Halloweeeeeeeeen!

Halloweeeeeeen!!

Deemed our second favorite holiday, we missed all the American commercialism in Italy this year.  But in other ways it was nice.  We did it all at our own pace!  Here's a bit about what we've been up to:

Pumpkin carving with Daddy, even with his broken thumb in a cast.  What a guy;)

 While they were outside carving the neighbor brought this over for Juliet...a cute little Italian modern rocking horse.  Juliet loves it!

The kids put together some little treat bags for their school.  We sent those and some Halloween books to the English teacher and she really appreciated having a Halloween themed English lesson for her classes.  The kids got to read in front of their class.  

 The teacher REALLY loved The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything that the kids received from their grandparents a few years ago (thanks grandparents)  We ordered her a copy from Amazon and will give it to her when it arrives.  Isaac said all the Italian kids acted out all the motions with the book.  All though Halloween isn't all out celebrated here, Italians are fascinated by it.  

I made homemade donuts and we ate them outside by the fire with some hot cider.  It was fun just for all the ambiance but homemade donuts aren't all they're cracked up to be.  I mean, you can't mess up fried dough glazed with sugar so we ate them but I don't think I'll buy into this craze next year.

On the way into JOey's work party.

The purple dragon...this costume is special

because all the kids have dressed up in it!

Merida!!  Georgie always seems to pick a costume with a wig...I think it has something to do with covering up her white blonde hair that she gets so much attention for and gets so uncomfortable when she does.

Isaac didn't want  me to put a pic of him up because this isn't his "real" costume.  His didn't arrive in the mail in time for this party.  But here is he...cutest ninja ever;)  The real costume came in the mail in time for actual Halloween which was a HUGE relief!

Last night we went to the real trick or treating party on the base.  I'll post pics of that later as well as a few other traditions we'll round out the season with.

Non Halloween stuff we've been up to:

taming this beauty...our 3/4 of an acre back yard that has to be cleared of all rocks so that it can be mowed with our new riding lawn mower!  That has been Joey and Isaacs project.  We're real Italian countrysiders;)  We'll have a huge garden out here in the spring AND some chickens...yay!!

This shed will be our future make shift chicken coop or as Juliet calls it, our chicken poop.  I think we're not going to correct her and have her go on calling it that.  It's too darn cute;)  This shot is taken after Georgie and I cleared it of all the vines and there's definitely more work to be done before we dare lock anything living up in there!

Previous owners used this part of the yard as a trash dump.  Georgie and I worked all weekend pulling out piles and piles of old batteries, broken pots, an old single trampoline, window shutters, buckets, and the list goes on, all grown over with vines.  Not to brag but I killed a snake all by myself without squealing!  I'm so proud!  I happened to be holding a broken pot when I saw it and just started whaling on it with the sharp edge...DEAD!!  I'm pretty much awesome

A very small sampling of what came out of the trash heap.

This girl was made for yard work and or farm life;)  She loved it out there and worked so hard by my side! 

Here's Juliet chasing a duck in our yard in underwear.  We've been potty training for about a month now and I think we're FINALLY done.  Yay, Juliet!!

 This duck decided to camp out in our yard for three days in a row!  We were hoping to call him ours:( but one morning he was gone.  We hope he's okay!

We frequently find these two in bed together:

 Sweet sweet!

 This is a shot of the fresh ricotta and goat cheese farm that is literally right behind our house.  The kids like to walk back here and buy goat cheese.

We've spent a few of our last warm afternoons playing at this...??nature preserve...? water mill?  We're not sure what it is except that its cool.  (so many pictures of Georgie!  Ha!  She's my little poser I guess!)

Fall baking has been fun with this little helper!

After long days of yard work Joey has put a fire in the outdoor fire place and the kids roast smore's.  We really like having a place to do an outdoor fire. 

That about covers it for now.  We have our first visitors coming next week!! Yay!!  And some more Halloween things going on as well.  'Till then!

xoxo

Munich, Oktoberfest and Innsbruck

Munich, Oktoberfest and Innsbruck

On Sunday morning we arose early and hopped on a train for Munich to witness

 the last weekend of Oktoberfest.

