First Day of School

We, of course, had to take some "first day of school" photos.  Did yours include a sibling that just can't help themselves?  "Graham....seriously, stop."

Lucy Jane: 6th grade

Graham:  2nd Grade

Benny: PreK

The Taormina bus stop crew

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Okay, so Lucy's birthday was back in August, but I want to document the event for posterity, so I'm going with it.  

Lucy had a birthday!  My girl is eleven years old.  We put on quite the party for her this year.  She begged and begged for months to have a sleepover party.  We kept trying to talk her out of it.  Mostly because we didn't want to feel like hypocrites to her friend's parents.  We don't allow sleepovers (except for rare special occasions), so it seemed weird to say, "Hey!  We won't let our kid sleep at your house, but send your on over!"  In the end, we decided to not worry about what other's think (Jason's problem, not mine ;).  So....we planned for a sleepover. 

Lucy helped me do a little decorating the night before.  She was more than a little hyped up and excited about the events to come.  

Eleven eleven and twelve year-olds in our little town house was CRAZY TOWN!  Lucy was in heaven the entire time!  It was worth it just to see her so happy.  That being said, there won't be another one.  

She requested peanut butter pie this year.  

The candybar game was a huge hit.  Lucy's group of friends are a great group of girls.  There's rarely any drama and they are all very sweet.  

Jason made homemade pizza for the group.  

Most people know that Lucy is DYING for a dog.  She has been for years, but her mom is too mean.  A couple of her friends got hamsters over the summer.  She really wanted one, but didn't think there was anyway her animal loathing mother would give in.  Well.....I did.  Lucy is the proud owner of a miniature hamster.  

It was so fun to see all of her friends so excited for her to find out.  A few of them knew before hand.  

We gave her the cages for her birthday so that she would be able to go pick out the rat, I mean, hamster.  She named him Cookie Dough.  

Happy Birthday to our sweet Lucy.  She is such a great kid.  The list goes on and on when it comes to her.  She is so funny and makes us laugh with her quick wit.  I love that she's becoming a great friend that I can talk to and ask her opinion on clothes and hair.

Lucy is a ittle overscheduled right now.  She's still on the swim team.  She played soccer and now is signed up for flag football.  She plays the flute in the band and she is on the school newspaper staff.  She stays on top of everything and she got all A's for her first semester of middle school.  Her teachers went on and on about how great she is.  She has one teacher, Mrs. Schlecter, that we all love and she loves Lucy, too.  Next year we will need to limit some of her extra-curriculars, but for now all is well and we usually only have one or two meltdowns a week ;).

Everyone always makes comments about Lucy's fashion sense.  She has a very unique style that she totally pulls off and looks fabulous.

Lucy always tries to do what's right.  Even when she gets really upset and has a mean tongue, she's quick to apologize and make things right.  She turns to prayer in times of trouble or worry.  She was really nervous for a swim meet last month and so she decided to fast for comfort and peace of mind.

I don't know what we would do without our Goosy.  Her spunky, sassy way of life makes our days brighter.  She is such a big help with the boys and only complains a little about how hard it is to have three little brothers.

We love you, Lucy!

More Summertime Randomness

Summer usually means sleeping in.  Benny and Sully missed that memo.  I started my days around 6:00 am with these two crazies and the other two joined a couple hours later.  

I decided to snag a couple pictures when I realized I had two superheroes in my midst.  

The kiddos weren't  extra sick this summer, but it seemed like we spent a lot of time at the clinic here in Sigonella.  The dental office is in the same building, so with Lucy's braces and Sullivan's well baby checks, we had an appointment almost every week, it seemed.  On this particular day, we were checking out Graham's ears.  He still has tubes, but one ear still gives him trouble.  

Our Fourth of July celebration was pretty low key this year.  We spent the day at home and then made our way over to NAS 1 for some celebrating.  There were the usual bounce houses and food vendors.

  

Grandma and Grandpa sent the annual Old Navy t-shirt for each of us.  Graham and Ben were excited to be twinners!

The highlight of the evening was a concert from David Cook!  I was actually pretty excited to see him.  He was the winner of American Idol the year that David Archuletta competed.  That was back when American Idol was fun to watch.  

He was touring a lot of different bases and we were lucky enough to host him for the Fourth.  He put on a great show!

And of course, the fireworks!

Sick Benny.  He got a fever that held on for almost three days.  No fun.  We rented The Lego Movie and I'm pretty sure he watched it seven times.  Not exaggerating.  Everything was not awesome.  Ha.

We got creative during a few of the longer days.  I told the kiddos to build a fort to play in.  That translated into Mom building a fort for them to play in.  

