Remembrance Run

Once a month the base hosts a 5k fun run.  I normally like to do them and they each have different themes.  The theme for September was a Remembrance Run for September 11th.  Because I'm into the matchy-matchy thing (yuck, I know) I decided to get us all going with the theme.

Solopaca Grape Festival

 

In early September, the girls and I went to the Solopaca Grape Festival in Benevento with a few friends.  The grape festival is a week or so long calendar of events, ending in the renowned parade where the floats are made of grapes.  Because this is our last year in Italy, I thought this was an opportunity I could not pass up.  The weather was beautiful, and not too hot, but we found ourselves waiting for a long time for the parade to start, which was tough.  The floats were magnificent, so it was certainly worth it, but overall, an exhausting day.

And, this is how we felt after a long morning at the parade...

September Happenings...

Andy arranged with a friend here to get flowers sent to me on the 10-year anniversary of when we met, September 22nd.  It was a big surprise and very sweet.

The girls had fun at the Connect the Tots Club Labor Day parade with a bunch of their friends.

A very busy September

As September rolled around, our schedules certainly picked up. Claire started school and all of our other activities began. We also managed to find a lot of other fun things to get into.

Here are some pictures from Claire's first day of school. This year she is attending a small pre-school called Little Learners which is run by Americans off-base. She went there last year, starting in January for two days a week, but now she is going three days a week. So far, she is enjoying herself, and most importantly, making some wonderful friends.



Here, Eloise saw Claire backing up against the door to take a picture, so she scooted back up to the door and posed right along side her. It was so funny.

I know, I know... it's October, but here are some August pictures anyway...

So, I realize it's October and I'm just catching up on posts, but I have been busy and with Andy away, I've had to juggle a lot on my own, so something had to give... and the blog got neglected. Oh well. Here's to catching up...

The girls are in a lot of activities this fall. Claire is in preschool at Little Learners on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. She also takes jazz, ballet, and gymnastics lessons as well as soccer (which I happen to coach). Eloise is LOVING Kindermusik and tagging along to all of Claire's activities. I've been very lucky to be able to have a lot of helpful people around me who have helped me with the cars, babysitting, carpooling, etc. It has been a busy couple of months, but we've been having a lot of fun too.

Our first few weeks back at home

The girls adjusted quickly to our first few weeks back at home. Eloise turned one and really started to move around and explore her world (translation... get into everything). As much as we enjoyed our trip home, it was nice to get back into the routine.

Eloise's First Birthday

When we returned from our trip in the states, Eloise had her first birthday about a week later. This year, her birthday fell on a Saturday, so we had a party for her on Saturday, July 30th. It was a beautiful, warm weather day, and I invited a bunch of our friends her in Italy. It was kind of a last minute party and I sent out an invite via Facebook about a week and a half prior to it. I wasn't sure which of our friends would be in town, or who was on vacation, so I just invited a ton of people and requested that instead of bringing gifts, could everyone please help out with the party by bringing a side dish to share. I also put out a request to borrow some water toys, so we had a slip n' slide, a baby pool and a sprinkler.

The theme for Ellie's party was inspired by Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. So, our decor, activities, favors and cakes were all inspired by this theme.


The kids enjoyed fish cupcakes and a cake decorated like the book cover. Miss Eloise had her own fishy smash cake too, of course.
During the party, the kids went "fishing" for cut out foam fish that had Dr. Seuss silly bands attached.

The kids also decorated fishy paper plates.


Our party favors were goldfish crackers and swedish fish wrapped up and packaged in One Fish, Two Fish bowls and cups, along with One Fish, Two Fish decorated cookies. They were all a hit!


All of the little "fishes" at the party thoroughly enjoyed the baby pool, the slip n' slide and the sprinkler.



Getting ready to party!
Our friend's daughter Emerson with the blue fish bowl kool-aid!

Ellie enjoying some of the chocolate back at home.