Easter holiday in the mountains

Now it's really springy here in Rome, the sun is shining and everything is blooming. Our ski holiday seems like an eternity ago, but actually only a little bit more than a week ago we were still skiing down the slopes. We had a really good ski holiday and I'm glad we went there. The weather wasn't excellent all the time, but surely better than here in Rome where it had been raining a lot during the Easter holiday.
The first day when we arrived to Pescocostanzo it was really foggy. Just in front of the hotel door there were ski slopes, but with not so much snow left. There was enough for some sledding and snowball fights, though.
In front of the hotel door with the Easter eggs.

Then we went for a little car ride to see the surroundings. Armando wanted to see where he could go jogging, but thought that there were too many big dogs strolling around watching the houses. There were free horses, but as there was no fence their front legs were tied. Poor horses. 

 We went to see the beautiful village of Pescocostanzo that was a couple of chilometres down from the hotel.

Week 13 - Easter and last snow of the season

Spring is slowly coming and the trees are getting green, but I think I have never experienced such a rainy spring here in Rome!
On Thursday the Easter holidays began and we had booked a hotel up in the mountains in the small village of Pescocostanzo in Abruzzo, quite near Rome. Since my husband started training for the marathons he hasn't been interested in skiing anymore and we didn't go at all last year. I didn't want to let another year pass without putting the skis on and especially Daniele was really eager to go skiing. As he has started the "liceo" and can't be away from school too much, we had to wait till the Easter holidays and of course there was a big risk that the snow would have melted already. But we were lucky, because up on the slopes there still was enough snow for skiing. Down the grass was green and there was no snow in the villages, but we were able to ski every day. The hotel was small and nice. There were ski slopes just in front of the hotel, but there wasn't enought snow, so the ski lifts were closed and we had to take the car and go a bit further away to ski. We spent five nice days there and Carlotta cried when we had to leave. Three years ago when she first tried to take ski lessons, it was no success, but now she was the right age and learnt a lot in four days.

Week 12 - Hot springs and other nice things

It was a nice week:

Apertif on Monday

Father's Day on Tuesday - the card that Carlotta had done at school

Saturday night dinner at Mc Donald's.

Songs at Carlotta's school, as most of the children were ill when they had their Carnival songs, on Wednesday after school they repeted the show.

Sign of spring - the apricot tree flowering, but very few flowers, so this year we might not get any fruit.

Sofia and her friend Alice going to their first afternoon disco on Saturday. It was a success, they want to do it again, help! 

On Friday Daniele didn't have any school, so me and my friend headed off to the thermal hot springs near Viterbo and had a fantastic and relaxing day with the bigger children. Carlotta had organized to go to her friend after school, so she didn't come. 

Riding a very nice horse on Saturday.

Sofia's show jumping competition on Sunday.
 

Week 11 - Water gym, riding, marathon and football

I had no work in the beginning of the week, so I started the week by going to Ostia with my friend to ask about prices in different beaches for next summer. There are free beach areas here, but most of the beaches are private and have restaurants, bars, sun chairs etc. and in summer you have to pay an entrance fee to get in. One of them has a gym inside and we got a free entrance to try it, so the next day we went there to join a water gym class. We got there a bit late, because I had problems with our door in the morning. As usual, me and Carlotta left the house in a hurry to get to school. As I had closed the door I noticed that I had taken the bag with my swimming suit, but I had left Carlottas school bag inside. So I started opening the door and when I tried to turn the key in the lock it was blocked. After trying long enough I phoned my husband and asked him to come and try with his key. Fortunately his work place is quite close to our house, so he came and when he came he said that he had left his key at home. We then realized that he must have left his key in the lock inside and that's why it was impossible to turn the key. We had to call a locksmith. He managed to open the door with a piece of rigid paper, so now I know what I have to put inside my bag, because that's the way to open the door if you happen to close the door and leave the keys inside.
Anyway, the water gym class was good and afterwards we went to the jacuzzi and the turkish bath and felt so relaxed afterwards!
There was some rain also this week. The photo of Daniele standing in the water is in front of our house where I park my car!
Fortunately the nice weather returned in the week-end and we were able to go riding on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday my husband ran the Rome marathon. First we went to see Daniele's football match and then off to the centre of Rome in time to see him 1 km before the arrival. The marathon went well and afterwards we had lunch at a restaurant in the centre together with his mother. In the evening it started raining again, but at least the timing was good - a nice week-end! Saturday night we also went to the cinema to see a very good Italian film - Buongiorno papà.
The girls have noticed that our medlar tree has become strong and big enough to climb on. Nice!

Week 10 - Quite a rainy week

Week 10 was quite a rainy week. On Monday before my zumba lesson the weather was good, so me and Carlotta took a little tour by the sea with our roller blades. This time I was a bit more relaxed and it went better. We have to again as soon as possible! On Tuesday I went riding, while Sofia stayed at home because she had lots of home work. Then there was some rain and rain again. When the weather is bad you can always bake something. I made cookies from a recipy I found in a Swedish magazine and they turned out very good.
On Friday it was the International Women's day and here in Italy women get yellow Mimosa flowers. The Mimosa tree is blooming here right now. Sofia went on a birthday party at Mc Donalds on Friday evening and before taking her there we went to the park before it started raining again. On Saturday evening we went to the cinema to see an italian film called "Amiche da morire". It was nice. Carlotta had to stay at home, because it wasn't a film that she could be interested in. I hadn't been to the cinema for ages! In the week-end we got nice weather and went riding on both Saturday and Sunday.

Month in photos - February

Week 9 - A short school week, riding and skating

This week Sofia and Carlotta were lucky. Their school was used for the elections, so they got three days off from school. It was nice,  because on Monday I got a big job ready and didn't have so much more work waiting for me, so I could spend some time with them. The weather was nice, too, most of the time.
The sunset picture was taken on Monday when me and Carlotta went to my zumba class and stopped to take some photos of the lovely sunset. On Tuesday we went to Ostia to look for a phone cover for Sofia, but we found a pair of trousers for her instead. Then Sofia and Carlotta put their roller skates on and skated a bit along the sea promenade. In the afternoon we had our riding lesson and one of Sofia's riding friends slept over at our house and stayed with us till Wednesday when we went riding again. We practiced for the week-end's show jumping. In the morning I went skating with Carlotta and took a walk at the beach. Lovely. There was actually someone swimming in the sea, but I don't think the water was very warm. On Thursday and Friday the girls went to school again and Carlotta's friend came to our house and had dinner with us. We spend almost every Friday evening with my friend and her two girls that are Sofia's and Daniele's age, but this time also Carlotta had a friend, so she was very happy. We bought pizza and ate it at our house.
We spent Saturday and Sunday at the show jumping event where both me and Sofia partecipated. It was a bit tiring, but also fun and exciting. On Sunday the whole family had some kind of sports event. My husband partecipated in the half marathon, Daniele had a football match, me and Sofia show jumping and Carlotta spent the day watching us. The weather was quite nice the whole week-end, only a few rain drops and a bit cloudy on Saturday, but Sunday was lovely and sunny. On Saturday evening one of Sofia's riding friends had her birthday party at her home and I went with Sofia and Daniele.A very nice week!