Monday, March 31, 2025

March 2025 - Lauren's Sweet SIXTEEN

Lauren celebrated her Sweet Sixteen birthday with good family friends and her good friend, Sara. The day started early at the trampoline park (pictures later in the blog) and then we returned home for pizza, cake and ice cream. I wasn't quite finished with the cake, so while I finished up, the kids decorated cupcakes.
Sweet boy, He got a photo with the birthday girl after he gave her the card he had made (he was surprised when money fell out of it...haha...the gift from his parents)
ALways an adventure trying to let a 3 year old walk the dog in a big city.
Some of our favorites activities at the trampoline park...
...a competition to see who scores higher in the game.
Katherine beat Jonathan, but just barely ;)
tons of obstacle courses
This one was my favorite...brought my softball skills into play...jumping on the trampoline while throwing a ball at the target. A direct hit earns a point. (my arms were sore the next day...haha...I should do that every day!!)
The party crew
Showing me her decorated cupcakes
Decorations...photos from each year until present
She really was hoping for a sentimental gift. She's looked at charm bracelets for a while. WE decided to get her started. She has the bracelet with a heart clip, one charm (of a poodle), and Hudson got her another charm that has an world, airplane, and passport hanging together. Two very fitting charms.
Sara
She got a new game called SkyJO. I had never played it, but she had. It was a fun party game, too!
passing out the gifts
The cake is finished!
A sweet cake for my candy loving girl! I wanted to do a candy theme but make it look "older" and not like a little kid cake...so, I found a bakery nearby that makes macarons and bought some to use as decoration. I like how it turned out :)
Added so color to the white cake for fun
Playing SkyJO
Group photo
Her real birthday was on a school day. So, when she got home from dance class, we had a small cookie cake and sang happy birthday again.
Gotta have the Italian style candle on there! :)

Friday, March 21, 2025

March 2025 - Union Team, Dotys, and Jen

Wow! March was jam packed but really good! We had a team from Union come, the Doty's came to visit, we had a Chinese Sunday school training, Jen came to visit, and we had Lauren's birthday! (Which I will make it's own post) This first photo is our family meeting the Union Team. They did a great job and we are so happy that they came!
Photo that I took as they went on the Reformation Tour of Rome!
Might be my favorite McD's ad yet...Now if they on'y made them out of mosaic for real ;)
The girls were given some Union swag to try and persuade them to follow in big sis's footsteps :)
Farewell gelato to end our time together!
SS was a small group this evening but love seeing and hearing them read the Word of God
mini coffee date with Hudson 

My morning SS kids...love them so much!
Lauren says that she wants to do this with a visitor from the US just to see their reaction. It's completely normal and not strange to us, but we realize that others might flip out...this is what it looks like when you need to park in the city. If you are lucky enough to find a garage, you just pull in and leave the keys in the car and they give you a little slip that says the brand of car and the time. Nothing else. We just walk off. It seems so normal, but there is literally nothing that ties our car to this slip
One of our monthly visits these days that has really improved quality of life! This is the best chiropractor ever. She is so gentle and kind and fixes all the things you knew about and all of the things that you had no idea.
Shadow begging for cereal
Scout  being Scout. He thinks he is a small human.
my lap buddy
Katherine has been working hard to fulfill some Nativity orders! She wasn't even trying to promote her art, but a different team was here from Florida, and they asked her what her hobbies were. She said quilling and none of them knew what it was. So, she showed them a few things that she has done and they got so excited and ordered these! How fun is that!
Coming up on Easter and this is what the stores look like...Chocolate Easter eggs from floor to ceiling!
San Giovanni Basilica near our apartment
Love this smile...such a cute photo
 
Sunday school training...Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 4+ hours each night. It was good but exhausting
Fun group of teachers

Thanks Lauren for representing the Sheddans in the dress up part of the night!

Trying some cheese noodles....They put the hot noodles directly into the block of cheese.
a street artist making some pretty cool coin engravings
Always a movie being filmed somewhere!
wooden artwork inside one of the churches
the perspective dome....not actually a dome at all but a painting. The dome shifts depending on where you stand in the church, hence the name.
One of the largest frescos 
Ben and Tina are here!! So good to see some friends and for them to spend some of their anniversary trip with us!
If coming to Rome, you must have tiramisu at Pompi
on the metro
Cool view of St. Peter's
Sure! Why not get another photo here :)
I will say, this is the first time we have come to the Colosseum on the path and it was quite nice. You are surrounded by building then take a turn and BAM! It's staring you in the face. Pretty cool way to get there.

Moses by Michelangelo...did you know that he put horns on Moses? There was a mistranslation of the Latin Bible where the word for shining was translated as horned for when Moses came down off Mt. Sinai. Another cool thing. He was so talented. He had studied the church so extensively that he made the statue and to where the sun comes in and shines on the face of Moses during sunset.
Ummm, I think this would creep me out if it were in my church.
A little Naples pizza
Some cool columns within the San Paulo Basilica

The center door of San Paulo Basilica

You just have to get gelato when people visit!!!
pretty sunsets
Inside Santa Maria Basilica

The Holy door...opened only during the year of Jubillee
The amount of police and under cover officers was insane...come to find out it was yet another movie filming

The day they got in...a little jetlagged, but introducing them to the best carbonara in town...except I got ravioli because I just wasn't in the mood for carbonara
Awe...the puppies love Tina
The Dotys were so sweet and braught each of the kids a treat from America...flavor blasted goldfish for Katherine...
...the biggest container of Starbursts for Lauren...and ring pops for Hudson!!!
Jen came to visit for a few days as well. The kids had a good time showwing her the sites while Jonathan and I were teaching on Sunday



I was able to meet up with them for dinner after my SS teaching. Jonathan was still busy at another church location. This was a big treat! Hot pot! It's a China favorite and Jen had never experienced it before, so it was a win win for the kids.
baby octupus

It's not a trip to ROme without seeing the Colosseum ;)
Trevi Fountain. Jen was not a fan. She said there were too many people in one location.