around and went down to the court level to take a few photos. The atmosphere during the game was electric. Between the fans, UNLV students, the band, the cheerleaders, and the halftime entertainment, there was never a dull moment.

Enzo and Michael Pellegrini at the UNLV basketball game on Saturday, January 28th, 2023.

Enzo Pellegrini posing with a cannon at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Enzo and Michael Pellegrini getting ready for the UNLV basketball game.

Pulling for the Runnin' Rebels on Enzo's birthday.

It was a back-and-forth game, but UNLV ultimately won by 6 points. We were cheering as loud as we could, and consequently, my voice is pretty hoarse today. Jessica made Enzo a sign that said “It’s my birthday” on one side and “Go Rebels” on the other. Enzo was really hoping to get on the jumbotron, and as fate would have it, we ended up on it four times throughout the game! All the people around us knew it was his birthday due to his sign, so every time the camera would start showing people in the crowd, everyone around us would point at Enzo, who was usually up dancing and waving his sign around.

There were so many people wishing him a happy birthday as they walked by, and the cutest part was that he kept count of them. By the time we left, his count had reach 20 people. As we walked back to the car he told me this was his best birthday yet. Nothing could have brought me more joy.

As far as his birthday party goes, it was a great day. As usual, Jessica deserves a ton of credit for making it happen. She always comes up with great ideas for activities, and she got a cake with his face printed on it, which was a request by Enzo. We had a piñata outside, but Enzo didn’t want to wear a blindfold, so it didn’t last long enough for each kid to have a turn hitting it. They all got plenty of candy though, so I don’t think any of them were too upset. We also set up a little photo studio in the house and had all kinds of masks for the kids to wear in their pictures.

There were more kids at the party than we were expecting, and it was getting a little crazy having all of them inside our house at the same time, so after everyone finished their cake Jessica took them to the park by our neighborhood to let them burn off energy. I’m not nearly as good as Jessica when it comes to dealing with other people’s kids, but I always love chatting with the parents. You always get to meet such friendly new people, so it really was a great day.

Enzo's 8th birthday cake with his face printed on top. — This is the most personalized birthday cake I’ve ever seen!

Since Enzo and I were going to the game, Ava and Elise ended up going home with Nana for a sleepover. This meant Jessica had the place to herself for the evening. I felt bad about that and would have gladly gotten her a ticket to the basketball game, but I didn’t know then that the girls would end up at Nana’s house. It’s all good, though; she worked so hard to make the house look perfect and deserved a nice quiet night with zero responsibilities.

Overall it was a great day for Enzo. I remember being about the same age when my dad took me to my first basketball game. We went to see the Super Sonics play, and I loved every minute of it. I also remember after the game, we were walking back to our car, and my dad tripped on one of those concrete bumpers they put in parking spaces to keep you from pulling too far forward. He slammed his shoulder into the bumper of another car ahead of us and really hurt himself. At that time, we lived about 30 minutes south of Seattle, and he had to drive us home in a lot of pain. It wasn’t the greatest way to end the evening, but here we are about 35 years later, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Obviously, it was very special for me to be able to come full circle and have the same type of experience with Enzo. Luckily this particular evening didn’t result in any injuries, but you never know with our family. I’ll never forget spending the night of my 42nd birthday with Enzo at the emergency room, getting stitches in his forehead after he tripped and fell head-first during our pool party.

Before I move on, I just want to say how much I love my son and how proud Jessica and I are of him. Like his sisters, he’s an amazing kid whom I couldn’t imagine life without. Although we try not to focus too much on grades and test scores, I’m very proud to say that Enzo recently scored in the 98th percentile nationally in math. He’s literally in the top 2% in the United States for math at his age! Regardless of that, he’s just an awesome kid, and I couldn’t be luckier as a father to call him my son.

Other Family Updates

January has been a good month for us. While we had a great time during the holiday break, everyone was ready to return to their routine and see their friends again at school. Ava and Elise have been staying busy with various school activities; they continue to enjoy participating in the school choir, and they’re excited to get back into “Girls on the Run,” which is a running program held by the school for girls only. Elise did it earlier in the school year and loved it, so now Ava will join her for the Spring session.

Speaking of Spring, softball season is coming soon, and Ava plans to play again this year. She really enjoyed it last year, and we all like hanging out at the ballpark during that time of year because the weather is so perfect here. We’re also going to get Enzo back into swimming lessons soon. Even though he loves shooting hoops at home (we recently set up a hoop in the backyard), he says he doesn’t want to play on a team and would rather focus on swimming as his main sport. I’m all for it and love taking him to the pool, so hopefully, it won’t be too long before he’s ready for his first swimming team. I’m also going to encourage him to try diving, but we’ll see how it turns out.

In addition to running, Elise is really interested in trying out boxing, so we’re going to look for a gym for her. Las Vegas is known as the fight capital of the world, so we should be able to find something. We have gloves here at home, and I often hold pads for her to hit. She’s very strong, and I honestly think boxing would be great for her self-confidence.

Before Winter comes to a close, we’re hoping to do a day of skiing/snowboarding/inner-tubing up at the Brian Head ski resort in Utah. It’s only about three hours from the house, so we could do a day trip with no problem. It sounds like Uncle Brad is going to join us since he used to be a ski and snowboard instructor. I love the idea of exposing the kids to winter sports, even though we live in the desert 😉

We’re also planning our first family trip to the Grand Canyon for this year’s Spring Break. Once again, it’s only a few hours from the house, and the kids are now old enough to appreciate it, so there’s no reason not to go. Neither Jessica nor I have ever been there, so we’re looking forward to it. One of the things I loved about moving to Nevada was that it opened up so many new possibilities for road trips. There are plenty of places in this great country of ours that I’ve still never gotten to see, so we’re not wasting time checking them off our bucket list.

