April Part 2

Still attempting to get caught up, these pictures are from the end of April 2014, Brian and Steve went on a 21-hour bus ride each way to Normandy for a weekend camporee with the Scouts. Brian still talks about this almost daily and has become almost obsessed with WW2 and learning about it.

April Part 1

March

February

January

Just click on each layout to view them larger

 

The busiest day of the year….

On December 7th, we had a day jam packed with events, as weekends leading up to the holidays usually are. Steve left the house early to fly all the way to the North Pole in an F16 to pick up Santa Claus and bring him to our Ops Group Kids Christmas Party. Both the kids were so excited and proud that their Daddy was assigned this duty. When Daddy and Santa were arriving, an announcement was made in the hanger that Santa was being taxied to the hanger in a jet piloted by a “World Famous, Highly Respected Triple Nickel Pilot,” and our kids screamed “it’s our Daddy!!!!” And Daddy had lots of time to talk to Santa about the kids because before Santa even climbed down the ladder, he waved in our direction and said in his jolly way, “Hello Emily!” It made her month. She went running up and monopolized the conversation with the Jolly Old Elf. She not-so-subtly went through her list of gift demands and prattled on about a few recent and slightly embellished good deeds. One of us eventually dragged her back through the crowd so the other star struck kids could get a word in. Brian was slightly more shy (or maybe a little skeptical) and was content to play some party games while we waited for our turn on Santa’s lap. We got the standard Santa’s lap photos and he gave each kid a book, and Emily once again chatted his ear off. Overall, the kids had a blast and Emily basically fell head-over-heels for Santa. It’s so cute to see the magic of Christmas excite the kids so much!

 

Right after that party, the kids and I headed over to the base Ballet Recital, since our friends “S” and “A” from the “R Family” were performing and we wanted to support them. Emily was dancing along in the aisles, she wants to join Ballet sooooooooo bad. So bad, in fact, that we’ve been on the wait list since May with no luck. Then, just a few hours later, Steve and I attended our Squadron Christmas Dinner Party (minus kids). A super busy day but everyone had a blast!

Out with the old, in with the new!

Our landlady’s son, Claudio, brought us this broom recently and told us it is traditional to sweep the entrance to your home on New Year’s Eve to sweep away the last year and welcome the new. There are a few parts of 2013 I’d like to sweep away forever: the death of a fellow Nickel Pilot, “Gaza” Gruenther, and the passing of both of my paternal Grandparents, Bunny and Lefty.

 

We had plenty of fun times as a family in 2013 including tons of skiing, a visit from Steve’s parents, and lots of traveling to include Israel (Steve), California (once just me for my grandpa’s funeral, and the kids and I for most of July), Germany (Spangdahlem, twice to Garmisch, Steve and I to Munich for Bier Rafting, and Steve to Munich for Oktoberfest), Switzerland (skiing in Zermatt), Austria (Salzburg twice, Stubai Galcier for skiing, and Kirchberg in Tirol area for a weeklong ski trip), and of course lots of exploring in Italy: Venice, Pisa, Castelrotto/Dolomites area, Verona twice (once for the Opera and once for wine tasting), nearly a week on the Amalfi Coast, and a week on the island of Sardinia.

Brian will turn 7 in exactly one month. He is doing great in First Grade. He enjoys reading and math and of course recess and PE since he loves to run and play. He’s in his second year of Spanish at school and his first year of Italian and really enjoys learning new languages. At home, his dream day would include building Lego creations and drawing/coloring all day long. He is staying busy with Cub Scouts and played Baseball and Soccer this year. He enjoys skiing as long as the blues are easy (he’s like his mom that way!). He’s laid back and easy going most of the time and really only gets in trouble for pushing his sister’s buttons!

Emily turned 3 in April, with a very no-frills birthday in Zermatt, Switzerland. I didn’t even have room to bring her presents on the trip with us and she never asked for any, she was only concerned that she get cake! This coming year, she will spend her 4th birthday on a cruise to Greece! She’s our little International girl, always singing songs in Italian. She is doing well in Asilo and is learning some of the language. She’s high energy and is passionate about whatever she is feeling. She doesn’t throw fits very often but she is strong willed and clever. She still gets into everything. She’s our kid that we watch to make sure she’s not painting on the walls with glitter glue or cutting her own hair or eating something she found on the ground! She loves intensely though and everyone is her friend (until you get on her bad side, then you are black listed!)