This one stayed up for a few days.  

I love my boys with long hair, but when a couple of the families on our street found out they had lice, all bets are off.  The big heads of hair had to go.  Here's Graham pre-haircut.  

We spent a couple hours at the arcade in the Porti Di Catania mall.  Graham post haircut.  

Notice Lucy's hair pulled back tight and Benny's super short do, too.  I don't think I let Lucy wear her hair down for almost three weeks.  Mine was in a bun for over a month.  We sprayed their hair with tea tree oil spray every morning.  Our house smelled like Malelueca, but we didn't get lice.  KNOCK ON WOOD.

I attended the baptism of Gannon back in July.  It was an hour away in Siracusa, so Jason stayed home with the kids and I went with Susanna.  I LOVE the Elders we have right now.  Elder Barone and Elder Fossa.  We've only had them to dinner once, but they are so sweet and funny.  Elder Fossa is Italian and his sister actually served in our branch a few months ago.  

After the baptism, some of us went to dinner.  The food was great, but the view was amazing!  It was right on the coast up on a cliff.  

Lots of night games were played on our block this summer.  I was able to get Benny to slow down for a quick picture.  Love this tan beach boy of mine.  

Here's Graham, mid-run.

I feel very blessed to be able to stay home with my kiddos every day.  There were days this summer when I would have sung a different tune, but I am grateful for the time I had with them.  It seems like now we are going, going, going with soccer, swim, homework, etc.  I learn so much from each of them and I'm so happy they are mine.  

Italian Summer Haps

It has been quite the summer here in Sicily.  I started the summer break as the fun mom with a daily schedule including chores and fun activities to follow.  Jason was gone for 4 of the 9 weeks of summer, which led to a much shorter fuse for Mom and quickly rising heart rate at any thought o rebellion on the kids part.  Now, my kids are eating spoonfuls of Nutella and bowls of Doritos for lunch.  I used to be teaching responsibility and accountability.  Now I'm teaching survival.  Only 3 more days.......new mantra for the week:  "Maggie, you can do this."

So, back in June, when we did fun things, we filled our afternoon with play and memories.  Luckily, I captured some photos of said afternoons, so we can try to remember happier times.  

We've had a lot of pool time this summer.  There's a pool on the base where the kiddos took lessons and then there's the Sigonella Inn pool.  It's right across the street from NAS 1 and Ben loved it there.  There is a big kiddie pool just his size and the steps into the big pool are big and long for him to play on.  We met friends there and had lunch together.  Sig Inn has an amazing $5 Magherita pizza.  Sooooo gooood.  

Lucy has swim practice every morning during the summer, so a lot of times, she wasn't up for hours at the pool.  So, usually it was just me and the boys. Graham was rarely ever happy to be going to the pool, but once we got there, as you can see from the pictures, he usually had a great time.  

Sullivan loved the pool, too!

Next up was Bellini Gardens in Catania.  Jason and I walked through this park when we first moved here and the kids were in school.  I decided to go check it out again with them in tow.  

Two words:  Super hot.  They played for a little while and then they just sat and drank their water.  Not much to actually "play" on.  So, we ended the day by getting gelato across the street and headed home.  Hey, at least we got out of the house, right?  No, we didn't adopt a red head.  That's Lucy's friend, Samie.  

The entrance to the park is beautiful!  

Early on in the summer, we ventured to Piazza Duomo and rode the little train they drive around downtown.  There happened to be a cruise ship that came in this particular day, so it was a bit crowded, but fun.  We sat next to an older couple from England.  They thought the kids were funny.....even when they fought and spilled their goldfish all over.  

 Don't mind the graffiti.  Parts of Catania are a bit ghetto.

Photo cred:  Lucy Jane

 Benny found this long piece of cardboard in the recycling bin outside our house.  He played with it for a couple days.  It became a million different items in those two days.  On the train, it became a pair of binoculars.  It was so funny watching him pretend them as we rode down the street.  One man's trash, I guess.  

The train stopped and started in Piazza Duomo.  We, of course, ended the outing with gelato and some pictures.  

I love these kiddos so much.  I wish I was a more cheerful Mom and spoke more sweetly to them, but I'm working on it.  Sometimes I get so caught up in all the things there are to do in a day that I forget to just enjoy them.  I often get stuck in a "what's next" mentality and forget to just smile and say, "Good morning".  I'm working on it, though.

Truthfully, I'm a little sad that school is starting.  I hate that other people see my kids more than I do throughout the week.  I thrive on structure and schedules, but with that comes early mornings when I have to scream them out of bed and act like a tyrant to keep them moving to make it to the bus stop on time.  Wish us luck!