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Rudd

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to get to spend a bunch of time with Grandma and Grandpa Rudd, who were out visiting from Iowa. Rick had a work conference in Las Vegas, so they decided to come a few days early and spend the weekend with us. We went bowling one day, then Rick and I assembled the basketball hoop the next day. They took the kids out shopping and Enzo got a new pair of Nike’s that have become his new favorite sneaks.

We’re always thankful when family comes to visit, and luckily, it won’t be long before we get our next visit. My cousin Kristy and her husband Gilberto are coming to Vegas next weekend in celebration of his birthday. Jessica and I are really excited to take them to a fancy vegetarian restaurant called Saffron. We ate there last year for our anniversary and loved it so much that we made a Vegas Showbiz video about it. It’s one of those places where the food looks like art, the ambiance is beautiful, and the service is top-notch. It’s going to be a great weekend.

Wrapping Up

As always, I couldn’t be more thankful for the lives we have created. I know we’ve worked hard for it, but that doesn’t always guarantee anything. Jessica and I sometimes have to pinch ourselves because we can’t believe how everything has turned out. Ultimately though, you could take away the house, the cars, and all the experiences, and I know that we would still be very happy because we have each other. Nothing is more important to us than our family, and it’s days like this that keep everything in perspective. Happy 8th birthday Enzo. We love you so much!!!

On the jumbotron at the UNLV basketball game.

Another pic of us on the jumbotron at the game.

Enzo with his "Go Rebels" sign before the start of the game.

Happy 11th Birthday Ava!

An update on Ava’s 11th birthday, Thanksgiving, and our upcoming holiday plans.

Today the amazingly awesome Miss Ava turns 11 years old! It’s hard to believe we’ve been parents for 11 years, but watching Ava and her siblings grow up has already been an unbelievable ride. While today is Ava’s actual birthday, we decided to hold her birthday party last weekend because we figured everyone would be busy during Thanksgiving weekend.

The party was held at our home on Saturday afternoon. 17 of Ava’s friends, plus another eight adults, were all over for about three hours. Ava is a big fan of the Dog Man book series, so we used that as her party’s theme. The party included a Dog Man trivia game, a version of “Pin the tail on the donkey” called “Pin the badge on Dog Man,” sandwiches from Subway (Ava’s favorite), and a chocolate-caramel ice cream cake, per Ava’s request. She called it one of the best days of her life, which was great to hear, but no one deserves more credit for this than Jessica. The amount of work she puts into the kids’ birthday parties is always unbelievable, and this one was no exception.

Here’s the video I made from Ava’s birthday party

Ava playing Pin the badge on Dog Man — Ava taking her turn at Pin the badge on Dog Man

Ava Pellegrini at her 11th birthday party

Today Nana stopped by the house to wish Ava a happy birthday and visit a bit. Her birthday is exactly one month before Christmas, so it always signals the start of the holiday season. Speaking of holidays, yesterday was Thanksgiving, which we held for the second consecutive year in our new home. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make plans with family for Thanksgiving this year, mainly because Jessica and I have been so busy lately that we forgot to set everything up. Luckily, our friends Tiko, Tina and their daughters Helen and Bea were able to come over and spend the day with us.

I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes, sourdough stuffing, vegetable gravy, sauteed green beans, and a vegan turkey loaf filled with cranberry stuffing. My buddy Tiko really wanted to make mac ‘n cheese because he hasn’t had dairy in forever, along with a cherry pie. He made the most massive pot of mac ‘n cheese, along with the biggest cherry pie I’ve ever seen in my life. It was all pretty over the top but also hilarious and memorable.

Next up will be a visit from Amy, Tom, Joel, and Melanie for Amy’s birthday in early December. They’re all coming to Vegas for a little weekend getaway, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone. The kids were pretty little the last time they saw Joel and Melanie, so they’re looking forward to meeting them again. We’re all going to The Neon Museum, which Jessica has been wanting to see for 15 years. I don’t know why we couldn’t make it happen before this, but we’re very much looking forward to it.

A couple of weeks after that, we will be driving up to Colorado for Christmas at Amy and Tom’s house. We’re looking forward to sledding, driving snowmobiles, ice skating, and building snowmen. It’s been a while since we’ve been in the snow, so that should be fun and memorable. That’s pretty much it for now; everyone is doing great, and time continues to fly, as usual. We wish all of our family and friends a happy holiday season and look forward to seeing some of you soon.

For today, however, it’s still all about Ava. Thank you for being such a wonderful daughter and sister. You are more loved than you even know, and we’re all so proud of you! Happy 11th birthday, sweetheart.

Ava Pellegrini opening gifts for her 11th birthday — Opening gifts from her good friend Miles, who lives in Washington

Ava Pellegrini showing her new bedspread from Nana — Ava loves her new bedspread from Nana

Back to School – 22/23 Style

An update on the end of our Summer break, including a road trip to Los Angeles, plus our first week of the new school year.

Tomorrow the kids and Jessica will already be beginning their second week of the 2022 / 2023 school year. It still feels too early to me for school to be starting, but that’s how they do it here, so we just have to adjust. They did a full 5-day week last week to kick off the new year, which I think is a bit much for the first week, but they were troopers and got things off to a great start! Not surprisingly, each of them is already making new friends at school, and overall they are loving it.

