Daniele's 15th birthday

We celebrated Daniele's birthday on Sunday with his football friends and some class mates. There was another boy from his football team whose birthday is close to Daniele's so they celebrated together. There were many boys, almost 30 I think, but at the football ground there's plenty of space, so it was a perfect place to have their birthday party. It was such a fantastic and sunny spring day. Sofia and Carlotta both invited a friend, so they wouldn't get bored and also our good friends we hadn't seen since before christmas came, which was very nice. Both the pizza and the cake disappeared very quickly. Next year we have to remember to order more of that!

Week 14 - A sunny spring week

This was our week 14. Sledding in the mountains - A group picture with the hotel owner before leaving - A new horse at the riding school - The sunset while going to the zumba class - A lovely sunny week-end playing ball at the beach and planting flowers in our garden.

March photo collage

 

My monthly photo collage. Got the template here.

Last day in the mountains

Our last skiing day was really beautiful and sunny. I had gotten more relaxed in the slopes and today was the day I really remembered why it's fun to go skiing. Unfortunately I could start a bit late because Armando had taken someone else's ski boots from the hotel's ski deposit and left mine there, so I had to go and rent new ones while Armando went back to the hotel with the other boots. He didn't ski at all this time because he is too concentrated training for the marathons, so he carried our bags and watched Carlotta at the ski course while we went skiing. There were only two hours left to ski, but those two hours were lovely! It's quite a big ski resort, so whe didn't try all the red and blue slopes in these days, but next year we will continue!

Day 4 Easter Sunday

We went skiing in the morning.

Afterwards snowball fights and then lunch at the nice chalet by the slopes.

We had half board at the hotel, so we ate breakfast and dinner there. This is the breakfast room.

It was a rainy day, so in the afternoon the children opened their Easter eggs and me and Sofia sat reading books down in the hall where the fire was lit every afternoon. That's also where the children made their Easter home work, because her in Italy there's no holiday without homework.

When it stopped raining I took a walk down to the village and back. There was even less snow left on the slopes in front of the hotel, but the children still found a good slope where they sledded till it got dark.

Day 3 of our ski holiday

Next day we went to the slopes in Aremogna, a bit further away from the hotel, where we found a suitable group for both Carlotta and Daniele. Daniele wanted to take the course because that way he could ski more and do more difficult slopes than with me and Sofia.

When we had done a few slopes Sofia got a strange stomach ache and we had to stop. It hurt so much that I thought we had to take her to the doctor, but fortunately it stopped when she got some rest at the hotel.
In the afternoon we went to a beautiful forest called Bosco di Sant Antonio with big and very old beech trees and with lots of violet crocuses on the ground. When there is snow there are cross-country trails in this forest.

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Day 2 of our ski holiday

The next day Carlotta started her ski course. Last time she tried it was three years ago and she hated it, but this time she was bigger and she liked it a lot. The first day she took a private lesson as they didn't have any suitable group for her at the nearest slopes.

I went skiing with Daniele and Sofia. It was foggy also today. There was a very nice 5 km long slope, but up there it was so windy you couldn't even talk. One moments there were big clouds so you didn't see very far and the other moment the wind had swept them away.

Daniele thought I was too slow which was true. Since we didn't go skiing at all last year, I felt it would have been good to take a lesson to be able to ski a bit more relaxed. And of course I had to stop to take photos once in a while which made my skiing even slower.

Snow on the slopes and yellow-green grass down in the valley.

And some sledding today, as well.

It was Good Friday and in the evening when it got dark there was a religious procession down in the village. We went to see it and it really was worth it. There were torches along the streets and the athmosphere was beautiful. It was too dark to get any good photos.