Tim and Jo Edwards visit, and lots of short holidays

Sorry its been awhile, late March we had Tim and Jo Edwards come through Bologna to visit while travelling to Cinque Terra, Rome , Venice and London. It was great to have them stay with us, and get back to having a caffe with Tim, something we did many times in Melbourne. The boys also enjoyed it, as Tim told them about their son Nick and Melbourne Grammar , where they will go soon.
Its always interesting to have friends from Aust come, as it reminds you of home, and you also realize the difference of life, and how we have grow to adopt the life of Italy, and l guess will find it strange when we return one day.
Jayne had her birthday on the day they left, so sadly after l mucked up the dates they missed out on her party here, which was a terrific night, with about 40 people coming along, lots of drinking and dancing, always good to see the Italians taking on some of the Australian habits.
Since then, life has been difficult, with Hunter not being the easiest child to be with, he has now quit soccer, sadly, but we sort of understand as the kids at the club are not friendly and really dont make you feel welcome, and the coaches dont seem to do anything about that culture. Soon he will start tennis, which Ewan has been doing, and doing very well, he plays a solid game, serving and hitting back consistently, and sometimes with incredible pace. He plays with kids much bigger than him, and always steps up to the challenge, but with his usual laid back attitude.
Hunter just had a visit to a specialist, as he has for 6 months complained about his shoulder and hips, it seems he has some issue re developement of bones, and so is highly flexible, so throwing a ball is not good at them moment, and possibly later on he may need an operation, it may have been set off by kicking the soccer ball, and skiing, when he fell over on his shoulder.
Jayne is singing away all the time, and enjoying it immensely, the teachers daughter Katerina, is becoming a babysitter for us, allowing Jayne and l to go to Asolo last weekend, and may be coming with us to Umbria in July. A few weeks ago we went to London for a few days and had another girl, Janna and American look after the boys, so its been good to have sometime to ourselves and get away from the boys, which l think is good for them as well.
Ewan is enjoying school alot, and has made some good friends, though he does not really catch up with them in the weekend, Hunter has not as many friends, but is well liked at the school, though he does not enjoy it as much.
This weekend is open day, and the boys will be aiding in showing off what they have learnt to prospective parents, Hunter is in science, dissecting a plant, and Ewan is playing the piano and some other things.
The boys are becoming very annoying with their apparent love with technology, and all we hear is that they need an iphone 5+ or 6, a laptop. And the play station has now been put away, and their itouchs have also been put away, and only brought out for certain times on the weekend. What of course makes it hard, is that every kid at the school seems to have an iPhone etc.
A couple of weekends ago we visited Le Marche for a long weekend, near the town Saverno, the boys loved it, as it was in the hillside and there was a dog to play with, we had a grewat time visiting the towns around the area.

Mice

Salerno under moonlight

In Salerno