Ava is in Jessica’s class and, as a 5th grader, has instantly taken on a leadership role. She was selected to represent the class in the student council, and she has already made remarks to Jessica about her increased sense of self-confidence since starting there. Obviously, we couldn’t be happier about this and just hope the positive momentum continues. This is going to be a very important year for Ava because it’s her last year of elementary school. Jessica is doing everything she can to prepare her for middle school, and having Ava in her class each day is the best way to do that.

Ava Pellegrini on her first day of 5th grade — Ava’s first day of 5th grade

Elise is off to a great start in 4th grade, although she’s so hard on herself with the way she compares herself to her peers that she would tell you she’s behind. I can heavily relate to that type of sentiment and feeling; I just hope she uses it as fuel and motivation. Jessica basically hand selected each of the kids’ teachers this year and has already spoken to Elise’s new teacher to see how the first week went. Not surprisingly, Elise did great in her first week and doesn’t appear behind in anything. Her teacher seems awesome, and Elise loved her instantly, so things look really good for Elise this year.

Elise Pellegrini on her first day of 4th grade — Elise on her first day of 4th grade

Enzo is off to a great start in second grade. Like Elise, he tends to be hard on himself when comparing himself to his peers. I think the annual change in schools has a lot to do with that for both of them, but again, he’s doing totally fine in school and just needs to get more comfortable in his new surroundings. He’s actually doing excellent in math, so we’re very encouraging of him to keep pushing in that area. There’s a little boy sitting next to him that he quickly built a friendship with, plus he and Elise both get to see Mom and Ava at different points each day (recess, lunch, special classes).

Enzo Pellegrini on his first day of 2nd grade — Enzo on his first day of 2nd grade

I think they were all exhausted after the first week, but the first week is always the hardest. Each week will get easier and more routine from here on out. It’s been strange having the house so quiet all day long again, but considering that I’m working, that part is kinda nice. One thing I love about working from home is that my kids get to have the same vision of me working at home that I had of my own Dad. Obviously, our jobs are a bit different, but that part doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re there to say goodbye when they leave in the morning, and you’re there to greet them when they return in the afternoon. I don’t take that for granted at all either, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was commuting an hour plus each way and then feeling bad when the kids tell me I’m barely around. Knowing that working from home is a permanent thing for me gives me a lot of peace of mind in that sense.

Wrapping up Summer break

Jessica and I wanted to make one more fun little trip to finish off our Summer break, so we planned a visit to Los Angeles for 2 nights. It actually almost didn’t happen, so let me expand on that part first. The plan was to leave at 6:00 am on Sunday, July 31st, and drive straight to Santa Monica so we could have a day at the beach. The day before that was my birthday, and since it fell on a Saturday, we decided to have a little pool + pizza party at the house with our friends.

I haven’t had a birthday party in many years, but it made sense this year, so Tiko brought both of his daughters over, plus Devin and Bridgette came. We swam for a couple of hours, then took a break to eat pizza. After finishing our pizza, people were slowly migrating back toward the pool. Most of us were just sitting around with our legs in the water, but Enzo was getting up on the ledge above the pool, jumping in, then climbing out and repeating. This is nothing new – all 3 of the kids do this regularly, but as he was running around the back side of the pool to get back up on the ledge, he tripped on the pole holding up the basketball hoop and slammed his forehead into the concrete ledge above the pool.

I didn’t even see it happen, but I heard him scream, so I ran over to him. By the time I reached him, there was a big gash on his forehead, and his entire face was covered in blood. He was screaming, and it felt like we were living in the scene of a horror movie. I picked him up and started running back to where everyone was. I think I yelled out something about having a serious problem, and I remember all the girls (ours plus Tiko’s) were in the pool; when they saw Enzo’s bloody face, they all started screaming in terror.

Luckily all of the adults jumped into action. Bridgette immediately got a towel on Enzo’s face and started cleaning him up, while Devin and Tiko took care of the girls so they wouldn’t see anymore. Jessica ran in to get her keys, and within a minute, we were on our way to the emergency room.

I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my friends, but I can’t tell them how much I appreciate them stepping up. They stayed at home with Ava and Elise while Jessica and I went to the ER with Enzo. Unfortunately, things were pretty busy that night at the ER, which is probably common for a Saturday night. Even though I had a child with a head wound in my arms, it still took nearly 30 minutes for us to get checked him checked in. I have to give Enzo a ton of credit because he did remarkably well staying calm. I guess to a certain extent, he’s used to this, having been through multiple similar situations, but he still deserves credit. It was a nasty deep gash on his forehead, but he was such a little trooper.

After getting Enzo into a hospital bed and figuring out the plan with the doctor, I sent Jessica home. I didn’t want our friends to have to stay there all night, and a lot needed to be picked up at the house. It was a very slow process, but he ended up getting 6 stitches in his forehead. I thought our trip would have to be canceled at this point, but I asked the doctor about it and received permission to go. We just had to keep the stitches dry, so no swimming or showering for a few days. I was a little bit surprised they gave him permission to go on rollercoasters at Six Flags, but they did, so the trip was back on! This wasn’t exactly how I envisioned the night playing out, but there’s no question we will always remember my 42nd birthday.

Enzo and Michael Pellegrini waiting in the emergency room — Waiting for stitches at the ER

Enzo Pellegrini forehead stitches 2022-07-30 — Six stitches! He’s a tough little guy.

