I cannot believe that summer is almost over and I haven’t posted one picture at all.  We have been busy but not really.  We had a few goals for the summer…the major one being to conquer the pool.  We accomplished this by spending as much time in the pool as possible.  We set up our pool in our yard, went to the public pools a lot and took swimming lessons as well as swimming at friends’ pools whenever invited.

When school was over in June, the boys had one week of fun and then we got down to business with swimming lessons, which Rocco, Luciano and Massimo have pretty much continuously been taking all summer.  We have chronicled this summer based on Swimming Lesson Sessions!

Session 1: In mid-June, they started off with Rocco in Level 2, Luciano in Preschool and Massimo & Me were enrolled in the Mommy & Me class.  But Massimo was doing so well that after 2 classes, he was moved up to the Preschool class with Luciano.  Yay for me, now I could sit poolside with my girlfriends for 50 minutes each day, gossiping and drinking coffee!!!  Imagine, 50 whole minutes where I don’t have to watch my kids (ok, so maybe I do anyway, but that is not the point!)

At the end of June (and still during Session 1), my mom Darleen and brother Mike (yes, the chef!) arrived for a visit.  Mike was here for a week and during that time, we took a wonderful trip to Tuscany (more on that later!). 

After my brother returned to the States, my mother spent an additional 5 weeks with us, during which time I had surgery to have half of my thyroid removed (in April, my doctor found a fairly large nodule on it).  The procedure was successful (I had a great surgeon!), it was a fairly quick recovery period (only 2 weeks) and the scar is slowing fading.  And good news, pathology reports came back that the nodule was benign!

Okay, I have spent too much time online already.  We have to get to the grocery store and then to a friend’s house to, yes, you guessed it, go SWIMMING!  I promise, I will blog more later about our summer!!!  Ciao ciao for now!

Sadly, it was our last morning in London.  Our bags were packed.  Our hearts heavy.  It was definitely time to go, though.  The boys can only handle traveling away from home for so many days.  Apparently 5 days away is the upper limit of what they can survive.

We checked our bags with the concierge, and headed to Starbucks for my last Venti Caramel Macchiato.  Then I ran into Tesco, our favorite supermarket where I picked up some healthy snacks for our flight home.

Just as we returned to the hotel, our taxi to take us to the train station had arrived.  As we drove through London, we took one last look at our favorite city.  So much fun for a family of 5!

To be honest, for our “unlucky” family, the return trip home was quite uneventful.  Our taxi got us to the train station on time; our train to Stansted Airport was a few minutes ahead of schedule; we zipped through the check-in line for Ryan Air; and even had time for a nice lunch in the airport.  We arrived into Rome ahead of schedule, quickly paid for parking, jumped in our car and were home by 10:30 pm.  Perfect timing to get everyone to bed so EVERYONE could go to school the next day!!!

It was a fun family vacation!  Thanks for reading along with me!

Andrea

This was our last full day in London so we wanted to make the best of it.  The day before, we hit up the Half Price Ticket booths in Piccadilly Circus and asked about shows we could take the kids to.  Although they don’t allow any children under the age of 3 into shows, we figured Massimo was closer to the age of 3 than 2, so he could pass.  We knew there were 2 shows we wanted to see: “The Lion King” and “Stomp!”

So, we got up early and (after our morning Starbucks, of course) headed to Piccadilly Circus to buy our Same-Day, Half-Price tickets.  We went to 3 different tickets booths and heard three different answers: “There are sex scenes in ‘Stomp!’ so I won’t sell you tickets for your kids”; “It will be too loud in ‘Stomp!’ which is an environmental hazard for the children so I won’t sell you tickets for your kids”; and “We don’t allow children under the age of 5 into any of our shows so I can’t sell you tickets for your kids.”  Ok, 3 strikes, we were out.

Since we were already at Piccadilly Circus, we walked through an area like “Little Italy” with tons of Italian restaurants and cafes.  Being that we weren’t craving anything Italian, we ducked into a cute little French bistro and enjoyed crepes, croissants and tea for brunch.

