I <heart> Venice. I definitely could have spent another few days there. As we were wandering around the last morning in Venice, I finally found a piece of art that I wanted to bring home with me. This will be arriving in a week or two!

Taking a boat to the airport is a pretty amazing way to travel.
This is the boat dock for the airport. 🙂

We got home Sunday night, and first thing Monday morning OUR AIR SHIPMENT FROM THE USA ARRIVED!!!! Two months + one day for something that should have taken 2 weeks…. Some things I was really happy to unpack were my clothes, shoes, the sports bags, Ziplock baggies (haven’t found anything comparable here), tupperware. Unfortunately Jay had to travel Tuesday-Thursday, so it took me until Sunday to get everything put away, but yay! It’s all here!

Happy to have my things. Dreading the work to figure out where to put it all.
Rental knives suck. I did a happy dance when I unpacked my Rada knives.
No more broken wine corks!!!! Thanks to the Kovar’s for coming to my rescue with a temporary corkscrew, but I love my little rabbit opener.
Lily had a busy week. All of the 5th graders at her school participated in Model United Nations (MUN) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. She was assigned Slovenia and was tasked with researching Women’s Rights in that country. She may or may not have heard “Slovakia”, which is not the same as Slovenia, and didn’t realize her mistake until she received her name tag on Day 1. Ha! She used what she had and talked about Slovakia. It was a good learning opportunity for her to take good notes.
I also had a busy week. In addition to unpacking our air shipment, the school dance was on Friday so I had to wrap up last minute decorations. I loaded up my car and spent Friday afternoon with an amazing group of ladies (and the school maintenance guy) pulling together a beautiful winter garden theme in about 3 hours. I love a good challenge, especially one that lets me flex my creativity muscles.
This beautiful mama, Shane, was the mastermind behind the event. She had the vision. I helped execute.
Lily was able to help with some of the last minute decorating before the doors opened up. She was excited!
For a second you might be able to forget that you are in a school gym.
The photo booth was a hit, and the bar area was busy all evening.
I made these giant tissue paper flowers (times two – some around the other door). It was an inexpensive way to make a statement. And fun to make! Thank goodness for Pinterest.
The dance floor was packed, the children were smiling and laughing, the parents busted out their best moves. I’d say it was a success!
Oh yeah, cutting a rug with my mini-me!!!

I mentioned that Jay had a work trip this week. He visited Stadtlohn, Germany and Arc Les Gray, France. It sounds like he had a productive trip, met new people, and saw some different towns.

Ty had the worst week. His Italian souvenir was the flu, and it knocked him down hard for a solid week. I haven’t seen him that sick in a long time. He pretty much laid in bed and made a few appearances downstairs. He finally seemed like he was nearly back to normal by Friday afternoon.

Our weekend was pretty low key. I spent Saturday morning at the school cleaning up after the dance. Lily had her final day of MUN and then a slumber party on Saturday night, and Ty had a friend over. Sunday we were all pretty tired, so we laid low. Sorry I don’t have anything more exciting than normal life to share for this weekend!