A quick trip to Los Angeles

We got off to an early start as planned, and even with stopping for gas and food, we still arrived at Santa Monica beach by 11:00 am. We still have our beach tent from the San Diego days, so we found a good spot to set that up and then just hung out for a few hours. Enzo could only get his feet wet, and Elise isn’t that into cold ocean water, so they mostly played on the beach, building sand castles.

Ava, on the other hand, is a California girl at heart. She loves getting out there in the water, and I love watching her. It reminds me of my childhood, out there thrashing around in the Pacific ocean waves. The water is cold, and we’re especially spoiled now that we’re used to swimming in our heated pool, but she doesn’t care. She jumps into and over those waves with so much energy; I just love it.

Ava Pellegrini playing at the beach in Santa Monica, CA — Ava playing at the beach in Santa Monica

Elise Pellegrini playing at the beach in Santa Monica, CA — Elise was quite the little builder at the beach

Enzo Pellegrini playing at the beach in Santa Monica, CA — Enzo had fun in Santa Monica

Jessica Pellegrini at the beach in Santa Monica, CA — Jessica always loves a beach day

After a few hours down on the beach, we took the kids up to the Santa Monica pier to walk around. There were all kinds of little shops, people fishing everywhere, there were acrobats and even a magician! It was a trip walking around there, but they loved it.

Pellegrini Kids at the Santa Monica Pier

Pellegrini family selfie on the Santa Monica pier — Family selfie near the end of the pier

After leaving the pier, we walked along the boardwalk towards Muscle Beach and Venice Beach. A bunch of people were working on different types of tightropes and practicing balancing acts. It was fun to watch, and there was a playground for kids, so we posted up there for a bit just to take it all in. There was a fruit stand on the boardwalk, so we got a big bowl of fresh fruit and sat there eating all these delicious fruits (mango, pineapple, watermelon) while we watched all the interesting things going on around us. It was a really fun afternoon. When you combine this with their experiences in San Diego during Spring Break, I think it’s safe to say that the kids get the whole California beach thing by now. I actually made a video about our day at the beach for the Pellegrini Kids YouTube channel – you can check it out below.

Pellegrini family selfie on the Santa Monica boardwalk

From the Pellegrini Kids YouTube channel

A scenic tour of Los Angeles

We took the long way getting to our hotel, which was up in Santa Clarita near Six Flags. I wanted to show the kids a bit of Los Angeles, so we ended up cruising through the UCLA campus, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and all the way down the Sunset strip. They’re used to Vegas glitz and glamour, but Los Angeles has a different vibe to it, and they were eating it up. As a kid, I always had a strange love for Los Angeles, so it was cool taking them on this little sightseeing tour.

Six Flags Magic Mountain

Monday, we spent basically the entire day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Enzo isn’t tall enough for some of the rollercoasters (the 54” ones), but he could do everything else, so that’s what we did. Honestly, plenty of the rollercoasters he was big enough to do were still able to scare me to death. I think we were all pretty frazzled after going on X2. Except Elise, of course, because she was the only one smart enough not to go. Poor Ava started crying when it was over. Enzo and I were looking at each other all wild-eyed, like what just happened? Here’s a POV video somebody made on it a long time ago.

This was probably the scariest rollercoaster I’ve been on

By the time we left Six Flags that evening, everyone was exhausted. It was a full 8-hour day of rides, lines, and walking. We found an awesome little SoCal Mexican restaurant for dinner, crashed hard, then made our way home in the morning. As usual, we stopped at the Lenwood exit in Barstow for gas and food. As we were exiting the parking lot to head back to the freeway, we ran into our neighbors (including Elise’s best friend), who were on their way to San Diego. Such a small world.

The Pellegrini family at the end of a fun day at Six Flags Magic Mountain

Back to Business

I’m so glad that the trip worked out because it ended up being a big highlight of our Summer. The kids have been getting asked a lot in school about what they did over Summer break, and the L.A. trip has been one of their top things to call out. With that behind us, we’re back to our routine but still enjoying the warm weather. After last Summer’s record-breaking heat wave, this Summer has been very mild for Las Vegas standards. It’s still very warm out, but the difference between 95 and 115 is huge.

Enzo got his stitches out a few days after the trip, and he was immediately allowed to get back in the water, so we’ve been swimming a lot. I’m trying to stress to him the importance of not running too much and paying attention to where he’s going. He’s not a clumsy kid, he just gets ahead of himself because he’s running or wants to be in the lead. I’m hoping we don’t have any more injuries soon because each of the kids will soon start their new activities. Ava is going to check out volleyball, Elise is joining a girls running group at school, and Enzo is getting into more advanced swimming lessons.

The downtime for Summer was great, but I’m excited for everyone to start getting busy again. Fall, which is my favorite season, is just around the corner. I’m ready for some football and some beautiful Las Vegas Fall weather. See you in September!

Happy 9th Birthday Elise!

An update on Elise’s 9th birthday, Summer vacation, and upcoming plans.

Today our sweet Miss Elise turns 9 years old! It’s hard to believe she is 9 already; I remember holding her as a newborn like it was yesterday. Although today is her actual birthday, her main celebration was held at home this past Saturday. It was a Pokemon-themed party, so kids started off doing a little Pokemon scavenger hunger, then everyone jumped in the pool for an hour or so.

After swimming, we came inside for food, cake, and presents. Elise’s cake this year was something to behold; it was certainly one of the fanciest cakes we’ve ever gotten. I don’t know how Jessica found this baker, but Elise and I went to her house on the day of the party and we couldn’t believe it when seeing it for the first time. The Pokemon theme was in full effect!

