From there, we went to Sage’s ballet performance of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She has been dancing at Stephanie Parrott’s school of dance in Burton. Sage did a great job as a snowflake and a butterfly. I wad really impressed with all the performers and the quality of the production.

This morning I awoke late to find that the girls had taken Derby out for his morning business and made breakfast including strawberry juice fresh from our own garden. They also made me a pair of shorts decorated with hand, foot, and even paw prints. A very nice way to start the day!

A happy Father’s Day to all the other fathers out there!

They use these tiny little bats.

River’s coach mentioned to me recently how much they will miss having her on the team next year.  We are sure proud of her and have enjoyed watching her play.

There was another match scheduled for today, but it was cancelled due to rain.  River was pretty disappointed, but I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to watching in the downpour.

Historically a mixture of Roman and Germanic cultures, the province of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol has a complicated history, passing from Austrian control to Italy after World War I.  More recently, the region has gained some autonomy under the Italian constitution.  The practical effects, for us, of these complicated historical contortions was that there was an interesting mixture of Germanic and Italian culture.  For instance, all public signs are posted in both languages.  Not really speaking any of either German or Italian, I was never quite clear which language to use when trying to communicate with people.

We stayed at this hotel in Versciaco/Vierschach.  We were very happy with the hotel.  It was clean and comfortable with almost a Scandinavian decor.  Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.

There was an indoor pool that connected to an outdoor pool through these sliding glass doors.  We generally played in the pool après ski.  There was also a game room and a cinema for the kids.

Perhaps my favorite part of the hotel was the food, which was superb.  Even better, though, I didn’t cook any of it.  For a whole week.  Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking, but it was great to have a holiday.  The kids loved it too, especially the Italian noodle soup which they devoured every night.   Exercising all day certainly left us with good appetites, though several nights Sage was so tired she didn’t want any dessert.

We found some time to relax in between ski and swim expeditions, though there was never quite enough time in the day.

Frequent buses ran from Versciaco/Vierschach to San Candido/Innichen.  We made several trips there to stock up on supplies and once to try the ski slopes just outside of the village.  This rococo cupola graced the top of a church in the main square of the town.

The skiing was great!  The weather was sunny and warm all week and though the snow at the bottom of the mountain was slushy by the end of the day, it was in great condition again by morning.  There was even several of inches of fresh snowfall a few nights.

The view from the top of the mountain was stunning.  The Dolomites could possibly be the most beautiful mountains in the world, as the climber Reinhold Messner claims.

The kids picked up skiing pretty quickly.  River had been once at Blandford in Massachusetts several years ago, but Sage had never tried it before.

We showed them the basic idea and then they joined the ski school each morning for a couple hours while Molly and I explored the mountain.  They soon made it up to the top where there where a number of nice, suitable runs.   By the end of the week, we had all gotten much better.  River even went down some of the most difficult black routes.  Then it was time for a break:

It was a wonderful holiday and we’re all looking forward to skiing in Vermont next winter!

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

The Can-Can

We had been learning Spanish in Massachusetts, but the kids have started French at Foremarke.  I think they were a bit put off at first switch languages, but they seemed to be more interested in French after our trip to France last summer.  I taught Sage this song last week when she was home sick.

Frere Jacques

Yesterday, I went to watch River’s second hockey match.  They played very well!  This video shows a bit of the game.  It’s not the most exciting bit of action that I filmed, but it does have River in it, so…

In other academic news, Sage was awarded a Golden Leaf for being gentle,

and River got an Academic Star for her work on adverbs.  These are excerpted from the Foremarke Flyer, a weekly newsletter that can be downloaded from Foremarke.

She was great and had a terrific time.  As we were leaving the pitch, she told me that she’d like to have a rugby party for her birthday.  She even got an award for “Best Newcomer” to bring home with her bag of party favors!

It was our first weekend home in quite some time and we spent some much needed time cleaning the house on Saturday.  Sage’s room was even rearranged.

On Sunday, River attended a laser tag birthday party with a barbecue afterward.   We had some friends from Molly’s work over for dinner on Saturday and again last night.  I’ve been enjoying cooking recently.  Although we were quite busy, it was a nice change of pace to be home for the weekend.

The kids both had special activities at school on Friday to kick off the long weekend. Sage and her classmates sold cakes for a cancer charity at the coffee morning. There was perhaps a surfeit of cakes; I managed to pick up a whole plate full at the end of the morning for the discounted price of £1.  They seemed to be having a great time and I know Sage was very proud of her own baking effort.

River played in a football tournament.  It was a fine day and everyone was most pleased to be outside in the sunshine.

I thought River played very well, especially considering that she doesn’t normally have the opportunity to play soccer.  I have to say that it irritates me that the girls don’t play soccer in England.  I can’t quite see why the school would choose to organize a tournament in a sport that half of the kids don’t play regularly.  In fact, 10 of the girls choose not to play because they didn’t feel comfortable enough.  The boys didn’t have this choice.  I would have preferred to see the tournament in field hockey, a sport played by both genders, if it isn’t possible to have girls playing soccer during P.E.

Anyway, enough ranting for now.  I am planning to speak to the head of the Lower School about my concerns at some point, though.  River was awesome.  She was very active and was in the right places at the right times and put an enormous amount of energy into the game.  Nonetheless, her team didn’t do particularly well, but they did manage to come away with a bronze medal.  She was very proud of herself!

On the way home, I was inspired to stop and take some pictures of the wheat fields where the hay has recently been baled.

I love these fields.  The golden color seems to glow in the sunshine and the regular cylindrical shape of the bales contrasts beautifully with the apparent randomness of the bales scattered around the fields.

River started playing hockey in PE. After school she’s taking tennis, netball, and swimming. She was interested in continuing drama and trying the science club, but those options were full. Maybe next term?

River played her first rounders match yesterday.   I was baffled by rounders at first.  It is a bit like baseball, but different.  Wikipedia has a nice description of rounders, if you’re interested in learning more about it.  I thought River played well, from my impartial perspective, but they lost by half a rounder.  I guess that means it was a close game?

We went to see our local premiership football club play yesterday. It was quite exciting, though a bit disappointing; They lost the match 0-4. It was a great experience with over 33,000 people in attendance to support their team. It was an important match for their opponent since they needed a win to stay in the Premier League.

Our local team was easily outplayed. I’d have thought the teams relatively evenly matched, but perhaps they didn’t put as much into the game as they might have, since their standing was not affected by the outcome?

We enjoyed hearing the chanting and singing that accompanies the match. It’s almost like a conversation between the players and the fans. After the match, the fans rushed the field, perhaps hoping to get a chance to get autographs or give the players advice? There was a face off between opposing fans, competing to see which could out-sing the other. River and Sage did their share of chanting to support their team.