preparing halloween

Today at Lidl stores Halloween products have come out on sale and as we want to buy them we have reachede the store early at 9.30 while Momochan was inside kindergarden.
Momochan and I will go togather the 1 november at 15.30 at a cute Halloween party, so I needed costumes and something to eat for our private party at home, just the two of us because daddy has to work ;)
I have bought fried potatoes, nuggets, ice creams shaped pumpkins, juices, muffins, a pair of costumes: skeleton for me and spider for Momochan ; )
Momo and I will have a creepy evening on 31 october, we have decorated a little our livingroom and her bedroom with pumpkins, scary ghosts, zombies, lanters which sound like ghouls.
We will be dressed with our new costumes and will watch on tv special cartoons or something she can watch without being too frighted, have a special meal with nuggets, fries, a looooot of ketchup and treats ; )
We will dance macabre music and read creepy and scary stories and walk for the entire house with ghost lanterns lauging and screaming ;)
The 1 november instead, Momochan will go kindergarden just half day, she will get out at 13,15 I will take her home, shower and put to bed for the nap because at 16,00 we have to be at the special kids halloween party in our special playing zone where Momochan will jump and run, go on the sliders, eat creepy food, play hide and seek with other kids in the monster cave, have a scary face make up and more while I will just look and have a coffee sitting in the middle of the room in the coffee zone dressed and make upped like a skeleton, yessssss this year I will be dressed too !!! HAHAHA last year I saw many magicians, skeletons and vampires, but I did not have chance to buy a costume, thanks to Lidl this year my costume and Momochan's were so economic that i bought, just the price of three happy meals ! HAHAHAHA
I will post after the foto with the costumes but we have to be maked up so we can be more scary HIHIHIHIHI

halloween shopping monday

This morning daddy is coming with us to kindergarden to take Momochan. Afterwards we have to go to Lidl store to buy some special Halloween foods and costumes: Momochan wants a spider one and for me best is skeleton, also I have to buy special make up. Momochan and I will go to a Halloween party the 1st november at our preferred kidzone place of the town.
The foods and costumes will use and eat also the 31 evening at home, while daddy will be at work Momochan and I will have a private party at home playing, hearing scary music, watch on tv scary toons or film, paying and having special evening menu ;)

new berret

New berret for Momochan ;)
Weather is getting cold so Momochan needs a new berret to stay warm, so we have gone to Decahlon store and after having tried many different berrets she has choosen this one, white and pink ;)

Le Cornelle Animal Park

LE CORNELLE
Via Cornelle, 16
24030 Valbrembo (Bergamo)
tel: 035.527640

As daddy is still on vacation until 3 october, we have decided to take Momochan to Le Cornelle Animal Park so we can have sone time togather doing something nice ;)
This park is really cute, has many and many animals who live in quite large spaces which looks like their own original places. You can find white lions and tigers, rhynos, gyraffs, elephants, suricata, hippos, birds, monkeys, giant turtles, penguins and other animals.
Momochan liks this park so much, we have already been there many times and we will come back tomorrow with daddy and make a lot of photos ;)

teru teru bozu

Do you know Teru Teru Bozu ?
The other day we were making project to go to a faunistic animal park and as weather is quite cloudy, I prepared a Teru Terru Bozu and gave Momochan to hang onthe window to be sure to have good time the day after.

Teru Teru Bozu is a little traditional handmade doll made of white paper or cloth that Japanese farmers began hanging outside of their window by a string.

In shape and construction they are essentially identical to ghost dolls, such as those made fort Halloween.
This amulet is supposed to have magical powers to bring good weather and to stop or prevent a rainy day. "Teru" is a Japanese verb which describes sunshine, and a "bōzu" is a Buddhist monk

Traditionally, if the weather does turn out well, eyes are drawn in (compare daruma), a libation of holy sake (神酒) is poured over them, and they are washed away in the river.
Today, children make teru-teru-bōzu out of tissue paper or cotton and string and hang them from a window when they wish for sunny weather, often before a school picnic day while hanging it upside down instead, acts like a prayer for rain. They are a very common sight in Japan.