After cake and presents, plenty of kids got back in the pool. It’s over 100 degrees everyday here, so swimming is pretty much the only thing you can do outdoors during the middle of the day. Consequently, we’ve been swimming almost daily.

As far as today goes, Elise started her morning off by opening more presents from family. I got a video of the whole thing and added it to the kids’ YouTube channel, which you can see below. Around noon the kids rode with Mom down to the airport to pickup Grandma and Grandpa Rudd, who are out here visiting from Iowa through the weekend. We haven’t seen them since last Summer, so getting to see them on her birthday was special for Elise. We all went out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, which was a fun way to end her special day.

Beyond that, we’re having a great Summer, it’s just hard to believe how fast it’s going by. The kids go back to school on the second week of August, so we’ve only got a few more weeks of Summer, then the house will be quiet again while I’m working 🙂

We recently celebrated the 4th of July by having friends over for swimming, food, and fireworks. We lit off our own small fireworks at the house, then walked over to a park near our neighborhood to watch several different fireworks shows going on at various casinos. The one at Green Valley Ranch was really close and looked awesome, while the ones on the strip were cool to look at from a distance.

Although Summer break is starting to draw to a close, we do have one more exciting little trip to look forward to. On Sunday, July 31st, we’re going to leave early and head to Los Angeles for a couple days. We will spend that Sunday afternoon at the Santa Monica beach and pier, then the next day we’re going to Six Flags Magic Mountain! We’ve been wanting to do this for a while but waited until Enzo was tall enough for all the rollercoasters. I remember us taking Ava there on my birthday weekend when she was less than a year old, now here we are doing the same thing again nearly a decade later. I look forward to writing about it in next month’s post.

That’s about it for now. I hope Elise had a very happy birthday, and want her to know how proud her Mom and I are of her! She is such a great kid, a great sister to Ava and Enzo, and we all love her to the moon and back. Happy Birthday Elise!

Singing to Elise at her birthday dinner at Lindo Michoacan

Elise’s 9th birthday video

Enzo showing off his home diving skills

Happy 7th Birthday Enzo!

There’s so many exciting new things going on for our family that I almost don’t even know where to start. Well, that’s not entirely true, because obviously I’m going to start with Mr Enzo’s birthday! That said, we do have quite a few exciting things going on, so let’s get to it.

Today is Enzo’s birthday, but it’s a Friday and they had some fun activities planned for the 100th day of school, so Enzo and his sisters went to school just like any other day. Before that he was up early to open presents, but after that it’s been a pretty normal day. He’s really happy with all the various cars, magic sets, and toys he received, but there’s more to look forward to.

Tomorrow afternoon we will be holding Enzo’s birthday party at our house. Over the past couple months our family has gotten really into the TV show ‘Survivor’, so based on his request, that will be the theme for Enzo’s party. There’s going to be various challenges for the kids to take part in before getting into cake and treats. Jessica has been doing an awesome job preparing activities, decorations, and challenges for the party. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to doing lots of filming for the kids’ YouTube channel, and working on my best Jeff Probst impressions.

In addition to the party tomorrow, we’ve got one more related activity to look forward to. A week from tonight the 5 of us are going to see the Jabbawockeez show at MGM Grand. I’ve read it’s one of the most popular Vegas shows for families, plus I have some friends who went with their kids and said it was awesome. All of the kids are excited to go, but Jessica and I are as well, so it should be a fun night. If you’re not familiar with Jabbawockeez, they will be performing at halftime of the NFL Pro Bowl, which is happening here in Las Vegas just a couple days after we’ll be seeing them.

Speaking of Vegas shows, we all had an amazing time going to our first shows earlier this month. Jessica had the pleasure of taking Elise and Ava to see Katy Perry at the new Resorts World Theatre. As expected, the show was amazing and they had the best time ever. It’s the biggest stage in Las Vegas and the production was over the top. The girls were screaming, singing, and dancing the night away. They will always remember this as their first concert and I’m so glad it turned out the way it did.

Things didn’t quite go as planned for Enzo and I, but we still had a great night as well. The plan was for me to take him to see David Copperfield that same night that the girls were seeing Katy Perry, and I was really happy with the seats we got, but unfortunately the show was canceled at the last minute. I’m still not sure why it was canceled but these days you almost have to assume it’s Covid-related.

Enzo was really bummed but I promised him we would see David Copperfield another time. So, we ended up going to see The Mentalist instead, which is a mind reading show by Gerry McCambridge. It wasn’t a big production show like Copperfield but it was still very entertaining and exciting. We ended up making a full night of it by leaving the house early that day, walking around on the strip for a while, then having dinner at Nacho Daddy. After dinner we walked over to Bellagio to watch the fountain show, then we went inside and walked through their whole shopping and dining area. The show was across the street in the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood, so we walked all through there as well. We definitely got our steps in that night, and stopping for ice cream was a must. Leaving the house that day Enzo couldn’t help but express concern because he was sad about our show being canceled. However, by the time we were heading home he was calling it the best day of his life and couldn’t stop thanking me. If only he understood how happy it made me to see him living his best life.

Okay, more big news to share… Jessica just got a job working at a nearby school! She’s been wanting to find something since moving to Henderson, but it had to make sense and work with our family’s schedule. Also, for the first time since before Ava was born, Jessica and I will once again be working the same hours. Obviously this was never the case when she was working nights in a restaurant and I was working days at Microsoft / Amazon. I’ve definitely gotten used to being home with her everyday over the past couple years, so it’s going to be an adjustment for all of us having her gone more, but we’re really happy for her, and she’s so excited about the opportunity.

