La campagna

Every year while in Mesagne, we visit our cousin's farm just on the outskirts of town. Figs, almonds, pears, lemons, plums, grapes and on and on. Delicious fruits and vegetables just right for the picking. The girls love going and don't mind getting their hands a little dirty picking the yummy fruits and veggies. We are very lucky to have that experience each summer!

Scenes from an Italian fruit and vegetable farm...

Zio Antonio puts his tall frame to good use helping Olivia grab the figs from the very top.

Little almond picker

Notice Olivia's hands behind her back...my Nonna Vincenza used to walk just like that. So cute!

Brothers!

Our cousins and the girls in front of a very very old fig tree.

Lemon-picking

Olivia likes the very interesting ones.

Sofia and her snails. Each summer she starts a little snail pet shop at the house and loves picking them right from the walls and trees.

My little farm girls

Torre Santa Sabina

An evening stroll through the beach town of Torre Santa Sabina not too far from Mesagne that we visit just about every year. It's a nice walk around the beach and through the handful of restaurants and bars that get very crowded as the night progresses. We tend to go at dusk when it's not yet swarmed and the girls love it. A little beach, a little bit on the rides and of course, a little gelato.

We're having a baby!

I went for my 20 week ultrasound this morning and was able to get an adorable profile picture as well as see baby numero 3 jumping and bouncing around. We opted out of finding out the gender (again!) and just pray for a healthy and happy pregnancy. The girls are very excited and I get belly kisses daily from them to the baby.

just a little spoiled

 Spending 5 weeks in Italy will spoil a girl. Pretty much from day one fresh fruits and vegetables are delivered to our home from our neighbors and family that own farms outside of town. Peaches and apricots (two of my favorites) are just a few from the many that we receive of crates similar to these pictures. Plums, pears, figs (oh the figs!), watermelon, squash, tomatoes, beans are just a few more of the many that come through our door. All from our dear friends and family looking out for us and sharing in their good crops.

It makes it very hard to come back and start buying our produce again when you know they weren't hand-picked that same day from someone who really cares for our family.

And this girl...honestly, she is the cutest. We lucked out this year with weather in Italy. It was perfect everyday with only a few days that were incredibly hot (like can't go outside between the hours of 11am and 5pm hot like last summer). There were a couple evenings where Olivia just wanted to curl up on our couch with a blanket and some books and I was more than happy to keep up her supply of books for her to "read."

And we're back...

Where to begin? I always have this problem upon returning from our summer vacations in Italy and want to post pictures from our trip and have no idea where to start. First and foremost, I need to make the time to sit at the computer, download all the pictures and start the process of editing. And by editing, I only mean deleting the ones I will never use and cropping and highlighting here and there. But there are just SO many! Just over 2,000 this time which I think is slightly better than the 2,500+ from last year's trip and the over 3,000 from the year before. Hopefully I'm becoming a bit more selective when taking pictures. That or I have no time to take pictures with two kids to keep up with.

But here's to hoping I get them all posted here and there before the New Year.