Our Birdhouse and All Our Peeps!

Christmas in August....yes it was quite the joy to watch the boys hunker down and watch the movers bring in all their stuff. With each and every box that had one of their names on it or the "T" word, it wasn't even out of the hands of the movers and it was being ripped open and torn through! I had the bright idea of letting the movers stick all the boxes of toys in the front entry way! Yeah it wasn't long before that room looked like hurricane Igor, and World War Ten had collided. I knew it was going to be more work cleaning up the toys than it would have been just unpacking them, but I didn't care! They were so excited to have their stuff and they were playing with toys that hadn't been touched in months! Not to mention they were staying out of the movers way which helped decrease the time it took to unload our stuff from the truck. Yes, my husband is getting older and isn't able to have a whole house unpacked in 12 hours like he used to be able to. That and the fact that it seems with each move we have made in the last 10 years we have added one more family member which means more JUNK! So yes, this house was not fully unpacked for 3 days YES you read it right a whole 48 hours! Those of you who know my husband on a very personal level know that this DROVE him nuts!

Needless to say what a great feeling it is to have all of our stuff and all of it unpacked and in its proper place. Our "birdhouse" is now a nice comfy home for the next 21 months! Enjoy the little tour of our home! This is our front yard/patio! We had the gazebo up long before our futniture ever arrived, but we are so glad we bought one while the BX had one! We spend quite a few evenings after the kids go to bed (or before) enjoying friendship and Vino (wine) on the patio!! I prefer after the kids go to bed then it is nice and quiet outside!

To the right is a picture of our wonderful security! Yes the gate and the concrete wall are about 2 feet tall so don't attempt to climb over!!? Next to the american mailbox, is a small box with a buzzer and camera. When the buzzer is pushed it beeps inside where we have a screen and a phone. I can see who is buzzing to be let in and I can also communicate without having to open the door! This was a fun toy for the kids, but has since lost its coolness! Thank goodness! Yeah some kind of serious or not so serious security!

This is the front entryway that was under mounds of toys! Cleans up nice. Our dinning room...office...and living room are all one long room. As you can see we have lots of wall space to fill up! I am hoping to get my hands on some nice Italian paintings before we have to move!

 

Then we have the kitchen and the lack of storage space. We have one little section devoted to "FOOD" items, and the rest is all dishes and kitchen neccesities! The lack of storage has been a huge challenge, and dent in the budget! Oh well we will have lots of Italian bought items to take back to the states with us. Then we have (DRUMROLL).......our very OVERSIZED back yard! :) Clark enjoys not having a huge yard to have to upkeep, and there is a very nice neighbor boy who comes over and mowes the yard for a few euro!

 

If you go downstairs you will go to the garage and our OVERSIZED laundry room. Which stores our ity bity teeny tiny washer and dryer! Let's just say an hour and 45 minutes to wash 3-4 bath towels is craziness!! There is lots of storage space in the laundry room! :) 

Upstairs you come out to meet our 2 bathrooms side by side! Yeah an odd feature!

Then there are the four bedrooms!

So that is our "BIRDHOUSE" in a nut shell! Our home is always open to anyone so if you are ever in the area, come visit! :)

Italy's Theme Park

Italy may not have Walmart or Target, but YIPPEE for a huge theme park. Gardaland is located in Lake Garda and is about an hour and a half drive from where we live. We had purchased the ticket through ITT, so we rode the bus which was closer to a 4 hour drive! The kids did good on the bus and since we were going to an amusement park the bus was full of kids! With all the other kids yelling and screaming, my kids looked good!



Gardaland is the #3 amusement park in all of Europe and Italy's #1! I could be wrong but it might be Italy's only amusement park! Doesn't come close to Disney, but it can be compared to Sea World and Six Flags. There was plenty to see, ride, and eat however we didn't get to see even half of the park. It was hot and busy.....thinking that people were trying to get in one last vacation before the start of school. In fact that is why we chose to go to Gardaland, because the kids were going to be starting school in less than a week and we wanted to do something they would enjoy before summer was over.



They had a Sponge Bob Square Pants 4D movie, which we thought might be played in English, because as we were in line waiting to be let into the show they played the theme song in English! However when we got in to see the movie it was all in Italian and we had no idea what they were saying and the voices were NOT even close to the real voices. It was cool though because the seats moved and water shot out of the seats in front of us. At one point bubbles started falling from the sky....the boys loved the movie even though they couldn't understand it!


Then we got on a little kiddie train ride and the tea cups and all the songs were being sung in English!! Go figure!!

A good time was had by all, and they were pooped for the bus ride home! Great way to end their summer vacation!

Fun in the Sun

The last time we were at a beach, it was in Corpus Cristi TX, and it was the first time visiting a beach for both Kaleb and Mason. Kaleb loved the water, and Mason didn't understand what salt water was UNTIL he gagged on a mouth full of it! That was all it took and Mason wouldn't step foot in the water again. That was our last trip to a beach until about 3 weeks ago. With the help of some awesome neighbors getting us there we enjoyed a couple hours on an Italian beach before the rain spoiled our afternoon!

We were not sure how Luke was going to take to the water, being a fish and all we knew he was going to want to swim. However with it being salt water we figured he would be like Mason. Nope he grabbed a little snack and was high tailing it to the water. He had to make sure the tempature of the water was doable, but after that there was no getting him out!





Since Mason didn't have a good past with the beach we thought he would be done with it before we even got there. However, he shocked us all as he was the one that ran right in and swam. He went out pretty far, and probably would have kept right on going had we not made him come back in closer to the beach! So glad he learned to not get the water in his mouth, so he could enjoy the water. Daddy even convinced him to let him burry him in the sand!!


Then there is Kaleb who is a preteen and since we went with friends he wanted nothing to do with his family!! I was lucky to get the couple of pictures of him that I did!! Then came the clouds, the sprinkles, and then the downpour!!