The way this all came together is really interesting; it basically traces back to Ava’s dyslexia diagnosis from a couple years ago. It was that diagnosis that set Jessica off onto a journey of learning and self exploration. If you ask her, she’ll tell you that she also has dyslexia, although she was never tested or officially diagnosed. It’s been this journey to learn more about Ava and how we can teach her that has led to so much self discovery for Jessica over the past couple years.

Getting involved with teaching the Barton program to our kids to help with reading was a major step in this direction. Then taking on the huge task of homeschooling our girls for the entire school year last year was also very much related. Jessica is a natural teacher and great with kids, especially the young ones. She’s going to be working as an assistant in a special education classroom at Vanderberg Elementary School, which is less than 10 minutes from our school. It’s such a perfect fit; they even teach the same Barton reading program that Jessica has been using with our kids for the past couple years.

The plan is for all 3 of our kids to switch schools in the Fall and go to Vanderberg for the remainder of their elementary school years. This isn’t the easiest decision to make, mostly because we feel a lot of guilt for them switching schools so many times over the past few years. Some of it was out of our control, like when we got re-zoned by the Everett school district, or that whole pandemic thing which caused everyone to stay home for a year, but regardless the reality is that Ava hasn’t had (and won’t have) two consecutive years at the same elementary school since Kindergarten and first grade.

This isn’t something that we take lightly, but as a parent you have to make decisions, and of course we’re going to do whatever we feel is best for our children. Initially we were really excited about them going to school at Glen Taylor Elementary, but unfortunately some things haven’t gone the way we hoped. I don’t want to get into all of the details on it, but again as parents we have to do our best to make the right decisions for our kids, and there’s no doubt in our mind that Vanderberg will be a better fit. We just feel bad about them having to leave their friends, but they all live nearby and most likely will be rejoining in middle school anyway.

For now the plan is for Jessica to start work in February, but the kids will be finishing the year at Glen Taylor, then transitioning to Vanderberg next school year. I’m sure we’ll have a lot more updates about this in the future, but for now we’re just really happy for Jessica. It’s been great watching this all unfold for her and she’s so excited for this new chapter in our lives. We keep joking about how much we always seem to have going on. It’s always something with us but we keep it interesting.

Another big thing for us this month was the installation of our solar energy system! There’s now over 40 solar panels on the roof of our house, and we’ve got the final inspection coming up next week. I had been thinking about going solar since buying the house, and after learning more about it, I felt like it was an easy decision. You can think of it like renting a house versus owning a house; when you get your electricity from the power company (like I have my entire life until now), you’re just renting energy from them, and you pay whatever they charge. On average the cost of electricity goes up 4% per year too.

On the other hand, by purchasing your own solar system you’re no longer renting your electricity. You’re the owner of a system that produces its own electricity, meaning you’re no longer subject to variable costs from month to month, and the overall annual cost increases. Based on the weather here, and the size of our house, the electric bill used to vary drastically, which was a little shocking in the Summer. Now, however, the only thing we pay to the power company is the $12.50 per month fee to connect to their grid. We bought a solar system big enough to produce 112% of the normal usage of this house, based on historical records. We went with a larger system so we have room to grow. Someday there will be an electric vehicle in the garage, and this larger system will be enough to charge that as well.

Based on the net metering laws in Nevada, we don’t need a big Tesla wall (or equivalent battery) on premises because NV Energy is required to store our unused energy for us. Basically for every kilowatt of unused energy we produce, we get 0.75 kilowatts in credit. 75% is the current rate based on the net metering laws in Nevada, and it’s going down over time. Had we bought this system a couple years ago, hypothetically speaking, we would have gotten somewhere in the 90% credit range. Whatever percent you get when you purchase the system is the amount that you’re grandfathered in at, so even though it’s going to continue dropping, our house will always get 75% credit.

Since we got the system installed in January, we have several months ahead of us where we can build up extra credits for unused energy. Once the Summer comes around and you’re consuming more energy than you’re producing, those extra credits will cover you and keep you from having a separate bill from NV Energy. From a cost perspective, if you’re staying put long-term it’s a no-brainer to go solar here. Although I don’t love taking on debt, the reality is that I’m going to be making a monthly payment either way, and at least now I know exactly how much it will be, plus the solar system is a huge investment in the house. Our neighborhood is 20 years old now and lots of people are making upgrades to their houses. Adding a nice solar system is the single biggest thing you can do in our area to modernize your house, and it’s one of the most impactful things you can do for the good of the planet, so we’re all for it!

In other family news, the kids have been taking swimming lessons through the city of Henderson and they’re loving it. Water safety is very important to our family for obvious reasons, but it looks like Elise and Enzo really want to stick with swimming and eventually get onto a swim team. They’re taking lessons on Saturday mornings and each month they move onto something new.

Unfortunately Ava has decided to take a break from hockey, but I really don’t blame her. I didn’t realize how early the season started here, so by the time I tried to register her the only option was to get on a tournament team. They combined the 10u’s and 12u’s for practice, and the coach was really intense. She played D1 hockey for the University of Minnesota, which is the hockey mecca of the United States, and it was all just too much for Ava. She simply doesn’t take it as seriously as some of the other kids do, and it got to a point where she was dreading it.

