Susannah has grown so much this year! We are so blessed to have this sweet little girl in our lives. She has quite the sense of humor and is quickly learning the way to survive in the harsh world of being the littlest kid! Luca better watch out!
Monday, July 15, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
The torrente!
Another memory Chiara has of Moggio is going near this mountain stream, wearing galoshes, and playing in it. So, we brought the kids' galoshes and let them splash away. They had a blast! Just look at all those rocks for Luca to throw!
Dandelions
James and the kids picked dandelions (that had gone to seed) and blew them all over the place!
The girl loves to climb
We climbed up past the cows and found a nice place for a picnic. Norah climbed up even higher to explore.
Le Mucche!
We heard these cows from way far away, and the kids insisted on going to see them! They all had noisy bells on them, and each bell sounded and looked different from the others.
Guess where?
Chiara's family should recognize this place! This is the "Piani di Artavaggio" which is a mountain plateau high above the town of Moggio, Italy, where Chiara's grandparents used to have a summer cottage. We recently took a trip here to relive some of Chiara's past. Chiara had vague memories of a meadow with scattered boulders, and sure enough, there they were!
Public Beach
We drove around the lake and looked for a public beach, and then we found this one. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a beach here, and what there was had broken glass scattered in with the rocks. We will have to find a better one next time!
Pretty villa
This pretty villa was right on the lake! Norah thought it would be so neat to drive a boat up to your house!
Of course there's a castle!
Like most small towns in Italy, there is a castle in Iseo. We went up to it to explore!
Lago di Iseo
James read in the Italy guidebook about a little lake called Lago di Iseo, on which there is a town called Iseo (+ a lot of other small towns). The lake also has a huge island in it, which you can take a boat to and explore. We decided to go here one morning, and had a great day exploring the town and seeing the lake. It was like Como, but smaller, more pleasant, and less-crowded! A new favorite place!
Susannah self-propels!
Susannah figured out how to shift her body weight and push herself on the swing! Daddy didn't even have to push after a while! I don't mean to brag, but this has to be a world record!
The stream
There was a huge yard at the mill where the kids played party games, and a little stream where Luca played for at least an hour (until he fell into it!).
Making Biscuits
One of the activities at the party was to make biscuits (then they ate them later). This was in the living room of my aunt's aunt's house!
Norah's Birthday, part 2
Norah celebrated her birthday with her friends on June 22. She was one of 5 kids all celebrating their birthdays together. We held the party at the Parco di Monza, at an old mill that has been turned into an educational center. Turns out that the old mill is where my Aunt Raffaella's aunt was BORN and lived her entire life! Small world!
Here's Norah and her birthday cake. We had all the birthday kids lined up with their own cake. There were at least 42 kids there, and lots of parents, so we needed all the cakes!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Oh, yeah...
Somewhere in there Susannah turned 1 year old...and a few weeks later we got around to taking her 12-month picture! To keep her from pulling the sticker off her shirt, we had to give her a wire and some paper to play with!
Mommy and Norah in Lucca
Do you see that tower way back there in the background? It has trees growing on top of it!
Sitting in the grass
The nice things about the grass in Lucca are that a) it was cut and b) there wasn't any dog poop or trash in it...Susannah loved playing in it! We don't get to do this every day in Italy...usually a patch of grass = dog toilet!
Enjoying the view
Rolling hills and lots of trees in Northern Tuscany. It's not the Tuscany we had imagined...we will have to go further south next time! But it was still beautiful and lots of fun.
Lucca
We went to the small town of Lucca, which is in Northern Tuscany (near Pisa). It's unique feature is an intact medieval wall surrounding the old city. The wall is about 5 km long and has 11 bastions--on a few of them there are little play parks for kids. (YAY!) The wall itself is about 30 feet tall, and it's really wide. There's a street on top of the wall, with lots of trees for shade, benches for rest, and green grass for picnics. We had so much fun exploring this town and its spectacular wall!
Intricate
The patterns in the marble on the leaning tower were quite intricate. It really was impressive!
Did you know...
that the leaning tower of Pisa is next to this huge cathedral? Neither did we until we got there! You never see the cathedral in the photos! The leaning tower was meant to be the bell tower for the church.
A little to the left...left....LEFT!
It was a little difficult to get them at the right angle for this shot!
Uh...can I get a little help here?
Luke was too busy "dancing" to help Norah hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa...
Pizza and popsicle party
We had an end-of-the-year pizza/popsicle party at Norah's school for all the graduating kids and their families. Can you spot Norah and Luca in the crowd?
Low tolerance
Norah doesn't have much tolerance for being hot. She was ready to go before lunch. She held it together, but was really tired at the end of the day!
A (hot!) day at the farm
We went to a farm with Norah's school. It was a HOT day and the farm itself had little shade. The kids had a blast, but the adults thought it was a little bit, well, hot! Luca spent about an hour playing in this manger after he and the other boys beat the dried corn from their cobs. Boys are easily entertained, people.
Easy Entertainment
What more does a kid need for fun but a bucket, a sponge, and some water? This kept him occupied for over an hour, AND he cleaned my balcony, too!
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