Double Celebrations - Our 1st anniversary & FIL birthday party

We have planned and waited this day for almost 1 month.

Since my FIL's birthday falls on May 19, I was discussing with Luca that it would not be a bad idea to hold a double celebration party. It's also been quite some time since we last invited our relatives to our house.

After all the invitations are done, my next step is to plan the menu for the dinner party. We decided to have both Italian and some Chinese food since they all love chinese food including Mr L as well. So, 3 days before the party, we went for the super food shopping and we came back home with 6 shopping bags (we use Ikea bags which are large enough)..we also got a banner to decorate the house a little.

May 23, the day came and I started to cook as early as in the morning making all the preparation, marination and Mr L went out for other food errands.

The banner we got from Partysmile.com, a shop that sells all kinds of stuff for parties. The shortest they have is 2 metres. Since our living room is infested with paintings and frames, we decided to hang it over the TV cabinet, and it did turn out good.

The 2 sweet ladies (as usual) Nicole and Elisa are always a dessert to us.

They came to our house a couple of times already and they always love the sofa (especially the idle seat.

Here is the first setting of the aperitivi (appetizers). I was so busy cooking in the kitchen and forget to take the 'before being attacked pic'. Basically, what we have for appetizers are Fried wonton, cucculi, Grilled zucchinis & brinjals, raw salad with dressing, chips, foccacia, olives, peanuts & marinated raw fishes by my MIL. Drink wise include wine, aperol,
Jack Daniel whisky, beer, Sangria.

Now we have the second course. What I have made are Lasagne al pesto, Chinese Fried Rice, Spedini (aka Kebabs). The spedinis are a sold out so as the rice. Elisa came to the kitchen while I was cooking the 2nd lot of spedinis, she ask the total number of sticks, I told her I made 30 sticks and she say she will eat 28 sticks :D

However, her mum stop her when she was reaching out for the 6th stick.

My FIL enjoying his 3rd round of fried rice. It's really a joy to cook chinese food when they all do appreciate a lot. When I came here, I was lil' afraid if they can accept chinese cuisine. It turn out they are great fans even Robert's mum, Sandy loves the wonton.

Hot and fresh out from the oven - 2nd round of kebabs. A big thanks to Mr L for sticking the kebabs for me while I can spend the rest of the time preparing other food. Well I can see he enjoy doing that, I mean helping me out in kitchen or errm maybe he is hungry at that time ?!?
Aunty Fulvia and my MIL, both lovely sisters..was a nicely captured pic.
The 2 kids have unbeatable energies while I am already dead tired. I had really really good fun being with them.
Here comes the presents unwrapping session. Mr L and I got for my FIL a Fred Perry T-shirt
As he gets very tan in summer and this colour will suit him very well. Elisa is always very excited when comes to presents time, so she give Franco 'a little hand'.

Oh Aunt Fulvia and Paola was so insisting in getting us a gift and they got us just the perfect gift as we thought that a cooler bag for summer will be just so cool when we go to beach
This Fred Perry's beach pants was my gift to Mr L since 2 of his beach shorts are quite seasoned already. Thank god he love it as I really need to crack my head in getting gifts for a big fussy boy.. :)
Well, I got him this as I notice he is actually looking for a 'perfect' cardigan, he does not even fancy any during our trip to London. So, I saw this right at the window display and got it rightaway.

Since he knew I love Hello Kitty, he got this cool helmet for me as the gift. Actually, Elisa and Nicole are also Hello Kitty fans and Elisa cant help but to give it a try, and she look great.
Finally, we reach the time for cutting cake and blowing candle. My FIL was 62 this year and we wish him many more good years to come. This cake was sponsered by my MIL, its a cream cake with chocolate powder on top and was definitely melt in your mouth cake. I actually wanna bake a cake but she says I have done a lot already, so she spares me working even more by getting the cake.

Ready to be eaten and look at the row of drinks behind..oh yes my in laws got us 12 bottles of wine too..they are simply so generous. Muacks!

All in all, I can say the dinner turned out to be a great success as they all love the food and had a really good time mingling and catching up with one another. They also love our house and always full of praises.

Now, let's look forward to the next year!