I definitely feel responsible for this, and I can’t help but wonder if she’d still be playing had we not left Washington. There’s no way of knowing for sure, and it’s quite possible that she will join a co-ed house team in the Fall, but we’ll have to wait and see. For now we’ve got her signed up to play Softball in the Spring and she’s really excited about that. Once hockey season comes back around we’ll have to make a decision, but we’ll support her regardless. Our only requirement is that each of the kids has some type of athletic activity to be involved in. We don’t care how good they are, or if they decide to try other things, they just have to do something.

Last but not least, I’ve been busier than ever lately because I decided to officially start my own business. I’m not quitting my job or anything like that, but I am working constantly between the two. The name of the business is Vegas Showbiz and earlier this month I filed Vegas Showbiz, LLC with the state of Nevada. The concept and strategy for the business has grown recently, and I’ll get to that shortly, but the original idea that sparked it came right after moving here.

After arriving in Las Vegas Jessica and I found ourselves in a position where we suddenly had so much help with the kids. My Mom wanted as much time with them as possible, and we were eager to explore Las Vegas together, so we started going out more. I’d be looking for things to do on my phone, but found it surprisingly difficult to get an accurate idea of what the options were. You could find various event calendars, but it required a lot of jumping around from site to site. Some of these sites are slow, or don’t work well on phones, and overall I found the experience to be surprisingly poor.

Since I tend to think in terms of websites and databases, the wheels started turning on how I could create my own site and database dedicated to the entire Las Vegas entertainment and nightlife scene. I had designs on becoming that 3rd party source of truth that seemed to be missing. I was aware of sites live vegas.com and visitlasvegas.com, but those felt so much broader to me. They’re trying to sell you on everything from renting a hotel to getting married, and everything in between. That’s all fine and good, but I’m not trying to be that. I want to make a site that a local would want to use. One that doesn’t feel so marketing-heavy; it just gets you the information you want without having to jump around. It’s fast, super clean looking, and works well on any device. That was my goal.

I started coding the week before Thanksgiving and I’ve probably only had 2 or 3 days since then where I wasn’t working on the computer, either for my day job or VegasShow.biz (usually both). It’s been fun, exciting, and fast-paced. What started back in November as just an idea is now live to the world, as of last weekend, at https://vegasshow.biz

The work is nowhere near done, I just felt like the site had reached a level where it made sense to expose it to the world. It’s barely getting any traffic at the moment, but it’s more than ready when the time comes. I’ve never built something so heavy duty for a personal project before, but the exercise of doing so entirely on my own has been an incredible learning opportunity.

Every day there’s something new and exciting going on. Earlier this week my company was accepted into the StubHub affiliate program. This allowed me to start posting links to buy tickets to different events on StubHub. If someone clicks through my link and makes a purchase, my company earns a commission. This is standard affiliate marketing practice and just one example of the things I’ll be doing on the site. The plan is to get hooked up with a couple more ticket companies and put links for all of them on my event pages. This would allow my users to price shop all from one location, and I get credit regardless of which one they choose.

I recently had a logo design competition going on via a website called DesignHill.com. Designers from around the world read my briefing and submitted logo design ideas for Vegas Showbiz. I chose my top 10, then conducted a poll on the site, asking friends and family to vote on their favorite designs. 30 people ended up voting, which I appreciate so much, and it was a very tight race between two logos. The one I ultimately chose was the winner of the poll, but it was in 2nd place all the way until the last vote of the poll, which pushed it into first. I didn’t select it because it won the poll, but it was funny the way that worked out in the end.

This week I made what appears to be an important connection earlier this week with a VIP host at the Hakkasan Group, which is the largest nightclub group in Las Vegas. They run all the big clubs like Zouk, Omnia, Hakkasan, and more. I found him on Twitter, introduced my company/website, and asked if I could help him promote his events on my site. A lot of conversation followed and by the time I went to bed that night I had added all of his events to the site and started featuring one of them on the home page. Now I’m taking it a step further by building a guest list form on the site. When someone comes to the event page for one of our events (of which there are many), they can fill out a form to get on the club’s guest list for that night. This means I’m going to start collecting a database of users, which will be valuable, and I can’t believe that in less than a week since going live, I’m already working with a group like this. It’s really exciting.

I’ve also been fortunate enough to start getting a lot of support from my sister Dana regarding company vision and strategy. As I said before, I tend to think a little more on the technical side of things, mainly because I’m 100% responsible for keeping the site running, so having Dana onboard has really helped me expand the vision for the human side of the business. Jessica and my Mom have also been very vocal in this area. I need more than just a Las Vegas search engine. That alone will certainly draw people to the site, but adding fresh relevant content via blog posts and videos is a great way to build up your search engine optimization and get people on your site. It also keeps people on the site for longer, which is an important metric. Since I’m already hooked up with various affiliate relationships, these blog posts and videos can become a great place to drop some ads. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing them here on PellegriniPage too. I’ve always been happy to pay the hosting costs to keep this site running, but if I could recoup those costs simply by adding a couple advertisements to the site, it almost seems silly not to. I’ve just never really been clued into that world because it wasn’t something we ever did at work.

