Sagra Season

The much anticipated summer sagra season in Italy is upon us. It began for us with a kick-off in our little town, Quinto, and will keep the Pasho family entertained through the month of September. A sagra is an outdoor fair and village feast where families of all shapes and sizes gather for a weekend of good food, great fun, and all the local flavor each little town can muster. There are live bands and food tents where all sorts of traditional (and occasionally questionable) delicacies are served followed by a variety of rides and amusement park themed activities for children. The serious amount of money lost to tokens is recovered in happy faces and sticky fingers, and the memories made are always worth it. Good thing the food is cheap. Here is a sampling of this week's fun.

Just For You, Uncle Bear

Cal's new sneakers arrived in the mail yesterday. When I pulled them out of the box, he said, "Oh, cool! Now Uncle Barrett has running shoes just like me!"

The Gift

It always seems that no matter how prepared I am for an on-time departure, I wind up 5 minutes late to everything. I had a board meeting at 10:00am this morning, and so without good reason, I again found myself rushing everyone out the door, into their car seats, and in Cal's case, out of the car seat, into the bathroom, and then back to the car. When we arrived, I unbuckled the boys, and with as much patience and geniality as I could muster, I herded and shooed them in the general direction of my friend Marie's home. Deaf to my prodding, Cal stopped to examine something in the grass along the sidewalk. As I was just about to implode with impatience, I realized that he had found some dandelions, and my heart softened. (Reference previous entry.) He was not only stopping to smell the "roses" but was reaching down to pick me one. "Cal," I said. "What a sweet boy you are. You picked Mommy a flower!" I instantly began to feel bad for placing my timeliness - in this case, an absurd five minutes - above the things in life that really matter. My life lesson lasted a mere few seconds, however, until Cal said "No, it's not for you. It's for Mrs. Marie." I think I could actually hear the heavens laughing.

The Instigator

I've been noticing a trend this week in nap irregularities. I've now discovered why. Unaware that I was upstairs, I heard Cal say in his best whisper voice, "Max, let's sneak out of our beds." Then a little louder, "Max, let's sneak out of our beds!" And finally, "MAX, LET'S SNEAK OUT OF OUR BEDS!!!" With no response, I finally hear the patter of little feet down the hall followed by the following attempt to wake his brother: "Max, wake up! The sun is up. Let's be bad guys. We'll fight monsters. Monsters usually like you." And so begins the second half of my day.