Tag Archives: Celebrations

A Quarter of a Century Celebrated…

Poof went the Powdered Sugar when the 25 candles were blown…

We’re moving backwards here today…

We started with tacos…

Katy K. brought Katie some roses and she brought me these tulips. It was a nice reminder that Spring is around the corner. Thank you Katy K.!

The morning of this party we had snow so I decided the theme for the table would be snowflakes. Here’s the snow covered spice cake I made with a new wonderful ingredient that I’ll tell you all about later along with the recipe. I’ll also show the snowscape later.

Earlier in the day I was at the grocery store picking up ingredients for the party. I rounded a corner and stopped in my tracks when there it was… a full display of Valentine Day goodies. Yikes!

After the food was eaten, the birthday song sung, and the cake eaten my sister and her husband arrived from the airport with goodies from my mom and dad in California. This next treat is one of my very favorite that my mom makes and I’m hoping to get the recipe soon. Roolyet is what it is called in Russian.

We are all done with our Birthday Celebrations of 2010. We won’t be getting a big break though because both of our sons have birthdays in January. I guess we just were bent on having winter babies.

Hope your last days of 2010 are going well. I’m hoping to have some time to reflect on the coming year and contemplate things I won’t want to accomplish in 2011!

 

Heading out Early…

Good Saturday morning to you. After our early morning coffee Dear and I are hitting the road and will find a breakfast adventure on our way to Whidbey Island today.  We prefer drinking our coffee at home. I’ll be missing in action till Monday but hope to have photos to share next week if the rain holds off here and there. They are warning us about possible flooding on some major rivers here in Western Washington. Time will tell. Enjoy your weekend.

I Love Easter Tablescape!

Many tables will be set for your viewing enjoyment so click on over to Between Naps on the Porch to get an eye full and to join in the fun! I’m posting this early because I’m just so excited for Easter!

This is my practice table for our meal on Easter. We will have 10-12 sitting here then but I’m practicing with just 6 settings. I’ll be pulling out a different tablecloth to fit the extended table. My centerpiece on Easter will be the Russian Easter Bread my sister and I will bake on Good Friday. By then I’ll also have real hard boiled and colored eggs for the table with some Easter grass.

I’m pulling out my Royal Albert Moss Rose China for the main course and for dessert I’m using cut glass plates.

My bunnies are announcing the reason for our celebration in Russian! Christ is Risen! Xpucmoc Bockpec Truly He has Risen Воистину воскрес!!

Wish I had my crosses to grace my Easter table but they are still at my condo in California…

Have a Glorious Easter everyone!

 

FFF~ The Birthday Weekend…

…that didn’t end!

Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun!

My five favorites for this Friday are all about Family, Food, Fun, Flowers, and Flying Geese!

Our weekend and week was filled with so much flavor and wonderful experiences. So here are some stand outs.

1. Our weekend away in La Conner, Washington where we saw so much beauty. I was blown away with the experience of seeing thousands of Snow Geese in flight.

2. All of our indoor experiences from the lovely Inn we stayed in with a tasty 2 course breakfast and the restaurants we ate at for lunch and dinner. We were not disappointed in anything we ordered and ate.

3. The birthday dinner my son and his wife prepared for us on Sunday night and our meal together on St. Patrick’s Day.

4. Cleaning and organizing the basement. I feel so good about that task being complete that I’ve been offering tours of the basement! :0)

5. Going to our favorite Mexican restaurant and being greeted by the owner. He asked us if we were just visiting from California. When we told him we were back in Washington state to stay he brought us a round of drinks on the house to celebrate!

And now that my birthday week is drawing to a close it’s time for E.L.E.M. (Eat Less, Exercise More!) That’s my plan and I hope to stick to it. Hope to get around to see all the FFF’s this week. As soon as the frost burns off I’ll be mowing the lawn…

 

Celebrating the Beginning…

of my last year being 50 something. Next year on March 14th, Lord willing, I’ll be alive and in my sixties!

Dear has an overnight planned, out of town, with a 90 minute massage included and lots of good food! No computer is being packed. Boy am I looking forward to that massage. Today I organized our hall closet. I sorted all my tablecloths into lengths and rolled them together and safety pinned their size on the roll. I hope this makes getting to the right tablecloth for the right table size more efficient for me. Have I mentioned I have a lot of tablecloths?

