29/12: Stefano is born!

29 December 2011: Welcome Stefano!

5 days later than due date (but only 6 hours later comparing to my spreadsheet), Stefano came to life!
He was waiting 4 kg (8 pounds and 13) and he was the bigger of ours baby!
Mum and baby are fine and all of us are very happy.
Agnese, Rachele and Paolo gave him the warmest welcome at home!

21/10/2001 - 21/10/2011

10 Years anniversary!!!

21st October 2001

....

21st October 2011

..... and counting!

16/10: Natural History museum

On Sunday we paid a visit to the London Natural History museum.
Children found it very interesting and we did too.
The dinosaurs department was one of the most popular attractions, with T-Rex being the top hit.
The model was a real size one and it was moving so smoothly that it was very realistic.

Paolo was horrified and holding us very firmly wanted to go away from that room as soon as possible.
Rachele was much more diligent and she pretended everything was fine until when she was few meters close to the exit door: at that point she run away at full speed!
Agnese was fine and she took these pictures.

It was interesting to see dinosaurs eggs...
I wonder if anyone in history has every made a dinosaur-eggs omelette.

Agnese and Rachele standing in near a dinosaur skeleton... we did give up trying to get Paolo into a picture too...

They found very interesting the bird area too.

I saw a dodo, and I could picture very well these sailors being in sea for months and finding themselves in front of these big chicken like birds... no wonder they disappeared so rapidly.

The earth forces was quite good as well, including the earth quake simulation.

The girls found attractive also the geology area.

In particular (I do not wonder why), the precious stones section: a diamond is always a diamond for a woman... apparently even in the case where a woman is just 8... or 6...

Finally the big mammals area was amazing as well. In the back of the picture a big blue whale.

It was a very tiring day, but so nice and interesting!
Surely worthy!

21/9: Paolo starts at nursery

The 21st of September Paolo has started going every day at nursery.
Last year it was in a play group 3 times a week, now he is in a different one, and regular.
He seems to enjoy it so far...

28-29/8: Leicester

We spent a long week-end in Leicester, as an "end of summer vacation".

We had the chance of visit few attractions there.
First day we went to Conkers forest, a wood plenty of attractions for children.
They enjoyed most the "Enchanted forest", a play room with fairies... but also with spiders, creepy sounds and a troll!

In the picture (taken from Agnese) the train that would have taken us for a tour was coming.

We spent the evening in a very nice hotel with swimming pool.
The day after we went to the National Space Centre.
There were many interesting simulators to try and play with, in addition to other attractions.
A very enjoyable one was a particular 3d theatre: it consists of a 360 degrees planetarium style screen... it is like to be inside an half sphere and watch everything happening around you.

Obviously there were also satellites and a real rocket (in the picture).

Agnese (on the right) and Rachele (left) got caught under the rocket before it was leaving....

And finally Paolo landed on the Moon...

22/8: Novalia, a new working adventure begins!

Today I start my 4th job in 5 years of living in Cambridge.

Although it is not totally abnormal in here, it is a kind of extreme, or at least too much.

But it was a step to be done at this time and a challenge to be faced.

I join with enthusiasm and motivation to Novalia, leaving Telecommunications after 10 years and half.

"Hope it lasts!", commented Anna Maria... sharing a quite sensible thought!

In the picture... I enter into new world experience!

20/8: Wrest Park

We had a one day trip to Wrest Park, in Bedfordshire.

The weather wasn't really supportive as one would expect in a summer day, but between one shower and another one we managed to have a walk in the beautiful park and forest of the property.

17/8: Audley End

We have spent a day at Audley End.
English Heritage was running children & family activities during this week, with the theme: "Time travelers, World War II".

There were several stall where to learn about something specific about the World War II and also activities and games for the children.


Here Agnese is learning how to milk a cow (no, milk doesn't come straightly from supermarket).

Then it was time to run through a military training path... (oh don't forget to call him 'Sergent Major', or he would be disappointed).

In case you wonder, Agnese is the squashed blue thing inside the net.

Then was Rachele's turn. She was really worried:
"What should I call him?".
Sergent Major...

And finally into the chicken wire... but now the difficult bit was done: she managed to remember to call him Sergent Major!