This is the song kids sing while hanging Teru Teru at a window at home before going out for a pic nick or else and they need a nice day:

TERU TERU SONG

Teru-Teru Bouzu, Teru Bouzu,
ashita tenki ni shite o-kure.
Itsuka no yume no sora no you ni haretara gin no suzu ageyo.
Teru-Teru Bouzu, Teru Bouzu,
ashita tenki ni shite o-kure.
Watashi no negai wo kiita nara amai osake wo tanto nomasho.
Teru-Teru Bouzu, Teru Bouzu,
ashita tenki ni shite o-kure.
Moshi mo kumotte naitetara sonata no kubi wo chon to kiru zo

Livigno the next day

This morning we get up early as we want to wonder around.
I want to show Sampei the Dairy and Momo wants to show her daddy the place, while granny wants to buy some special cheese and daddy wants to have special breakfast ;)
So, after a hot shower, (here degrees are low outside compared to Milano), and a quick pre-breakfast with chocko rice flakes and yogurt, we get out and take the car to drive for the 2 km to reach the center.
As we arrive to the dairy, (fortunately there is a way to get there with the car, because last summer we arrived by feet just taking a walk but today weatherr is not so nice ... and there is always fear rain to come so is best to take car to move everywhere) daddy soon discovers he likes that place, you can eat for midday or have breakfast, you can reserve and see how they produce cheese and butter from a big window or directly inside, you can buy their products and in summer you can stay outside take sun and eat ice cream they produce fresh every day ;)
We buy some fresh yogurts and some cheese and we all take a coffee, it is the only thing I have not taken from home and we do not have at the apartment ;)
After the dairy we have to decide what to do, we are in the center again and .... at a certain point a yummy smell arrives at our noses .... the Bivio Hotel has outside a man who is cooking polenta, and let people taste it.
We get near and taste the polenta, WOW is so tasty !!! GNAM GNAM so in a second wee decide to have lunch at Bivio and we get inside, we sit and order some dishes: polenta with sausage and mushrooms for granny and me, with pizzoccheri for daddy and for Momochan potatoes and sausages ;) SLURRRRP
Theese are all tipical dishes from Valtellina the region where we are, also here we can eat bresaola (a special raw salted spiced meat dried) and the tipical cheese.

(AGGIUNGI FOTO DEL BIVIO E DEL RAGAZZO CHE FA LA POLENTA E DEL PRANZO PRIMA DELLE FOTO DI MOMO AI GIOCHI)

After lunch wee wonder around for a couple of hours, granny wants to buy  some items and I need some chokolate ;)
As soon as we have finished I am deadly tired about walking everywhere so we come back home.
Justside our apartment there are some kids play, a balance, a slider, a small house, ball, and Momo wants to play so while granny and daddy are having rest inside the apartment, I am togather with Momochan outside playing, well, she is playing while I am taking fotos and sitting on a huge tree trunk so wide that to hug it you would need two people ;)
It is fantastic how here in the mountains kids parks are always clean, you do not know who is in charge to care about them but they are always perfect, no mud around, balance and sliders and toys are always clean, no trash on the ground, for crazy that it could be, you could go play there also with the sunday fest dress that you would never dirty ! absolutely nothing in common with the park in our town.
In my opinion, here there are some things alike Japan, first as I said, everything clean and accessible, second you hardly can find trash containers around (where the hell do the Livigno people throw trash ??), kids go to school alone, bicicle, helmet and rucksack on the shoulders, people are polite and last but not least, if you need to go toilet you will always find it clean as the one your home !

