Italian class with Miss Ivana

I absolutely love Charlotte's (and Olivia's) Italian teacher, Miss Ivana. Not only is she a wonderful, kind-spirited, enthusiastic and entertaining person, she is a great teacher as well. Charlotte has been fortunate, as the only American in her grade, to have private one-on-one lessons with Miss Ivana every Thursday morning. I had been threatening to join them, and today -- now that my own course has finished -- I did. I really enjoyed speaking Italian with Charlotte -- especially with Miss Ivana as a mediator so Charlotte couldn't ridicule me. Charlotte really gets it. Her language skills are improving every week. I'm so happy for her that she has made so many Italian friends.

Afterwards, I finally went for my first Roman manicure, and my first manicure in 16 weeks! On the one "hand," I don't know why I waited so long; on the other "hand," it's nice to know I can survive and without a professional manicure every week. The girls at Unghie (Nails) were very nice and I plan to return -- afterall, I will need to get my toes ready for our vacation next week.

Josh and I had lunch and the rest of the afternoon was spent catching up on stuff. After school, Olivia had a birthday party to attend at the bowling alley. What a wonderful idea to have a bowling birthday party -- it was thrown for two boys in her class who have birthdays a few days apart -- with burgers and french fries for dinner BEFORE the cake! Olivia had a great time.