Enjoying the Summer Days

So, fair warning, this blog has lots of poodle pics ;) Scout thinks he his a prince and must sleep on top of all the couch pilliows.

Regan knew this was her last week before school started and asked if we could go find paper for her to start making Katherine's birthday decorations. She's been making the decorations for each birthday since she was 8. Tricky thing this year was finding an art place that was actually open (since most everything shuts down for the month of August) We found one open online in the touristy area.

It was so much fun going to the tourist area because there were several artists who were out painting. I was happy to buy my first "souvenir" from Rome to go with my China things. 

Regan posted this on her Facebook. I decided to screenshot it for future memories for myself. She's an amazing young lady!

Scout. You are just too funny sometimes.

Shadow literally follows me everywhere! Even if I leave a room for just a few seconds, he is right there. I guess that's why he decided to collapse while I was folding laundry :)

Under the chair

Miss Lauren wanted to make sugar cookies. Sure! Go ahead! They tasted great! I think she missed our mixer we used to have :) It's definitely harder work by hand ;)

Katherine wanted to play Gin with me. She won :)

Regan made some garlic knots to go with the carbonara this time.

I was trying to get a picture of the girls making some cookies, but I think I actually caught Lauren eating some instead :)

Hudson was super excited that we finally got his nightstand. He put it together with Jonathan.

Awe! Aren't they cute!

This is Europes version of Home Depot. It's been the best place to find certain items like toilet brushes, but this trip was to buy a ceiling fan!

The Green passes are now required to eat at restaurants and do certain other indoor things. It hasn't been a problem for us since Jonathan and I and bothof our older two kids got vaccinated before we came to Italy. However, we discovered when trying to enter McDonald's that the rule now applies to 12 and up.

The tourists are definitely starting to come back.

Regan started her 12the grade year! Can you believe that she is a senior!! Yes, I still make her hold her fingers up.

I wasn't sure which direction would be better...so we did one from both ways.

We have to have a selfie on the first day...it's required!

This is the look of "Mom, what are you doing? I'm trying to do my schoolwork."

Poor Benjamin came out super exhausted and wanted to know if it was the first day of school and if he needed his picture made. Well, I got a selfie anyways, but his school hasn't started for next year yet.

Shadow thinks he will be a smart puppy in school.

Katherine walked up the steps to the 6th floor so that she could close the door to the elevator. She knew that my hip has been bothering me and going up stairs aggravates it. So, she fixed it to where the elevator would come get me :)

She's bored and decided to make paper.

Well, when you are bored and your family can't get into places because 2 kiddos aren't vaccinated...Then your mom takes you on an adventure to figure out how to get the vaccine. We heard that this week only was open to kids 12-18 with no appointment necessary (trying to get a head start before schools start back)

It was actually the easiest thing I've done so far in Italy that involves the government...haha!

Well, any time a shot is called for an ice cream reward is in store!

The dogs aren't allowed on the balcony, but Scout keeps going out just far enough to get in the sun. He's so cute.

Here's Katherine's homemade paper!!

He thought it was so funny that he could watch Regan do her school.

Just chillin

They will always do their tricks for a piece of chicken! Shadow is good at sitting and spinning in circles. Scout it good at standing on his back legs.

We got the phone call that the books are in! The girls have been waiting all month to pick them up!!!

That's a lot of books! Well, Lauren is actually missing 4 books. I guess they will be in this coming week.

Scout thought Regan was the perfect pillow. And on a side note, I am looking forward to the day that we can buy a small entertainment table to put the tv on and hide the wires.
 

Italy in August

Hudson wanted to get a picture of Scout on his bed, but didn't want to leave the bed because he was afraid the dog would leave.

Woohoo! We have chairs!!!!!!

Regan and Katherine made dinner for "the kids" so that Mom and Dad could have a dinner date :)

Benjamin was just a LITTLE excited about his mound of carbonara

We tried it a Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian restaurant...run by Japanese! It was good but probably not a repeat place.

I REALLY enjoyed my dessert!! Yum.

