Mommy Monday - October 2014

October has been a pretty good month for us with lots of fun parties and events!

Age: 4 years
Height: 3ft 7in

Weight: about 42lbs

Favorite Food: Cheese Pizza with Ranch dressing

Favorite Fruit: Oranges/Tangerines

Favorite Movie: Barbie: Mermaid Tale 2

Favorite TV Show: Strawberry Shortcakes
Other: Lilly had a fun month with a school carnival, 2 birthday parties, and the upcoming halloween events. She is also doing really well with school and is always excited to tell me about the new things they do and show me her "homework" she even started learning some sign language!

Age: 1year+11months

Height: 2ft 11in

Weight: 27 lbs

Diapers: size 5 

Favorite Food: Apples and Bananas
Favorite TV Show: Curious George

Other: Its been a pretty low key month for Logan. We have been runny errands together and chilling out at home. He is already getting his sweet tooth going with all the parties and such this month.

We also attended the chocolate festival this month which was a lot of fun and the kids each got a special treat while we were out.

Cioccolandovi 2014

Cioccolandovi is the annual chocolate festival here in Vicenza. We went last year and got some goodies and Lilly even got a chocolate Rapunzel. This year the festival was a little bigger and the kids still got there special treats. We also let Vader tag along with us this time. It was a lot of fun and was a nice outing after a crazy week of baby shower planning! Here are a few pictures to show this years festival.

Mommy Monday - Jan 2014

With the roar of the holiday season coming to an end, January was a pretty slow and quiet month for us. We found out that it rains here A LOT this time off year but the kids kept busy with all their new toys and playing with friends.

Age: 3 years
Height: 3ft 4in

Weight: about 37lbs

Favorite Food: Spaghetti with meatballs

Favorite Fruit: Bananas

Favorite Movie: Disney's Frozen

Favorite TV Show: Sofia the First

Other: What few days that it wasn't raining Lilly loved being able to go to the park. We watched lots of movies lilly was a fan of pretty much any princess movie, but Frozen was her favorite by far.

Age: 1year+2months

Height: 2ft 4in

Weight: 22 lbs

Diapers: size 3

Eats: 2 bottles a day and real people food, no more jar food!
Favorite Food: French Fries
Favorite TV Show: Sesame Street

Other: Logan was very happy to play at the park on the few nice days we had, but what he liked even more was going to the gym with Mr.W and playing with the basketballs. We also found out that Logan really likes Sesame Street.

Caution! Monster Crossing

This was our first year doing Halloween in Italy and it was nice....for the most part.

I'd heard rumors about how crazy trick or treating gets on Halloween (because Garrison lets the Italians into housing in order to be hospitable and make nice with the locals) but I though people were just exaggerating, but no... they go NUTS! There had to be a couple thousand people here. We ran out of candy in 15 MINUTES!!!

But That is okay because the USO did a very nice Trunk n Treat with games and food and other activities and some people on the housing development organized a Pre-Trick or treat for the younger kids and did a great job it was nice to have some alternatives to avoid the rush and crowds.

This was also Logan's First Halloween and his favorite candy this year was the suckers and Lilly just loved everything you gave her.  They were dressed up as Mike and Sulley, from Monsters Inc. Lillly had so much fun helping me carve the pumpkins and decorate our house. and she even helped me hand out some candy today!

And now that Halloween is over for us my little skeleton friends are saying goodbye until next year. I'm not sure if i'll find anything small to use for November, but I've already got my December theme picked out! 

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Stay Safe and Have fun!

P.S. If your looking to help a good cause The USO is a                  

great organization that is always helping Military

members and their families year round!                                

Click Here To Donate!

Chocolate & Horses & Wine . . . Oh My!

It has been a pretty busy month so far, and its only halfway over!

We have attended 2 birthday celebrations,

carved 1 pumpkin,

ordered 2 Halloween costumes,

tried 2 new wines,

and had a lot of family time.

The first of the 2 birthdays was to celebrate the Military Police Corps. 

And the second was our next door neighbors birthday. It was held at a local ranch and they let everyone ride horses. It was Lilly's first time riding one and Logan's first time seeing one. She was all smiles about it and Logan wanted to see them but was nervous about their size.

That same day, our friends took us to a local winery and we sampled some wines and I got myself 3 bottles (Marzamino, Moscato dolci, and Fragolina Rosa) after that the took us to their favorite restaurant, which just might be one of our new favorites as well!

Then the other night our friends came over again and we carved our pumpkins, made cinnamon sugar roasted pumpkin seeds, drank wine and watched a couple Halloween movies. Now that sounds like a perfect fall night to me.

Today, We attended Cioccolandovi, The chocolate festival in downtown Vicenza. It was amazing to see all the things they had done with chocolate. We got to sample some and even bought some. We got Lilly a truffle with sprinkles, I got a chocolate cover orange slice, and got a big chocolate bar that he was nice enough to share (it was AMAZING) and we got Lilly a chocolate Rapunzel (see bottom right photo)

Everything above is made of chocolate

Its been a great month so far and I can't wait to see what the rest of the month brings!

Race for the Cure

On Sunday I participated in my first official 5k run. It was for a very good cause and I feel I did a very good job. My goal was to finish my run in less than 40 minutes and I did it (just barely, but I did it!)

The run took place in Bologna, Italy. The only thing that would have made it Better would have been if it weren't raining.

After we finished the run we were able to wonder around town and eat for a couple of hours. We found a nice pizzeria, a bakery, a very expensive mall, and just took in the sights. 