Once we were full on French food (yum!), we finally caved in to the boys’ incessant requests and ventured over to the London Eye.  Basically it is a big Ferris Wheel composed of pods, and it moves slow enough that it never has to stop to let the next guests on.  Here is an explanation of what the London Eye is, directly from their website:

“At 135m, The Merlin Entertainments London Eye is the world’s largest cantilevered observation wheel. It was conceived and designed by Marks Barfield Architects and was launched in 2000. It has already won over 75 awards for national and international tourism, outstanding architectural quality and engineering achievement and has now welcomed over 36 million visitors.”

First we went through a 4-minute, 4-D video of the London Eye (complete with bubbles, blast of air and confetti flying at us).  Then we jumped in line and got in a pod.  Unfortunately, we were put in a pod with about 15 other Italians.  There were 2 women who refused to move so we could take pictures of Big Ben, despite my polite request in Italian.  Needless to say, I got my pictures!!!  All in all, the boys had fun!!!  At the end, we took the boys to a small playground at the base of the Eye so they could blow off some steam and have afternoon snack.

Once we had a snack break, I became fixated on finding the “Princess Diana Memorial Playground”, located in Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park–I couldn’t find it in the tour books, but I remembered many friends telling me about it.  Mike and I couldn’t decide on the mode of transportation (he wanted cheap and I wanted fast and easy) so we “settled” on Mike’s method: the Tube.  By the time we got to a Tube station that was actually open that day (20 minutes later) — side note: London is hosting the summer Olympics in 2012 so they are doing a TON on construction on the roads, Tube, sidewalks, etc. — we were all hungry again.  I found a cute sushi place and got myself a Bento box of some fresh Japanese creations!  Mike walked over to Krispy Kreme and got coffee for himself and for the boys, some warm, glazed donuts. 

Ok, now we are ready to get on the Tube.  After much commotion, we get all of us down the escalator in one piece (not an easy feat, mind you, since everyone, including MASSIMO, wants to do it “myself”).  As we are trying to figure out our route, a nice Underground employee informs us that the Tube line we need is closed for maintenance this weekend (amazing!).  So we decide to do my choice of transportation — a cab!

Ok, it is now 1 hour and 15 minutes later, and we are FINALLY at Kensington Gardens, but now Massimo is asleep in Mike’s arms.  After a brisk 15 minute walk through the gardens, we finally find the Playground.  It is AMAZING AND FREE!!!  It has a Peter Pan theme with sandboxes to play in, tons of swing sets, and a HUGE wooden pirate ship / climb-on playground structure.  Just what the boys needed on this gorgeous spring day!!!!!

We took a ton of pictures while the boys climbed to the top of the mast.  Then we got some soft-serve ice cream.  You’d think it was Massimo’s first soft-serve cone because he didn’t know what to do with it since it was melting so fast!  After 3 licks, it fell on the ground, oops! 

After being in the park for almost 2 hours, we started our long journey back to the hotel.  Our vacation was coming to a close.  There were still so many things we wanted to see in London, but alas, we couldn’t do it all.  We ran into a Marks & Spencer store (sort of like Whole Foods) so I could grab some fruit, cheese and crackers for our hotel room.

When we got back to our room, we remembered the “birthday gift” that the hotel had left me — a coupon for 2 free cocktails from the hotel bar.  We quickly freshened up and headed to the lobby.  While Mike drank beer, I ordered myself 2 Espresso Martinis — yum!  We ordered some kids’ meals for the boys as well as some hummus for us.  The boys loved sitting in a circular corner booth, with the bar mood lighting.  We played the travel games I had bought at Hamley’s.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect vacation!!!

This was a fun day too!  Oh, who am I kidding?  All the days were fun!  We absolutely had an amazing family trip to London.  Didn’t get to do everything we wanted to.  But as a wise woman told me, “You will just have to go back!”  I agree!  And so do the boys.

Since we missed the Thames Cruise boat the night before, we hurried that morning to get out the door to catch the first cruise at 10 am.  Well, we tried, really we did!  We, of course, had to stop for our morning Starbucks, where they had a fresh fruit cup & Naked Juice for the boys to share — officially making this our morning routine for the trip.

Once our bellies were full, we jumped on the Tube and headed back to the Tower Bridge to catch a morning ferry boat cruise on the Thames.  Just our luck, as we arrived, we discovered that all the morning cruises were delayed because of the unexpected high tide.  We arrived at 9:50 am and waited until about 11:35 am for the first ferry to arrive.  Luckily, I had brought snacks and drinks for the boys.  And came up with many games to play while we waited in line — the Alphabet Game, ISpy, Name Your Favorite…, Ride On the Horsey’s (aka Daddy) Back, and of course, we posed for many pictures!  Fun, fun! 

