Cousins: Dog-piling and Panda-piling

Cousins: this morning in Brooklyn

We went to a dinner this morning for breakfast and Alex carried Sadie on his back all the way there - 8 blocks! These two are thick as thieves they are.

Cousin Visit

Blah blah blah blah COUSINS!

PARK! 

THIS! 

HOORAY! 

Cousin Time!

Cousin Alex and Grandma Vicki are in town! They will be joined by Brianna, Ben, and Lauren on Monday, but for now Sadie is enjoying games of memory and piggyback rides with her eldest first cousin.

Buddies

These two!!!!!

Special Sadie Day

At Sadie's school, the kids who have summer birthdays get a "Special Day" at some point near the end of the year. Tuesday was Sadie's. Everyone in her class wrote really sweet cards. I came with cupcakes and read a story to the class.
Sawyer stole the show and proved he's ready for school!

ROME: Day 8 - LAST DAY!

Our last day in Rome came too soon.  But, happily, we woke up on the morning of that last full day and agreed that there was nothing on our "must do/see" list that we needed to squeeze in.  Instead, we made our last day in Rome a greatest hits day.  
We ate pastries for breakfast and then strolled off in our favorite direction - toward the Tiber.

This kid is an amazing traveller.  AMAZING!

We admired some inventive graffiti.

  

We posed for photos.

And this guy is an impossible source of joy.  He seemed to be cheerful more than any other member of the team.  

Sadie got in some last minute climbing.

Obviously, we went back to the Testaccio market and tried some new stuff: chicken cacciatore sandwich; shredded beef with stewed peppers sandwich; orecchiette with asparagus, pecorino, olive oil and pepper (pecorino, olive oil and pepper is a classic Roman preparation called "caccio e pepe"; fresh ricotta & lemon ravioli with sage and butter; breaded, fried artichokes and lamb chops (seriously! lamb chops! I didn't mean to order them - I thought I was just getting the artichokes, but I pointed at what the person in front of me had ordered because it looked so good, not realizing there were magically delicious lamb chops lurking in the big paper cone it came in); some fancy bitter ginger sodas; and gelato for dessert!

I LOVE THAT MARKET!!!

After lunch, we walked to a playground in Testaccio that we had passed on our first trip to the market.  It had pretty much the same vibe as our 3rd St. playground here in Park Slope.  But for the fact that all the parents were speaking Italian, we could have been at home.

We walked back to Trastevere across a new bridge this time.

We stopped for pastries and Sawyer fed me.

I hope people think this kid bears some resemblance to me because I think he's beautiful!

 And we just generally walked around and kept it simple.

So, that's it.  We had a babysitter that night (the daughter of one of V's high school teachers who is in a graduate program in Rome).  We had a thoroughly forgettable dinner at a brewery (we should have known better than to eat hamburgers in Italy - but whatever).  Then we took a nice walk up to the Vatican where we admired Piazza San Pietro at night.
And that was that.

It was a pretty perfect vacation.