First Day of School

Day One - Check

Happy kids - Check

The 2015/16 academic school year has officially begun for us. We are happy to report that it was another wonderful start for all our kids. Praise the Lord! I love the fact that they LOVE school and are excited to learn. It definitely makes life so much easier as a parent to not have to battle getting them out the door for school each day. Here are some antidotes of what things looked like today:

Samuel: Woke up with his alarm at 6:10 and was showered and dressed by 6:30--the time I was just rolling out of bed and bee-lining it to the coffee pot. He did not have to be at school until 9am! Preparedness Award for Samuel.

Seconda Media = 7th grade

Emma: Couldn't contain her excitement to go back to school. The minutes leading up to walking out the door just wouldn't pass quick enough. She has declared she doesn't want to miss a single day! She seemed to show no nerves for starting at a new school with new classmates. Enthusiasm Award for Emma!

Prima Media = 6th grade

Luca: I walked with him to school and he wanted to ditch me and run to the front gate a half block out. It took a firm handhold to keep him from leaving me in the dust. As soon as the bell rang he was off like a bullet. I did wrestle him for a goodbye kiss and that was that. Energetic Award for Luca!

4th grade

Since this was Emma's first year of middle school we had an assembly followed by a meeting with her professor in the classroom. We arrived at 8:30 and I didn't leave the school until 10! Her professor was VERY thorough in explaining rules and expectations for the year. By the time I left she would be home in 2 hours! She was thrilled to have 5 other classmates from her 5th grade class placed in her section of 23 students. One is a very close friend so she was thrilled!

Middle School

Walking to school

After school report:

Samuel: He was all academic seriousness telling us about all the books, professors and class conduct. He was happy to hear that the professor claimed the class to be very respectable and that they are better than last year.

Emma: I noted to Emma how there are quite a few foreigners in her class (that is with at least one foreign parent). She said "Ya, there is a Sicilian." LOL!!

Another quote was when she was telling us about how the girl behind her asked if she could hang out with Emma and her friend during the break. Emma declared "I think we'll be friends by tomorrow". No doubt she will make many friends and we are happy for her.

Luca: He said it was the best first day ever! You know why? "I colored really good without going outside of the lines and I was fast even though I still hold my fingers like this" (demonstrating his 5 finger hold on writing instruments). He also did not get yelled at and he said he spoke for like 4 minutes about his summer. Plus he gets to sit next to his friend Andrei for at least a month before they get moved.

We know that they will experience difficulties throughout the year and it won't always be a bed or roses like it was today, but we trust in God's faithfulness to grow them and mature them through the good and hard times that this school year will bring. We covet your continued prayers for our kids and that they would be lights shining in darkness.

Final Day of Summer

The end of the summer has come. This morning it is pouring rain after a week of grey skies and it definitely feels like the summer is over. Tomorrow school starts anew. Our days will be full but predictable as routine will set in giving us that steady pace for the next 9 months. I think we are all ready even though this summer has been good. It is always a bitter sweet kind of feeling at summer's end.

This week we went on a little afternoon outing as a family. We kept it relatively close to home just venturing across the regional border into Valle d'Aosta to visit Fort Bard. It is only 40 minutes away and we have passed through there many times always on our way somewhere else. The following two images are from an internet search as you have to be really far back to get a perspective on the location and its complete view.  

Fort Bard

View of the narrow passageway into the valley with the village of Bard, the fortress and the river.

We hiked up a stoney path from the free parking lot on the river side to reach the village of Bard. From there we hiked up from the front side of the fort. Thankfully there were lots of fountains with fresh spring water along the path to quench our repeated thirst from the hike.

Chestnuts are nearing their season. Those green balls might look soft and fuzzy but they are worse than a cactus needle if you touch them!

