Spring

We have fully transitioned in to spring which means: our heat is turned off, the days are more pleasant than not, spring rains come and go coaxing out the spring blooms, winter coats have been replaced with sweatshirts, the lawn has had it's first cut, the garden soil has been turned, and colds/flu have touched us all from the transition of seasons.

The kids did not have a spring break, but rather an extended Easter holiday weekend (Thursday-Tuesday). Samuel ended up with 11.5 days of vacation at the price of a 5-day fever attached to vacation. We are thankful that this time around the illness stopped with him. However, as I write this both Emma and I battling sore throats and the return of a cold. Such is the season.

Over the Easter weekend the kids and I enjoyed some themed activities. We crafted some yarn eggs and baked some cookies. I hard boiled some eggs, but was a little disappointed that no one wanted to color eggs. Finally, on Easter morning before church I prepped the glasses with dye, forcing helping hands to join in. The kids were a bit dumb founded and confused as to what I was doing. I was like...don't you remember dying eggs?! They were like "no." Then it hit me, that we never did this before. I even looked back through pictures and found only one picture of Samuel dying eggs at age 2, back when we lived in America. I think I always crossed the tradition off my list because of the fact that we don't have white eggs here in Italy. Well, white eggs or not, we finally introduced the kids to Easter egg dying. The results were beautiful with the brown base color!

We attended church and then came home for an Easter brunch with Melissa. Aebelskivers were enjoyed along with sausage, bacon, fruit, deviled eggs and egg shaped jello. We had a relaxing afternoon together before Skyping with family.

The kids always enjoy their chocolate Easter eggs as this is the Italian version of an Easter basket. Inside there are toys and the price of the egg goes up based on the quality of the chocolate, size and the surprise inside. For example below is a picture of a 10kg chocolate egg and another of the vast assortment of eggs in the supermarkets.

In Italy, we also celebrate Pasquetta or "Little Easter" on the Monday after Easter. There is a saying in Italian "Natale con i suoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi" (Christmas with family, Easter with whoever you like) and this seems to hold true for the most part. Then of course, if you celebrate Easter on both Sunday and Monday, you can have the best of both worlds. Pasquetta could also be coined as national picnic day in Italy. If the weather is cooperative, people with drive to the mountains, parks or the beach if grilling is not an option in their housing situation. We are privileged to have a private yard and so we invited some friends over to break in our grill for the season.

Italian picnics are not sandwiches and chips...we are a talking full on grilled meat-mania! It's no wonder this is a highly anticipated holiday celebration. We grilled pork chops, sausages, ribs, shishkebabs and hot dogs. We of course added our American twist with cold side dishes and a fruit pie. It was a good afternoon of food and fellowship even if we ate inside since it was still a cool spring day. We concluded Easter break celebrating Luca's birthday and that was pretty much it for our long holiday weekend.