Angie and Erin Roscetti were two of the best friends I made at the U of I. It was interesting at how many embarrassing stories I had forgotten about! Crazy uni days. One of the funnest times was when Mike and I went to see Frank Sinatra with Angie and Erin. We dressed up, felt all grown up and had a little party at their place first. If Angie had said to me then that one day you will drive up to North Western Wisconsin with your wife and 5 kids to see my family and I – well I probably would’ve choked and said she had gone mad! ……… But here we were and how awesome – we were only there for about 30 hours but it had a big effect on the kids. Angie and Vinay’s house is so welcoming and comfortable and most importantly their kids Adam and Luke were so so friendly to ours – despite the huge age difference. Brilliant role models.
By Baba MiliKing

We went to Eau Claire – and stayed with my baba’s friend Angie and Vinay from his college days. They had two boys -Adam who is 17 yrs old and Luke who is 15 yrs old. There was also an exchange student from Brazil who was staying with them – his name was Raphael.
When the boys went to soccer training Angie took us to ‘Summer snow’ which uIs a van where you can get snow cones. It’s mashed up ice with any flavour you want and ice cream at the bottom. It was very very nice – I had blueberry and raspberry. Yummy!
We also went to a big park and went to Adam’s band performance at the library, but unfortunately we just missed it. He plays the saxophone in a jazz band. He’s very good and the saxophone sounds so loud.
When we got back to their home we had some dinner – yummy burgers, home made chips and some corn. Adam, Luke and Raphael played some musical instruments for us. Raphael could just follow any tune with instruments he hasn’t played before. Very talented. The boys were really fun to play with – we played a board game (I forgot the name) but it was fun. Raphael and I were on a team together and we won by a lot. We had to get a track right across the board and we made a few lines before the others got across the board.
In the morning I slept in quite a bit. All the other kids were watching TV but we stopped it so we could play instruments.

These boys know how to play so many instruments – very good of them to let us try.
The neighbours had a pool and they let us play in it – it was very cold but it was very fun because Toby and Emilio were squirting us and we had to duck behind all the boogie boards but I had protection because I can stay underwater a long time.
We had pizza and pesto pasta for lunch – with fresh pesto from the garden which was delicious and yummy. After lunch Toby and I played kick to kick with the soccer ball and then Luke, Adam and Raphael went to soccer practise, so we left then to go back to Devon’s cottage in the woods. By Yasmina

I loved making a Band with Luke and Adam and Raphael – I was very good at the trumpet. Those boys were cool because they were fun playing soccer with. They let me have the ball because they didn’t know if I can play soccer or not but I can play soccer – they just made it fun for us. By Moochie

Pal the dog was so fun. It was fun giving him treats and playing. We even made a little pool for Pal. The boys were so fun
I loved them – by Zoi.

I really really liked Angie and Vinay and their boys Luke and Adam and Raphael – they were so fun and friendly. they had so many toys and instruments to play with. Luke played the trumpet, Adam played the saxophone and I got to have a go at the trumpet and the saxophone. I thought they did an amazing performance. I really really liked playing those instruments. It was hard to make a noise on the saxophone because I had to get used to it. I had such a lovely time there. Angie is the sister of Erin who we visited in Kansas City and they both bought us a snow cone! I thought that the one here in Eau Claire was the best but not by much. I had blueberry and raspberry. It was so good. I asked for ice cream at the bottom. When I got to the ice cream I mixed it and made a smoothie with the juices from the snow cone. When we were eating the snow comes we walked over where Luke was playing soccer and next to the ground there wer people playing American football. We went into the neighbours pool and played. I got to hold their bird and they also had two mice, a guinea pig and a Dog who’s name is Oreo.
Adam is in a jazz band and he got to even play in New York City. Isn’t that amazing. I hope that they all come and visit us in Australia.
Love from Kikibelle

Luke, Adam and Raphael – they are all strong, fit and have good attitudes and are very nice. They are the cousins of Zoe who we visited in Kansas City. They played lots with us, hardly ever said no to things we asked them to do with us, and were just very welcoming and polite. We thought that they were very polite but they thought that we were very polite as well. We played a lot of darts,soccer, and Xbox soccer. We also played lots of instruments with them. They were amazing musicians – each one had a instrument that they could play amazingly.

Luke’s instrument was trumpet, Adam’s was saxophone and Raphael was amazing at guitar and he played a Coldplay song for us. The funny thing about Raphael is that he’s left handed but they only have right handed guitars in Brazil so he has learnt to play guitar upside down. Which is pretty clever.

The boys were all very good soccer players. I was impressed with everything about them. One of the most things I was impressed with is Raphael who only knew to speak a little bit of English when he came two weeks ago – his English is as if he’s been here for a year. He’s made a few funny mistakes like when we got there for breakfast he asked for orange milk instead of orange juice. I don’t blame him cause it kind of is like orange milk. Vinay is nice although I didn’t get to see him as much cause we were busy playing with the kids. Angie is a great cook and really nice and friendly. I wish I could stay there for a whole week or more but we had to go Back to the cottage we are staying in.
Adam is a great soccer player and I only just found out that he is the captain of his soccer team and he’s a senior in high school which means 12th grade. He has his own license and car. Here in America you can get your own license at 16 years old. Luke is also a great soccer player – he’s a great trumpet player and is really friendly. I found all the boys really inspiring. I find Angie a really inspiring cook also – her food was awesome and Vinay made delicious burgers.
By Tobes