Italian Capers

Happy Halloween! What a great idea....Trunk or Treat. In this event the piccolo (and not so piccolo) kids can still participate in the candy-filled fun of trick or treating. There was a line of traffic to get on base- I had never seen that before. Our little puppy and ladybug were ready for action....although they weren't sure what action was in store.... they knew candy was involved. Awww... We arrived at 6 pm (when it was to start) and waited about an hour to get to the entrance. No one told the kids we were waiting and they fun running all over the place in their costumes- and checking out everyone else. I was glad they weren't "naken" underneath their costumes as they quickly overheated and ditched them. This isn't the best picture but you can see all the people waiting. The weather, thankfully, was wonderful- no rain. This is how it works. A section of street is closed off. People from different organizations volunteer to back in and decorate the trunks of t...

I fear I will be forever paying the price for not recognizing a fig. A couple of weeks ago, My Man was out walking the Fonz. Senora Anna stopped him and gave him a huge metal pail filled with several different kinds of apples. This was accompanied by a large basket with partially rotting tomatoes underneath more apples. We decided to make an apple pie. Simple enough- that would help with the apple abundance situation. We would figure out some plan for the tomatoes later. My Man reminded me that some apples were better suited for apple pie than others. He suggested I go ask Senora Anna which ones were to be used as such. He was assuming she would know her apples. He was assuming she would be familiar with apple pie. I didn't want to go, but I did. Sheepishly, I walked into the bustling hair salon and caught Anna's attention-and everybody else's for that matter. I started asking her my question before I remembered that she is always in a hurry and rarely listens to my full qu...

We had so much fun hanging out with you! Thanks for coming.

Hooray, I found the pics of the box from Grammy and Grampy! Sorry Bad Mimi, I tried to crop you out since your eyes were closed, but the children were protesting!

It's hard to believe that anything but the songs of angels can come out of this adorable child. But yet, she is prone to sudden, and unprovoked outbursts of, "BAD MOMMY-O, BAD MIMI, BAD NANNY-O." She lists all of we the "bad" together. She also uses great gusto when she declares our evil nature. When she is particularly inflamed, she will add, "BAD RO-RO." (This is gasp-evoking material, mind you.) There is, however, one person, whom she has never accused of evil-doing, and that is her Papa......

This is the official picture of the first day of nursery school. She picked out those blue suede shoes all by herself. This is her school uniform, which I didn't know she needed until after school started. I just yesterday found out she needed her own markers and slippers. I have a new empathy for foreigners in the states- it really is hard when you don't understand everything or anything....especially when the children are involved. So, we got to school at 7:45 and there was not another soul in sight. School was to start at 8:00. The doors were locked. Yep, we're Americanos, still arriving early. (Turns out, there is a one hour window from 8-9 to drop off the kids......who knew?) Finally a priest came over and began to tell us a long-winded story about how they ALMOST got money from the Kennedys to start a home somewhere for someone. I really think the only English he spoke was what he needed to tell the story. This is the view from the front steps of the school, which is...