Have a nice weekend everyone. I’m looking forward to my last year being in my fifties.

How Much Fun Can We Pack Into 12 Days?

The answer seems to be a lot. Not surprisingly most of the fun is centered around food.

On Tuesday night the ladies, Avery, Jackson and my dad had dinner together at Mom and Pop’s. It was good to get together. Avery is 5 months old already. Wednesday I met Willow for a pot of Earl Grey at All Things Tea in Camarillo.  I ate a Cranberry Shortbread cookie, too. Wednesday night Dear and I ate at El Tecolote, one of our favorites in Camarillo. Thursday morning I’m meeting some of my sisters and nieces for breakfast and I’ll get to see Jackson and Avery again!

Don’t worry Avery, I’m sure someone will step in and there will be lots of fun things to do without me.

I’ve been busy getting the oil changed in vehicles, shutting services down, booking hotels for our trip up to Seattle, etc.

 

Celebrating Family and Friends!

We invited family and friends over to celebrate our son Dan.

When our youngest little guest arrived she stole the show!

Just 9 days old here. She’s our son Dan’s best friend’s first baby.

Precious!

The new dad and Dan.

Jamie, Dan, Josh, and Scott

I didn’t manage to get a decent photo of the mom…bummer!  Hey Beth if you see this could you send me Sarly’s email so I can send photos to her…thanks.

We celebrated as much family time as we could with Dan before his move about 6 hours away.

Hope all is going well wherever you are…

Blue Mosaic Monday ~ Celebration!

Things have been busy around our home in Washington State. We had 18 people near and dear to us over for a celebration on the 4th. Dear barbecued Tri-tip for sandwiches and we had some great veggie sides. Cookies and Cheesecake for dessert. The center photo in the collage is of our daughter Katie. The lovely ladies in the bottom photo are Jamie, Laura (our DIL), Lucy, Katie and Bridget. Jamie, Lucy and Bridget are sisters.

On Sunday morning I drove Dear to the airport and we’ll be apart for about 4 weeks. Boohoo!  On Sunday afternoon we picked up my niece Debbee from the airport for a 3 day visit. This coming Sunday I’m helping my daughter with a Bridal shower at our home. We hope our vision for decorating the gazebo for the shower comes together…

Thanks for stopping by. To see more Mosaics visit Mary at Little Red House. To see more Blue visit Smiling Sally.

Mosaic Blue Monday ~ Red,White & Blue!

I’m joining Sally’s Blue Monday a little late this week. Visit her to see more blue. I suspect you’ll see a lot of 4th of July blue this week.

And on a personal note. We arrived to our home in the Seattle area at about 10:15 last night. As usual it will take me a couple days to get my brain back. It’s hard sometimes switching from my Southern California Brain to my Washington State Brain. The trip took us 15 hours but listening to The Prisoner of Azkaban made the hours go by quicker. The book on cd was 11 hours long. I’ll be uploading photos from the wedding and other random shots soon.

Hope all is well with everyone…

Friday’s Fave Five!

This past week has been full of some memorable events. Seems most of these events centered around food. Makes me wonder if I should just give up on losing weight, but this is a post about favorite things so onward and upward.

Topping the list of favorites was the fact that our daughter was here with us for several days. We walked on the beach, did some vintage shopping, attended her good friends wedding, and ate a lot of good food.

Worship on Sunday was really powerful with a challenging sermon about the Holy Spirit. There was a wonderful sense of unity in the Body that was really cool.

Katie and I made a trip to Glendale Forest Lawn and it was stimulating to see so many beautiful works of art. The grounds are so well kept and the little churches are filled with beautiful stained glass.

This is the Wee Kirk O’ the Heather at Glendale Forest Lawn

One of the favorite food items this past week was this hot fudge sundae Katie and I shared at the Tam O’ Shanter after our trip to Glendale Forest Lawn. It is served with the original fabulous C.C.Brown’s hot fudge that seriously tastes like very good candy! I can’t remember the last time I had a Hot Fudge Sundae! I’m salivating just thinking about it!

On Wednesday I met my Women’s Bible Study ladies at Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Fran’s birthday. We had such a great time laughing and enjoying each others company and celebrating Fran! Ok I’ll go ahead and show you what I ate…

So anyone want to place a bet on whether or not I gained weight last week??

Please visit the lovely Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun or to see other Fave Fives!