Beach Trip

Chris starts his new position this week, and I go back to classes every night. With all that, and our usual business going on, we chose to stick close to home this three day weekend. Here's our day trip to the beach..it was cold, but that didn't stop us from having fun.

Some of my favorite pictures of the girls are like this. I can see how sweet they are with each other, and how much they're each growing.

  The kids found some great seashells, there are so many you can't walk without crushing them.

Liz had some of the most fun on this coin operated helicopter-it went higher than the roof of the building next door. I keep saying she's our future attorney-maybe flying would be a good pastime.

 

You can't go to the coast without getting some good seafood. Liz and I stuck with our veggie dishes, Chris and Emma had plates that were so pretty I just had to get a picture.

Lizzie visits the latteria and Emma goes kayaking

The girls have really been lucky this year with some pretty cool field trips.
A few weeks ago Liz went to a bakery where she made her own bread, lucky for us she brought some home. Last week Emma went to Barcis with her class for a day of kayaking. There weren't any pictures taken, but they went all over the lake (one of the prettiest lakes I've seen), then through a grotto area before going back to the dock. She also had a whole day of partying when the Americans came over from the base school to visit. She was able to meet some great kids she'll be in class with next year, and some others that were equally nice-but leaving this summer.
This week Liz went to a water bottling plant and a latteria (cheese and milk). While there the class got to make their own mozzarella to bring home. Bread and cheese so far, maybe by the time we leave she'll be able to cook an entire authentic Italian meal. See why I like the Italian schools?

Here's our little cheese maker..

 

 As you can see-she takes this very seriously.

And the final product...molto deliziosa!

On a separate side note-I'm sitting here writing this being reminded about the language bribe I gave them when we first got here..yes, I bribe occasionally...When they become fluent, they get some sort of surprise..the earlier they are fluent, the bigger the surprise. Sooooo, just now they are both reminding me about this and are begging me that the surprise be kittens (ha), but they are doing it in ITALIAN!!! Now, both of them admit that they aren't quite fluent, but they are SO very close. I can't say how excited and happy I am about that. Now I just have to figure out the surprise part of it. :-)

Tante Auguri a Tate

Elizabeth has this fascination with breakfast in bed. Part of that is because she's such a naturally sweet and thoughtful girl. Part is because, unlike on school days, on weekends she wakes up at o'dark thirty and is bored with nothing to do and no one to entertain her. Whatever the reasoning behind it every few weeks she puts together a breakfast feast for at least one of us and wakes us up with some sort of breakfast concoction and a sweet "good morning". To treat her we all decided that her birthday could not be complete without her own breakfast in bed. This year we had a European twist on it with a delicious recipe from a friend-Nutella french toast...ummm, we all started the day with a sugar rush.

Luckily we had rented the bouncy castle from base and had about 20 of Lizzie's class mates and friends over to help us burn it all off. I know that I had forgotten exactly how fun, and tiring, a  bouncy castle can be. Pair it with some wild and crazy 2nd graders and you have a sure fire recipe for some worn out parents (and big sister).

The kids were great. It was fantastic to see how far Liz and Emma have come in their Italian, Liz has even been repeatedly and unknowingly slipping into Italian this past week.

When it came time for cake and sundaes the children all sang "Tante Auguri" to Elizabeth, then the American version of "Happy Birthday". Liz is growing like a weed, still soaking up any bit of information that is in front of her, and oh so funny and sweet.

Happy 8th Birthday Liz, we love you!

When it rains...

As every mil spouse knows, the minute your spouse goes TDY, everything goes wrong. This past week while Chris was gone...the kids were sick, then I was sick, Liz's fish died, the dryer broke, it rained every day, I had mid-terms and projects due..I could go on and on about how everything that should have gone right that week just didn't.

Or I could talk about how the rain has made our newly planted garden go nuts.

The hours and bruises from the battle between the rocks and the rototiller may have been worth it, the scorpions still have some room to make up for. We now have everything from tomatoes and cherries, to carrots and radishes working their way quickly to our table. (I threw in the picture of the woodpecker as a bonus, the garden is just not that exciting.)

I could talk about what a wonderful time we had with my cousin Kara who took the time to visit during her tour of Europe.



(More pictures to come later)

I could tell you how sweet my husband was to get pictures and stories from friends at MAFB, it makes them seem a little less far away.

Most of all I could say that after weeks of people traveling the globe, tornadoes, volcanic ash, illness and who knows what else..at this moment in time all the people I care about are safe. It makes the past week seem pretty good after all.