Italian School.

JJ's school celebrated Carnevale a week ago Monday and this was the costume that JJ picked out to wear.  He was very disappointed that he couldn't bring his sword to school, but the school said "no guns, swords, or weapons of any kind, even if they're pretend."  Yes,  JJ's sword is pretend, but still wasn't allowed.  Apparently since there are so many military families, they needed to specify that both real and fake weapons weren't allowed!  They had a big party and all the kids brought treats, then Tuesday was a day off.  JJ is enjoying celebrating both the Italian and American holidays : )

I volunteered in JJ's class on Tuesday and had a great time.  I wore Owen in the Ergo carrier for the whole 3 hours and he seemed to really enjoy being around all the kids : )  It was so fun to see JJ interact with his friends.  It was also neat to see the teacher speaking Italian to the kids and they actually do understand her!  She told me that JJ is doing really well with Italian, especially since he only goes 3 days a week.  I got to do an activity with the kids and then stayed for lunch.  Here's what lunch consisted of - 

First Course:  Egg omelet, then pickled carrots served by the teachers family style, which JJ had seconds and thirds of.

Then they were served a small piece of bread.

Second Course:  Orzo pasta, prepared very al dente and hot, with tomato sauce

Dessert:  Oranges, also served family style.

Lunch was served on real glass plates and from the time we sat down to getting back up, lunch took a little over an hour.  When the kids were done with each course, they would stack their plates in the middle of the table and clean their area.  I was very impressed.  JJ ate EVERYTHING at lunch!  After seeing what they eat, it's no wonder that he's never impressed with my lunch options at home when I offer him a quesadilla, grilled cheese, or a jelly sandwich!  Apparently I need to start making more balanced lunches for him.  

Brian and I were laughing that JJ is going to be in for real culture shock the first time he gets "hot lunch" at school when we're back in the US.  I'm going to feel bad for the lunch lady when she hands him a plastic tray with one course of fried crappy food that he has to shovel down in 20-ish minutes.  JJ might not have kind words to say about that.

Sitting Up.

So Owen's been sitting up on his own pretty well for a couple weeks now.  The only problem is he doesn't know how to get "down"!  He'll sit there playing with toys for quite awhile and then just start whining until I come lay him down or JJ, not so gently, pushes him over.  I think he's going to figure out really soon a better way to get where he wants to be.

Buon S. Valentino and 6 Months Old.

We had to make a box to collect JJ's Valentine's from class.  I was pretty impressed with my/our craftiness : )

We had a nice Valentine's Day here.  JJ had a little party in class and was definitely sugared out tonight.  I think some parents must hate me with the kind of candy they chose to send home.  Why would you give 3-year-olds pixy sticks?!?  Brian made an amazing dinner and now I'm posting this while he's playing video games and both boys are sleeping soundly.  Very romantic : )

Owen is now half a year old!  He rolls both ways, sits up, scoots around a little, and is now getting up on all fours.  He's also working on a few teeth.  Due to all these changes, and a growth spurt, he has been sleeping HORRIBLY lately.  It's been a really long week.  He wakes up every few hours wanting to eat, or play, or crying in pain.  As my mom always says, "this too shall pass."  Hopefully it will pass sooner than later.  Brian and my middle of the night "conversations" have not been going well!

Lucca.

Gotta love Italy . . .  we picked up lunch from a deli, then got wine from a little market where they opened the bottle for us and provided us with free cups so that we could enjoy our lunch outside on this bench.  We really did enjoy it much more than this photo shows  : )

Lucca was the last place that we went to with Michael, Krista, and Tristan.  It was a really neat old town, but unfortunately these are the best pictures that we have : (  As I'm sure you can tell from me dragging out these posts, we had an amazing time with them here and LOVED having them visit.  We miss them so much, but we will remember these experiences forever.  I promise that the next post will be about current events.

Happy Birthday to Tristan!  We wish we could be there to celebrate with you.  We love you so much!

The Boys.

One with me thrown in for good measure : )

JJ had matching pjs too, but he was already ready for school by the time Tristan got out of bed.

Flashback - Tristan and JJ in matching pajamas!

JJ had sooooo much fun with Tristan here.  Yes, they got in little arguments and there was lots of crying over which "guy" each of them could pretend to be, but in the end, they had a great time.  JJ has been asking to play with Tristan ever since the left : (  He keeps telling me that "we just have to get on a plane mommy, then I can play with Tristan."  Although he's technically correct, I don't think he understands what it would really entail.  Hopefully they'll come visit again next year.

The Cinque Terre.

Owen's first train ride.  He was a little hesitant at first, but then seemed to really enjoy it.

Still doing some catching up.  We went to the Cinque Terre with Michael, Krista, and Tristan.  It's similar to the Amalfi Coast, but definitely waaaay less crowded since you can't even drive there, you have to take the train between the towns.  You can also do a hike, but it was closed due to a landslide.  We were somewhat disappointed that we weren't able to do it ; )

Florence.

Brian wants to see all the American cemeteries in Europe; we only have two left to see.  This was the one outside of Florence.

So with all the sickness in the house, I've gotten a little distracted and forgot that I never finished "catching up."  We did some other things with Michael, Krista, and Tristan around Naples (i.e. downtown Naples, the Amalfi Coast yet again : ), and Herculaneum).  After that, we headed up north for a week.  It was sooooo nice up there and very different.  Florence probably had the most tourists out of any town we've been to since getting here and people spoke the most English, so that was a surprise.  The city was beautiful though and was a great walking town.  We'll definitely be going back sometime with future visitors : )