Girls Weekend in Italy

Our OCSC tours coordinator has done a great job of creating some really great adventures for us this year. This past month we went to Italy for a girls fun weekend of pottery, wine and pasta! After a dicey start with one of our rental cars overheating and hours spent in the airport with the local police helping us out, we had the first of many amazing late dinners. Day one we headed to Nove, Italy for pottery shopping. I loved Nove as everything was already marked for places like Tiffany's and Williams Sonoma and you can buy it for tons less than you would get it in the states. We shopped all morning then had a great lunch, as if there would be any other in Italy, shopped a bit more in the afternoon and collected our packages before heading to the Vicenza post office to MPS it all home. I kind of felt sorry for the post folks as 18 women descended upon them with 50+ huge boxes. I found some real treasurers including my ginormous rooster for my eventual large kitchen. I got a ton of great pieces and it was really fun when my two enormous boxes arrived at home!

On Day 2 we went to Venice. I adore Venice. I can't understand how anyone cannot like this incredible city. We started the day along the grand canal and San Marcos square. This time around we decided to head into the cathedral as I had not done this on a previous trip. We saw the tomb of St. Mark and enjoyed the view before heading down the many side streets shopping all the way to the Rialto bridge. Of course, we took a gondola ride along the way and our gondalier was named....wait for it....Fabio! And Fabio was Fabulous!

After another amazing dinner we had to head home.

The final day we visited Verona. I had not previously been to Verona and was pleasantly surprised to find almost everything open on a Sunday. We had tons of fun sightseeing at Juliet's balcony, shopping and eating gelato not once but twice, and had an amazing lunch of gnocci gorgonzola and wine. I love Italy!

The AMAZING Race - London

I am a HUGE fan of the television program the Amazing Race. People race all over the world, and Jeff and I constantly think that we could win it! So when our tour's chair in the OCSC decided to put together an Amazing Race in London, I was IN! In it to WIN it was my motto and I actually won the most dedicated player award. My team came in 1st place in all legs of the race but one. Here are some of the pictures of us being CRAZY around London. It was such a GREAT time. My team mates were Kathy Higgins and Mandy Ross.

Task #1. We had to meet at the BX, race to get a snack, take a picture with the wing commander's wife after making and raising our team flag and race to London by plane, train, or auto. We choose the tube.

Task #2: After meeting at the marble arch and doing some pictures and fun stuff, we had to race to Abby road and re-create the Beatles Abby Road album cover. We used our scarves as tube tops. After taking the picture we were to race to Portobello Road. Again, we came in 1st!

Task #3: We went to the Wellington Arch and had to take a creative picture after visiting the top and enjoying the views. Mandy's husband is security forces so her as the bobby made sense!

Task #4: Race to Buckingham Palace gift shop and make a purchase, make a palace guard laugh and head to Liberty to take a picture of ourselves with fabric. Again, we were first on the mat!

Task #5: The next morning we met again at the Marble Arch and had to head to an art museum for a picture of Henry VIII. We took a cab and on the way Mandy pulled her wallet out of her purse and dropped it. We didn't notice this until we went to purchase postcards at the museum. We stopped racing and spent about 30 minutes trying to call home to get credit cards cancelled. When we got to our next stop, speakers corner, our cab driver was there waiting for us with Mandy's wallet. He remembered where we said we were headed next and waited for us.

So the next task of that run was who has the gift of gab and my teammates voted me so I had to speak for 5 minutes on a Sunday morning in Hyde Park on speaker's corner on the topic of why OCSC tours is the best position on the OCSC board. After finishing up, we had to find the statue of peter pan, take a fun picture and race to Harrods.

After shopping we headed to Fortnum and Mason, the Queen's grocery store and we had tea after a bit more shopping. From there it was race home and check in at the wing commander's house. Again, we were there first! We put all our props on Virginia for this last picture.

February Catch Up

So after Connor's birthday we carried on with normal life. It was a busy month with no free weekends. I did make a fun trip to London to run the Amazing Race, but that's a separate post. Colton, during February, became even more mobile and coordinated. He loves to be mommy's helper and really enjoys the broom and mop and scrub brush. He likes to use the brush on daddy's piano bench so it's nice and clean when he sits and plays I guess.

He's a bit of a ham and still enjoys a great hat! He really loved it when mommy brought home a bobby's hat which included a flashing light on the top.

Connor's Rockin' Skating Slumber Party

My 12 year old son is so incredibly lucky to have me as a mother! I throw the COOLEST parties ever! No seriously, it was a ton of fun for the adults and the kids. The adults played cards throughout the night.

Connor wanted to invite friends, girls and boys to a skating party with a follow on slumber party for boys only! So I rented a TLF suite and put Jeff and 4 12 year olds in a room for the rest of the night. Hey, no one ever said I was a dummy! I loaded the room up with enough snacks, chocolate and breakfast items to feed 20 12 year olds and let them loose. But before that, they skated. They had such a great time. Connor has a fun group of friends, a lot of girls in that group I found out. They ate their way through the pizza in no time and had a ball skating all night. They were super sweet to Jackson as well so he had a great time.

We even put baby skates on Colton and by the end of the night he was practically skating on his own.

Impressive. He got really tired at bedtime so we put him in the stroller and the kids took turns pushing him in his stroller around the rink. They do this as a mommy/tot exercise class believe it or not. After being around that many middle school kidos, I can honestly say, I don't miss the DRAMA! So here are some additional images from the party. There were a million and one cute ones, too many to include. Oh, and yes, I forgot the candles for the cake. There had to be one thing not perfect! No biggie, Connor thought it was cool to blow out a lighter! He's a good egg that Connor.