Two months of pure joy!

Two months ago at this exact time I was moved from the labour ward to the theatre at St. Thomas' hospital, and the doctors were getting me ready for a C-section. Two hours later, Emilia was born naturally. Today, we celebrate two months of our life with Emilia. Two months of pure joy.

In October we celebrated the first month with grandad Chester and grandmum Joann. Today, we have celebrated the second month with nonna Patrizia and bisnonna Nilde. Like last time we have bought a cake and sang a birthday song to the birthday girl.

Moreover, nonna Patrizia bought a bunch of lovely tulips for the occasion. So much love!

Turning 33

On July 17th I celebrated my 33rd birthday! 

I have been celebrating every single birthday of my life since year 1. When I was little my parents used to organise afternoon parties at their house with friends and family. When I grew up I took the lead and organised my own parties, with their help, of course. Before I moved to England, I usually organised evening parties at my parents' garden. Then, even if I wasn't living in Pescara anymore, I still tried to go home for a couple of weeks in Summer around the time of my birthday and I celebrated a couple of times at the beach or at other venues. The last few years, instead, I have celebrated in London with a barbecue, a pic-nic at the park and lavish dinners. This one has definitely been the mellowest birthday celebration, but fairly so given my level of energy.
The day started with a lovely breakfast prepared by Rob: cappuccino and English muffins with Nutella. Rob had decorated the kitchen with Union Jacks bunting and bought coordinated napkins. It was lovely. Then he went to work and I spent the day at home relaxing. I was still off work so I went from the bed to the rocking chair to the couch to the chair outside on the balcony. I get tired so easily these days that I can hardly stand up. The real celebration happened in the evening when Rob took me out for dinner. It's not easy to dress up with this big bump, but I did my best.

Rob chose a very nice restaurant just two minutes away from our flat, Chop House. The table they reserved for us was perfect and with a stunning view of the Tower Bridge. Dinner was simply delicious and we were even lucky enough to be entertained by the opening of the Tower Bridge. We spent more than two hours in the restaurant and then back home where Rob asked me to lock myself in the bedroom as he needed to do something in the kitchen for me. Surprise surprise, a birthday cake with candles was waiting for me on the kitchen table! You are never too old to blow birthday candles!

Next to the cake was also a little blue Tiffany bag. I got so excited! That was my gift, a lovely pearl bracelet.

I already have the silver version of it, a present from mum and grandmum from a couple of years ago. Now I hope to increase the collection! I like all these three, for example. I think they would look very nice all together.

Anyway, another year has gone and next year there will be a little someone next to me who I am sure will enjoy blowing the candles for me and opening my gifts!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes, cards and presents. Love you.

Jubilee Weekend

It's a very long weekend here in the UK. Thanks to the Diamond Jubilee we have Monday and Tuesday off and the whole Country has been in celebratory mood since Friday evening. God save the queen! 

Last night Rob and I started the celebration with the Coldplay concert at Emirates stadium. We bought tickets a very long time ago, way before I got pregnant, and even if I was very excited to go, I was a bit concerned about the thousands of people walking to and from the stadium. Nevertheless, we decided to go. We saw on the Coldplay website that they would start playing at 8.45pm, so around 6.30 we left the flat and slowly made our way to Arsenal. 

Once we got there I spotted at least two or three other bumps and the girl queuing in front of us was pregnant too and due in just two weeks. Well, this is what I call a brave mother! She gave me the courage to go to the women's volleyball semifinals at the Olympics in mid August, for which we have tickets (I am due on August 29th...we will see...!). The concert was ok but definitely not Coldplay's best show; however we enjoyed it and I loved the glowing wristbands that they handed at the entrance. 

Today was the big Jubilee pageant, the highlight of the Jubilee festivities. A thousand of boats and vessels sailed through the Thames from Wandsworth Bridge to the Tower Bridge for the grand finale, right where we live. We hosted a little afternoon tea party with our friend Amy and her parents and I got very patriotic with the decoration of the table and the cake. 

We watched the whole parade on the telly for over three hours and from time to time we went out on the balcony to look around. 

Despite the horrible weather there were people celebrating out on the balconies and waving their flags. It was a great day to be in London, something to tell Baby O one day...

Rob's Birthday

Today is a special day, Rob turns 38! It's the last birthday before he becomes a daddy, from next year we will be celebrating birthdays as a family. We are so excited!

For the occasion I took Rob out for dinner. There is a small restaurant very close to our flat where we have meant to go for a while. When we were in Queenstown, during the last leg of our wonderful honeymoon in New Zealand, one night we were dining at this fine restaurant and happened to be sitting next to a lovely British couple. We chatted for a bit and once they found out that we lived in Shad Thames in London they suggested a visit to this restaurant. I thought it was about time to try it and what better occasion than Rob's birthday. Magdalen is a real gem, the ambiance is very intimate and sophisticated and the food just delicious. 

I had a warm fennel soup with an amazing olive bread to start and then a very delicate veal with mixed radishes and vegetables. Rob opted for a salmon salad as appetiser and then braised lamb shoulder with white beans and the best potatoes I have had in a long time (of course I had to try them!). 

As I worked from home today, I used my lunch break to bake a chocolate birthday cake. 

Therefore, we didn't have dessert at the restaurant even if I was so tempted to try the French toast with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. Next time. As soon as we got home, we attacked the cake, which thankfully was very good and of course super chocolaty!

All in all we had a very nice evening. The celebrations, however, are not over. Tomorrow morning we finally have the 4D scan, it will be amazing to see baby O again! And I also bought tickets for this Saturday to see Wicked, it will be fun. A long birthday for a wonderful dad-to-be! Happy birthday my love!

More Wedding Cakes

Two other wonderful wedding cakes. It's going to be very difficult to choose!

{both from Maisie Fantasie}

Wedding Cake Cookies

While searching for the perfect wedding cake I found these, aren't they super super cute?

Wedding Cake Search

I love the venue we have chosen for our wedding reception for many many reasons one of these being the fact that the baker has given me no restrictions whatsoever as how the cake should look. He simply said: choose the filling and send me a picture of how you'd like it to look. How wonderful is that?

So, I have started looking for the perfect wedding cake and so far these are the two that caught my eye. Different, but equally beautiful. Any favourite?