Happy Valentine's Day

My boys picked me up from my haircut this morning with a gorgeous red rose. This rose puts a whole new meaning to the term "long-stemmed." Not only is the stem over a meter long, but the flower itself is enormous! I have noticed that while the flowers from the stalls are pricier here than at home, they certainly do last a long time.

After dropping me off earlier in Piazza del Popolo, Josh and Avery were on a mission to find an open grocer (it's Sunday). It took several stops to find one. The good news is that on Sunday, you can drive all of Rome in less than 10 minutes because NO ONE is out on the roads. Even at the hairdresser, they complimented me on my dedication to charity (today's proceeds were being donated to a children's shelter in Haiti) for getting up and making a 10am appointment. 10AM? I have three kids, who's in bed at 10am?

Much of the rest of the day we spent getting ready, packing and organizing for our ski trip. We had brought a whole separate wardrobe to Rome for each of us, just for this week of skiing. The Alps have not escaped the recent European cold-snap and it has snowed quite a bit. But, unfortunately, it is cold! I hope I can adjust?!?

This afternoon, we all went to AquAniene to cheer for Charlotte. We have become very spoiled with these swim meets so close to home (2km). Since we can drop Charlotte off for her warm-up, and then just show up in time for her events, it has cut down a tremendous amount on the time we've had to spend on swim meets. And the team organizes lodging and transportation for any "away" meets. It's really quite fabulous -- both for Charlotte and for us. At the pool, Avery and Olivia ran around so much they worked up quite a sweat. Charlotte swam her best time in the 200 IM; in fact she dropped 2 seconds. But she was off a bit in her 100 Breast. We were at AquAniene from 5pm (she swam her first race at 5:30pm so we were a little early), and we left just after 6pm. Between events, the day's soccer and rugby matches are shown on the TVs in the lobby and in the cafe, so the parents (especially the men) are well-entertained. Oftentimes, during swim meets, the cafe serves up a big bowl of popcorn -- Olivia and Avery were excited about that.

We had our Valentine's Day family dinner at home. Last night was our big night out for Valentine's -- and I enjoyed that with Josh and Charlotte at Pariolina. Now the mad dash to pack begins in earnest. It always seems that the pressure of leaving the next morning, outweighs the logic and leisure of packing ahead of time. It's not like we needed our ski clothes around Rome these past few weeks!