Here are some pictures from the day:

(From left to right - top then bottom)

1. We found a €21,000 Prada bag. 

2. My race bib

3. My running buddy, Stephanie.

4. A map of the run and my time.

5. Me before the run.

6. Our celebration cannolis and cappuccinos

Fitness Friday #2

These last couple of weeks have been a work in progress. I started the "Insanity" workout and I like it. Its just hard to find the time with the kids. i get the warm up in but then all heck breaks loose with Logan crying and Lilly doing her infamous "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy..." and by time they go to bed the last thing I want to do is exert more energy.

Other than that its been good. I have been doing my morning kickboxing classes and I've managed to get a few good runs in. a 1.68 mi, 2.71 mi, and 1.34 mi. all with an average 12:15 time.

I'll be doing a post sunday or monday on my trip to Bologna for the Race for the Cure!

Moving Tribute

12 years ago today our country was devastated by horrible and unforgettable tragedy. And so to remember those who were lost that Dayana in the wars to follow I participated in the Team RWB moving tribute. They organized to have an American flag be carried around the post from 8:46 am until 7:30 pm. It didn't matter if you walked or ran as long as you came and showed your support and I'm so happy I did. 

Plus I managed to make pretty good time. A complete lap around the post was about 2 miles and our group finished in just over 20 minutes. 

Darn you Pinterest!

Most of you know what pinterest is and have been/are/will be addicted to it like I am. 

Anywho... I was looking at my home page and a few people had posted stuff that was Halloween related, so I went to the "holidays & events" category and now I am completely infatuated with the idea of having a Halloween/Costume party this year. the only hitch is going to be convincing Mr.W

They have all kinds of food ideas, and decorations, and games.

I know Halloween is over a month away but it just sounds like a fun idea!

Check out my Halloween board:

http://pinterest.com/kwaye23/boo/

Torre di Pisa

So this past week Mr.W had a few days off, so we decided to take a day trip to Pisa and Camp Darby.

It was a few hours away but the drive through the mountains was beautiful. We stopped at Camp Darby and grabbed some snacks and then headed into Pisa. While in town we stopped to see The Leaning Tower a.k.a.  Torre pendente di Pisa.

 It was a fun day and it was nice to get away for a bit.

Farther and Faster

I've been wanting to get back into shape since I had Logan and now i'm finally starting that journey. I'm doing a Kickboxing/Boot Camp class 4 days a week along with running 5-6 days a week and a few gym visits during the week as well. And soon I'm hoping to start taking Crossfit classes. 

I feel great and its such a huge stress reliever. as far as running goes i'm working on getting ready for what will hopefully be my first 5k run. There is a group called Team RWB that has a chapter on post and i just found out about it yesterday but it sounds fantastic! they are having a remembrance run on 9/11 and I would really like to participate  there is also a Run for the Cure in Bologna at the end of September. 

I'll try my best to keep you all up to date on my progress along with the kids and everything else.

Happy Independence Day!!!

 

Happy 4th everyone. Hope you all have a wonderful and fun filled day with your friends and family.

 

Yesterday we attended the celebration being held on the base and it was very nice. They had kiddie rides and some free kids activities, some music, and food of course. We were able to take Lilly on all of the rides but sadly by time we were done with that we left, due to the massive crowd. Mr. W had worked all day before hand and was tired, so by the time we got home he was only wanting to sleep. So we ended up missing out on the fireworks.

 

I feel like it would have been a lot more fun except a majority of the crowd was actually local Italians. (keep in mind it was a U.S. Independence Day celebration) and see this wouldn't normally upset me, but many of you stateside may not know that there are some Italians that really don't like the fact that the U.S. has bases here. Just days before the celebration one of the small out posts near by was vandalized by a group of protester.

 

It just made it a the whole thing a less fun experience than what I had hoped for.

Vroom, Vroom, Kaput!

So Mr. W went to WLC and i'm the person that manages to mess things up when he wasn't even gone for 6 hours yet... i'm the person who puts DIESEL in a unleaded gas car.... yep. anyone who has been to italy before knows that its not like the states where you have "regular, Super, Premium, and Diesel" they just have "diesel and super"

Granted this would not have happened if we had our impala. But now we have some old European car my husband has names "the green goblin". Luckily the auto skills shop on post will be able to tow and fix it rather cheaply, because from what I'm told I'm not the first or last person to do the same thing. So keep your fingers crossed for us that everything works out as planned.

Ciao! From Italia!

Ciao!

I can't believe its been over two months since my last post! Obviously it would have happened sooner but it took forever to get our internet. Anyways... So much has happened since we've arrived. We got a house in an area called "Villagio". It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, and best of all, it has CENTRAL AIR! (all the former/current Polk understand why that is so exciting). I have most of the house unpacked. Needless to say we were all happy to get our stuff, especially Lilly. She even has her own playroom since Logan is still in our room.

There is a Park just a short walk from our house, and its almost always packed with kids, which Lilly LOVES. She even made a new friend who is also named Lilly. Whenever the weather is nice enough we take her out so she can run and burn off some of that oh so wonderful toddler energy.

We've made a couple of trips since we've gotten here. We went to Venice on Easter. Lilly really enjoyed the train ride. We went to San Marco Square and just wondered around the city. it was beautiful. The only bad part was all the steps and bridges with Logan's stroller. Sadly we didn't ride in a gondola, The lines were insanely long.

And just this week we went to Verona. We saw the Arena, The Castel Vecchio, and Juliet's House. After walking around and taking in the sights we stopped for dinner at a nice outdoor cafe. The waitresses adored the Kids and Lilly even got some treats!

We've done some exploring in town too. There are a lot of little stores and restaurants we have yet to try, but it seems really nice so far.