Summer Solstice Fun

Once a year on the Summer Solstice, the kids get to stay up as late as they want. Here's what's on Ginny's "to do" list for the night:

1. Eat popcorn
2. Watch cartoons
3. Eat ice cream (note: Chardy made homemade peanut butter ice cream with a fudge sauce!)
4. Make cookies
5. Go to the store and buy Cheeze-its
6. Eat Cheeze-its
7. Draw pictures
8. Play a game
9. Makeovers
10. Have midnight munchies
11. Make funny videos until the camera runs out of memory or something
12. Take a break
13. Charades
14. Make funny faces and see who laughs first
15. Tell funny stories
16. Play a chess game
17. Play Yahtzee
18. Play tag
19. Drink caffeinated tea
20. Dance to music
21. Dance party!
22. Pet Roxy (the cat)
23. Wake everyone up
24. Go to bed at 7am

Sounds like an awesome evening to me...can't wait to hear about it in the morning :-)

Chopped Champions!

Chardy and I are huge fans of Chopped on Food Network, so we decided to have our own little Chopped-style challenge in Rome. Alli, Aaron, and Ginny were the judges and chose the secret star ingredients for each course:
Appetizer: Basil
Entree: Roma tomatoes
Dessert: Brioche

With our challenge in hand, Chardy and I each prepared a 3 course meal for our judges! The biggest challenge: we only could use what was in our kitchen, which was pretty bare since we've only been here for a week! Here's what we came up with...

Appetizer:

On the right: Chardy made fresh buffalo mozarrella cheese sticks with a basil olive oil drizzle.

L: I made a small bite of what I call: cremosa caprese with fresh basil and cherry tomatoes.

Entree:


L: Chardy made an amazing homemade pizza using the pizza bianca base from our favorite bakery (Forno Roscioli), homemade tomato sauce with peppercino oil, and of course fresh mozzarella and basil!

R: I made a spaghetti arrabiata with parmagiano.

Dessert:


L: Chardy's dessert was an Italian strawberry shortcake with a peach reduction sauce.

R: Mine was a chocolate nutella bananas foster topped with marscapone.

Happy Judges:


P.S. It's a good thing we walked 6 miles today...

Snow Falling in the Pantheon

An amazing experience.

Customs in Italy

I'm talking about the actual Customs in the airport, but they told us a lot about Italian cultural customs as well! So, as we go through passport control, which in other countries is a very strict formal process, in Italy, the guy comes out of the booth with his arms wide open to greet Ginny (our 5 yr old). I swear I thought he was going to hug and kiss her! I had heard Italians love kids, but I didnt expect to see evidence of this first thing at the airport!

Then, as we go through customs: again in other countries, it's usually pretty formal with the "declare" and "nothing to declare" lines with detailed forms, random inspections, etc. In Italy, all the customs guys were hanging out drinking coffee, chatting, and laughing. Literally there were no forms at all, no inspections, nothing! Totally laid back. Totally Italian? I don't know yet, it's only been one day...

26 Days and Counting

26 days until our sabbatical stay in Italy!!!!!
26 days until all the gelato you can eat.
26 days until Michelangelo.
26 days until the Colloseum.
26 days until pizza on every corner.
26 days until we all miss DH/daddy terribly.
26 days until we all become Skype experts.

Pharaoh Jellyfilleddoughnut

So Chardy was telling me a story she and her friends came up with about Pharoahs in ancient Egypt and their doughnut minions... My favorite line:
"it's day Five. The doughnuts are getting stale and the coffee is running low." There was also something about a chainsaw, but I'm not really sure how that fit into the whole mix!

What Kind of a Mother am I??

So, Ginny asked me to help her eat her Pixie stix from Halloween. As I'm doing so, I wondered aloud, "What kind of mother am I pouring sugar into my daughter's mouth?" Ginny quickly replied matter-of-factly, "A good one!"

I guess it's pretty simple from the perspective of a 4-yr old.