Early in March, there was another dance with friends. We always love these times when we get to talk and dance with dear friends!
The second Friday night/first Saturday morning in March Nikola, Jessie and Elodie and I attended a Croatian dance workshop with a famous dance instructor from Croatia. We haven't done these workshops in a while. I was especially interested because this teacher is the one who choreographs the Croatian dances for every season of the Duquesne University Tamburitzan's shows. Croatian dances aren't my favorite; I prefer Serbian and even dance more Serbian-style (according to the Croatian teacher), lifting my knees too high during these intricate dances.
After, we drove through some of University City and stopped by at a middle eastern restaurant (the best!) to use up a groupon coupon for our Dad's lunch.
another middle eastern restaurant nearby....mmmm...makes me hungry.
Our Dad looking ''cool''! :) I rarely take pictures of him for some reason, but this one was too good to pass up.
I take a lot of pictures of Elodie. :)
enjoying the architecture around us
.....as well as the locals. Oh my. Now that is a hat.
A group of business-like young adults waiting to cross the road
they had no idea I was taking pictures of them. ;)
Jews, leaving their Sabbath meeting place. University City has a lot of Jews.
That same Sunday, the 16th, was Valerie's 28th birthday!
In our family we have a rule. After twenty-two, you don't get a birthday theme any more. but 'just' a pretty table...but sometimes we get carried away. This one was definitely a theme. :) Basically a Persian springtime! So lovely. I had picked up an entire bolt of fabric free at an Amish fabric store. (it was free, I didn't steal it.)
This was essential for the draping above the table.
Nikola cut out all these shapes and pasted them together, creating a neat archway thingy.
By the way, this is the decoration that inspired the whole theme: a paper ''V''!
Happy birthday, Valerie!
We celebrated more on the Monday. With the gifts and such. We also watched Riverdance because after all, it was March 17th. :) Surprisingly, we never really watched the entire Riverdance video I have. It's really fun (minus the flamenco and tango numbers). Of course we danced clogging-style all day. But my evening we were back to Persian-style music. And most delicious Persian foods that our Mum made.
a new sweater
Sam was a little tired. It's so fun to have him for birthdays again. As in, he's done studying. Of course he will soon have a full-time job so now we are treasuring every celebration we can spend with him.
Odie. Who would have thought her eyes could look so green. She never wore dark green until she got this shirt.
sisters! :) LOVE.
It was a gorgeous day. We took some lovely walks down the road and down the country lane....
at home I had an inspiration for a game, and Jessie wrote down a bunch of Nikola's and my ideas for a game about the birthday girl.
Valerie likes games such as this and after we'd finished answering the questions for her, and laughing over the answers, she had us to it for the winner, and then for another sister...and another...
March 18th, we drove to historic St. Charles- a place one can't help but love! We walked the cobblestone streets, looked through the little shops at all the fun things that we didn't need to buy. But enjoying ourselves. (there's nothing like going on a day of shopping and coming home with just as much money. :))
at least he wasn't murdered here. yikes.
beautiful old woodwork in one of the antique stores.
look- it's the employees' exit!
sweet Jessie.
We had a snack-picnic over by the river.
Back home, the little ones remembered the promise of ''a movie'' and chose A Little Princess. That caused most of us to dress up again, just as we did the last time we watched this family-favourite film last fall. Most of the movie takes place in New York. But the beginning captures the beauty of India so well that of course we dress up Indian! My outfit even matches the theme of the film- green. Seriously, everything in the movie is green. The house. The outfits. The rooms. The vegetables.
We really like this song from the movie:
Marjo: ''let's get a picture since we never do when we're having fun like this''
Elodie: ''okay''
somehow...results were not that impressive. We were all suffering from....un-photogenic-ness.
Next morning:
Oh, Laura-Lise. :) This is so her. AND I LOVE HER!!!
Our friend down the road just had a shipment of free, slightly-old produce. We were thrilled. Peppers, mushrooms, and bread. We were busy preserving the mushrooms and peppers.
We ate a bunch of delicious, super-healthy and delightful Persian-style meals that week.
A springy spread later that week- and egg dish, fresh vegetables, hummus and pita bread. Mmmmm....
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