Happy Valentines Day!

Italian Night...Take 4

Well, as most of you know...Nonna was here! We had a great visit. Its not the most active of posts, but I think we made the most of it. We explored new places which was fun and did lots of cooking.  This was also wonderful as cooking has become my second love. :) Nonna also had her very first Elephant Ride. I know this must have been her favorite part!

We had so much fun Nonna but nothing can beat your Italian Nights! At every post, Nonna has come and cooked a feast for our friends. Twice in Israel, once in Kenya and now again in Zimbabwe.  This one definitely tops the charts! We had 50 people...and lots of fun!  Nonna made eggplant parmesan, sausage peppers and onions, lemon pepper papperdelle pesto pasta, oven roasted zucchini sticks, cheese tortellini with pork loin, mixed garden vegetables, sausage bread and all sorts of faccocia breads. It was fantastic. 

I was able to contribute a little this time too. We made our first homemade cake- a decadent chocolate three layer cake with fresh whipped cream filling and ghiradelli frosting- delicious! This was Tom's birthday cake!  I also made lemon cheesecake and lemon and almond biscotti...all my firsts. It was loads of fun and all of the food was amazing.

Thanks Nonna for an incredible time, for all your patience and as always, GOOD FOOD!!! We miss you already!

Mom with her Birthday Boy!

The Italian Feast...

New Friends ...

Below: Nonna with our Housekeeper, Elizabeth and our Gardner, Stanley.

Our Special Guests...

Nonna, Tom and I with our special guests, Patrick and Catja Mavros.

He is a jewelry designer in Zimbabwe and is well know here in Harare, London and Mauritius.

We were excited Patrick and Catja could come enjoy our Italian feast!

Check out his website: Patrick Mavros.

Happy Birthday Honey!!

Happy 38th Birthday Honey!!

Tom had an incredible birthday this year (or so I think), as compared to last year...anything would be better.

Tom was in Pakistan last year for his birthday.  His staff surprised him at 6 am with a birthday cake at his front door step. (I called and asked for a favor) :)

They were so sweet and Tom was VERY surprised! This part of his day was very special.

 The rest of the day's drama ... we won't discuss. But we will be glad that that birthday and that day is finally over. Right, sweetie?

This birthday however was much better!!! His Mom was here and we celebrated our Italian Night the same night (pictures to come soon). Nonna and I surprised him with a triple layer homemade chocolate cake with a whipped cream filling and Ghiradelli frosting. Pretty exciting! I mention this as it was my first homemade cake. Even though baking in Zim is even harder than Kenya with the altitude, the cakes did not rise as much as they should, but it was still delicious!!  I lit the candles, came out with the cake and we sang Happy Birthday in front of 50 of our new friends. He was not that mad (although I was nervous as you can see from the picture), and everyone was actually disappointed they did not know it was his actual birthday. 

Since the kids did not get a chance to sing Happy Birthday, Mom made vanilla cupcakes with some homemade vanilla frosting (Tom's favorite) and we had another chance to wish that amazing father and wonderful husband Happy Birthday again. 

To many more WONDERFUL birthdays sweetie.

We love you!!

 

The Mango Queen was here!

In my delay in emails, I sent a couple out about Nonna but missed a few highlights. We went to Dombashawa, which I mentioned before. And we also went to Imire Park. This is our second time going and was great.  Our first trip is here.  Although I do not have a picture of Nonna riding her first elephant, I might have to say it was the highlight of the trip.  Thanks again for a great trip!

Some fun pictures are below.

Imire Safari Ranch

 Nonna and Hannah feeding the rhinos. Check out those lips!

 Nzou, a 35-year-old orphaned female elephant that has, over the years, become the matriarch of a herd of buffalo.  She will not hang out with any other elephants (they tried) at the park and truly believes she is a buffalo.  Pretty amazing.

 

We also had some sundowners (drinks) while watching the sunset and some animals also came to visit.

At Home...

Mangoes, Mangoes, & more Mangoes.

Tom went up in the tree to pick some fresh mangoes- so crazy!  Here are all the mangoes he picked, plus many more. We made EVERYTHING out of mangoes, including some yummy margaritas. Hannah went crazy with Nonna and they would eat mangoes ALL day long.

Their new names for the trip were the Mango Queen and the Mango Princess. :)

 Below: A picture with Patrick Mavros at his home. Patrick is the famous jewelry designer here in Zimbabwe that we were lucky to meet and hang out with a little. He is mentioned on a previous post from our Italian Night with Nonna.

Domboshawa

As most of you know, Nonna was here. This was a little adventure we took right outside of town. It was a fun morning and Tom and I's first time to the hills. A beautiful site and a pretty good workout. :)

Domboshava is located in an area of graite hills about 15 miles north of Harare. The village is named after a large granite hill near the village. There are several rock formations at the top of the hill which have been formed by natural erosion.

There are cave paintings which date back almost 6000 years. 

Below- Cave Paintings

Below - Lichen; Nonna...this might be where the rash came from??

The hill, and rocks, are covered with lichen. There are three colours of lichen at Domboshava: red, green and grey... and its kind of slippery.



 Me and my friend, Julie. :)