there’s nothing wrong with kids that trying to reason with them won’t make worse

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Victorian for a day

Jerran had an assignment from his history teacher to live as he 'would' have in Victorian England for a day.  This involved him using candles for light (even with window it's not that bright inside on a grey day), doing laundry in my tub and leaving gross grey residue all over, cooking his own food (not with a microwave) and watching the rest of us enjoy our regular lives while he suffered.  I thought he would like to cook dinner with me, but he refused when he found out how much work it is and cooked himself a baked potato instead.  Deprived of help in the cooking department, I asked Ben to take over and thus it ensued that the rest of us ate Pizza Hut while Jerran had his lonely baked potato and fried egg.  Because we were eating by candlelight someone had the bright idea to get out marshmellows and skewers and roast them.  It's impressive how evenly browned you can get a marshmellow over a candle.  Also impressive is the failure of our children to learn from their mistakes as they burnt a number of marshmellows after getting them too close to the flame.  With the addition of some Liebenz crackers (chocolate coated) the kids enjoyed their s'mores while Jerran sulked.   Yes, we are heartless, but if we stopped doing what we are doing every time the boy sulked we would never do anything.  Or very rarely.

Did Jerran learn anything?  He informs me that he is glad he lives in the modern world and that he isn't in charge of the laundry.

Christmas presents









Naples

Mt Vesuvius in the distance

waiting for the pompeii strike to finish up

Our guide, Guido

Town hall

crosswalks--very handy when the streets run with effluvia



Our usual view of the boy, running away

sunset from our balcony

Luzern



Walking through the pedestrian district

Lion monument


Old wooden bridge across the river

On our way to the Christmas market


grateful for our snow tires!

Florence

In the square at the old Roman
crossroads the rare teenaged
smile (smirk?) is spotted in the wild

The pillar in the middle of the old crossroads
'belly button' of Florence

tablecloths and placemats

We don't have any Italian DVD's, so the players in the house
didn't do us any good

magnolia!  I could touch it
from our balcony

My favorite part of traveling, trying new treats

In the beginning of the trip, joy was smiling

David

Piazza della Liberta, where No chased
lots of pigeons

Santa Maria Novella

So excited to walk all over

The kids' favorite museum had models of
Leonardo DaVinci's plans--this is his
idea for a tank with guns sticking out
every direction.  Zak approves

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Pictures

Rosenberger restaurant, somewhere in Austria (maybe Italy)

Northeastern Italy reminds me of the Central Valley

Relaxin' for Christmas

Noah's favorite part of our trip

The Duomo, Florence

Pompeii, with stray dogs EVERYWHERE

Stayed here overnight in Lucerne

Drove through snow to get there and get back

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