Family Date Night
We had our first date night tonight, a family date night!
Mr T and I really needed some time together, my intention was to get the kids in bed, fed early and then cook something just for us. I know some families do this every night, it’s not something that has ever appealed to us, we love having dinner together.
I’m also not one to cook different meals for adults and children, we all eat the same food, have done since Thing 1 was 6 months old.
I mentioned it to Himself but then thought, actually, it would be nice to have a special meal as a family, just for the sake of it, and I saw an opportunity for learning in it!
So, family date night was born and it was a fantastic success!
Sadly, it turned into a celebration of life of our youngest cat, Luna, who was run over outside the house. She passed away at the vets this afternoon 🙁 We laughed and remembered all her cuddles and talked about what a wonderful kitten she was. And also laughed about not having to deal with her crapping in the bath and the utility room sink any more!
Before the sad event, we had planned our evening. We’d been doing a continents and countries quiz this morning so the World Map was out in the floor, I asked Chops to choose a country to use as a theme for the evening. He asked which country pizza came from and chose Italy based on the answer 🙂
I pulled down the Gini D’Campo Coastal Italian recipe book and we chose a starter, main and dessert.
We then wrote a shopping list and started planning. We made Italian flags and Italian flag confetti for the table. We designed and made a menu then went shopping for ingredients.
We bought red roses for the table, too.
As you can see, there’s no pizza in sight! Mussels were much more appealing!
I can’t resist taking pictures of food, especially food as good as this!
Baked peaches with mozzarella and Parma ham (and rocket from our garden!)
Table looked lovely
Spaghetti with Crab and Mussels
Baked figs stuffed with almond and crystallized ginger, dipped in chocolate with strawberry gelato
Not sure where we’ll go next but we’ve decided a monthly family date night is in order.
We ended the night sitting in the reading area, all very chilled reading our own books for half an hour before bed, Miss W in bed fast asleep. Absolute bliss.
Though I am writing this at midnight standing next to Miss W’s bed as she’s a bit chokey tonight for some reason!