It was worth the wait.  Since we were the only ones that stayed in line and waited (most people got their tickets refunded), we were the first on the boat and got awesome seats, right next to and under a huge picture window.  It was a quiet, peaceful cruise down the Thames, as we passed the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament (yes, we repeatedly said, “Look kids,…”) and of course, beautiful scenery the entire way.

However, once we got off, the boys were tired and I was having a hard time breathing (see my previous post for an explanation on that), so we jumped on the Westminster Tube and headed back to the hotel.  After a 2-hour nap for the boys and me (while Mike finished his MBA homework), we got ready to head out on the town for some more sightseeing.   It was a beautiful sunny day…until we stepped out of the hotel.  Yes, torrential downpour!  Again, just my luck!  I think a storm cloud was following me!

Luckily we had promised the boys a ride on a red double-decker city bus, so after grabbing coffee at Starbucks (of course), we jumped on the next bus heading towards Hamley’s and Piccadilly Circus.  The top was enclosed on this one.  We got seats upstairs and right in front, where they have HUGE picture windows.  Rocco and Luciano sat together, counting buses we passed and laughing the whole way about silly things they were pretending to be.  It was fun to watch.

By the time we arrived at Hamley’s (London’s largest toy store with 7 floors – think NYC’s FAO Schwarz), the rain had let up.  I had been told to take a Valium before I entered this store, but I did not heed my friend’s warning.   Since it was a Saturday, the store was packed (literally) with parents and children, wall-to-wall, of all different cultures and languages.  I had to say, “Excuse me”, “Permesso”, “Entschuldigung ”, “Perdon”, “Pardon” — yes, I tried this combination at least a dozen times, before I could get someone to move so I could get through with Rocco and Luciano.  We lost Mike and Massimo for about 20 minutes (they got distracted by the stuffed animals) so we waited for them by watching a clown demonstrate how to blow up plastic bubbles (yes, a product they sold).   By the 3rd floor, the crowds had thinned out.  However, the boys’ enthusiasm for touching  and playing with every toy had not, especially since the very attentive store employees were encouraging them. 

There were demonstrations on every floor.  There were American toys and British gadgets.  There were books, dolls, trains…you name it, they had it.  For Rocco, the highlight was casting spells with a “real” Harry Potter wand and sitting in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” throne.  Massimo liked riding Thomas the Tank engine and pretending to be a cowboy as a he rode a rocking horse.  Luciano loved seeing the Lego structures of Buzz Lightyear and Indiana Jones.  We were there for 2.5 hours and only walked out buying a few travel games (I desperately needed something else in my bags of tricks for when we were stuck in line again) and a set of Hamley’s pencil sharpeners in the shape of a red double-decker bus, London taxi, red phone booth and red mailbox.

After Hamley’s, we walked around Piccadilly Circus (just like NYC’s Times Square) for a bit, took some pictures and then grabbed fresh sandwiches & fruit to go from “Pret a Manger”, an awesome sandwich shop that specializes in making ”Takeaway” items fresh that day with no additives or preservatives.  If they don’t sell the sandwiches by the end of the day, they donate the food to a local shelter.  What a great concept! 

After we got the boys back to the room and into bed, Mike ran out to a Spanish Tapas restaurant close to the hotel to get us dinner.  We really miss our favorite tapas place in Shirlington (Toro Tapas in Arlingon, VA) so this was a treat to enjoy Spanish food again.  We enjoyed sautéed shrimp, marinated chicken and stuffed red peppers.  Yum!  The perfect end to a perfect day!!!

Here is what I am working on this week:

Meal A: Rustic Tomato Soup with Feta Cheese; Steak Sandwiches with Worcestershire Mayonnaise; and Limoncello Cheesecake Squares (using Mike’s homemade limoncello from our lemon trees!)

Meal B: Buttermilk-Brined Pork Chops; Mashed Potatoes; Sautéed Green Beans; and Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream

Meal C: Pasta with Chickpeas & Garlic Sauce; Greek Salad with Grilled Chicken; and Oregano Breadsticks