Beat the Heat

The brand new pool in our town opened.  It's so nice!  We went there this afternoon because it was too hot to be outside or inside our home. :)

Below are some of my observations from my recent pool/beach outings.  Enjoy!
1.  ALL women (no matter age or size) wear a two piece.  I've only seen a handful of one pieces out here.
2.  Celia and Dean are the most covered up kids in the entire pool/beach area. 
3.  Swim caps are not fun.  Celia's won't stay on, Dean's keeps going in his eyes, and apparently my head is "large" in Italy because my cap hurts and always leaves a very non-cute line across the top of my head.
4.  Being a lifeguard here is a great job.  From what I've seen, they can wear whatever they want and just chat with the other lifeguards.  I've even seen one on his cell. 
5.  I'm glad we aren't living here when Dean is a young teenager.  The topless thing here is so odd.  Do you really need to be so while you are slouched over smoking your cigarette?  Gross.

PS-We now have A/C...but it's only in Celia's room.  What???  We have three floors and hers is on the second.  I guess we'll have to freeze her out tonight for everyone's sake. :)

Summer in Italy...nice

On Friday we surprised Drew by taking him out to a "fancy" dinner at one of the restaurants here in town that we've been wanting to try.  I think it's the first time Celia and Dean have done a "dress up" for dinner.  They were so into it and were so excited to "surprise" Drew.  Celia and I had on dresses, which Dean refers to as "spinners."  When we have them on he asks us to spin around.  How sweet!

We showed up at the restaurant just after 7 and were the first customers.  They had to turn on the lights and start the ovens for us.  Hilarious!

Just before our departure.  These flowers are our side lawn.  The hydrangeas (my favorite flower) here are so beautiful!

She was so cute and really into using her best manners and sitting so proper.

Still a character, even at the "fancy" restaurant.

Ordering milk with your meals is quite rare here.  Here's what we got when we ordered milk for the kids.  And, of course, they drank all but a sip.  My little milk lovers---especially this night because it was full on fat and I think it must have tasted especially yummy to them.

For dessert, they brough out a huge bowl of fresh cherries.  This area is known for cherries. 

On Satruday we checked out our first Sagra (local festival that each little town around here hosts). 

See the ball haning to the left?  Most of the kid rides here have something like that hanging down that the kids try to grab/touch when they go around.  Except for the fear that they might fall out while reaching for it (DEAN), it definitely ups the fun factor for these rides.

On Sunday we headed out to a new beach.  I think this might have been the first day I can actually say that Dean had a great time in the sand and ocean...ever.  We rented the boat below.  It has a slide on it.  How fun is that!  Celia loved it and I was too nervous to let Dean try it. :)

Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?

Legend has it that two local castles (about 15 min.s from our house) once belonged to the Montague and Capulet families.  Il Castello della Villa (Romeo's castle) and Il Castello di Bellaguardia (Juliet's castle).  The English teacher in me HAD to go there.  So my little Romeo and I went the other morning while Celia was at school. 

The two castles are separated by scenic hills, but not so far that you can't easily walk between the two.  I could just imagine Juliet looking out her castle tower to Romeo's castle.  Ahhh....love.

Just outside of Juliet's castle.

Here we are on the second floor.  Juliet's tower is behind Dean.  My 2 1/2 year old now knows about Romeo and Juliet.  Precious.

Here's Dean inside of Romeo's castle.  Festivals and shows are still hosted here.  Apparently there was a big Romeo and Juliet party in early May.  How did I miss that one?

The REAL Father's Day!

To celebrate the REAL Father's Day we took a trip to the Ferrari museum and Bologna (just under two hours away).  Drew, Celia, and Dean were quite excited for the ferraris...while I was ready to try some bolognese sauce in its birthplace!

Here's the hard top version of the one from Ferris Bueller's Day Off (i.e. my "kids are gone to college" car :).

I seriously think Celia's extracurricular in school will be racing.  She's way into speed and knowing all about race cars.  Our own little Danica.

To top it off, Drew got to drive one!  He said his instructor would just say "push it" for him to speed up. 

Waiting for THE pasta!  It's really kind of ridiculous how excited I get for the food here! :)

And, yes, our kids are eating MCD's...don't judge.  They are pretty good troopers here, but they can only handle so much pasta and pizza and traveling in one day before they just need a good ol' nugget.

What...a picture of the two of us together?  Pretty impressed with Celia's picture taking ability.

Waiting for our departure for breakfast.  I'm kinda in love with that here.  Pastry + cappuccino=yum.

Happy Father's Day to the BEST Dad I know!

Father's Day Take 3

So, we celebrated Father's Day last Sunday...on accident.  I thought it was the day and told my family such.  Not until after we celebrated did we realize we (I was) were wrong.  Kids were a little under the weather, so we postponed the beach and headed to the aquarium.  I guess we'll celebrate the day for the third time this Sunday (Italy had theirs a few months ago). 

Celia enjoyed touching the animals, while Dean wanted no part in it.  Shock.

Some good sibling love here.

Celia told us she wanted the seal because she just couldn't bear for it to have to live in the store.  Said she needed to set it free. 

Pizza topped with french fries=yum in Dean's book.  Celia gave it a good try---especially for a girl that never mixes or dips any food.

A few other sidenotes from our week thus far:

I've come to realize that Italian grandmothers and grandfathers really don't like it when children are upset.  Dean was melting at the grocery a few days ago and two separate times a sweet, Italian grandma and grandpa came up to try to help Dean.  They went right over to him and tried their darnest to cheer Dean up.  But, Dean's got a great stubborn streak to him so these sweet people never had a shot.  Once Dean decided he was done, we continued throughout the store. :)

Celia and I had homemade pedis today.  It's only the second time in her life she's had her nails painted. It was a big day for me.

Got my hair done tonight.  Love it and I love that when my stylist is done he does a little flip with my hair and says "perfecto."  I mean, really...does it get any better than that?  Oh but it does.  They had People magazine there.  Love me some good, quality reads. :)

Summer in Vicenza

Weather has been great and we have been out and about enjoying every minute of it. Last week we headed to Lake Garda. It's a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and is just about an hour away. We were only there for the afternoon, but hope to return soon for a longer time.

Celia and Dean looking refreshed after some gelato. (Sidenote: Celia's stitches are FINALLY out so now we can cover the scar with a more discrete bandage. No more big bandaids. :)













Riding our bikes around our town has been great. It's so nice to be able to do that. Here we are enjoying our coffees at a local cafe. Just before this we were at the bakery where we met a nice Italian grandma and when we saw her again here, she insisted that she buy our coffees. We tried really hard to not let her, but when we went to pay inside they told us she had already paid. She told us that all the Americans she meets are always so nice. Whew-glad to know we didn't let our country down. :)


Enjoying our town's local family festival.

Jesolo Beach

This is why I moved to Italy.... :)