 It was a two hour trip using a Bayern ticket, which ended up being a economical way to go.  34 euro for all five of us to travel within Bavaria only for the day.  Joey and I perched ourselves in a window seat and gazed.

Then Joey and I took turns reading them stories.

 I LOVE riding the train, especially in Germany, Switzerland or Austria...

good family time and a great view.

Oktoberfest ended up being just as kid friendly as we had hoped.   We only saw a two smash drunk people (one looked like he was going to die and it was 11 o'clock in the morning...scary)  We didn't go into any of the "tents" (they call them tents but they are buildings) so it might have been different in there.  But outside there were families dressed up in traditional German clothing, kids,

 rides...

 more rides...

 sleeping babies in strollers...

 and food, lots and lots of food

 This is our ode to the banana stand from Arrested Development...only it's a corn stand;)  And the corn was yummy;)  When you see the workers sitting behind the counter chowing on it you know its' good!

Isaac's favorite thing was the fun house.  I like his face here...it says, "FUN HOUSE" all over it;)

 The spinning tube made us all look drunk

 Chocolate dipped Strawberries

 Chocolate dipped apples

 and rain;)  It rained half the day.  

 This picture Goergie specifically requested that I take and post on the blog;)

She's eating a heart shaped cookie at a delicious bakery in the town that we stayed in.  We ate there twice and I'm still dreaming of their pretzels, called brezzen, and crusty whole wheat rolls.  The first morning we ordered pastries but the next morning we took a cue from the locals eating breakfast.  They ordered different variations of meat and cheese platter with tomatoes, cucumbers, spreadable cheese, chocolate, butter and jams and a basketfull of rolls.  So we ordered that....a typical German breakfast...yummm.

 On the way home we stopped for a few hours in Innsbruck.  The pictures don't even begin to do this charming city justice.  

 We found a restaurant with a park right next to it.

 and a tree covered in knit...cute;)

Good weekend, great food and and ten pounds later we're home;)  We'll be sure and go back to Innsbruck since we only scratched the surface...Munich too;)  We heart Germany.

xoxo

Ashley

Neuschwanstein Castle

This weekend we visited Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.  The kids have been dreaming of this place ever since my Mom began telling them about it years ago.  All growing up my house had a poster of it hanging at the top of our stair well so it's etched in my mind as well.

When my family finally visited it back in 1996 we arrived too late.  The inside was closed for tours but I still remember the first time I laid eyes on the outside of it....breathtaking.  More than anything else, it's the setting of this place that gets you.  The mountains are converging in steep evergreen covered cliffs and then +BAM+, extending out over the edge is this fairy tale castle.  

We kept trying to imagine what it would be like to be up there alone, arriving in a carriage on a crisp fall day (like the one that surrounded us), tossing your coat to your servants and curling up in your bed next to a crackling fire.  I should have been rich;)

The only way to see the inside of the castle is through a guided tour.   Ask us about our tour guide sometime because we will never forget him.  He was the kind of guy that you imagined went home to a a backdrop of pictures of Kind Ludwig and all his castles while he sword fought with the imaginary dragon in his apartment.  I won't say anymore because that's called making fun of people but I'm glad we had him even though we could only understand about 1/4 of his English;) 

The Courtyard.  

You're not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle which is a bummer.  Ludwigs life story is worth reading more about here if you're interested.   He dedicated the entire castle to Richard Wagner, the composer with whom he was quite obsessed.  Nearly all the walls are covered in paintings from the stories of his operas.  And the wood work would blow you over.  The tour guide told us that the best wood workers in the land spent 4 years working on his bedroom alone.  

We spent 2-3 hours tinkering around the little tourist area waiting for our tour time to start.  After eating yummy German food:

 Spaetzle

 Kids Chicken...that the kids didn't like...grrrrr

 Fried Pumpkin pasta that we all fought over...

 And potato/celery waffle with a pumpkin tomato sauce on top that I thought sounded kind of yucky but ended up being delicious.  Pumpkin is in season right now so you see it in all the restaurants right now.  But anyway, after doing that we made the trek to the castle.  The castle is a 30 minute walk up a steep hill in the middle of the forest.  It's part of the experience for sure.

 The valley that the castle overlooks

The valley...

