Sophia's at a sleep over

so Oliver, his Dad, his Dad's girlfriend came over for dinner. we owed O a fajita dinner for watering our plants this past summer (yeah i know its january, but better late than never right?):

Oliver's tortillas look like a Rorschach (had to look up how to spell that)

Darilyn (not sure where the y goes) and Jerry.

There was a little tiny mini tortilla and despite the fact that oliver said that he was full, he over filled it and shoved it in his face anyways...it's just a thin mint...good thing he didnt explode! we're still waiting to see if that can happen.

Garbage Bag Kids

Little Miss Somebody was throwing hissy fits today. We told her since she was constantly throwing tantrums, she must be broken and that we'd have to throw her away. We dumped her into one of those grocery store plastsic bags-it's not a Hefty, but it sure holds like one! Who knew those things were so strong! (ps kids dont try this at home...yeah i know there are many a bady lesson we are teaching kids here...)

Grety, Gretzy

Yesterday Greta (Gretzy) came over and watched Sophia for us, while we went out to our first adult dinner in a while. I just realized that we have never gotten a babysitter to watch Sophia while we did something for ourselves. We have left her with the Grans or Nonni, if we happened to be staying at their house. but that was always a passive agressive/matter of convenience move. When Pietro came out the other night, Franci and I were talking about that and we decided to get someone to watch the kids and go do something as adults! so we went out to dinner at Baja Sardinja - (if you come, i will take you!!!) and greta came over and told sophia about her love life - sophia was scared stiff and went to bed and fell asleep extra early. ( the next morning sophia came into our room and instead of asking for breakfast, asked what happened to greta).

Painting

We broke out the finger painting set when pietro came over. The kids had lots of fun (and once again Im still cleaning up fingerprints all over the house-this is postdated and im still finding CSI data around here! )

Chinese sweat shop

Just kidding. I go to CrearePrimavera on Saturday mornings, but Max had to work-so we decided to let Pia go to work with her dad for a couple of hours. (nobody is at the radio on the wknds anyways). She had a load of fun as you can tell. now she keeps asking to go back.

Jazz Hands

not too happy about the body painting, but it was cute so i snapped a picture and then spent the rest of the time cleaning up the paw prints.

Cuneo

It was off to Cuneo today to see the Nonni.

While Sophia went to play with the Nonno, we went down to the bottom area of the plateau to check out the Views.

Making use of the gorillagrip.

Max on the footbridge

This is the bridge that leads in and out of the city, the top level is for cars and the bottom level is for the trains.

Death of a Snowman

First Day of School

It snowed some more last night. A lot more! Plus it was the first day back to school after the holidays. It snowed too much to drive so we walked...

Sophia had a blast trudgin throught the snow, for the first 20 minutes...

But it was so deep she pooped out. Poor Max has all of Sophia's linens for her cot, her towel, and Pia peed her pants on the last day of school, so we also have the extra change of clothes-plus Sophia.

...apparently we should have called first, school was cancelled for the rest of the week...argggghh-i was so ready for her to go back!

...well if you cant beat 'em, join 'em. It snowed too much for school, but more than enough to make a snow princess (our snowman is buried beneath) and we had more snowball fights.

computer

Sophia has been getting quite good on the computer. She loves to play video games and draw. (i helped her with the name and the hands, but she did the rest).

La Befana

La Befana is a witch that brings sweets and presents to kids in the middle of the night and leaves them inside old socks. It's a bit like Christmas, but not as big in this area. It's a holiday here and then after this, the kids go back to school. Our neighbors were so sweet, they left Sophia a sock full of sweets on the door. It dumped snow ALL night and so this morning we went out to play.Hooray! Snow!!!

Our SnowMan!

Catching snowflakes (she looks like she has lisa rinna lips).

ValentinaFromSchool

Valentina is Sophia's 'new' friend. They started school together on the same day/in the same class. We don't know any other Valentinas, so Im not sure why Sophia calls her ValentinaFromSchool. The girls had lots of fun! They made cake, they decorated cookies, danced and played! Sophia had a great playdate.

Walkies...

Like all Short Lived New Years Resolution Makers, I've decided that we need to go out and get some fresh air and exercize. Let's see how long it lasts. We are one of those families that can close the door on Friday night and not realize that we didn't even unlock cave until we leave for school Monday morning. Sad, sad. So first day of walkies (well bikies for Sophia). I just saw that Alanis Morisette lost a ton (i didnt even realize she gained all that weight till i saw the pix) just by changing her diet and walking 20 minutes a day.

picture for the proof...
(there was another ny revolutioner behind us, you could tell she never goes out either).

Max hates these houses, I wouldnt want to live there cuz they are run down, but I always think they always make for a nice picture.

Speed Racer on her bike.

Pit stop on the bridge to check out the waterfall/(debris that has built up and caused a dam).