Sinterklaas/Saint Nicolas arrives in Brussels

I promise, I'll get back to my posts on Italy soon!!  But wanted to share our videos from our Wednesday afternoon adventure down to the canal in Brussels to see Sinterklaas/ Saint Nicolas arrive with his helpers, Black Pete.  Yes.  They are in black face.  And they arrived after a long voyage from Spain with oranges to give out.

I think the Black Pete's scared Audrey, so that's why I get bowled over at the end of that last video! Can you blame her?  :)

Villa Stabbia

Home base in Italy was Villa Stabbia.  It is an agriturismo, which basically means it's a working farm that also provides lodging.  Villa Stabbia has 5 standalone houses on the property.  The one we stayed in had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and living room.  It was perfect for us.  They also make incredible olive oil and raise/train horses.

The olive trees lining the driveway.

The olives.

 Picking the olives was a favorite pastime for both girls.

The harvest started while we were there, and here they have the  nets spread under the trees picking the olives.

And one day we stayed close to the farm, and let the girls play at a playground in the tiny little town across from the Villa....

And a family shot, which has now found it's way to the top of our blog for the time being....

Here is an album of all of our pictures taken around the farm:  Villa Stabbia

Road Trippin' to Italy

On the 27th of October we set out on a road trip adventure for a week long stay in Italy.  It's roughly a 12 hour drive from our house to where we were going north of Florence.  With two little ones, that's a lot, and probably more like 16 hours if you factor in potty stops and meals.  So we opted to break it up and spend the night in Switzerland.  It's a good thing too, since Audrey decided to get sick.  We're still not sure what happened.  It could have been car sicknesses.  We turned her forward facing for the trip so it would be easier to get to her and so she could also watch a movie with Grace once we broke the DVD player out.  That could have been weird/disorienting for her?!  Or it could have been a virus.  But weird that the rest of us didn't get sick.  We made it through Belgium and Luxembourg unscathed.  And somewhere in France, as we were going through a toll booth, she erupted.  What a mess!!  Poor thing.  She didn't seem terribly phased by it, but we pulled over immediately IN THE SNOW to clean her up.  Thankfully there was a bathroom right after the toll.  And we had a change of clothes nearby.  But unfortunately, this was only the first of about 4 eruptions.  When we finally got to our hotel in Wassen, Switzerland, it had been a long, messy, stinky day.  Thankfully Matt had thrown in a bottle of ALL into the car, and we were able to rinse everything in the sink....well, except for the car seat.....  but we knew there was a washing machine waiting for us in Italy.  So we managed.....and with the help of a 16 Euro car air freshener, too.  Best 16 Euro car air freshener EVER.

Switzerland was exactly as imagined.  Snow and everything.  Our hotel was perfect.  With beautiful white duvets piled at the end of our beds and a wooden beam ceiling. 

And when we woke the next morning, this was the view......

It was really beautiful.  But once we went through this tunnel.....

...which was 17km long....roughly 10 and a half miles, the snow turned to rain and it started to get warmer as we headed further south until we finally made it to our villa in Tuscany with this view......

Stay tuned for our adventures 'Under the Tuscan Sun'.

18 Month Old Audrey!

And how she really feels about having her picture taken!

We're not doing her 18 month appointment until next month since we were a month late on her 15 month appointment, so I'll be back later with some stats.