Week 28 - Finland

Finally landing in Finland!

This week on the 13th of July we went from the heat to the quite cool Finland where people were still waiting for the summer to start. It had been a cool and rainy summer so far. For me it was no problem as I had a few translation jobs to finish and the first week in Finland I sat by the computer and worked quite a lot and working is much easier when it's round 20 degrees than when it's almost 40! Of course my children needed something to do and they don't have so many friends in Finland, so I tried to get out with them at least a little bit every day.
The first days it wasn't raining and when the weather is nice you can enjoy the day light until late at this time of the year. On Friday evening we took a walk in Kotka to see the old water tower from where you have a nice view over the city, on Saturday morning we went to the market place to buy strawberries and eat "posso", which is a kind of donut, but much better. You eat it warm, it's crispy and has warm apple jam inside. The children went out just behind my parents' house to pick blueberries and they also found lots of wild strawberries. There were so much of them that we also made a cake. Sitting most of the day behind the computer and eating all these good things is not a very good combination!

Week 27 - apricots

This year our apricot tree was full of apricots. They are lovely, but they all mature at the same time, so everyday there were apricots fallen from the trees. After having given quite a lot to friends and neighbours, made apricot jam, some apricot cakes and apricots in syrup we didn't have neither the time nor the energy to do anything else with them. Our fridge still is full of them, but unfortunately we will have to throw lots of them away because we don't get to eat them as fast as they go bad.

Week 26 - Italian Pony Championships

This really was a horsey week for me and the girls. And a really exciting one too! On wednesday early in the morning we started our four-days adventure in Cervia on the Adriatic coast, where four of the pony girls, including Sofia, partecipated in the National Pony show jumping Championships. On Monday they had their last little training, on Tuesday they prepared the ponies and on Wednesday we drove to Cervia. I went there with Carlotta and Sofia, while Daniele had to stay in Rome to finish his school exams. They went well and on the 29th he could start his summer holiday.
Every morning we got up early to go to the competitions and in the afternoon we went to Mirabilandia (a big amusement park) where the girls and also, or maybe most of all, their riding instructor had a really good time. These days out with the ponies and the girls were a really good experience. Sofia did really well with the pony, Giorgia, but unfortunately she forgot to ride through the finish line on the first day and got disqualified. Her riding instructor was really glad with her riding anyway and also with the pony. The fences were high and the courses difficult and I think most of the ponies and the pony riders had much more experience in this kind of competitions, while it was the first time for both Sofia and Giorgia.
I like the determination of both Sofia and Giorgia that this photo expresses.

Week 25

Time to see good old friends again. Summer time is nice! This time it was my friend from Switzerland. We got to know each other when I lived in Lugano in Switzerland where I learned Italian, I think it was in 1989. We lost touch for a long time, but thanks to facebook found each other again. In the mean time she had got  two children, a boy and a girl and they are about the same age as Sofia and Daniele. This summer they spent a week in Rome - a few days in the centre and a few days in a camping site that's quite near to where we live. While I went to fetch them from the camping site my son Daniele made a lovely pasta Carbonara, I had made a cheese cake with frozen berries and Sofia and Carlotta chocolate-oat balls. Armando stayed inside because the was a football games were going on and Italy was playing. I'm glad that my 14-year-old son still preferes good company to watching football games, even if they are important ones. The children got along well together so the next day we went to the beach with them. These days the weather started to get really warm in Rome.

Week 24

This week was my turn to get older again. To celebrate it we went out to have a pizza at our usual pizzeria which is a walking distance from our house, so especially in summer we like to take a walk and go there, if we go out for dinner. The pizza is very good there too.
I'm the one taking photos in the family, but sometimes I ask someone else to take a photo just because it might be nice to look back at the photos and say I was there too. So Daniele took this photo when we were out eating. It didn't turn out too good and you can only see my hair, but after having made the effort to take it he already was tired of taking photos and no one else was willing to take any, so this will have to do. At least you can tell I was there. Carlotta was reading the birthday card she made to me. So happy birthday to me!

Week 23 - End of school

Last school week here. Lots of things going on. On Tuesday pizza evening with Carlotta's class with her class mates, their parents and the teachers. On Wednesday morning they had a performance at school where they sang some songs. On Friday which was the last school day, they had a sports day with relay race games, which turned out to be a little bit boring as they only had a little run and the rest of the time they just had to wait for the prize giving ceremony and they didn't get anything to take home, just a trophy for the whole class.
We also met with Sofia's teacher from the elementary school who wanted to see them all again, so we had an ice cream with her and some of the class mates.
For Daniele school wasn't quite finished yet, because he was going to have the exams they take here after the third class of "scuola media".
In the week-end Sofia had an important show jumping competition. It was the regional championships and she partecipated in the under 13 class. It went really well, considering how little time she had had to get used to the pony, Giorgia and that it was their first competition. In the end she was the 19th out of about 50 partecipants.
Now it's really difficult to choose one week photo, but I think I'll leave the horse photos to my horse blog and put a photo of Carlotta's end of year celebrations. She was very excited about all these events.

Here she is at the sports day. Now Carlotta's first school year is over! How fast it went!

Week 22

Meeting other friends we have lost sight of during this year. Their children used to be in Sofia's class, but since Sofia went to the "scuola media" this year we haven't had time to meet at all. We had a nice pizza evening in Sabrina's garden on Saturday evening and the next day Elisabeth's family came with us to the beach in Fregene. Her daughter came to see our riding school and decided to start taking riding lessons there, so then we well get to meet more often.
Going to the beach.

Week 21

Long time no posting. Let's at least try to catch up with the 52 week pictures. So week 21was the week we finally went to see our friends in Campobasso we hadn't seen for too long a time. Armando had decided to partecipate in the Campobasso city run and that was a good occasion to see our friends and their new beautiful house where they even have a sauna that we enjoyed a lot. They have three boys and one of them is just Daniele's age and they have always come along well together and so they did now that they both are 14-year-old teenagers.
Sofia wanted to stay at a friend's house for the week-end, because she thought she would get bored with all the boys, but in the end she had quite a good time, too. She especially loved their little dog, Luna. Also Carlotta liked taking the dog out for a walk. Our friends live a little bit outside of Campobasso and the scenery is very beautiful there.

The city run turned out to be quite hard even for Armando who is used to running long distances and he didn't manage to run it all. The town is too hilly with too many slopes. 

After a lot of good food and pastries I took a nice walk out in the countryside with my friend Pauliina, Carlotta and Luna.