my knight in shining armour

 I'm a total dork for taking a picture of my 3 year-old's drawing and posting it, but here it is.  My kids were drawing pictures to give a friend.  They have stencils that they like to trace, but Jordan added a knight to his horse.  To tell the truth, I think that he drew himself.  He's got the super-hero mask, a huge smile and like the real life Jordan, isn't holding still. It put a smile on my face.

 My little girl likes her dolls, but she also really, really likes balls, and pulling her brothers hair and then laughing tauntingly.

 Aaron is growing like a weed!

And somehow Jordan held still long enough to get a picture of him.  We set a record.

Speaking of record setting, we've gone 3 days without cartoons.  How have we done it do you ask?  Because I'm trying to teach my kids to be reverent when other people pray, and until they do it, we don't get to watch cartoons.  I know I'm a mean mommy, but can't think of another way to do it.

La fiera del gelato

 Last weekend we went to Rimini (which is a beach side city) to their annual convention of gelato (Italian ice cream) and bread.  One of Paolo's friends scored us free tickets.  I don't have a picture of the actual gelato because when we got a cup to share, it was like a pack wolves attacking their dinner.  It was a fight just to get a spoon in from Aaron and Jordan.

 There's a lot more to selling gelato than I thought.  You have to think about decorations in your store, what kind of cone, what kind of spoon to eat it with, machines to make it...  The boys' favorite part, right after more gelato than they've eaten in their whole life, were the standing decorations.

 Photo courtesy of Aaron.  This is our friend "Pelo" who got us the tickets.  I'm sure the convention was a lot less fun for him than it was for us.

 By the time we met our friend, the convention center was almost ready to close.  The boys were seriously punch drunk.  They were laughing like hyenas, the were falling on each other, on the chairs, onto the floor and laughing their heads off.  What fun to eat all the ice cream you've ever dreamed of!

This little one was a trooper.  She stayed in the car seat for the hour drive down, and had to stay in the stroller the 2 1/2 hours that we walked around.  We did give her little spoons of gelato which helped a lot.

The Circus

 We went to the Circus this last week.  Ever since my kids saw Madagascar 3 (thanks again Karla and Brad) they've wanted to see the circus.  In an attempt (that failed) to try and get Aaron to let the dentist work on his teeth we tried to bribe him with the promise of going to the zoo.  Aaron tried his best, but wasn't able to keep his mouth open.  We eventually got his teeth fixed with some anesthesia (don't ask how much it cost!), and we went to the circus anyway.

The boys LOVED it!  Apparently in Italy their's a logo that all circus's have- they're all tied to a family called Orfei.  There's probably hundreds of Orfei circus' around Italy and Europe.  I can't remember the name of this one.  The tent was reasonably warm, but not hot, and we needed our coats the whole time.

 The cotton candy was also a big hit.  We did brush our teeth before going to bed. :)

Thank you dad for taking us to the circus!  Thank you to whomever it was that gave us a "pay for one, enter 3 enter the circus".  It saved us a lot of money.

I've got a toddler!

 I thought with Jordan and Aaron in school my life would get significantly easier.  I failed to take into account that Isabel was turning into a TODDLER!!!!!!!  Yesterday was one thing after another.  While I was sweeping, she was emptying the flour bag onto my floor.  While I was cleaning that up, she was emptying the sugar onto the floor...  It's time for baby locks!  While I was putting on a baby lock on this cupboard, she got into the garbage...  One of those kind of days.

 Although my life is not easy with my baby turning into a toddler, wouldn't trade it for the world, or for all the ease in the world.  I love this kiddo too much!

Also in the toddler phase it's hard to get a good picture of her, because she always tries to get my camera while I'm trying to take the picture. :)

pancakes

 There's not much special going on around our house.  I'm grateful to have the boys back in school and Isabel is turning into a terrible 2 year-old way ahead of schedule. :)  The other day I made some home made maple syrup from concentrate that I have.  So we made pancakes to go with.  I've been wanting to use this elephant cutter that my mom gave me a while ago.  So we had ELEPHANT PANCAKES.

 With my sewing projects I'm good at starting but not finishing them.  This quilt is one that I pieced the zig-zag top a long time before moving to Italy.  I finally finished up a back for it and spray basted it together last night.  Now I just need a machine that I can quilt it on. :)

This is the top that I had finished a while back.

Car Rides

Twice this week (including today) my sweet husband has taken the boys for a car ride to see the snow or the view from a high spot so that I could get some cleaning/organizing done around the house.  He's let them do a lot of the pictures, and I laughed at some of the pictures and was proud of others.  I'm not including the picture of the beer bottle that Jordan took. :)  So I'm showing off my kids photography skills.

San Lucca- taken by Paolo

snow- taken by Jordan

panorama Bologna- taken by Jordan

Papa`- taken by Jordan

self-portrait- Jordan

taken by Jordan

eccentric Aaron- taken by Julie

 This kid was trying to be funny by wearing funny things.  He looks quite eccentric!

self-portrait- Aaron

 I still laugh out loud every time I see this picture!  If he keeps dressing like this he's going to have a hard time getting a date when he's older.

panorama le colline- Aaron or Paolo?

"make a silly face"- Aaron

playing at the park- taken by Julie

rolling-on-the-ground-temper-tantrum

 Isabel has started throwing some pretty good tantrums.  They're not frequent yet.  I'm sure it won't take long.  This one at the park just made me laugh and I had to take a picture of her.

riding bikes on our driveway

In the yard trying to take advantage of the very limited sunlight that we get.