Our Italian New Year's

I'm all about stealing other people's fantastic ideas.  Some time ago I noticed a pin and can't even tell you exactly what it said but what I got out of it was the birth of our New Year's tradition.  Each year we will pick a country, learn a little bit about that country, do some activities representing the country, and eat food from that country.  On our way home from CO, we picked Italy.  There is nothing like waiting till the last minute!!  Monday I dashed to the library to pick up some books and I scoured the Internet for ideas.  Here are a few pictures to help tell what we ended up doing.

 This is most of the ingredients we used to create our Italian New Years. 

Here Anna and Matthew are coloring a picture of the Italian Flag. They also colored a picture of the Mona Lisa. 

Brad made homemade ravioli, I made a Bolognese sauce, salad, bread, Italian sodas, homemade baked mozzarella sticks, and Brad made Fruitta del Sol. Of course you need to enjoy such phenomenal food with great friends!  We did a red tablecloth, green plates, and white silverware to represent the Italian colors.

 

 

 On New Years the kids choose a few items to donate.  In Italy, they items out their windows so represent getting rid of the old to welcome the new.  We read a book about a famous Italian cat named Nini (true or not I don't know).  Anna was excited that the cat in the book was white and the cats on her dress were white as well :P  Next we glanced through a book that went through the culture of Italy.  Then we played bingo (in the picture).  Italians play a game similar to bingo.

 

 

 

We listened to a fictional story about Vivaldi.  In this story they were celebrating Carnival.  So, we used feathers and sequins to decorate masks and wands.

 

 

 

 

Brad went to watch a Husker's game at a friend's house so the kids and I spontaneously decided to make pizzas.  We made them on tortillas (which I have been wanting to try).  They were delicious.  I had a fantastic helper who seemed to enjoy tasting more than working!

 Finally, we learned about Michelangelo and the fact that he had to lie on his back to pain the Sistine Chapel.  The kids got a small experience of that!  Anna painted a Valentine's picture and Matthew painted a blue robot and some circles.

 

We had a blast with this new tradition!  I can't wait to discover what country we will pick next year!