So here I am with over another month of no blogging! Time just flies and we have had so many fun things going on! This past weekend was very simple but we had a great time. I'll do a little overview on our weekend with a picture dump as well.
Finley is a handful and I don't know if it is possible but I think she is going to be more challenging than Leo is. She has such a big personality and loves to climb on everything!!! She currently loves baby dolls, doing anything the big kids do, yelling "bea, bea", wearing a Spiderman costume and riding on our little roller coaster toy with no hands!
Quinn really likes to build forts lately in the living room and she is very good at it! Finley and Leo like to crash the forts and then Wrestle Mania usually takes place.
When we first moved to Italy we found a cafe in our neighborhood and instantly fell in love with the people there. The kids and I would go 3-4 times a week and I practiced my Italian and we had a "morning crew" that was always there and they loved on the kids. Denise, the owner, even made drinks while holding Finley. Well, I found out they were CLOSING because she was retiring. I cried, like really cried! She has been open for 25 years, couldn't she just stay open 2 more!! It has been so difficult getting used to living in another country and the cafe was part of our day and something that helped me to feel at home here. I am still so upset about it but somebody else is opening it back up in a few months so hopefully we will like it just as much. Until then we have had to try out a few new places and have not loved any of them, good thing I am getting really good at making a cappuccino at home. Leo usually asks at least once or twice a day if we are going to the cafe, so I don't think I am the only one who misses it! We went the last day the cafe was open and I cried the whole time! Crazy Americana :)
If you look closely at this picture you can see the scooter outside with packages piled on top, that is the mailman! We were at a cafe at the gas station the other day while our car got detailed (for 25 euro!!!!!) and he came in for a glass of wine at around 11 in the morning. I thought it was so funny to see the mailman and his scooter all filled with packages!
Another place we have really enjoyed here is a farm near us where you can get milk and butter from a vending machine! The cows are right there and the kids love to go over and see the cows after we get our milk, butter and cheese. It is a very unique experience but also really really good!!
They had an Easter Egg hunt on base with some other activities and Quinn was so excited to go. Unfortunately, it ended up not being super great but I think she had an okay time, Leo on the other hand was a bit upset! Quinn was the only one who would get near the Easter Bunny. Leo refused to get out of the stroller and every time I tried to get Finley out she would grab the bar on the stroller, slam it shut and then yell "no!" so I don't think she was interested either.
Here is Leo before the egg hunt. He gets really excited for the egg hunt but when it comes time to actually get the eggs, he freezes and just stands in the middle of the chaos!
Finley just didn't care about the egg hunt and ate her hot dog bun the entire time.
Here Leo is not getting any eggs. Dave wasn't able to get off work to join me for this so I was outnumbered with kids and Quinn's age group was not near Leo's and Finley's so I sent her on her own (good luck kid!). She only got 2 eggs and was pretty upset about it but when she saw Leo did not get any, she gave him one of hers (and it was the orange one, his favorite color!). I thought that was the sweetest thing, she is a great big sister.
On Saturday Dave and I went on a date and took a walking tour of our town with a local bar. It was so much fun and the weather was perfect. I am so glad we were able to go, it was nice to spend time together and to get to learn more about where we live. Also after the walk we were able to get some snacks and a drink at the bar (cafe really) and it was super good! It was a great day!
There was an Alpina thing going on in our town that day (I don't really know what it is, a kind of group that gets together for activities and such in Italy? usually involving drinking) and they had various signs around town. Dave had to get his picture with the Pharmacist one.
After the tour we needed to drop off cakes for Quinn's school bake sale. I made brownies and carrot cake and it was amusing dropping them off at the school. When I dropped them off some of the teachers stared at them like they were crazy! They said "what are these? brownies?!" So that is a fun thing of living in Italy, even dropping things off for a school bake sale is a learning experience.
We finished the day eating at one of our local pizza places. Look how big these 3 kids are!!! Finley doesn't want to sit in a highchair anymore and also drinks out of the big kid cups. Of course, we finished the day with gelato and Finley gets her own cone now!
Sunday was beautiful and we spent the day hanging out and preparing for our next big vacation, a Mediterranean Cruise!!! The kids played in the yard and Dave and I did some planning. It was a great day filled with our little family!!
Leo was sharing his Lay's potato chips with one of our neighbors. It was a pretty low key weekend but it was really great and reminded me how great of a life we are living here!!
Leo really loves playing with the hose and it drives me crazy. I put him to work the other day and made him clean out one of the garbage cans (I say one because we have 5....). Pretty much anytime we play outside, he turns on the hose and he is now able to connect the sprinkler by himself. The kids were all cheering the first time he hooked up the sprinkler by himself, it was pretty hilarious.
And this is a pretty normal picture of what I send to Dave on a daily basis. Here was in the middle of the day when nobody was napping!!!
So that was our weekend with a few pictures thrown in. Hopefully I will get to blogging about some of our most recent trips and family visit!!
Weekends are good, life is good!
