Scratch, The Dog

Did I ever tell you about Scratch? He's my dog. When he's happy, he snarls. Like this:

Isn't that charming!?

Did I ever tell you about how he got his name? If I did, here it is again. It was one day after school and we went out to the car. I noticed in the car that we were going a different way so I asked where we were going. They my grandparents said: "Didn't you want a dog?"

Then when I got there, it took me an hour to decide. And then I saw him--a cute, adorable, small puppy who was very wiggly by the way Then we went outside and the sales person wanted to take our picture. My grandmother was holding the puppy and I was standing right next to her. Then the puppy scratched me on the lip and it started bleeding. So then I was crying and said: "I know what I am calling him." So that's how he got his name--SCRATCH.

A HAIKU

Scratch is a puppy.

Scratch is such a cute puppy.

And he is squirmy

That's all the time I have for today, folks. Bye.

The First Week

It was horrible!! Just kidding. It was really good and I hope summer never comes. Actually, I do hope it comes; otherwise, I wouldn't see Camilla.

The first week of school was really fun because my teacher is fun and she makes learning fun. This year I have Mrs. Johnson. We all did a lot of laughing about the planet Uranus because it sounded like your anus. Mrs. Johnson was laughing, too. And then we read that Uranus is very cold and windy and may be poisonous to humans and its a gasseous planet. That is so funny! Get it?

Also the first week, on the last day, wasn't so good. Someone teased me about me liking someone and I got mad. I got unmad because my 3 friends, Jordan, Sammy and Dorothy, got a purple puppet and came over to me and said "I'm Mister Purple" and then I started laughing and got addicted to that puppet. Then I was all better. The rest of the day was very fun.

This week I also went to my first baseball practice for Fall Ball. It was a lot of fun. My coach is one of my best friend's dad. I also went to karate 3 times and my friend Ryan Willweber came over to swim and I had an Italian lesson. I had a really fast week and busy, too.

Today I went to Soak City with my Uncle Jeff--the best uncle in all the world. Soak City is a water park. I had a lot of fun going on water slides. There's also a pool that waves come when you hear an alarm. The waves hit you and when you're on a tube they can knock you over.

I'll tell you what happened to me. My uncle pushed me into the wave and when it hit me I went flyyyyyyying off my tube. I almost landed on a guy. Good thing I didn't.

Here's Uncle Jeff and me getting ready to go to Soak City.

Gotta be going now, Bye

Back to School Time

It's almost time to go back to school. I got a new backpack and new shoes. My feet are bigger than my gramma's. Here's a picture of me ready to go back to school.


I'm not sure who my teacher is going to be this year but it is probably going to be Mrs. Johnson. If you're not good in her class, she says she's going to hang you from the fan and spin you on high. I was in her class for math last year but she doesn't really hang people from the fan, she just says so. She wanted to hang someone but she couldn't or she wouldn't be a teacher anymore. This is my last year in elementary. Next year I'm going to middle school.

Since I've been home from Italy, I've played with my friends, been baptized and had a sleep over party. I didn't get any sleep that night because I was watching TV. I was the only one awake in the house and nobody else heard the TV. Then in the morning, Tyler woke up because Kurt was snoring and so Tyler woke Kurt up.

I also had another kid over the next morning to go swimming. His name is Ryan. The four of us had a lot of fun.

Here's all four of us in the spa.

I can't wait till school starts.

Well, gotta be going now. See you later, bye.

Bye Italia—Hello San Diego

Today we’re leaving Italy and going back home. I can’t wait to get home although it is sort of sad leaving Camilla. Waa-waa-waa waa waa. I can’t wait to see Scratch and my Uncle Jeff and my friends.

I have a big day coming up when we get home. It’s my baptism. My friend Uncle Benny is going to baptize me at the beach or should I say in the bay. And also it’s going to a picnic/barbecue.

The last thing we did in Italy was a get-together with my good friends, Judith, Barb and Art, Mary, Rita and Lina and new friends Maurizio, Rhian and Michele. Rhian is from Wales but she lives in London. She’s a professional cellist and plays with Elton John and other rock stars. I had fun with Rhian. We went swimming and we played the Nintendo WII.

Rhian and Me

Barb, Art and Me

Judith and Me

Mary and Me

Oops—it’s now 4 days later. I’ve been sick and so I couldn’t finish this. Sorry for the wait, folks. I had the stomach flu and slept 20 hours out of 24 for three days. And today I’m better.

Today’s the party for the Benatti’s and I can’t wait for tomorrow because I have my baptism. Baptism means showing everybody that you love God and that He’s your Savior.

