The zoo charges you admission if you are over 1 meter.  Damn those tall genes!

Look at this poor girl.

She had a very, very upsetting lunch that day.

Someone, it seems, took a bite out of all the sandwiches.

THERE HE IS!  Somebody must stop this sandwich hooligan, before he makes more little girls cry.

We decided we needed a couple of pictures...

to prove we went to Rome.

So here is V making a heart for all of you, in the Piazza del Popolo.

Who needs playgrounds?

You can just let your kid climb the 300 year old gate!  Fun for everyone!

Back at the homestead...

Jonas tries out my sneaky "chocolate cupcakes" (:cough: zucchini :cough:)

This is me, trying to show you all how *not* sneaky they are -you can see all kinds of squiggly zucchini pieces in them.  Jonas called them "germs" - as in "I don't WANT a cupcake with GERMS in it!"

But the camera won't focus on the damn muffin - it's trying to show me what's happening in the background there.

Maybe I should have taken the hint.  Check out the progression from photo #1 (Boobah getting out of his seat) to photo #3 (Boobah helping himself to another muffin, looking up to make sure I didn't notice.  He took one bite out of 7 different muffins before I noticed.)

Excuse me!

What the heck is this?  You can't be old enough for this, can you?  I mean - don't you at least need help with the mouse?

Hmm.  Nope.  Who knew?

Question - how do you let little kids decorate a pumpkin without giving them access to the steak knives?

Answer - pumpkin painting!

Yes, Jonas did his painting in the buff.  What?

This one chose to be a bit more covered - a paint shirt and undies.  Perfect.

They really got into this.

We intended to eventually carve them, but they looked so cute we left them like this till Halloween.

Voila!  (I have no comment to make on Joe's masterpiece there.  The man is just mean.)

Hey girls!  Where are you going?

WAIT FOR ME!

Aaaaah, Italy. 

Oh, well.  It's inflated enough for fun!

What do you mean, too little?  I can totally climb that sucker!

This one is completely capable of standing still for 20 min while a professional paints her face.

Dad?  Where's Jonas?  (Yes, I know these are out of order.  I have this need to make the page symmetrical.  That means if I have one vertical pic and two horizontal ones, the vertical MUST go in the middle.  Even if it is out of chronological order.  I blame Joe for infecting me with his OCD.)

Jonas?  Oh, he's across the field, in that bouncy house.  I'm pretty sure.

I love love love this pic of the Twink. She hates it.  "Use the one where I'm SMILING!"

So you get this one, too.  It's not bad, but it's not as good as the first one.  No matter what V says.

The clown made the boys some balloon swords.

Which immediately led to a balloon sword fight.

Where Jonas tried to beat Joe to death with the handle of his sword. Good times.

Before her balloon flower popped.

After her balloon flower popped (time between pics - approx. 26 seconds.)

Mom.  I'm looking at this giant inflatable ladder, and I'm thinking I can totally handle it.

And up he goes!

See!  That wasn't so bad.  Now, where are those big inflatable punching bags...

I introduce the kids to the most worthless food on the planet.

It's love at first bite for my Twink.

WHERE has this BEEN all my life?

Umph mmph humph.

Mmmm.  So good.

I can feel the sugar rushing STRAIGHT to my brain!

And... then the brain shuts down.  Look at the eyes - nobody home.

Jonas is too fascinated by the balloon animal guy to be bothered by the weird fuzzy candy.

Which works for V - check out the drugged-sugar-coma look on her here.

Seriously!  Why would I want to eat that stuff?  It looks like dryer lint!

In one of my finest parenting moments, I attempt to force some cotton candy into his mouth so he can see that it really is yummy, if a bit fuzzily off-putting.

He refuses to open up.  Whaaaaaaaaaaaat is that guy making NOW?  The twisting of balloons into swords and dogs and flowers... it's AMAZING!

Oh, are you kidding me?

I love this clown.

And the one that made him the hat, too. ;)

Trying to get every last molecule of sugar off the stick.

Is anyone else really, really alarmed by how happy he looks holding that club?

What do you mean I can't have another cotton candy?

But.. but... I want more!  Please!  It's my very favorite in the world!  I need mooooooooore!

We will now end with this happy picture from about 30 min. before the cotton candy was every introduced.  Violet and her friend Josie.  Both with butterfly faces, both with balloon flowers, both happy.  What we ended with was a four year old slung over Joe's shoulder, screeching for more sugar, as we jogged to the car. This parenting gig is not all fun and games.

What the

Are you kidding me?

V came out of her room with these little jewels stuck on her face.

She said "I knew you would say no to make-up today..."

"and I still wanted to look fancy and sparkly."  That's my Twink - figuring out ways to get around my crazy "No makeup on the four year old" rules.

This was going to be a picture of two cars sharing a lane at a red light, but by the time the camera woke up they had started moving and it wasn't as good.  But while they were stopped? Right next to each other, in the same lane.  Ridiculous.

That one didn't work out so good - how about this one?  I think there's supposed to be 3 lanes here, but I can't really tell.  Please note the person double parked, unloading their car, in the middle of all this.  Love. Naples.

Mom.  This is boring.  We're on this (double-decker-open-topped) bus to look at touristy stuff - not take pictures of the traffic.)

Look.  You've bored Dad and Jonas so much they fell asleep!

Ooh!  There's a castle!  Quick, take a picture of me in front of it - that'll perk up the website! Everyone loves a princess and castle!

Trying to get a picture of V's Halloween outfit, but I'm having problems...

Ok, I *almost* got her whole head in this one.  Can't. Hold. Camera. Still....

And here we have the problem.  You try taking pictures with this climbing on your arm.

What is she laughing at?

Ah.  She does appreciate political satire.

Jonas and I woke up nice and early to do Madam's make-up for her school Halloween party.

Jonas got really into it. (Either that, or he thought I was talking to him when I said "Eyes closed!"

OOooh!  That powder brush is tickly!

See you in November!  You betcha!