Rome: The world of Antiquities

One of the main things we wanted to see was the Colosseum and other major Roman ruins; the Forum, the Pantheon and an aqueduct.  We decided to go all out and have a guide take us around.  She was good and very interesting, but struggled a little in hitting the boy's comprehension.  She seemed to vacillate between teen and toddler.  Still, we all learned a lot and I continue to be impressed with the seemingly random facts that the boys spout daily.  

The little maniac wasn't impressed with the restrictive nature of the Colosseum.
Come on, this is where Gladiators were  made!

Our guide giving us an overview.

Crazy boys in a crazy place

Family pic, fail 1

Family pic, semi-fail 2.

Brothers!

"I kill you"

Brother pic-Success!

What Little C spent most of the day doing.

More brothers.

Kicking it at the Forum.

In his glory.

The Forum, or Farmer's Market as Matts likes to inform the world.

Family pic-Semi Success 1 in front of Il Vittoriano.  The real success is that everyone is still smiling after a long day of touring the sites.  

Learning about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire

Ending the day at Piazza Navona

We did it!

Off We Go!

To wrap up our Ancient Civilizations unit and to satisfy Matts' love of all things Roman we decided to accompany Reed on a trip to Rome.  Looking at his calendar, he also had to be in Milan the following week. So, we decided to go on an epic Italian Road trip.  It was long, definitely had it's ups and downs, but was a fantastic adventure and lifelong memory.
Get ready for picture overload.

After weeks of waay too much travel, the boys were thrilled to be joining Reed as he got on an airplane.

These boys are FANTASTIC travelers.  If you limit electronics at home, there's no limit to their zombie, I mean-well mannered child, inducing potential.

After a long wait for our luggage, we weren't too thrilled to get a flat tire on our way into the city.

He may look happy here, about 20minutes later we hit complete meltdown.  

These boys were super excited to be in Rome!

Chunky Monkey

We're still in the "practice" stage and have a long way to go, but nothing makes me laugh quite as hard as a chunky monkey running around in his undies.  What makes it even more awesome is how VERY COOL he thinks he is.  He'll spend minutes (an eternity for him) dancing, snapping the waistband and posing in front of the mirror.

Happy Halloween!

Although the pics were a complete fail (a result of trying to track 3 kiddos by myself), our UK Halloween was a complete success!  I felt very cultured as we studied "The Scream" in school and at 2pm we broke loose and partied the day away.  We started with a Halloween party, complete with pinata, then moved onto Trick or Treating (starting a 4:30 b/c it gets dark so early) with some ward friends and then back home for a spooky dinner and movie.  

Party Time!  C was more enamored with the skate board than his costume.

Can you spot a Tasmanian Devil, Verb (from BattleForce 5) and Tom (from Beast Quest)?

To make it all a little more excited we took our 9 year old neighbor out for his first time Trick or Treating.    As the boys ran from house to house (except Little C who would get a piece of Candy and then kick it in the stroller munching it until he needed more) I regaled his Dad with tales of king sized candy bars, 100's of kids coming to the house, and jumping off the balcony to scare them (Uncle David, of course).  

UPDATE:

Decent pics, for posterity.  

It's the Little Things

With just the right adapter we finally have our magic bullet up and running.  Green smoothies; Hello!  Colds and Coughs, Goodbye!

Feed the Birds

Although my boys have yet to watch Mary Poppins, we take the admonition of the bird lady very seriously. 

The Birds are incredibly domesticate and fearless.

Little C still isn't sure about his personal space being encroached on.

G shows him how it's done.

And that it's FUN!

We're getting some Fall weather, which our 'Lanta boys refuse to accept  and dress appropriately.

As long as Daddy's there, it's all fun and games...

until someone gets their hand bit off :)

I've even accepted feeding the swans...Geese are an entirely different matter.

What a great way to spend an afternoon with Daddy!

Cheeky Monkey

After a scoot around the neighborhood Little C came home with  this beauty, compliments of a shop owner :)

Since coming to London Christian has been given a new, and altogether perfect nickname.  Both his nursery leader and our nanny have declared him to be a "cheeky monkey".  Now he runs through the flat, or scoots down the street yelling "I a cheeky monkey, I a cheeky monkey" at the top of his lungs.