This is my Uncle Benny. He’s a missionary. This was taken several years ago when I was little.

By the way, I’m bald now. I don’t have my mohawk anymore.

Well, see you later folks.

Lara

Last Friday my first Italian tutor came to Fattoria Viticcio. Her name is Lara. She was my tutor in San Diego when I was first learning Italian before we went to Italy. She lives in Mantova now. And she came a long way to visit us. I really like her. I had fun with her because we went swimming and played soccer and frisbee. Camilla liked her, too.

Me and Lara.

When she was my tutor she was really good. She made it fun to learn and made it less scary to move to Italy.

She gave me a cool constellation thing that shows and tells the names of the constellation. I don't have batteries yet so I don't know what it does. I am really interested in scientific stuff like that.

That day Valentina came to meet her. Valentina came because they were both my tutors and both really good ones. Both made learning fun.

Lara and Valentina

Laura was really surprised about my Italian because when she taught me I didn't know one single word except ciao, spaghetti, pizza, lasagna and pasta. My mom thinks if you say pizza or any name of food they're speaking Italian.

We all went to the piazza together. For her it was interesting. But it's not as pretty because it's a parking lot now. I really appreciated that she came. Thank you, Lara

Gotta go. Bye

Why I Don’t Want to Leave Italy

You know why I don’t want to leave Italy? Here’s a list.

Camilla, Camilla, Camilla

I don’t want to leave Camilla because she’s my sister. And she’s really fun to play with. She’s fun to play with because she doesn’t like a lot of girl things. She doesn’t even like Barbie. She likes to play with stuffed animals, go outside and play and go swimming, like any normal girl.

We built a little house outside and we play in there a lot. We built it out of wine barrels, wood pallets, tarps and thick wooden sticks on top. We watched my DVD in there and then we went back in the house. Then it rained and I remembered I left my DVD player out there. When I went to get it, I got shocked. Good thing I didn’t get hit by lightening!

This Is Our House

I also like her because we talk a lot and never stop. When I stay at their house, every night Alessandro has to come in and tell us to go to sleep and stop talking. He says “shhh. Sono le dieci. Dormiti.” That means: shh. It’s ten o’clock. Go to sleep.

I also like her because we never fight or argue or anything. And, she’s pretty.

The Scenes, The Scenes, The Scenes

I also don’t want to leave Italy because of the beautiful scenes. You don’t see anything like this in any other country. That’s why I really like Italy. When it’s turning dark, the clouds turn a pinkish, orangish, reddish color and it’s so pretty.

And from our house that we built we could see a big view but now we can’t because there’s a bunch of wooden sticks in the front but we can still get to it.

The vines are really pretty. One of the most beautiful places was Campastrello. It was pretty because there were vines and a big pretty sky and there were really tall mountains with green on them.

The Whole Landini Family

I am going to miss my whole Landini family plus Sara. They are all nice and fun. Alessandro makes mozzarella in carroza which is fantastico. He also makes hamburgers fantastico. He’s fun because he plays with me. Same with Nicoletta.

Signora Franca is a really good cook. I always like her food. She is really nice to me, too.

Sara’s not a Landini but she’s still really nice. She really likes chocolate especially chocolate chip cookies. My grandma makes her the cookies. They are the best chocolate chip cookies other than the ones Barbara gave me.

Finally, I Will Just Miss Everything About Italy

I really don’t want to leave but I’m coming back next year for 4 weeks. That’s the good thing.

Gotta Go, Bye

Per Casey Da Gramma

We saw this dog yesterday and thought of you--wonder why?

Isn't he cute?

We miss you lots. Do you miss us or are you having just too much fun?

See you in a week.

Lots of love,
Gramma and Papa

Hodge Podge

Hi Everybody, I just got back from Garda, Como and Milan. We were only in Milan for two days. I went there to see the duomo, see the Last Supper and meet a lady named Sylvia who is really funny.

The duomo was pretty boring but huge. And we went on the roof of it and it was really, really, really high. I thought I might fall. The roof was really fancy but not colorful. It was white with a lot of carvings and gargoyles.

The next day we went to see the Last Supper. And it was really cool considering I like Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings and stuff. It was cool because the walls looked like they were going back like an actual house. It’s a painting of when Jesus had his last supper with his disciples until he was crucified.

The best part was Sylvia. I thought she was going to be serious adult like person but she wasn’t serious at all. She was fun and made me laugh by doing tongue twisters but in Italian and really funny things like in a picture sticking her tongue out. Here’s her picture doing that.

