Arancini from the Sicilian "Hot Table"

Arancini are a popular Sicilian food found at bars and tavola calda shops.  "Tavola Calda" literally translates "hot table" - the Sicilian version of fast food.  My friend Anna had recently gotten a lesson from her sweet neighbor and she knew we'd be up for a lesson.  The offer of a kiddie pool, bounce house, play room, and little friends was plenty enticing for the kids, too!

Here's the photo review of our arancini making class:

 We began by dicing Mozzarella and Formaggio Dolce to be used for filling the rice balls.

Anna already had some homemade ragu in the freezer so it was ready to go when we arrived!

She had also prepared round grain "sticky rice" with a some chicken broth, salt and pepper.   No wonder this recipe came together so quickly!

Time to add the filling...both cheeses and the ragu.  These are the most traditional fillings, though other include eggplant ragu, vegetables, and pistachios with cream.

Rice balls:  stuffed and ready to get their coating of flour and water and bread crumbs. 

 Flour and water mixture.

 Bread crumbs.

Ready for a deep fry!

My first attempt at deep frying...anything!

 Golden Brown and ready to....

 EAT!!!!!!

Yum!

A day...

I gotta say, today got off to a rough start...I myself was feeling lonely, discouraged, and a bit down...the kids couldn't even look at each other without someone getting upset and by 9 a.m. I felt like I was already maxed out from putting out sibling fires.  My hopes of having the kids play quietly while I emptied the dishwasher and folded a load of laundry had faded and I needed to "save the day" before we all fell apart completely.  Deep breath...reset...what can we do that will stop the fighting and yelling and get everyone out of their morning funk...  A new game idea, an "action game" - let's roll a dice and do some sort of movement for the number on the dice (5 jumping jacks, 3 sit-ups, etc...)  Okay, things were starting to look better...there was laughter replacing the screeching.  Next up, "freeze dance" - Lucas could not stop laughing - or dancing - and everyone was feeling a bit lighter.  Now, we're feeling silly, but let's read a book before things get "too silly" - Since I've got the start of kindergarden on my mind we chose a counting book and a book about the human skeleton.  The kids were super engaged and it actually felt like we were enjoying being together... Deep breath...now it's lunch time, followed by nap time...I think we're going to make it...after nap time we have a play date for the kids and a cooking time for mom (more on that later...)

Today's Recap

The kids and I packed the bikes into the car and headed to the playground on base to enjoy a good old fashioned play time together.  We love lots of things about our home here in Italy, but it doesn't give us a very good bike riding spot and we're a bit starved for playgrounds out in town, too.  We played as long as we possibly could (we were so sweaty that a friend asked if we'd come from the pool!) and then got a quick lunch at the food court and headed to the library to cool off and get some new books.  We haven't had a "regular" schedule for a while, so it was refreshing to do some favorite activities together on base.
This evening we went out for gelato to celebrate Caleb filling up his marble jar for keeping his undies dry.  Everyone enjoyed the cool treat and I think Caleb was proud that he'd accomplished his goal.  He was also quite pleased to coin the term "potty party" at some point during the evening.

Quotables:
When we were leaving the gelateria the kids noticed some whistle pops by the cash register and asked what they were.  Since it was a "special event" we decided that they could each get a lollipop to save for tomorrow.  As we were leaving Elise said, "I saw a little boy get one of the those lollipops and I thought I wanted one too.  Thank you so much for getting one for me.  I was thrilled when you said we could have one.  I'm glad they didn't even cost you too much money.  I'm really thrilled."

Lucas is quite the one hit wonder these days...here are a few questions we ask him on a regular basis - Note: His answers never change!

R: How many ______ are there?
L: Two, two, two

R: What color is that?
L: Blue

R: What letter is that?
L: B...always B

Now that you're five...

...tell us a little more about yourself!

 

R: What are you going to do now that you are five?  

E:  Learn how to write 

R: What is your favorite food?

E: STEAK!  I like fruit too - pineapple and watermelon, mmmmmmm!  I also like when mom gives me cappuccino. Oh, yeah...and sushi too.

R: What do you worry about? 

E: When people jump out and scare me.  

R: What do you want to do when you grow up?

E: I want to drive my own car to New York City. 

R: Who is the funniest person you know?

E: Uncle Grant because he can jump upside down and he plays funny games with us.

R: Who is the smartest person you know?

E: My Daddy.  He makes up a lot of games and he knows how to make stuff.  

R: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

E: I would go the States to play with Grammy and Granddad and everyone.

R: Anything else you want to say about being five?

E: I'm going to school!

Elise is FIVE!!!

Our dear Elise Amani turned five today.  She just beamed with birthday excitement the whole day.  We're so thankful and blessed to have such a silly, cheerful, helpful, sweet and independent little lady as our firstborn. We started the morning with a story about the day she was born along with a special birthday breakfast at the San Leonardello Agriturismo on the eastern slopes of Mt. Etna.  We enjoyed the fresh fruit and tasty homemade pastries and the little old man who owned the farm even brought out their own lemon granite for everyone!  Aunt Gail, Aunt Beth and Uncle John (it was the last day of their five day visit) surprised Elise with a beautiful ceramic dish that she had been intrigued with in Taormina, too.  We spent the rest of the morning soaking in the sun and cool mountain breeze and then headed to the airport with our family.  Had a quiet afternoon and Josh came home from work early to see the birthday girl.  Then it was an all-request dinner with hotdogs, sweet potato fries, edamame, watermelon and strawberry lemonade to drink.  This was followed by a trip to our favorite granite shop in town for dessert.  The Garbers joined us there and we got to sing and celebrate together.  A happy day for Elise!

Disneyland Paris...a photo journal.

The second half of our trip to Paris included a visit to EuroDisney!  We figured it was about time we did something 100% "kid" since we've been dragging everyone along to ruins, cathedrals, and lots of other old things for quite some time now.

Guess who??  Elise probably could have burst with excitement - meeting Minnie and

Mickey and riding her very first roller coaster...Thunder Mountain

(which was "super duper scary!")

Round and round on the tea cups!

We discovered that Lucas now LOVES all things transportation.  Luckily there was no shortage of buses, boats, trains, and whirling rides.

"Casey Jr's coming round the track..."

I do NOT think they should let small children on the Orbitron - yikes!

Caleb's favorite quote at the end of each day was "My favorite part was....EVERYTHING!"

(I'm pretty sure the Lightning McQueen stunt show was high on the list.)

"It's a small world after all..."

Tatum and Caleb strike a Star Wars pose.

Yo, ho, ho - watch out for pirates.

The parade.

Watching and waiting for characters on parade

"Disney Dreams" fireworks and laser show - WOW.  

The 10 of us were quite a site trekking around Paris - we didn't look nearly as out of place at Disney.  

Tatum and Elise were thrilled to be together again.

There's a lot of love here!

Hooray!

Tonight our family finished "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" - all 525 pages of it!!!  It was thrilling!  It was our second chapter book as a family - the first was "Stuart Little" by E.B. White.  I loved having the kids ask for a second (or third!) chapter every night...and seeing Josh sneak a chapter in while I was brushing everyone's teeth.  The illustrations are as captivating as the story.  Thanks to my sister Hannah for the recommendation.

We'll be checking out Brian Selznick's next book, "Wonder Struck", from the library tomorrow.