wartook, grampians

we recently spent a weekend in the grampians.  3hrs south of melbourne.  it was chilly, beautiful and relaxing.  we went on walks, saw plenty of wildlife, had challenges on who could name the animal from their poop droppings, picked wild flowers, ate well, visited the local pub and drank delicious wines.  on our drive back to melbourne we daydreamed about one day owning our own weekend country escape...

9 yr old turning 29!

when I asked my 8 year old what she wanted to do for her 9th birthday party she said 'I want an italian dinner party mum!'... 

ohhhh of course!!!?

part of me was excited about it but the other part was thinking what happened to the more traditional little girl parties that i am so used to...

nevertheless she was set on it so plans were made...the table was set to her chosen colour scheme (so particular!), i filled my big wooden paddle boards with home made pizza margarita & served a big steaming bowl of spaghetti bolognaise...

there was so much noise coming from our little dining room that i needed to refill my wine on several occasions to cope!

everything was devoured...and for dessert i served eton mess in small glass cups.

the plan to watch a movie after dinner was squashed & instead the 8 little ladies decided to do back flips in the lounge room to one direction on high volume...i needed yet another top up at this point!  

miss 9 year old had a brilliant dinner party!

dancing on top of grandads shoes...

months back we had my parents in law visit for a week.  we kept ourselves busy exploring many places in and around melbourne but the simple things stood out...

sharing a dinner of roast chicken, listening to some old jazz tunes, dancing on top of grandads shoes, tummy raspberries and doing the twist with their nonna.  

we finished the visit with a lazy & long birthday lunch for their boy...

pizza verde, 62 piper st, kyneton, vic

a weekend day trip from melbourne landed us on piper street, kyneton.  it was windy, cold and drizzling with rain however we wandered along visiting several of the shops and made a 1pm lunch booking at pizza verde.  

from the moment we entered we sat at a corner table with bench seats and felt cosy & at home...the wood burning from the pizza oven made the room smell wonderful and before i knew it i was slurping on a local pinot and selecting from their menu...oh and the girls were given pencils and paper immediately which i always love!

we devoured the following...

rare roast beef with salsa verde & rocket

wood roasted brussel sprouts with parmesan

spinach & ricotta balls with a chunky tomato sauce

kids pizza...ham & pineapple

...& our pizza called diavolo which had tomato, istra hot salami, red onion, fior di latte, crushed green olives, basil & chilli (seriously delicious)

+ mountain goat organic steam ale & a bottle of local pinot noir

the images speak for themselves really...i would go back to pizza verde today...right now!!!
pizze verde