She also brought me two books. One of them was the first book she ever read. I’m looking forward to reading it. It’s in Italian, of course because she is Italian but speaks English. She’s lady Mark Twain—or should I say Alice Twain. She uses that name sometimes. Thank you Sylvia for the books.

Here at Viticcio I have a friend from last year who’s back. Her name is Caro. She’s from Belgium. She’s really nice and fun to play with.

This is Caro and Me. See My Cone Nose?

Caro Is A Lot of Fun

I’m not going to be writing for a while because my grandparents are not going to be here. I’m staying with Camilla. My grandparents are going to Croatia. I won’t have a computer to blog on. But don’t forget about me.

Gotta go, Bye.

Harder Than Cats and Dogs

Two days ago we went to Switzerland. When we go there, we had trouble finding parking but when we did, we went to the waterfront of Lugano and got on a little tram. This is me sitting on the front of it. I got to drive it—just kidding. The tram took us on a round trip around Lugano. There were a lot of obnoxious people on the tram, talking loud, loud. Then my gramma said “Can you get any louder?” And they got louder. I was glad when we got off the tram.


The lake was really pretty. There was a big fountain shooting water up high. I wish I were on top of it so that I could fly. Then I was so hungry that we went to Burger King and I had a crispy chicken burger and chunky fries except my grandparents ate most of the fries.

When we went back to the car, we drove to a really cool chocolate factory but it was a holiday so they weren’t working. We went in the museum that they had and saw some chocolate things that looked good. You know how burglars break in and steal precious things? This time they are going to break in and eat precious things.

We saw a video on making the chocolate. I’m eating some of the chocolate right now. It’s white chocolate and it’s good. Then we went into the store and bought some chocolate—a big package with a bunch of chocolate bars and a separate bar for my Uncle Jeff and Tommy chocolate bears for my friend Tommy.They gave a way a lot of nice samples. It was all good except the dark chocolate.

There was a red and white cow out in front of the museum. And here it is.


On the way back it was pouring rain harder than cats and dogs—just like the title. Good thing my papa was a good driver. I was so scared but I didn’t panic. There was thunder and lightening and dark grey clouds. It also hailed a lot. We were in the mountains and so it was especially dangerous.


So we got home and then later when I was going to bed, I looked outside and there was a huge flash of lightening. It went kachow! And it went all night.

Gotta go, bye.

My Gardaland Adventure

Monday I went to a place sort of like Disneyland but not as big. It is called Gardaland. It is really cool. I have been really wanting to go there. Back at Fattoria Viticcio I played a game called Gardaland and now I have actually been there.

I wanted to have either Camilla or Tommaso come with me but they couldn’t. So at first I said “then I’m not going.” But we went and I ended up having fun with my grandparents instead. It was a good family fun day.

The first ride we went on was called Ikarus. My grandpa went on it with me but my gramma was a scaredy cat. It was a really cool ride that spun around and went up in the air. Here’s a movie when Papa and I were on it.

One of my favorite rides was 793. First it lifted you up in the air and then dropped you about 130 miles per hour. I felt like I was going to die. Gramma didn’t go on that one either.

My most favorite was the Magic House. It is so strange I can’t even describe it. I don’t know if we were moving or the walls. My gramma went on that one. She fell off but me and my grandpa didn’t. Just kidding because if she fell off she’d get squashed by the ride.

The second one was Fuga da Atlantide. We got really wet on that one.

But my favorite of all of them, of all of the rides, was Tunga—just kidding. That was the worst one cuz we were going one kilometer per hour and all it was was mechanical machines that made noise while we were on the boat. I used to think that It’s a Small World at Disneyland was bad. It still is bad but not as bad as Tunga.

My actual favorite was Mammut which means mammoth. I liked that because it was a ride where you went up, down, around and sideways but no upside down. I felt like I was going to fly out back. The trouble with that one was that the line was super long.

The other things I liked weren’t rides at all. We saw several shows. One was a Gormiti one. Another was Hollywood Dreams. At the beginning there was a teenager singing Hollywood Dreams that’s still going through my mind. We also saw a really cool ice skating show. One guy could actually do a back flip on the ice and not fall down.

The best show was Tornedo di Camelot. The announcer of it was a donkey. Here he is.

In the show at the beginning there were two knights—red and yellow. We were on the yellow side and so we were cheering for him and he won. Then he had to fight the evil skull champion and he won again. He pretended to cut the bad guy’s head off—snap!

We finally got home thirteen hours later and got a good night’s sleep.

This was me shooting. I had a very high score. It was really fun. Bye, Bye