I’m thinking the Jabbawockeez show next week will be the first thing I review for VegasShowbiz. I’m hoping to start doing them regularly so that will be the first one. It’s going to take a lot of marketing to get this business off the ground, and I have to be willing to put myself out there much more than ever before. Honestly that’s a little bit daunting, but I feel like I have a lot of inspiration, a vision of what it can be, and a unique combination of skills to be able to run it as a sole proprietor. If you haven’t yet checked it out, please have a look at https://vegasshow.biz and help me spread the word. It’s constantly growing and I look forward to adding the blog and vlog sections soon. As is, I’m hooked up with the Ticketmaster API and am pulling 95% of my event data from them. On any given day my custom Las Vegas events database contains over 10,000 records, yet you can search/filter them in milliseconds. There is not another site in this market that can truthfully say that. I’m extremely proud of what’s been done so far, and how quickly it’s gone from idea to reality, but the hard work has only just begun. I expect this to be a fun journey, but we’ll see how it turns out. I’m certainly not going to make any rash major changes in my life, but I’m putting everything I have into this. It’s already been a learning experience and it’s barely even begun.

That’s it for now. Once again, wishing my favorite little boy in the whole world a very happy 7th birthday! I love you beyond words and could not be more proud to be your Dad. Here’s some recent pics.

Enzo meeting The Mentalist, Gerry McCambridge, after the show

Ava carries Peach while riding Enzo’s hoverboard near furniture. Don’t try this at home.

Ready for a big night out with my little man

The girls had a fun night with Mom before the show, including dinner at one of our favorite Las Vegas hangouts, The Peppermill

Happy 6th Birthday Enzo!

Celebrating our little man’s 6th birthday in style. Supercars and all!

We’ve been counting down the days for the past couple weeks but today it’s official, Enzo is now 6 years old! I think one of the things that makes kids’ birthdays tricky during the pandemic is figuring out how to make them special when you’re so limited on what you can do. We can’t do a traditional party, or any type of outdoor gathering due to the time of year, so it’s a bit of a challenge, but I’m happy with how today turned out for him.

Enzo got to open a bunch of presents this morning, and he was very excited and thankful for everything he received. After his daily video call with his Kindergarten class I took him out for a special occasion. He already knew that we were going to get a Pro Scooter at the sporting goods store, but on the way there I surprised him with a visit to Cats Exotics, which is an exotic car dealership in Lynnwood that specializes in Lamborghini’s.

You can’t even walk in right now so I buzzed the front door and a lady came to greet us. I said hello and explained that it was Enzo’s birthday and that he was hoping to see some fancy cars. She told me she would ask the sales manager, and next thing you know this nice guy came out to us and said “Enzo, it’s your birthday? Well you need to see my Ferrari!”

He ended up showing us around for about 15 minutes and it was simply awesome. We saw the owner’s McClaren Senna, many Lamborghini’s from different eras, a Ferrari California, a Porsche 911 GT4, a couple cool motorcycles, and several others. I thanked him many times for making this such a special and memorable day for us, and I feel confident that Enzo will now always remember his 6th birthday.

Afterwards we got him a really cool Pro Scooter, then by his request, we picked up Mod Pizza for everyone at home to have for lunch. Since it’s Thursday, we went to our Jiu-Jitsu class in the evening and followed through with our school’s birthday tradition of doing a dog pile on him at the end of class. Later on in the evening we finished things off with some birthday cake and cupcakes.

Although today is Enzo’s actual birthday, some of our celebrations will extend into this weekend. We’re taking the kids up to Snoqualmie Pass for a day of sledding and snow play, then on Sunday afternoon we’re heading down to Kristy’s to hang out and do a birthday celebration for Enzo, Beto, and Uncle Jim, whose birthday is tomorrow. We haven’t seen them in several months so we’re really looking forward to it.

In addition to all the birthday stuff, life has recently gotten a lot busier for us. Back in mid November we went back into a phase 1 lockdown due to the pandemic, meaning hockey was cancelled, but a couple weeks ago we were allowed to start playing again, so suddenly we’re back to being busy getting the kids to their practices. It’s nice though, and they’re really enjoying it.

Home school continues to go well, and although our school district is about to start bringing kids back in person, we elected not to go that route. It would have only applied to Enzo anyway since he’s the only one currently enrolled, but we’re doing just fine here at home and don’t feel like switching things up mid-year.

The kids recently got their eyes tested, and although there’s nothing wrong per say, we still decided to get each of them a pair of glasses due to the amount of time they spend on screens. The girls just received theirs and love them, but we’re still waiting for Enzo’s to arrive.

Another recent exciting thing for us was that the kids each got their first stripe on their belt at Jiu-Jitsu! It was definitely a proud papa moment for me, mostly because I can relate so well to being a little kid coming up the ranks at a martial arts school. They were so proud of themselves and they continue to say things like “I can’t believe I got a stripe on my belt!”. I told them that it’s just the first of many if they stick with it.

Overall things are good and we had no problems getting back into our routine after the holiday break was over. Our rescheduled Disney World trip is supposed to take place in a little over 3 months, but we’re not really sure if it’s going to happen then or not. Nothing will surprise me at this point, but we’re fine taking things day by day. It would be nice to have a little more to look forward to on the horizon, but we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re all healthy and doing things we love, so it’s all good. I’m just glad we were able to make today really special for Enzo. Happy birthday buddy, we love you so much!

Getting started with his gifts this morning

Ava and Elise each made special pictures for him

This kid never met a monster truck he didn’t like

This McClaren Senna isn’t for sale, but was probably our favorite car of the day.

Enzo was excited to see this Ferrari California

This Lamborghini set a record lap time on the Nürburgring in Germany

Here he is with his own new set of wheels from today

The girls are looking lovely with their new glasses

These beautiful tulips from Nana made a perfect photo backdrop

Getting their first stripes at Jiu-Jitsu!

Seeing the first woman elected as Vice President of the United States was a proud day for our family

Having a little family fun with Dad’s new look

Singing “Happy Birthday” to Enzo. #Candlegate