I'm back home

Hey everyone I'm back home to Fattoria Viticcio. The first day when we got here we saw my friend Tommaso's parents at the coop. Then I went and got to see Tommaso. Here is a picture of him and me.

Then after we went to my home at Fattoria Viticcio. When we passed the sign that said Greve in Chianti I started singing, "I'm home , I'm home." I was so excited and I'm happy to be home.

At first, I didn't even want to leave San Diego but now I'm not leaving here. Oh, that's just like when I lived here for a year.

I've had a lot of fun here. Like three days ago, Camilla's family and I went to Aqua Village, a water park not quite like Soak City but fun. All the slides are fun but one. All go super fast down but there is one that goes super slow cause kids aren't heavy enough, I guess.

Camilla's more grown up this year but we still play like we always used to except with the balloons. There was no balloons this time.

We play with Happy Mais which is fun to make things with. I can even make a bike--very small bike. Here's a picture of penguins on the bikes.


Camilla and I have had so much fun on a donut in the pool. The donut is a green inflatable device that can carry you throughout the pool. Acutally, not that complicated.

I got to see my old tutor that I really like--Valentina. She did a lot of nice things for us. She gave us things and I got a really cool Leonardo da Vinci calendar. I'm Leonardo da Vinci's greatest fan. Next Thursday we're going to go to dinner with her and Ricardo.


The first night at Fattoria Viticcio, Signora Franca fixed her delicious, wonderful, unbeatable lasagna. That's Camilla's grandma. We all ate together like a family.

Signora Franca

Yesterday was the most amazing thing. It was so hot and muggy. We went to Castellina to get gelato and we ended getting two it was so good.

Well, that's all I have to say peoples. See you later.

da Casey

Sant' Antonio

We're at Sant' Antonio right outside of Montepulciano in Italy, but, too bad we're leaving tomorrow. It's nice here. I've been coming here since I was 4. I love it here. Tomorrow we're going someplace else that also I love, Fattoria Viticcio.

I have two special friends here as you've known before--Sofia and Filippo.


Lately Filippo has been making me laugh, hard-hard-hard. I've been having a great time. Sofia and I get along very well and we laugh together. When I first came to Sant' Antonio we couldn't talk to each other. But, now, as you know, I speak Italian so we can talk with each other. And Sofia's doing a good job speaking her English. When Sofia and I are talking, she wants to talk in English and I want to talk in Italian--what, cosa, chi, who.

Two nights ago there was a big dinner here for all the guests that are staying here. It was really fun. The kids had pizza, pasta, meat and dessert. There's a lot of kids here from different countries but we all manage to communicate with sign language. Some speak English, some speak Danish.

We haven't been driving anyplace when we were here. We just stay here and relax and I get to play with Sofia and Filippo and other children. And everything you see is beautiful.

Yesterday I played with Sofia and Filippo all day. At lunch with them, Filippo made us all laugh. Then after lunch their cousin Olivia came. She's coming again today. We played hide and seek.

Then we went to Sofia's grandfather's palazzo--a really big house, a mansion basically, that's about 400 years old--in Sarteano. It seems about as big as a football field times two because of the upper deck. The ceilings have amazing frescos on them.

There were two boxer dogs and the female had puppies. They are so cute. There's one that looks like a baby Sofia's dog named Caio. I really want to take one home with me but we can't.

Then we all went to dinner and had fun and played. And then we came home and went to bed. It was almost midnight.

Here's a slide show of all that stuff I just wrote about.




See you in Greve.

A France Mountain Adventure

Last week in France we were in Moustiers and we went in the car for a ride in the mountains. There were several places to stop and each stop we saw something new.

The first stop we saw a beautiful view along with a little black bird. I took this picture of it.


The second stop we saw a rock climber. It was very interesting (but unfortunately we forgot to take a picture.) I was worried that the rock climber was going to fall but then my grandpa told me that the ropes that were tied on to her would keep her from falling. Then I stopped worrying. When she finally got back to the top after walking slowly down backwards, everyone that was watching cheered and clapped. Then finally we took off to our next destination.