Looking down on the village of Bard

Slate roofs are so pretty

Fort entrance

Looking down on Valle d'Aosta

There were very few visitors at the fort. Maybe the switchback hike up the hill is too intimidating. We enjoyed the scenic views and getting a geology refresher course on the formation of valleys and the stratus of rocks. Glad I studied all of that with Luca last year. I love that we leave so near to mountains and better yet, the Alps!

At the top we treated ourselves to a cappuccino (I nearly fell over when Jonathan ordered one after 12pm!) and some ice cream. 

We bought tickets to visit the prison and although there was not much to see we did watch a good video of the most recent 1,000 year history of Fort Bard and the strategic hilltop location that guards the narrow entrance into the Po Valley. In 1800, for two weeks Fort Bard with its 400 men held off Napoleon Bonaparte's surprise attack to push through the valley entrance with his army of 40,000 men. The stairs that connect the various buildings alongside the hill are actually covered making it easy to travel between supplies without being shot.

After that we headed back down the same way we came again taking in views and the enormity of the fortress.

View from a gun slit

Sculpture made of marble from the area

Rescue Pod...if you get stuck in the mountains this pod is attached to a rope that hangs from a helicopter that you climb inside to be rescued and carried away to safety.

Fun Fact: Fort Bard and the surrounding area now boasts in being the film set location for the movie: Avengers Age of Ultron.

My Ironmen

We actually went home and concluded our fun day by watching the movie to verify all the locations we just saw in person. That is always kind of fun to see familiar locations on the big screen.

Stop #2: Basel

On our way home from Colmar we made a stop in Basel, Switzerland. This was for the sake of visiting the final home of Karl Barth who is acknowledged as the most influential theologian of the 20th century. His home is now an archive for his life's work that has a resident archivist living there to oversee the preservation of the archives, proofread manuscripts and host visitors that pass by either to study or visit like we did.

We were able to see the first two floors of the home with rooms that have been left in their original state from the time Barth died in 1968. The kids were fascinated to see letters written to Barth that were censored by the Nazis during WWII that had sections either cut out or blackened.

Grand Father Clock about 200 years old (and still ticking!), garden flowers and the kids completing their final questions for a prize of a whole container of ice cream to themselves when we get home.

Living room

Heading to the upstairs study. Barth was a huge fan of Mozart.

Jonathan was drooling over Barth's collection of 10,000+ books!  

At Barth's desk with a familiar picture hanging above it...hmm, I do believe we saw that crucifixion scene in Colmar.

We learned much and were appreciative of the time Peter gave to us to share about the history, works and life of Barth and his influence particularly in Europe.

After our visit we walked 2 km completely downhill to the train station so we could visit Starbucks and grab some lunch. Jonathan said parking would be to difficult to find, thus the reason we walked. Thankfully it wasn't too hot because that trek back up the hill was a killer. We managed to pick up another city mug for our collection at Starbucks and then headed to McDonald's. Did I mention that Switzerland is expensive?! We ordered 2 value meals, 1 happy meal and 1 extra fry for a horrifying amount of $30! Craziness for sure! We did however happily pay for some boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams at the grocery store for the kids to bring back. 

Basel Train Station

After lunch we made a quick stop at the cemetery which was located near the border intersection of three countries: France, Switzerland and Germany. 

The cemetery grounds were massive so we got in another good walk 

Karl Barth's grave

And finally we began our drive home. We had paid for a return passage through the Mont Blanc tunnel on the Italian/French border but didn't realise until later that our alternate route home would have us paying for a different tunnel pass on the Swiss/Italian border. We decided to loop back around Lake Geneva towards Geneva to return through the Mont Blanc pass.  

We came to this decision in Gruyère (yes, where the cheese is made). At the rest stop the painted cows made us think of Young's Jersey Dairy in Ohio.

With several more hours added to our trip back due to traffic we realised that we probably should have just coughed up the extra money to get home sooner. Oh well, the scenery didn't disappoint so it wasn't a complete waste of our time.

Our time away was brief but it was another memory made as a family and we are thankful for the all the amazing places we are able to visit here in Europe.