Livigno apartment

Through internet we have found a cute apartment to book online, we can go Livigno and take granny with us because the apartment is bigger enough, cute, comfortable and with kitchen so we can take food with us and not buy anything in town.
Once arrived in Livigno after lunch, the first thing we do is goint to the agency to take the keys, agency is in the center while apatment is just outside, 2 km from the center but still in town.
Our little house is composed by a little genkan, small open kitchen, a big window to see the mountains outside and the table and chairs, a sofa we can turn into bed for granny in the night and a chimeny.
Behind there is a cute bathroom with washtub, hooks and hangerrs, bigger thatn the one we have at home, and a bedroom with a double bed and a double closet for dresses and luggage.

Livigno

This morning we are leaving for Livigno, daddy is on holiday until 3 october so I have decided that Momochan can stay home and not go to kindergarden until daddy return to work so they can have time togather ;)
Momochan obviously was happy about the idea to have vacation for some time, stay with daddy and go to the mountains, so wee start this morning with our breakfast at our preferred coffe shop and after a quick shopping at the supermarket to get food for two days to take away with us, milk, butter, yogurt and cereals for breakfast, chiken meat and veggies.
After supermarket we have to go to granny because she comes with us so while we make breakfast and go supermarket she has more time to prepare luggage.
The apartment has an entrance with a kitchen and a livingroom with a sofa bed for granny, a bathroom (sooooo bigger than the one we have at home and with bathtub, YEEEEEEEE) and a bedroom for us with a double bed.

At midday we arrive at the same place we stop everytime we go Livigno, a big shopping center with a McDonalds.
As recently we have seen in the cinema The Smurfs 2, Mc Donalds has new Happy Meals with smurfs inside and Momo would like to have ;)
After lunch in an hour time we arrive, I have to say I cannot wait to go to the Foto Gino store to take my new cell phone. This small holiday has three main aim: let Momo and daddy stay togather, let daddy relax and also to buy my new cell phone as the old one has definitely ..... dead !!!  ;)
So, we have to go first to the apartment (see our apartment how it looks like) and take from the car all our luggage, then we go to the center to the foto and phone store and we buy my cell, after we go to our preferred supermarket the Cooperativa, where we can find chocolate, liquors, bresaola, and many other foods special from Livigno and of course,a coffee inside our preferred place that is Hotel Bivio, a cute place in the main road in the center of the town, it is an hotel, has a coffee corner where you can have snacks or eat for lunch and dinner and a downstairs zone for hearing music and take cocktails ;)

For evening meal we are back home, at our new apartment for theese two days.
Daddy is cooking in the little kitchen, some japanese pasta (soba ??) while Momo wants to see Ironman 3 on tv togather with granny so after meal we open the big sofa and once washed and dressed with pijama we all see the film but we have had a looong day so before end Momochan fall asleep, we take her to our bedroom, granny take possesion of her bed and Sampei and I play with cell phone and pc HEHEHE

The Smurfs 2

This afternoon we have gone to cinema to see the new second film about the Smurfs ;)
Momochan loves to go cinema even if when we are at home wee are not able to see any film on tv because she is always speaking all the time while inside the cinema she automatically shuts the mouth and watches ! HAHAHA

wakaba restaurant

Today daddy has proposed to eat outside and we have decided to go eating japanese ;)
He knows a place where you can pay a sum per person (kids pay half) and eat all you want, the restaurant is called Wakaba.
Momochan was enthusiat of going out restaurant with daddy and also she wanted to demonstrate how she likes, whenever we go restaurant she always eat everything, while when we are at home she needs more than and hour to finish her meal and is veeeeeery slow.
Food is not bad here, Sampei knows that place because in the place where he works, often when they want to get out eating alltogather they go to Wakaba and they all love eating there ;)
We have come here several times and always we eat good, this time I wanted to try ramen and I have to say it is the only food I will never try again here, absolutely untasty and noodles were too cooked !
I love tempura, the potatoes korokke and the chiken karaage which is fried chiken ;) YUMMY