The third stop we saw eagles. They were pretty. Through the binoculars you could see every detail of their feathers, their whole wings--just every part of their bodies. I thought they were amazing as they gracefully soared through the air. Then we spotted stairs to go down a spot on the mountain where you could see things better. My grandpa and I went down and I saw my second eagle. We tried to take some pictures of them, but all we got was this but it's still beautiful.


Here's a picture my grandpa took of my grandma and me. For some strange reason, my gramma doesn't like this picture.

On the way home we got really low on gas. I was scared half way to death--that's what I used to say when I was small. But what I say know is "I was scared half to death." If we ran out of gas on those mountains, there was no chance of getting back home. Good thing we made it to a gas station.

If you ever go to Moustiers, I hope you get to do and not do something of these things.

And now, I'm in Italy. I'll be posting soon.

Bye--Everyone

Eleven

I’m eleven now. This year I had my birthday in France. I can’t remember the last time I had my birthday at home in San Diego. One year I had it in Miami, Florida on our way home from Ecuador and the Amazon jungles. I had two BIG birthdays in Italy and now France.

I woke up really early because I was excited for my birthday. My lazy grandparents wouldn’t wake up so I got dressed, went into the room and poked gramma to wake her up. She made me go back to bed and then I waited some and got back up and poked gramma again. She woke up and said it was too early to be up and so I played my DS some.

Finally they got up—hallelujah—and when we were all out of bed, they had presents for me. The first one was a Harry Potter DVD, the second was a bird watching book about birds in the United States and the third a book called Seekers that I was really, really wanting. It’s about bears going on a quest. I also got a tech deck. It is perfect for Provence because it has flies and bugs on it and there are a lot of those in here.

Then we went down to one of Kevin and Elizabeth’s wonderful breakfasts. Before we ate, Kevin brought me a fax and from my good friend Shannon. It said happy birthday and it had a gift certificate for a restaurant in San Diego called the Vine for a pasta I really like and a lava cake dessert. Thanks once again Shannon for the gift. I’ve never gotten a fax before.

After that we had a normal breakfast. Then, Kevin came out with a raspberry torte with Joyeux Anniversaire, Casey written in chocolate and two candles, representing eleven. Then the other guests, my grandparents, Kevin and Elizabeth sang Happy Birthday. The torte was very delicious. It was very nice of them to do that.

This is Keven and Elizabeth

The day before when I went out to play tennis with Kevin and Thomas (Thomas is Kevin’s son), we stopped at the bakery for some strange reason. Now I know why.

At night we went out to a nice restaurant for my birthday dinner and I got another surprise. Kevin called the lady in charge of the restaurant and told her it was my birthday so when they brought dessert it said happy birthday on it and they said happy birthday to me.

A couple days earlier when we were in Nice, it was special to have an early birthday with my Uncle Benny and Aunt Joyce who are just like family and I love them. And I get to see them when I get back home because they’re going on vacation in San Diego.

I can’t wait to get to Italy. See you there.

Bye, Everyone.

4th of July in France

This blog entry is for People to People. It's the 4th of July and I'm in France.

I'm writing this because everyone who is part of People to People is supposed to write a blog entry or something about where they are on the 4th of July.

Everybody has a 4th of July but only the United States has 4th of July for our independence.

I'm part of People of People because my teacher nominated me for it. It is a leadership program where only student leaders who are nominated get to go. I'm going October 12, 2009 to Washington D.C. for a week. And this time I'm lucky, I'm going by myself. No grandparents taking care of me. I'm really looking forward to it. I can't wait.

Tomorrow's my birthday and I'm going to be eleven. Wow! That was fast. It seems like yesterday I was just in pre-school. Amazing.

Here is a picture of me in Arles, France.