 We went home to our first airbnb.com after our castle visit.  A $61 a night (can't beat that here for SURE!!) upstairs apartment of a really nice German lady named Verena.  She had fruit, candy and pastries waiting for us and a huge basked of legos for the kids.  The beds were comfy, 

The view was amazing and the town she lived in, Oberammergau was....well it's Germany so it was perfect.  It had an amazing bakery to boot and a train station 3 minutes from her house that took us right to Oktoberfest.   We were glad to be staying in a normal German neighborhood, see what that is like and to be away from the touristy area of Neuschwanstein.  It was super busy...it's only downfall.  

In the end it was a great day.  The kids weren't bowled over by it necessarily.  They had a good time but they prefer less crowds and lots of playgrounds.  They both said they had a good time.  

The next day...Oktoberfest, Munich and a train ride!!

First Day of Italian School Photos

First Day Of Italian School

Somewhere along the way I completely forgot to journal these photos!  

I found them today on the computer and kicked myself;)  3 1/2 weeks ago 

we celebrated the first day of Italian School.

 We did our usual "finger foods" dinner, a no-hands-allowed tradition that the kids look forward to all year.  They really like that they are not allowed to use utensils.  

 Shrimp boil, bread, broth to dip it all in, fruit with dip and veggies with dip.  We did it a little more special this year with last minute decorations on the wall.  The kids and I talked about some phrases that they might want to be able to say or understand on the first day, translated them and wrote them down on  paper.  We taped those to the wall as part of our "decoration".  

 He loves to party;)

And she is a party;)

In the morning, emotions were not as intense as I had expected.  For Georgie, maybe they were, actually.  She seemed a bit more quiet than usual.  

 Together...

a theme for this school year;)

 Isaac wasn't nervous one bit.  He was squealing with curiosity.

 And Juliet just wanted to be big like everybody else;)

At school I was allowed to walk Georgie to her classroom with the rest of the first grade parents.  I snapped a few pictures but myself and one other Italian Mom were the only ones with cameras.  I felt like quite a distraction so I didn't take too many.  

 This is Lana, her cute little American friend that is in her class.  We really like her and her family.

 Georgie was quite timid.  She was trying to be so strong, holding back tears, pushing out a smile and a wave for me when I left.  

And these are Georgie's teachers.  Maestro Mario, Maestra Anna (a special needs assistant) and Maestra Sophia.  They are all three as sweet as they can be.  I get such a good feeling from all of them.  

Isaacs teachers I met a few days later and they commented on how much they like him.  As I've said already, they are doing excellent.   It has been the easiest most fun part of our move I think.  We look forward to hearing them fluent in a few months!

xoxo

Ash

p.s.  We're off to Neuchwanstein, Oktoberfest and Innsbruck tomorrow!  We're all very excited!  We wish you were here with us!

Panarello Cheese and a Tomato Soup Trick

Today I went to the grocery store for 10 lbs of tomatoes that I needed to make Roasted Tomato Soup and grilled cheese.  In Italy you have to use a plastic glove (provided by the store) to choose your produce...no touching with your bare hands;)  After bagging it you weigh it yourself and print off a sticker before you can take it to the register.  Just an uninteresting tid bit of useless information that I though you might want to know;)  

 At the cheese counter I tried my hand at speaking Italian and asked for "formaggio per un panino caldo"  a hot sandwich...formaggio per la fusione...for melting (I got that last word from google translate, my new boyfriend that I am totally in love with).  She seemed to understand me and chose this cheese: 

Panarello Cheese 

(I didn't take these pics...found them on google images;) ha) 

I did a google search on Panarello Cheese when I got home and discovered that it is a specialty cheese made in the little ski town that is straight up our road, Via Col De Rust.  It's a soft cheese with good flavor.  From what I gather soft cheeses usually don't have much flavor but this one, according to some links I read, is has a bit more flavor than most.  I made panini's out of it and it melted perfectly and did that perfect stringy thing when you bite and pull that you see in pizza advertisements.  It was yummy dipped into the tomato soup;) For what its worth I recommend the tomato soup recipe (highly....it's our favorite both for ease, price and tastiness) and the Panarello Cheese, if you can find it.  When you come we'll take you for a tour of the organic cheese farm where it is made!

xoxo

Ash