Week 43

The week off!!

So I found out that I had to take a week off work before the 17th or lose the time.  This was unexpected and too late of notice to plan a trip anywhere - especially in August.  Besides, the thought of traveling anywhere in this unrelenting heat with 3 kids sounds terrible!!!  So.... I decided to work on some things around the house that I have neglected since we moved in 8 months ago!!

The first project was tackling IKEA.  This was no easy task.  The closest one is in Padova which is about 30 minutes away.  Because everything includes the Italian taxes in the price, American's are allowed a discount to take the taxes off the total cost.  However, this requires several steps and trips.  I ended up making 3 trips in my first 2 days off to get it all done!!

My first trip was just with Aiden.  I loved the one on one time with him!  Later Anna and her friend met up with us since it is so close to her house.  It was actually really helpful to have some translators there!! (I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of them!)

I was soooo happy that the food was the same as the IKEA in the US and Germany!  

Day 2 I went back with just Whitney.  She was a great helper!!

Another thing I've been meaning to do for so long now was sign Whitney up for horseback riding lessons.  I have heard great things about these guys and they are less than 5 minutes from our house.  Whitney is LOVING it!!

The last flag football game of the season was this week.  It has been a depressing season because the kids' coach left halfway through and they went through 2 more coaches before the last game.  They also ended up with the youngest and smallest kids on all of the teams.  I don't think they even scored on another team all season.  This game they played a team they had already lost to and they have never been scored against the entire season.  Well, I don't know what happened but we made a huge comeback and ended up tying with them at the end.  It was a very exciting game and all the kids were really, really into it!  Even the refs kept saying "This is the best game of the whole season.  This is like the superbowl!"  We were all soooo happy it ended on such a great note!!

The girls had an important job of spraying everyone so we didn't get heat stroke.  It was over 100 Degrees out!!

Great game!!!  It was really fun to watch the Cates boys on the same team for the first time!  So proud of them for sticking with it even though they weren't even scoring points and their coaches were leaving!  They really learned a good lesson about being resilient and keeping a positive attitude.  It's easy to have a good attitude when you're winning but when the odds are against you - you can really learn what you are made of!  I am really proud of them!

The kids are still doing the swim team every morning too.  Connor especially has really liked it!

Whitney had to take a week off for an ear infection but is finally back!  

I really should have taken before and after photos but... here is the aftermath from organizing Aiden's room.  It still needs a few more things (like rugs!!!) but it is soooooo much better than it was and he is finally happy about his room!!

Whitney's room went from a little girls room to a big girls room.  It's just the right size for her now!

I finally found a way to display all of our blog books!  :)

Our dining room badly needed some organizing

Soooo much better!

Anna and her friend, Elena, spent the whole day on Friday with us and I didn't even take a single picture of them!!!  I made Anna send me this picture the next day.  :)  

And that's it... my week off is over and I didn't get nearly enough scratched off my to-do list.  I also didn't take enough pictures to show all the play dates we had at our house, movies we went to see, family swims in our pool, and copious amounts of gelato we ate! 

I think I need to start doing this at least every 6 months.  It was really nice to have a break from work without traveling somewhere for a change!  However, Jeremy's got lots of trips planned for the rest of my days off (when it's cooler)!  :)