Easter 2015

This year we spent Easter with my cousin Severe, aka Emilia's babysitter, and her lovely family. On Saturday we invited them over for lunch and then they invited us over to their place in Wimbledon on Easter Sunday. Both days were nice and sunny and we spent most of the two days just eating, as good Italians do! Here are some pictures of our celebrations. 

Day 1:

In preparation for Easter, Emilia had made a lovely Easter tree, painted and decorated some Easter eggs with nonno Walter and nonna Patrizia while we were in Berlin, and together with me she made beautiful place cards for all our guests. Needless to say, they were a big hit! We had a very nice and relaxing day eating and chatting!

Day 2:

On Easter Sunday, we took the tube all the way to South Wimbledon and then enjoyed a nice walk to Severe's house. Again, we spent the day eating and chatting...and this time we also sang and danced!

Easter Monday

Easter Monday or Pasquetta as we, Italians, refer to it, is the day in Italy where people take day trips with friends and family. Whether you are headed to the mountains, the sea, or the countryside, one thing is for sure, you are going to have fun and usually you eat a lot too! 

I had originally planned to go to the local park, have a picnic day, eat and play with bubbles and the pinata I bought a couple of days ago; however, Emilia is still not feeling completely well so we opted for a quick visit to Potters Fields instead. Emilia loved getting out of the flat for a bit and was very chatty with all the people she met at the park. Perhaps it wasn't the best Pasquetta I have ever had in my life but it was fun nonetheless and I treasure every minute I can spend with my lovely family. Now that the Easter break is over, I am counting the days till our next holiday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Weekend

Sadly, Emilia hasn't been feeling great lately, she has a very bad cold, which means we have been forced to stay inside the flat most of the time, entertaining ourselves with lots of Easter activities. And yes, we have also been eating quite a bit!

Good Friday

Friday was all about eating! In the morning we had breakfast with a giant hot cross bun and then Rob and I went to Borough Market to get some fresh fish for both lunch and dinner. I cooked lunch and my mum took care of dinner; both meals were delicious! 

Saturday

Saturday was all about baking! I have often posted on this blog about our family Sunday baking projects, so you know how much we all love baking. Emilia is always so interested and concentrated and loved baking Easter cookies with her grandparents. 

Rob and I also escaped a little in the afternoon and walked to the Tate Modern to enjoy a lovely Matisse exhibition. Exhibitions at the Tate are usually very good and we both loved the bold colours and the big canvases. In general, it was good to get out and spend some time just the two of us.

 

 

 

Easter Sunday

Sunday was all about crafting! Not only was Emilia not feeling good enough to go out, also the weather was absolutely crappy on Easter Sunday. So, lots of crafting for us! Thankfully, I had bought several things to do and my mum had also brought a few things from Italy, so we were set. We decorated eggs, we made masks, we painted, we played with Easter stickers, broke and ate chocolate eggs, and did some finger printing! It was fun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all we had a great day. Let's hope Emilia feels better soon and the weather is good tomorrow so that we can go to the part and have a nice pic-nic! I even bought a pinata!

Easter gifts from Italy

My parents are in town! Mum and dad are in London, hurray! Can you feel the excitement?! Rob and I have been counting the days for a few weeks and finally Tuesday night my parents arrived to London and are going to be with us for two fat weeks! We are all so happy and of course they themselves couldn't wait to be here to play with their beloved grand-daughter. They landed very late at night on Tuesday and got to our flat around 1.30 am. Emilia was of course sleeping so they quietly sneaked into the bed in her room and fell asleep straight away. We were all wondering what reaction Emilia would have had in the morning when she would see them sleeping next to her but no one could expect what happened: apparently, she woke up around 7.00, stood up, checked what was going on in the bed, and without saying a word went down again in her crib and slept until 8.40! Rob and I had forgotten how peaceful it is to have breakfast without Emilia around! :) 

Anyway, once up, she had her breakfast and then we moved to her little craft area in the living room where my parents literally showered her with gifts. They brought so many things that it took quite some time for Emilia to open everything. You can get a glimpse of the joy in the video below. I only filmed the first five minutes, therefore the first half of the gifts! So, thank you ever so much to all of you who sent gifts to Emilia, you are special and we love you very much. Thank you to my mum's colleagues, each one of you, you are so sweet, nonna Nilde, Ilaria, Cristian and baby Aso, zia Patty, Ilenia, Alessandro, Simone and especially Giulia (Emilia thought your drawing was a masterpiece!), zio Leonardo and zia Maria for the yummy Limoncello biscuits from Ischia (these are for us, not Emilia!) and if I am forgetting someone, thank you-thank you-thank you! We love you all.

Happy Easter

For Emilia's first Easter we had several plans but in the end we celebrated at home, just the three of us. Originally, we wanted to fly to Pescara and have Emilia baptised on Easter Sunday itself; however, we had some difficulties with the organisation of the trip, finding the church, as well as a restaurant that didn't impose a set menu. So, we decided to postpone the trip and the baptism to the following weekend. Then, we were kindly invited to a Sunday roast at our friends Natalie and Dave's and to watch the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race in Barnes. We were very excited to go but when we woke up this morning, despite a lovely sun in the blue sky, the weather was a bit iffy and the temperatures quite low. We didn't feel to go to the other side of town and risk to get Emilia sick just a few days before our big trip to Italy. Also, we thought it would be wiser to stay home and start packing. In situations like these, I wish we had a car, it would make things much easier!

So, after a nice breakfast, we all dressed up, took some pictures and went out for a quick stroll to the local park and a visit to the church for the Easter blessing. The church was packed and full of babies and kids. It was very nice. 

 

 

 

 

Once back home, we treated Emilia to a yummy lunch and then put her to bed so that we could enjoy our Easter lunch. I dressed the table with pastel colours and Easter goodie bags and worked on the menu. For appetisers I made pastel-coloured deviled eggs, corn bread, and friend mozzarella sticks; the main course was a delicious lasagna that my mum made when she came to visit back in February and that we froze and kept for special occasions. And then, lots of chocolate! 

getting the colours ready for egg-dipping!

 

All in all it was a good family day. I hope you all had a fantastic and joyful Easter!