These two just have so much fun talking...or should I say laughing at funny videos or taking silly surveys.

I found a really cool outdoor market! It's not huge, but I love this kind of place.

Hmmm...it looks like this is a normal occurrence. Water is packaged in packs, but sold by the bottle. So, I guess you just take what you want.

Some check out lanes are for pregnant people only

Window shopping and Lauren found horseriding clothes...guess who wants to find equestrian classes in Rome..haha! Nope, not right now.

Haha! The kids now think we need a pizza oven for the balcony

This is how everyone looks and feels after a trip to the mall. It takes about 1hr 15 minutes by transit to get there. We were able to get a few things that we needed. We were tired and ready to go home, but we needed to squeeze on a bus with our bags. We were so thankful to get a couple of seats.

The puppies got a MUCH NEEDED bath and trim. I love that we could see them on the tv. They were so cute.

Regan put this sign up in the window. She wanted to see how many times people would say it. She's so smart. WE were all reading and saying it every day without even thinking about it. Practicing her marketing skills ;)

I absolutely love this picture. If you look closely, Hudson and Jonathan both have one earbud in. Jonathan always listens to podcasts when he's cooking. Hudson wanted to cook breakfast just like his daddy.

He struggled a bit with the pancakes, but yum! It was so good Hudson!

We lost power on our block....so yes, gelato is a must! It's in the 100's all week!

This is the other end of our street. I think I now understand why the word castle is in the street name.  ;)

Benjamin has been working so hard to finish up school. This is how part of my day looks now. He does so much better on tests when he can talk it through first...but that means I need to read his books, too!

The boys playing cards

We played Virus until we couldn't see the cards anymore.

Many of our neighbors are downstairs...and some are holding a large space in the street. Repair truck to give us electricity???

The dogs usually can't go on the balcony, but it was the coolest place we could find...at least there was a hot breeze.

The generator has arrived!!! Hooray! It's just a temporary solution and doesn't let us have much elecricity on, but it's good enough for me!! It was so hard to get any rest this first night!

Katherine asked me to take a picture of this flower so she can identify it later.

So, this is what cars look like after a short rain. Our tutor told us that "the rain is sandy" in the summer and makes everything dirty. I guess he was right.

This is what 2 hours of sleep looks like. We were waiting for our lunch. I am so so thankful for our friends who let us hang out on day 2 so that we could have some relief from the heat.

Waiting for his food

Chicken sandwich and fries

These fries were really good, but I have never seen this kind before.  They looked like wedge fries but were thin and folded over on themselves. I liked them.

After lunch, he just couldn't stay awake any longer. He was out cold :)

Silas was so curious about what Hudson was playing.

Our electricity came back on!!! So the Swanns joined us for dinner and family game night!!

Nertz...Regan has met her match! She has some competition ;)

Never seen this one before...Pringles Paper Towels

The girls wanted to go change their USD into euros...it took us by Trevi Fountain...we had not walked by at this time of day before.

Well, this is a new one. I guess on a holiday, we are the only ones on the bus...our own personal limousine.

The girls in their dresses headed to church

Me and the boys

waiting for church to start

These two have taken the Italian sunglass culture seriously :)

Same dress...shared by all three...WIN!

Oh Regan...you are making so many delicious dishes these days! Chicken Tikka Masala. Truly, one of the best I have had!

Lazy Sunday afternoons

Benjamin asked to watch Jurassic Park II as a family. Hudson fell asleep again :)

This is just to remind me of the crazy treks across the city of Rome to find government buildings that seem hidden, only to be told that you need an appointment but you can't get the app on your phone, and then do all the steps they tell you and then told it's the wrong office. I think that 's their favorite saying...Oh! not here...you must go to this address.

One of the "other" addresses that I have been sent to (three times now) The line is so long! This is just to get up the elevator so I can get a number.

Everything took much longer than we expected. So, the kids ate without us, then called to tell us that they ate all the food in the house. HAHA! So we stopped for a sandwich on the way home.