David's Birthday...

March 18, 2012

David’s Birthday was so much fun…  After breakfast, he opened his presents…

Jason gave him lots of different chocolate from the local chocolate shop.

Danika gave him a Perugia t-shirt.

And of course I gave him some local favorites involving chocolate as I knew he would share J

At midday we decided to have his birthday cake.  We got it from a special  shop called the Pasticceria Sandri (since 1860) in the historical center of town that specializes in these cakes.  Let me tell you, my expectations were high.  First of all, very pricy, 19 Euro for the cake about the size of my hand.  Second, it just looks delicious.  Third, they wrap it up really nicely in wrapping paper with a bow.  The rectangle box is a tin of whipped cream that they also wrapped in paper with a bow…  So you can see why I thought it would be fabulous.

Boy, was I let down…  They just can’t bake anything well here in Italy.  I should have made the cake myself.  It was very dry, so thankfully we had the whipped cream, because that was really fresh and wonderful.  It helped make it a bit moist anyway.   I will definitely be making Jason’s birthday cake.  It may not look nice, but it will be moist. I should say that Jason, Danika, and David thought it was awesome, but there is no accounting for taste there.  Still, they got to split the second half of the cake between the three of them, so they were very happy.  I, on the other hand, was not going to waste my calories on that.

Danika wanted me to do her hair for Daddy’s birthday, and as her bangs are growing out, I did a French braid across the top to get them out of her eyes.

Then she wanted to do my hair so that it would look nice for Daddy’s birthday dinner.  I thought she did a fabulous job J

That evening we went to a highly recommended place (Dal  Mi Cocco) for dinner.   Danika and Jason were in great moods because we were letting them stay up late on a school night.  The place gives out stickers and the kids loved those.  I was surprised Danika let us take her picture when she was messing around with them.

There was a fixed menu for 13 Euro per person. It was a cute little place with a rustic atmosphere.  They bottled their own wine and the place had a very family friendly feeling.

 Wow, there was just tons of food.  It started with pizza and bread (sorry, no photo, we were hungry and focused on eating).  This was followed by two types of pasta.

THEN we had roasted potatoes, two types of chicken and turkey, a salad, and freshly made bread.

I told them it was David’s birthday and they brought this cake out complete with candle.  Everyone in the restaurant sang Buon Compleano to David.  The people at the table behind were singing the loudest and they were so nice to us.  They even jumped into the picture J

It is worth pointing out that everyone gets cake even if it isn't their birthday.  It is just part of the food overload.  Lastly, they had a really nice dessert wine called Vino Santo to finish off the meal.

We were there from 8:30 p.m. (the place didn’t open until then, so that was the first reservation we could get) until 10:30 p.m.  That was late for us considering it was a school night for the kids.  We had such a great time as a family, and I think David really enjoyed his birthday J

~Mary