School Begins-Italy

Love this selfie that Regan sent me!! The girls have been watching NCIS together. Katherine and Lauren were begging Regan for just ONE MORE episode! :)

Dinner, the night before a new school year...that face says it all...she was so nervous about what to do entering the school.

Breakfast on the first morning of school (school starts at 7:50)

Lauren-First day 7th grade!

Katherine-First day 8th grade!

My middle schoolers!

Hudson-First day 5th grade!

Group shot before we walk out the door :)

That's the school across the street. They are looking and trying to see what's going on before they head down there. One of the teacher's saw them and waved.

This is Hudson chilling before school starts.

selfies with Mom...Lauren age 12

Katherine age 13

Hudson age 11

So excited for them!

That's a lot of books to carry to school!!!!

Each grade enters at their own time....hand sanitizer, and temperature checks

Lauren heading in and checking everything out

The temperature checks.

The nerves hit Hudson literally 30 seconds before we left! I think he probably wouldn't have had any if he hadn't heard his sisters talking so much ;)

Hudson's teacher on the left

They came home and got right to work. They asked for a map so they could study the regions and capital cities. They said they didn't know Italian geography/history very well. I also don't know it as well as some other countries...so we bought 3 maps to study.

What?! You're not going to play with me? It's my favorite toy! The kids can wait at school, right?

Look at that smile (dog and child) I think they were glad to see each other after school!

Let the studies begin! The first thing they do is come home and start looking up the words that they didn't understand in school.

I picked him up and he couldn't stop grinning and saying "I just love school so much!" This is the perfect thing for him!!

I didn't notice this the first day because I wasn't paying attention, but they have a blue sticky mat to clean the dirt off the bottom of your shoes as you enter the building.

Just some random history shots walking through the city.

Today was Regan's senior pictures! I can't wait to see them! I had to take a few of my own as we were walking to the meeting point. How many kids can say that their senior pictures were taken in Rome? So cool.

The Tiber River

selfie

selfie with scenery ;)

walking some of the streets in Trastevere

The photographer at work. 

:)

I'm really curious about this river after it rains. We've been told that the walls (that I'm standing on) were built to protect the city from flooding. We were also told that the water rises up to the top of the walls and the streets below disappear each year.

One of the oldest temples in Rome. I don't know the history of it yet, but I'm looking into it.

We threw a baby shower for our friend Rachel. Her baby is due in October.

feeling fancy with the tea ;)

Opening the gift from us (a blanket and outfit)

Lauren got to hold the baby that came to the shower!

We forgot to get a group shot before everyone left. We were waiting for the rain to pass and snapped this one real quick!

HOORAY!!! He is finished with his schoolwork!!! Rover is celebrating ;)

Now, that's a happy face! Enjoy your summer playing video games! (next school year starts next week)

The puppies went for a bath. They were just hanging out in the lobby waiting for us to pick them up. They were so cute! I wish I had taken a video. They were so excited when we walked up!

I intended to get Regan a gelato after her pictures, but it was really late and we needed to get home. So, we saved the special treat for when the others were in school. It's ok...the others got ice cream at school

Lauren's class got flowers to start the school year (Katherine may have been a little jealous about this...it's one of her favorite plants)

Scout was doing his balancing trick because he really wanted some bacon :)

My Italian tutor, Diana...who spoils the dogs and lets hime on the table! 

The dogs really love when she comes over. The other day, they were expecting it to be her at the door and when it was someone else they just started barking at him (which they have never done before)

Since it's Benjamin's week of summer and the younger ones are at school, we are trying to do a few special things this week. So, we went out to eat for lunch...hamburgers!

This set cracks me up! I said I was going to take their picture...Regan decided to make the "Benjamin face" since he was probably making it...She was close!

Then he wanted to know why I was laughing...

Then I got real smiles :)

Preparing for School

So, Regan has already begun her senior year, but that doesn't keep Hudson from "spying" on her durung her classes online :)

We picked up most of the books for Lauren and Katherine. These are Lauren's books and supplies!

Looks like Daddy's architecture background might come in handy!

I believe this will be their favorite class...art :)

At least a few of the stories are familiar! It will really help when trying to read the entire thing in Italian.

These are Katherine's books

Poor girl, she's jumping in to complicated Italian right off the bat! I just keep picturing their English at this grade level and what it would be like for a new English speaker to jump straight to that without everything leading up to it.

Regan's watercolor class has started. Her first doodling assignments in watercolor...I think they are cute.

Hi, my name is Scout, and I like this bed better than my own.

This was a fun day!! We were able to go worship together at a church not too far from us! It's been awhile since we have heard some of these familiar praise and worship songs.

Separated for Covid...assigned seats...N95 masks required (they made us switch ours out to enter)...guys on one side girls on the other...not sure where this tradition has come from, but we've seen it at another location as well.

After service, they had watermelon...Hudson's favorite

Regan could lay like this all day!

First day of 12th grade and first day of kindergarten :)

Getting in as much game time with friends before school starts.

We got a message that a couple from Calvary was going to be in town for a few days! It was so good to chat and go out to eat together.

She's been a little nervous about starting a new school and what to do etc. We had to get some paper for one of the classes. We passed this shop that had two strawberry donuts in the display...it was just calling our name to try! It was actually one of the best donuts I have had!

Lauren said this was her first time to eat on the street like this. I wasn't planning to stop anywhere for food so I didn't bring my bag with our proof of vaccination inside. That's the only way you are allowed to eat inside places. It's ok, though. Italian culture is to eat outside anyways :)

Yum :)

Katherine trying to convince Scout that playing fetch is fun and that he shouldn't be so lazy. It didn't work.

We got to babysit for a little bit while his parents were at a doctor's appointment. Hudson's baby was his favorite toy. I wanted to hear him say "baby" so I asked him what he was holding. He said "Bob" :) That's what Hudson named his baby when we got him!

This was the other favorite toy. Hudson's kid friendly drone.

We might turn him into a Tennessee fan yet! (His dad is a big Arkansas fan)

He loved trying out all the big boy toys ;)

Benjamin finally got a hair cut! It's ALMOST as short as mine. haha!

We were heading over to our friends' house for dinner and game night. WE decided to make a fruit pizza to contribute! 

On the bus!

We all managed to get a seat! Poor Regan and Hudson. I've sat in those seats before and they are loud and hot.

Someone is excited to start some games. HAHA!

I just wanted to document Hudson's nightstand. He like things neat and organized and his favorite things out where they can be seen...his favorite things all involve charging cords :)

Cute picture. We were all ready for church, but missed it. We traveled for an hour, but the bus took a detour. By the time we realized that we were off track, it was too late. GPS said that we wouldn't be able to get to church until about 10 minutes before it ended. So, we took buses back home to watch Calvary online.

Well, just because we haven't taken a picture by this fountain...trying to get as many family pictures as we can!

Jonathan bought me this dress. He said he saw it out and he thought it looked like me. So, we ended up matching that day :)