Toscana Bella!

As you can see, Lili has essentially taken over the blog. I thought I should add something about our Italy trip since it really was fantastic. I'll just start by saying the place we stayed was amazing. It's called Cretaiole Agriturizmo, in case any of you were thinking of traveling to the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany, I would highly recommend it. The really wasn't a whole lot to do, which was part of the whole idea of going to Tuscany. We drove from Paris, which saved us some cash but I don't think I would want to do it again. We stopped overnight at a charming Campinile hotel outside of Torino but you're talking two 7 hour days of driving. Basta! The real problem was that when we finally got there, no one was particularly excited about getting into the car again. And when you're in Tuscany, you need to do a little driving (those tiny towns aren't going to come down the hill for you!). Aside from a lot of driving, we did a lot of eating... mostly pasta, gelato and peccorino cheese. And of course, we drank a lot of wine. I was surprised we didn't see more vegetables, except for a few tomatoes here and there. We went to a cool sulfuric thermal spring in the forest, where we splashed around in milky white warm water. We had a tour and lunch at an organic farm, where we saw a one day old lamb and two day old goats (plus a few wild peacocks). We toured Siena, which was overcrowded but we found a secret spot to eat, on a terrace, overlooking Il Campo and it's hundreds of loitering tourists. We ate home made whole wheat past with mushrooms and truffle oil at a Monastery where they filmed The English Patient. After our relaxing week in Tuscany, we went for 2 nights in Florence, which was much less relaxing. It was very crowded, our hotel room was noisy and our kids were just not into it. We had a children's tour of the old palace which ended with an interview with the Royal Dutchess Leonora de Medici. The kids actually quite enjoyed meeting with the Dutchess as she was very funny asking questions like when Lili would be getting married? Had her parents picked out a husband for her yet? And she asked Noa about the strange substance she just chewed and chewed in her mouth like a cow? The next day we went to the Galileo Science Museum, which was actually totally awesome but the girls had given up by then. Too much travel and culture for one year I guess. So we spent the afternoon wandering the gardens of the new palace across the river but by then we were all just ready to get back on the road to Paris. Paris greeted us with a continuation of fabulous weather and a fairly empty city because of the Easter break. We are now starting to plan our reentry to the US, which as I look back, I can't believe it's already time for but I'm looking forward to seeing what our last two months will bring for us!

Good Food, great gelatos, and amazing cappuccinos!

We are back from Italia, where the food is good, gelatos are great, and the cappuccinos are amazing! So we got in, and I walked out of the car to stretch my legs(after a 5 hour car trip, the second one... the first day was about 7 hours...) and it was rEEEally warm!!!! We go into our room, and it's not just a room, it was about the size of our apartment! I called dibs on the biggest room... tee hee. The place (Cretaiole Agriturismo) was amazing, and the woman who runs the place is REALLY nice, and she spoke English. The first night, she made us reservations for dinner, so we go there, and Noa's stomach starts hurting. Now, I am no stranger to aching stomachs, but she was like, crying, so we had to go home! That night, Noa fell asleep on the bathroom floor. The next day though, she was good as new! That morning, we went on a tour of the "working farm" at the agriturismo. It was actually quite interesting, even if the meat curing room made me feel kind of sick. They had a big pig, and these adorable ducklings, some baby chicks, and a baby bunny... By the time we got to the wine making/processing part, Noa and I were feeling tired, so we just went outside and played with the dog, until the tasting session. The cheese was SO GOOD (peccorino). The olive oil was SO GOOD. It was delicious! On Monday, we went to an organic farm, and it was just beautiful. There were pigs, and sheep, and goats, and peacocks, just kind of walking around, doing their thing. We saw where they made the cheese, and we saw the kitchen. There was actually a baby lamb who was born earlier that day! We tried to take it out, but the mother started freaking out, and tried to climb over the little fence that was holding her in. After the tour, we had lunch there. Boy, was there a lot of food, a salad here, some artichoke here, some pasta there, a bean salad, some asparagus, some more vegetables, there was so much food! It was so good, but I think I ate too much. Oh well, that's the price you pay sometimes when you have such good food. (oh yeah, and on Monday for dinner we went back to the place we had to ditch because of Noa's stomach, it was yummy!) The next day, me and mom went to a private water color art class, and took home somethings that actually looked good! On Wednesday we had dinner at a Monestary, pasta+truffles=yummy! Thursday, we went to Sienna, and boy was it crowded! That night we learned how to make "pici" a really good pasta that we ate with pesto, and yes we have the recipe, so we can teach everyone who wants to learn. On Friday, dad and I went horse back riding, I had a really nice horse, although I'm not sure if he/she was nice because she was just nice, or because she knew I knew what I was doing, and I knew she knew it. Dad's horse, however, steered him into every possible branch, ate when he wanted, and trotted when he wanted. But it was beautiful. That night, at dinner I ordered a special pasta. After it was cooked, they put in a big bowl made of peccorino cheese, and scraped it around so the cheese melted on the pasta, it was pretty cool. We went to Florence the next day, and we went to the old palace, to go back in time to meet a Medici Duchess! The rest of the vacation isn't worth describing, we went to some museums, gardens, typical tourist stuff. It was a beautiful vacation, but I missed being able to understand people! Now, before I change my mind, I'm going to say... "Until next time!"

Lili(an) Belle in PARIS!

Party Time!

Party time, y'all! Noa turned 7 last weekend! Despite all my efforts and endless suggestions of having the party at some really fun venue (art studio, cooking class, magic show, movies), Noa insisted on having her party at our apartment. "If we go somewhere to do something we won't have time to play!", she explained to me. The theme was Rock n' Roll Celebrity. Everyone came dressed as a famous rock star (whom Noa assigned prior to the party). We had Pink, Hannah Montana, Brittany, Gaga, Ke$ha, Sharpe from HSM, Michel Jackson and The Beeber. Noa was Taylor Swift. She had to have a wig. The first one we bought caused a major trauma because it didn't cover her hair. And she was right, poor Taylor looked like she could use a good dose of Rogaine. So we went and bought another one. This one was called the Angel Wig and it had long ringlets. However, when we bought it, we didn't realize how long and when Noa first tried it on the thing went down to her knees. After some consideration, Noa agreed that it could use a trim. So we chopped about a foot and a half so it fell mid chest. That seemed to satisfy her and she even wore it for the first hour of the party but it was really not very 'practique' so she shed it (haha) after that. Lili came as Katy Perry and looked fabulous with her bright blue wig (which I'm pretty sure is the wig that Noa wanted all along but Taylor would never!). The party was a huge success with lots of freeze dance, lip syncing, tattoos and a even a sunday bar. Lili and her friend Nara (a.k.a. Beyonce) helped a lot with the child wrangling and entertaining. It all would have been perfect except that earlier that day, Ethan had to take a trip to the emergency room. This is not a belated April Fool's joke. He had been sick for the week prior to the party and then about 2 days before, he started breaking out in spots. And he continued to break out until he was covered head to toe in these dark red blotches. He had an appointment to see a doctor the following monday and he had alrady seen one doctor on friday who said he didn't know what it was but it wasn't contagious (don't ask me how he knew that). However, Saturday morning (a.k.a. party day) he really was not looking to hot. I kindly explained to him that he really should go to Urgence and, in any event, he couldn't stay at the apartment and scare all the kids (and their parents). Long story short, he is fine now, just a virus that he had a bad reaction to. And as far as we know, it wasn't contagious. We hope.