Last Saturday was our church's hay ride and weenie roast. Jonas wore Ezra's giraffe costume from last year, and Ezra's zebra costume (that we ordered online) didn't come in time, so he had to be a pumpkin. I wish I had gotten a picture of him with the hat on, but as you can tell from the pictures, he was NOT cooperating. I think he was as annoyed with me trying to take pictures of him as I was annoyed with him for not smiling or being still for me to take a picture. Here's a picture of our little barnyard. Jonas-giraffe, Molly-cow, Gabriel-bear. Dad and Ezra enjoyed hot dogs and smores roasted over the fire. Then, Ezra had his first hay ride through the brush and cornfields in the Italian country side. Jonas was a sleepy giraffe.

Jonas had his 4 month well baby check up on Monday. He's 17 lbs 4 oz and 26 1/2 in. tall. He's the 90th percentile for length and almost the 90th for weight. Big boy! We also got some ointment for the eczema on his cheeks. You can tell how red and chapped they were on Saturday, and after using the cream for only 3 days, you can tell they are 100% better! Yea! He also got his two bottom teeth on Saturday and rolled from back to tummy. He plays with his toes all the time.

Ok, this is officially my last Italian blog. We leave for Germany on Monday.

Jonas is 19 weeks today. This is a great picture of Ezra. Jonas looks a little concerned...

The first picture is another hike up to the Manigo castle. Same group as last time, only Molly and Jonas are on the outside this time. Also, Elisa's parents were here for a visit so they joined us, and Lindsay and Hudson (new friends) came along as well.

Jonas is 18 weeks and Ezra is 20 months. This is a picture of us after our picnic.

Daddy was in charge of the kiddos while Mom did some cleaning. They made an Allison train to watch TV. I'm not sure who was having the most fun.

Ezra got his first airplane tatoo at Ciara's birthday party. He was pretty thrilled.

This may be the last blog for a while. We move out of our house tomorrow and move into the hotel on base for 10 days. Then we'll drive to Germany, move into the hotel there, and try to find a house.

Ciao Italia. :(

This was kind of an eventful week. Jonas is 17 weeks (turns 4 months on Sunday) and Ezra will be 20 months on Monday.

We had our first snow on the mountain Oct 1st. It was exciting even though it was melted by late in the day. :( I took some pictures as proof that it did in fact exist.

The first couple of pictures were taken at Cena d'Amore. Jack (one of our church's resident Italians) makes amazing pasta for the church once a month. Here's Ezra with Jack and Jonas with Elisa.

Also last weekend, there was a race a couple of towns over in Maniago. Italians love fast cars (ie Lamberghini, Ferarri, etc). While we didn't see any fancy cars, Italians will soup up anything with 4 wheels. Here are a couple of pics of some cars we saw in passing, and also the grounds where the "pit crews" were set up.

In Cavasso last weekend, they had a pumpkin festival. It lasted all weekend, but we just went for a couple of hours on Sun. afternoon. They had a giant slide that Mike and Ezra made it down right before they packed it up. Which might have actually been a good thing because of course Ezra wanted to go again. We also watched some dancers (kid and adult) do mostly couples ballroom dancing--all styles. While we were watching the dancers, I tried some "gnochi di zucca". Gnochi (pronounced no-kee) is a typical Italian dish. They are potatoe dumplings. I'm not too big of a fan, because they are pretty flavorless (although some parmesian cheese on top makes them better). The ones I had were pumpkin flavored potatoe dumplings. Interesting huh? They weren't too bad. We bought this shirt, but it'll be a couple of years before Ezra will fit into it--"Festa Della Zucca" is Pumpkin Festival.

Last, Mike finally got orders on Tuesday. Our house will be packed out on the 17th and we'll be headed to Germany on the 27th. It's the beginning of the end of our Italian experience. :(