Carnevale 2015 and 2016

Carnevale in Italy is a time of masks, parades, confetti, and celebration.  Think family-friendly Mardi Gras.  Italians celebrate Carnevale before Lent in ways big, small, and everything in between.  Towns hold parades, classrooms have parties, and confetti is sold in every "general" store you can imagine.

For Carnevale 2015, the Dads (Kevin and Jay) took the Big Kids (Zoey and Kaitlyn) to the Chieri parade while the Moms (Lindsay and Hatti) stayed home with the napping little ones (Kaia and Harrison).  Zoey and Kaitlyn found costumes in their dress-up boxes and headed out to experience the wonder of Carnevale for the first time.

Zoey's PreK class also had a Carnevale party to celebrate these Italian festivities.  I added a balloon game and noisemakers to the party...and the kids had a blast!

Prepping the balloon game at home with Kaia

Eating the traditional bugie snack

In 2016, Carnevale was a much bigger family affair!  Our family of five headed into Chieri's city center for the parade...

...but the little ones delighted in the tons and tons of confetti more than the overwhelming (and loud) town parade.  Zoey and Kaia were thrilled to throw handfuls of confetti in the air and shuffle their little feet in the confetti covered streets.  The smiles on their faces beamed with pure joy and childhood innocence.

I planned the Kindergarten Carnevale party and it was a huge success!  Zoey dressed up in her beloved Jasmine costume and the enthusiastic kids rotated through four stations:

Cup and Straw Races

Mask Making

Cup Tower Building

Noisemaker Shaker Filling (Zoey dyed the beans to make the shakers extra festive!)

Then, with our VERY loud noisemakers, we joined in the Nursery-Grade 5 Costume Parade and paraded around the school piazza in front of the parents.

These three friends had a blast!

Carnevale is one of those "uniquely Italian" things we've been able to experience during this adventure.  What a fun way to entertain our kids and celebrate with the locals!!!