{It's still raining} 2 Nov 2010

View of our backyard at 8am this morning....I also saw pictures of downtown Vicenza...sad to see so much water in our beautiful city. I hope the clean-up (when it happens) can restore it to its former beauty!

Hoping the rain stops soon.

Ciao!

{Rain, Rain, Go Away} 1 Nov 2010

Our creek has turned into a river and almost about to flood over the bank! We've had rain since Sat. night and it's not suppose to stop raining until Wed. The schools had an early release due to the rain/flooding in the area. We might even have a RAIN day tomorrow--the kids are keeping their fingers crossed!

Pictures from the backyard:

This is a picture looking into the backyard from one of the terraces.

We are use to snow & wind---but not rain!

Ciao :)

{Halloween 2010}

Mark carving Mark's pumpkin---Dinner with Igor

I'm carving Kieran's pumpkin--Little Darlings

The kids pumpkins--Dinner with Igor & Little Darlings

The kids had some of their friends over for a Halloween Party yesterday (Sat, 30 Oct). We decorated on Fri. night, instead of going trick-o-treating in Villaggio (American Housing). I thought it would be too crowded & crazy. Kieran was disappointed at first, but after we started decorating, she forgot all about it :)

I made some Scrumptious Skeletons

and Forked Eyeballs

part of the tavern decorated for the party

Mark and his friends

I also made Bones & Fingers

and Swamp Creatures, Pizza Mummies & Severed Toes

Here are Kieran & her friends

Everyone had a great time and gobbled up all the treats :)

Enjoy.

Ciao!

{Ceramic Shopping in Nove} 26 Oct 2010

Hello again. My mom & I went on another trip--this time to Nove where they have lots of ceramic shops. The shops ship their ceramics to Williams-Sonoma, Tiffany & Co., Lenox, Nordstrom to name a few. I might just have to buy new dishes before we leave in a few years. I bought a ceramic tile that had downtown Vicenza painted on it and a huge salad bowl.

This was the first shope we went to....

This was another shop we stopped at.....

On our way to lunch we had a little bit of time, so the tour guide took us to this meat & cheese shop.

This is the place where we had lunch. A typical Italian meal---first, a thick spaghetti noodle with duck sauce, next, risotto with mushrooms, then, pork, french fries & peas..to drink-wine & water, bread and coffee for after....VERY filling! Good thing Mark & I went out cycling for 1.5 hrs. that afternoon :)

Finally---SNOW on the mountains :) We had an entire weekend of rain. So much that we thought the creek in our backyard was going to go over the bank. When the weather cleared, we were able to see snow on the mountains.

Enjoy :)

Ciao!

{Kieran--Cross-Country 2010}

Kieran before the 2K (1.2mi) race.


almost to the finish!


crossing the finish line---in 12min.35sec.----woohoo!


Kieran was the 1st girl in her age group to finish and 2nd finisher overall in her age group...we are SO proud of her!

end of the season celebration :) YUM!

Enjoy :)

Ciao!

{on the walk to the bus stop} 19 Oct 2010

Fall is here...the leaves are changing...the mornings/evenings are chilly. The days are still warming up to the upper 60s/low 70s. I brought my camera to the bus stop yesterday afternoon to capture some of the sights.

This is the corner of the trattoria (local restaurant) right around the corner from our house.


This is the bakery around the corner from our house as well. They have all sorts of YUMMY treats :)




A picture of the bell tower (where we pick up the kids).


the door to the bell tower

a corner of the church

Enjoy :)

Ciao!

{Chocolate Festival- Soave} 9 Oct 2010

As I was reading the post paper, I saw that there was a Chocolate Festival in Soave this weekend. Since we all LOVE chocolate (especially Kieran), we decided to go this morning.

A powdered chocolate-filled moustache, instead of a milk moustache :)

Kieran's waffle with chocolate :)

I walked by a vendor and she pointed to my camera and showed me a chocolate camera--I couldn't resist buying it :)

Pictures of Soave---

A YUMMY Saturday morning---Enjoy :)

Ciao!