Happy Halloween

This year's invites were a coffins with mummies inside.

The party information was written on the mummies wrappings.

Our little strip of yard is just the right side for a graveyard,

I was trying to save a dollar (er, euro) so I papier machè'd the boxes left over from the shower doors. Had I not been so cheap, I would have gone to pick up some styrofoam and painted those. Of course poured cani and gatti nonstop last night and all day today.  I painted them with a wood paint to render them somewhat waterproof, but it's raining too much and I didn't have enough time to put enough coats on so I've been fight a battle to keep them up.  Next year I'm making a scarecrow, that's at least clothes and a pumpkin won't melt.

Carvin of the PumpkinThi

This year Sophia is big enough to participate a little more in pumpkin carving.  I had her draw what she wanted  to carve onto a paper and then we taped it to the pumpkin and used my hem ripper to poke holes (i lost the poker that came with the carving kit).

Frankenstein removes the brains.

Tadaaaaah.

 

 

Okay the reality of the whole situation is that-Sophia really did draw the pumpkin and poked the holes.  But it was really hard for her to cut, so she gave up after a few seconds.  The stem was hard to pull out, so I yanked and yanked and yanked and then she held it, posed and I snapped the picture.  And finally she didn't want to get dirty/touch the slimey stuff, so I ended up doing that too-finding out the hard way, that I must be allergic to the junk inside because my hands were burning and I had a red rash up my arm-yeah!  So yes, carving a pumpkin is more for me, than for her. She'll remember the experience of having carved the pumpkin and that's what's important- (happy Mom???? Following in your footsteps, I am forcing my kids to have fun and have experiences!!)

Dr A Little Nuts

Max had a little fender bender the other day when it was rainy (he veered off the road a little. he is fine, but the car is at the mechanics).  Luckily everything in here is not too far away and he has been putting the miles on his bike.  Today, he did a lot of biking-first to drop off Sophia at school, then to take Viv to the Dr and back again to get Sophia.  Why is my lazy butt not joining him? I've got a good excuse, I have a flat tire.

To weed or not to weed

 My parents weeded the common area in front of our house when they were here and I've been keeping it clean ever since.  But I REFUSED clean up the other side near the garbage because since we've been here, I've seen  mice, stepped in dog poo, on glass and other stuff I just don't want to even think about. The dog poo problem is becoming a real nuisance.  The lady who's dog poos everywhere, just makes up excuses and is in total denial about the problem (yeah, I know what you are thinking, but remember this is Italy, in order to get anyone to do anything about a problem, it takes 100 years, lots of standing in line, loads of red tape and at least 7 people must die because of the problem).  Today I weeded the common area in front of our yard, but since I had to keep going to the garbage and live in fear of seeing mice, stepping on poo or on glass or who knows what...

...I broke down and weeded.  The top picture was actually take a year ago and it's gotten worse ever since.  Max was a trooper, when he went and cleaned up the abandoned garbage cans and all the garbage that was lying around the courtyard.  And of course our nosy neighbor with the poopy dog came out and chit chatted, not helped just chit chatted.  She even had the nerve to make a comment on how I had better not kill her rosemary bush-I had to use all my strength and control not to whack her in the head with the cutters I had in my hand, but I did imagine the scene in my head.

side note: since it's not my job to clean up that mess, I doubt anyone else is going to do it again, but I don't want to do it again in the future  and I most certainly don't want to spend any money to do it again, I was thinking I'd just throw down some salt and see what happens.  Instead I googled homemade herbicide. Cross your fingers and let's hope this works...I ended up using a solution of 1 c vinegar, 1/4 c salt and 1/4 c soap. Will let you know what happens.

side note morning after: darn no miracles, esp on the nasty crab grass.  Some of the weeds looks like left over salad that had been tossed with vinagrette (which it basically was), but no miracle brown patches everywhere...darn.  Will pass with more salty soapy water again today, as i have no more vinegar.

Cuneo

We to Cuneo today to see the Nonni and Max's brother and his wife.  It was the first time that all the family got together since Christmas and the first chance that we get to see Paola's baby bump.  For some reason we always happen to goon the weekend of the Festa delle Castagne (the Festival of Chestnuts).  For one reason or another (i.e. crowds, tantrums and the like), we never end up getting anything :o(  Anyhoo, what does that have to do with the picture above?  There are several things that go on during this time and one was a learning farm tent (there was also a tent with handmade things and food, but we missed that too :o(  This giant tent where the had different types of animals.  Unless you grow up on a farm here, kids don't really have any exposure to these types of animals, so kids here go nuts! They did a really nice, job, but I didn't take very great pics, there were mules, a mommy pig and her piglets, various chickens, a fish pond, a garden, a lecturer with a working beehive.   ps Why the heck are they so to the cow but. That's too risky!

The radio station that got Max started on the radio was broadcasting from the festival.  We bumped into Luisella, the owner and she got Max to give an impromptu interview.

