Pretty much, best weekend ever!

So, this past weekend was just about the best weekend ever.  Many reasons why and it starts on Friday morning in school.  Every Friday the three fifth grade classes get together and have a Fifth Grade Meeting.  Throughout the week students are given Falcon Flyer Tickets (they are AOSR Falcons) when students are caught displaying life goals such as responsibility, flexibility, friendship, things like that.  All the students put their tickets in a basket and we pick three out, recognize them for their good work and then they can pick one person to give them a compliment.  When I walked into the room Ms. J (one of the fifth grade teachers) asked me to help her run the meeting, bc there are usually 2 people running the meeting.  At the end of the meeting she asked if anyone had any questions or comments.  One of the boys from her class, who I have for science, raised his had and said he had a question for Miss Kolessar.  He looked at me and said "Miss Kolessar, will you be Alissa's bridesmaid???"  And all the other kids in the class each held up a letter of bridesmaid.  I was so shocked I couldn't believe it.  And then I turn and two girls had let Alissa in the room.  It was such a great way for her to ask me and I was honored that she asked me to be such a big part of her special day!  And all the other girls that she lives with were in on it.  So after that I couldn't stop smiling the whole day bc I was so happy.

This was also the last full weekend Alissa and I had together, just us so we were already planning on having a great weekend.  Friday night we cooked a great dinner complete with DISNEY PRINCESS PASTA! And just relaxed for the night.  Saturday we went to the Capuchian Crypt which was really amazing to see.  In this crypt they have displayed the bones of thousand of Capuchian Friars in unique ways.  It looked like artwork, done by bones.  We unfortunately couldn't take any pictures in there, but I definitely bought some postcards. After that we sat by the river for a little near Castel St. Angelo and then stopped off at the apartment. We then made our way to the Villa Borghese gardens and picked up some food for our picnic lunch there.  When we got to the gardens we found a bench to sit on and within a minute of us sitting down it started to rain.  We were optimistic and figured it would stop soon, as it usually does.  We made our sandwiches and started eating, soon enough the rain started POURING down! So we took our sandwiches and stood under a tree so we were protected a little more.  After a little while the rain stopped and we found a place we could rent a bike for two people.  We had so much fun riding around the park in that, trying to to crash into anything!  We went home to change into drier clothes, went to church, picked up pizza and spent the rest of the night in bed watching 13 Going on 30 and eating pizza.

Capuchian Crypt (the church)

Pretty Christmas decorations we saw while wandering the city

Eating our yummy sandwiches under the tree

Our abandon picnic bench and the rest of our picnic

Riding the bike!

On Sunday we went to the Barberini Gallery and it was really great to see!  Then we walked around the city a bit more, grabbed lunch and headed back to Piazza Navona for the highlight of our day!  As I've mentioned, there is a Christmas Market in Piazza Navona and there is a CAROUSEL!  Since the very first day they started setting up the market Alissa and I saw the carousel and decided we needed to go on it together, and what better weekend to do it than our last weekend together.  We also had treats we'd seen advertised that we wanted to get.  We decided to start with the carousel.  We got on two horses next to each other and then were told we needed to move.  We understood that I was one a horse meant for children, not adults, I needed to be on a bigger horse, but could not understand at first why Alissa needed to move since she was on a bigger horse.  It turns out her horse was broken.  So we finally got on appropriate horses and thoroughly enjoyed our ride!!  Then it was time for our food!  They sell these large doughnuts that they heat up and you can get with Nutella or sugar on.  We split a doughnut with Nutella and got a candy apple to split too.  I mean, when in Rome... right??  So we pigged out on both of those things and when we were absolutely stuffed we decided it was time to head home.  After doing some work at their apartment I decided to come back to my apartment and end the fabulous weekend.

So excited to be on the carousel!!!!!!!!!

With our doughnut, that is half of the doughnut that I am holding.  I'm telling you they are huge!

Now on to the candy apple!

Eating our way through the Piazza Navona Christmas Market!

It's going to be tough to say goodbye to all the girls I've met here, especially Alissa.  And it's going to be tough since I live so far away from all of them (they are all from the midwest), but I'm so grateful to have met them all.  They've made my experience here just that much better!