Steve is staying busy with the squadron. He’s a Lt.Col. select and an Assistant Director of Operations. When he’s not working or with the family, and if it’s winter, he’s on the ski slopes. He’s got Brian and I skiing this year, and is working on Emily, who is not quite ready to learn technique but we are just hoping to get her used to the idea, so one day in the future, we will be tearing up the powder as a family. I have future visions of my family fighting over who has to stay behind with slow, old Mom! I’m staying busy with stuff at home, mostly cooking and cleaning and all that jazz. Now that I have most weekday mornings free with both kids in school, I’ve been hitting the gym on base hard and have fallen in love with Spin class.

 

In with the new! We are excited for many things in the upcoming year, which will probably be our last full year in Italy. We are planning out some trips already, including a week long ski trip to Cervinia (the Italian side of the Matterhorn), and a cruise to Greece for Spring Break. Steve will be going TDY to Portugal soon and will pin on Lt.Col. sometime in early summer. We are also hoping for some more visitors! Happy New Years to all of you!

Cub Scout Rocket Day

This last saturday was Brian’s first Cub Scout Rocket Day. All the scouts paid $5 for a rocket and then built and decorated them with help from their parents, and the entire pack got together to launch them. Steve and Brian used to build and launch rockets together in Arizona, so this was not their first experience, and their rocket shot straight up every time and came down intact. The same cannot be said for many of the other rockets, which were coming off the launch pad going all sorts of directions, including right into the crowd, burning the leg of one of our den’s moms. After the first accident, the kids were moved behind a fence, unless they were launching their rocket. Brian was able to launch his 3 times and on the final (and largest engine) launch, it came down and landed in a very tall nearby tree. Steve and Brian were bummed they didn’t get it back but overall, they had lots of fun and are looking forward to the Pinewood Derby in January! 

Halloween-ish

So Halloween-ish came and went again. I call it Halloween-ish because we don’t actually do anything on October 31st. No trick-or-treating from house to house. The schools (both off and on base) don’t allow dressing up. But, the weekend after real Halloween, the base does put on a pretty cool Halloween-themed block party with all sorts of fun for the kids and lots of trunk-or-treating, so they did get to dress up and get way too much candy. Brian is clearly Obi Wan Kanobi (I had to google how to spell that). He’s clearly not Luke Skywalker (“Mom, Luke’s not cool!”) or that other guy, Hans Solo (“Mom! Hans Solo is not even a Jedi, gesh!”). And Emily was happy to just pull some Princess dress from her dress-up collection on the day of and call herself Princess Leia, although I think that’s Sleeping Beauty’s dress. Needless to say, Star Wars is super cool in our house right now!

The Aviano Blue Sharks

Brian’s Soccer season just finished up last month. His team was the Aviano Blue Sharks and he loved playing. He learned a lot about soccer strategy this season, but just never really got up the nerve to break into the group of kicking children to chase down the ball. He says he enjoyed it and wants to play again next year and we think as he learns more about the game, and gains confidence playing, he’ll love it since he loves the running part. We had fun watching him all season and the highlight was the last game, which was Blue Sharks vs. Parents. Let’s just say I found out that Steve doesn’t believe in going easy on children and scored on the kids several times to, as he says, “teach them to guard the goal.” Oh man, it was funny to watch.

Cub Scout Campout

Brian is officially a Bobcat Patch wearing Tiger Den Cub Scout! And Mommy and Daddy are officially the busiest they have ever been. Between sports and two different schools and Cub Scouts and traveling, it seems like we always have something going on. Brian has 3-4 den activities per month and then at least one pack activity, Cub Scouts alone is keeping us busy. Last month, Steve and Brian had their first Cub Scout campout, about 20 minutes from our house. Emily and I went home to sleep in real beds after the camp fire ended. Brian and his Den earned their Bobcat Patches (it goes on upside down as you can see below). They also performed a cute skit and we all got to watch the Boy Scouts perform a Flag Retirement Ceremony, which I’d never seen before and it was very interesting. We will have another pack campout in the spring and also a possible camping trip in Normandy, France in April. So far Brian is having lots of fun with Scouts.

Brian Habla Español y Baila!

Brian has been taking Spanish at school, starting last year in Kindergarten, and the first and second grade classes get to perform a dance to Spanish music twice a year. He’s been both excited for and nervous about this dancing since he was an audience member last year. The dance performance was amazing. The costumes were great and all the kids were super prepared. Brian did really well and was concentrating on the steps so hard. He has decided after this that he does not like performing for the public! He is catching on to Spanish so fast and now he also attends a “Host Nation” class where he learns Italian. He teaches me something new in both languages daily!