Too bad Viv is covering up Paola's baby bump.  I am super excited for them.  I am also hoping (as my friend Karen says) the new cousin will steal some of Sophia and Viv's thunder.  Paola and Ale got a little taste of the Nonna and crazy ways.  I've got to stay on my toes.  The main thing is that she insists on giving babies people food.  This time Viv nearly choked on water from a glass (when her bottle was just a few feet away), bread and chicken-if there was more I didn't catch it. Last time we had to keep scream babies don't need to drink Fanta!  Please don't dangle Vivienne over the balconey (ala Michael Jackson).  I know she's old and so I try to take it all with a grain of salt (and a shot of tequila).

Uncle Ale compares the Parisi hair style with Viv.

One minute she was awake and then the next thing I knew she passed out.  Sophia and I are doing an impromptu homage to Viv.

We went to Bonfante (that's one of the Bonfante sisters) for a briosche and to pick up some pasticcini (small tarts, pastry puffs, cookies, canolli etc) for dessert.

Looking down Contrada Mondovi.

Two Italian hams (does that make them prociutto?)

Malpaga

I am sooo far behind on blogging and each that passes, I just dig myself a deeper hole.  Therefore as of today, I am just going to start posting the latest stuff and then try and catch up one of these days.  But if I dont start somewhere and some time son, I will just fall farther and farther behind.  

We did the coolest thing today.  Last week our friends came over and mentioned that they were going to tour this castle out near Bergamo and did we want to come too.  I know that castles are like Starbucks here, there is one on every corner.  And just like Starbucks, I never get sick of seeing castles (unlike the famous coffee place, it's not very expensive and it's an adventure where the memory lasts a lifetime).   But I digress.  Anyhoo on with the tour: 

We walked all around the castle and a lady dressed in traditional medieval garb told us about the history of the land and surrounding area.  She explained the frescoes and maps.  It was all very interesting, unfortunately not to our two little kids, because they started to get bored/hungry and it was hard to keep them interested and listen at the same time.

Standing on the drawbridge looking at the gate.

In  addition to my door obsession, I add on locks.

Standing in the courtyard looking up at the tour and bedrooms.

The frescoes were really well maintained. (Max wanted me to mention that: the dude in red is Cristiano I, the king of Denmark and the dude in black with the plate is his official taster.  I am just diggin on the spikey flying saucer hat).

Looking down the door opening of the bedrooms (I was hoping to catch a ghost or some sort of orb, since one of the main owners died in the room at the end, unfortunately, no such luck!)

Nice knocker.

The Seven Virtues were painted on the bedroom wall.  Is abstinence one of them, because if those are realistic portraits of real women from back in the day, some of them were down right ugly.

These are the soldiers quarters.

 So here is the coolest part.  After the tour, anyone who wanted to got dressed up in costume too!

 Sophia and I are princesses and Max is the ambassador of China, Viv is just some chick that time warped into the 13th century and got all up in our photo.  Unfortunately this is the only pic we have of all of us and of course sophia is playin around with her headband.  Ah well, guess we'll use a different one for our xmas card.

 All the kids.

Max

Yara, Luna and Sophia dance.
After everyone was dressed, we went into the main hall and we each were handed various roles and reenacted a reception ceremony with various medieval characters.

Giancarlo knights Sara.

  


And at the end of the ceremony there was a big dance.

Group foto. (Thanks Valeria!)

(Let me just add that, I am very glad that I don't live back in the olden days, because that dress does not compliment my already blobby figure.)

ps Special thanks to our new friend Valeria (the Duke at the bottom left corner).  She organized this whole soiree, which I'm sure was not easy.  There is a minimum of 20 people in order to do the tour and dress up.  She belongs to a site called goparty  which you can find other people to do events like this one.

Fancy Stairs and the Bettolino Branco

Well guess who has started climbing up the stairs, guess it's time we stop procrastinating and get those gates!  This is also a good time foe me to show off our fancy stairs.  Notice the elegant dirty linoleum that covers them.  Can't wait until Max's dad fixes them for us!

Today is the Festa di Paese di Brugherio (the festival of the patron saint of our town) and the festival at the church in front of sophia's school.  We were going to try to go to both, but ended up just going to the one at the church because its smaller and there is a fence around the whole thing, so we could keep the group of rascals under control.

Scarafaggio

CHE SCHIFFO!!! New word to add to your Italian vernacular.  It rhymes with Caravaggio.  We brought up some more boxes today.  Luckily this is from some portable drawers that hold art supplies, but I think some of my brushes will have to go, unless I am going to go for that modern art look with poop in the paint. The drawers were supposed to go in a closet with our clothes, Max was in a rush to go  to work so we were stupidly/lazily going to just shove them in.  One of the drawers happened to be stuck and when we pulled it out, that big giant guy happened to pop out.  And YES I did SCREAM and Max told me off for being such a drama queen until....

we saw that nasty mountain of poop in the back and a couple of babies and the baby daddy in there.  He didn't scream, but he did get grossed out and then just leave me with the nasty mess to clean up. So now we all learned a little Italian lesson, you now know the word for cockroach and I know that any box that has been left downstairs for 3 months needs to be check BEFORE being brought upstairs and wayyyy before Max leaves for work.