Tanti Auguri a Girolamo!

It was Jeremy's 11th birthday today, and we had a beautiful day for celebrating.  He wanted to make his scrumptious shrimp, but the fish shops were closed.  We agreed to go out for dinner and to go to the disappearing fish shop for shrimp tomorrow. 

It was a very social day at the Coop, though -- we saw our darling 90-year-old friend who is so sweet, and got to introduce him to Michael.  We haven't seen him in forever!  He looked absolutely darling in a blue velvet jacket and little brown cap.  Then we saw Giuseppe, and made a date with him for gelato on Wednesday.  He insisted that he's paying this time.  I told him that with 7 of us, we'd send him to the poorhouse!

Jeremy had a holiday from school today, and took the time to make his birthday cake.  He chose to make zucotto -- the yummy, mascarpone-filled cake with chocolate, candied oranges, and almonds.  In the afternoon, Benedetta brought her daughter Maghi and Maghi's friend Camilla.  These are the Italians we taught how to make ravioli, if you're one of our followers...

We had our birthday party out in the garden, enjoying the gentle breezes, the sunshine, and each other.  After singing "Happy Birthday" in Italian, we tucked into the cake.  The kids played "ghioccia" -- or "ice" (which is Italian freeze tag!), and kicked the ball around.  I think everyone had fun.

Magherita, Jeremy, Ashley, and Camilla

Jeremy made two of these confections.

Later, we took a walk in the woods after picking up James from tennis.  Then we had a delicious dinner.  I thought we should have dessert at the gelateria, but we found it was closed.  So we trekked down to the other one at the bottom of the hill, only to find that it was also closed!  So, home again, home again...We sat out in the garden and watched the stars for an hour.  And time for bed!

Todi at night

Love,

Alexandra