Brian’s First Day of First Grade

Well, it’s been almost a month, but Brian started first grade on August 23rd at Aviano Elementary. He was excited to head off to the “big building,” since Kindergarten was in its own building separate from the rest of the school. One advantage of the “big building,” he tells me, is that there are 4 huge playgrounds, a fact he is very excited about. His teacher is Mr. Wilson and his class is a Multi-age First/Second grade. I wasn’t sure what to think of this at first but it seems to be going well. Brian is a mature 6-year-old and never gets in trouble at school (home is a different story) so I think he is a good fit for a class with students both his age and older. He is already bringing home what looks to me like second grade math homework and he never needs my help with it. Reading is another story. I think he is about right on track for first grade reading but he loathes it. I’ve tried everything: bribery, yelling, Harry Potter. Nothing works yet. He has to do 20 minutes a day of reading at home and for now it’s just going to be a struggle to get him to do it. Fun. He loves loves loves drawing and will go through 10-15 sheets of paper a day drawing everything from rockets to jets to houses. He even recently started writing his own children’s book called “What Will I Be?” complete with illustrations. And he answered his own question by stating that he will be a book writer when he grows up. Not a book reader, just a writer.

Little sister was so excited for Brian’s first day of school. She was excited for him and was practically jumping for joy as we were getting ready that morning. Well, we assumed she was happy for him to go off and see his friends and learn but after we dropped Brian at school and were walking back to our car, she lets out a huge sigh and says “well, I guess Brian is not part of our family anymore!” So she was really just happy to get rid of him!

Disneyland!

Our last weekend in California, we spent 3 exhaustion-filled days at the House of Mouse, Disneyland! The kids were so excited for this trip. This was Brian’s 3rd time and Emily’s 1st, and our first time staying down at the parks for 2 nights so we could fully use the 3-day park hopper passes we got for an awesome military rate of $125 per person. That’s cheaper than an adult 1-day park hopper, so it really is a good deal! Aunt Laura and Uncle Allan joined us for 2 days and Papa for one of the days. Only Grandma, Brian, Emily and I managed 3 days in a row! Actually it was more like a half day, a whole day, and another 3/4 day. Midday on day 3, we were all hot and tired and ready to be done.

 

Laura and Allan brought us to RideMakerz and helped Brian design and build his own RC car. Kinda like Build-a-Bear, but for boys that don’t play with stuffies. Brian loved it and still plays with that car daily.

Below, right: Papa with a Buena Vista Street sign in CA Adventure. He grew up on the Buena Vista Street in Burbank. Bottom, right: Laura and Allan dragged me onto Tower of Terror so we could make a hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil picture. We rocked it. Well, they did. I am actually holding my mouth to keep from screaming. It really is a tower of terror! The kids loved the new Cars Land, it’s adorable and the rides are great, especially Radiator Springs Racers.

Some things they really enjoyed: Cars Land, Soaring Over California, fireworks over Disney at night, Star Tours, building two light sabers (gotta have 2 to fight!), Tarzan’s tree house, the Matterhorn, Pirates of the Caribbean, the submarine, and taking the monorail to the Lego store in Downtown Disney.

Let’s play a little game called “Spot the real Matterhorn!”

A nice statue of Walt and Mickey on Main Street. The inscription reads something like “Give me your tired, your soon-to-be poor, your huddled masses yearning to meet Mickey…”

Emily passed out on the shuttle ride back to the hotel on day 2. Disney wore us all out. It was fun though. So much fun that I’m hoping it will hold us over for a few years before we need to return!

Go Dodgers!

Baseball is always a good time, and a live game is even better. What really pushes it over the edge is having free seats in the fancy pants section, and for the Dodgers, it is called the Dugout Club. Laura and Allan’s boss has season tickets in the ninth row between home plate and the dugout. He generously gave them the tickets for a game against the Colorado Rockies and they took Brian and I along. We started the day with lunch in the Dugout Club. Dodger dogs and buffet after buffet of salad and food and desserts. One whole corner of the room was a dessert buffet. The place was open to us the whole game until they shut the food off during the 7th inning. It was awesome, we ate our weight in standard baseball game fare. The game itself was great, we got to see their current star player, Puig, up to bat a few times. We sat a few rows back from famous retired Dodger Team Manager, and current part-owner, Tommy Lasorda. We got our courage up and asked him to sign a few balls for us. He was very nice and asked Brian if he plays ball. We told him we live in Italy and since he is part-Italian, he asked us, in Italiano, if we speak Italian and Brian said “si!” Then at the end of the game, Brian and Allan waited at the top of the stairs that go down into the locker room, and asked the ump for a game ball, which he tossed to Allan! Brian’s favorite thing about the game, besides the junk food, was that after the game, he got to run the bases.