Grape Stomping

Hey there!  Let me start by apologizing for being away so long...I am not dead and nothing is wrong.  With several people--family, friends, and perfect strangers included--contacting me each day to check on my well being, I thought it might be important to start with a little, "everything's ok" message.  But I appreciate the concern and the support.  It's so nice to feel the love.  I have just literally been bogged down with life at the beginning of this school year!  Yikes!  What a fickle bitch I am.  At the end of the school year last year, I was begging summer to hurry up and come and then at the end of summer, I was begging her to hurry up and end.  Now all I want is just a few more days!  Come back, summer.  Just hang around for a few more days!  Please?

So, like I was implying, we've been REALLY busy here at Via Fontanelle during my unintended break from the blog. Life in Italy with four brats kids in four different schools is hectic, never dull, but always fun (hahaha, I hope you can detect the sarcasm).  So I've got a lot of catching up to do over the next couple of blog posts, but I wanted to post today about something amazing that we got to do in Italy over the weekend.  When we moved here, I made this little Italy must-do list that I keep in my head of random things that I wanted to do during our time living here in Italy.  It includes things like:

*Ride in a gondola in Venice

*See the chess match in Marostic

*Pick grapes and mash them I Love Lucy style with our feet

I've done all of these now, by the way, because this weekend we went grape stomping!  What an awesome experience it was for us!  The kids LOVED it.  And Francesca and her wonderful friends and family at the Salvan Urbano Vinicola were super to invite us to give it a try.  The kids actually got to pick the grapes from the vine, dump them in the giant mashing tub and jump in with their feet to stomp them.  There was wine and local food for sampling, live music, and lots of fun.  It was a great way to spend a weekend enjoying what our local area has to offer us here in Italy! But I cannot even begin to describe just how sticky it was....

(Let me apologize for all the pictures now)

 (Tory and her boyfriend, Drake--they've been dating forever in teenage years.  This is the smile that I always get from them)

(Delilah's future husband)

The man up there pouring the wine carved his name into the stone back in 1993...

Sure would love your vote!

Italian Bikini Car Wash

I'm about to tell you something that I'm sure I'll burn in parental hell for, but here it goes:

Sometimes I let the brats watch TV while we eat dinner.

I know, I know, it's terrible...but don't judge, people!

We don't have a television in our dinning room (that actually used to be the garage before our landlord converted it into a dinning room--"Italian Style"), it's actually where our computer is, and the kids watch shows on it from our iTunes.  The "watch TV while we're eating thing" first started when Steve was TDY somewhere and it took all I had to keep the brats at the table to eat.  Their dinner viewing pleasure began as the Scooby Doo's "Menace in Venice" (totally educational for those of us living in Italy) episode and has since moved on to Olivia, Season 2.  Even I know the words to her "Goodnight, Olivia" song.

 I just can't help it.  That pig is just so darn cute and spunky. Reminds me of a little puddle duck I know...

so anyhow...

Tonight at dinner, we were watching the episode where Olivia and Francine decide to have a fundraiser to raise money for new books for the school.  We were eating our ice cream (which we really do on Sundays but we had left over sundays tonight) and listening to Olivia decide which type of fund raiser to have.  Tory (the oldest brat) shouted out "Bikini Car Wash" and we all laughed at the thought of Olivia in a bikini.

On the show, Olivia decided that she and Francine should have a dog washing event, to which Tory replied, "Wait, they are going to wash dogs while in their bikinis?" (She gets confused sometimes)

And is classic humor that it seems only Trey (the 2nd brat) can truly accomplish in our family, Trey replied to her, "No Tory, the dogs are wearing the bikinis".

I love these brats.

(and I'm sure this is exactly what anyone who googled "Italian Bikini Carwash"was looking for!)

I'd love your vote!  Don't forget to click below.

When in Rome--Eating in Italy (SemiWordless Wednesday)...

As many of you may have read, we had the pleasure of having some family in town to visit for a couple of weeks.  We headed to Rome for a quick five days which were filled (literally filled to the point of bursting sometimes) with great sights and great food! Here's a few of my favorites...

Here's a short little video of the correct way to eat spaghetti (when you're 3, of coarse)

A sign from a restaurant bathroom in Rome (Thankfully, it wasn't a squatty potty, although we did run into a couple of those along the way...)

I sure would appreciate your vote!  All it takes is one click a day on the picture of the happy momma below!  Thanks!