Our Mum's birthday November 2014

Our Mum's birthday was November 9th 2014...

it was a Sunday, so we had a light dessert at night and decorations which were easy to prepare...Valerie decorated actually. (above picture)

Mummy and her youngest!

Our Parents!

Of course we didn't dream of missing celebrating our Mum's birthday in depth, so on the 13th of November we did a real birthday, complete with a theme for her. 

This is the last birthday of 2014, and the last until March so enjoy. :) 

Our Mum especially loves Croatian folk music, and although we had done a birthday of that country for Nikola several years ago, we thought it would be nice to quickly do one for our Mum!

A picture of a Croatian dance I took a couple of years ago.

Jessie, being her artistic self, quickly whipped up these carved napkin rings the night we were decorating! They had found a bunch of plain wooden napkin rings at a thrift store, and we have wood carving tools...

Needless to say, Jessie was brilliant that week! She thought of digging holes into this loaf of bread we also found at our thrift store (just kidding: it's a small charity thriftstore which also sells St. Louis bread co. donation bread) in which to thrust votives! I bet you never thought of that one!

We ate the bread the next day. :) 

breakfast time!

Nikola made these traditional Croatian pastries which were delicious!

I created some egg casseroles which were even more delicious. ;)

Following breakfast and Bible time, we gave several of our gifts to our Mum..

All was happy and cozy....

(cozy)

...Then someone had the brilliant idea of going out into the freezing outdoors. 

I won't say for sure, but I believe it was Nikola who had this amazing idea. 

The plan was to go take a walk, get frozen 

(you have to know my sisters to understand this unusual goal), 

come home and have cider and cookies! (that dream, I'm sure everyone can relate to!)

Of all days during the fall/winter it was SUPER cold, windy and snowing! The snow was hilariously amazing. The largest, fluffiest flakes ever! 

It was cold!

We went to a certain park and we walked by the river; it was the coldest moment of my life ever!!! 

As in wind whipping straight through one's poor body!

Example:

Various degrees of suffering, or: a good example of the different reactions of different brain types to difficult situations!

We warmed up by laughing at the shock of it and by scuttling back to the car to try walking in a warmer portion of the park. It was funny; we didn't really do much that day at the park on account of the frigidness yet the memories are good because of the laughter we enjoyed over it!

Oh- and when we got home we kind of forgot about the cider btw. 

Oh well. 

We started driving away without Sam.

Some people just didn't seem to be cold at all after all the exercise! Don't ask me what that face is for...they were having some sort of contest or battle or something- despite trying to catch their death of cold, that is!

When we got home, Nikola and I whipped up supper while simultaneously watching a movie with everyone downstairs. Don't ask me how that happened, but it apparently did!

 My family repeatedly warns me about sharing pictures of food that just isn't photogenic, so I'll just mention that it was a Croatian recipe of crepes filled with ground beef (that surprised you, didn't it!) which was cooked with onions which had absolutely no flavour (remind me never to go on a culinary tour of Croatia, people), so to which I cheated and added a generous amount of paprika, oregano and garlic. The crepes had a thick cheesy sauce and we served them with a green salad.

Twas such a pleasant day!

A very fallish November 2013!

I know, Autumn seems so long ago...but I am up to posting about our family's November 2013.    Before November had barely begun, we celebrated yet another birthday- that of our own dear Mother! 

We decided upon a fall-ish approach again...based on an idea I had seen at a wedding at which I served, we put leaves (instead of the usual flowers) in glass containers and covered them with water. Topped with floating candles, it was beautiful! 

the leaves were hot-glued to the base of the glass container. But the glue came off and so we ended up with a slab of glue floating with the leaves attached. It looked like ice, so I look forward to trying this for a winter table some time.

One of the afternoons in November, we headed over to Fort Bellefontaine with our friends the Q. family to ramble and explore...besides take special portraits!

Busy Sam came along to enjoy the location and weather. He studied the whole time.

little lassies

Small Seren

she is so cute. There is just something about chubby-cheeked little blonde lassies...I love them so much and have ''no'' idea why. ;)

*flashback*

As I've said before, the location makes for the best pictures...add Autumn sunshine and sisters...and you have some of the best portraits of the year.

How does she do it?...

it must be the French blood. She has that natural style.

Zoe is Jessica's birthday twin! (although not sisters, they were born on the same day, the same year!) and we have enjoyed knowing her for these many years.

Thank you, Q. family for a special day with your special selves!

For Thanksgiving, we spent the afternoon/evening with some other dear friends at their home...they planned a delightful feast and celebration!

log tossing contest:

What is happening? Well...with Thanksgiving officially over, Nick decided it was fitting to dispose of his prize pumpkin which he had purchased over a month previous to the occasion. 

The best feasible way of ending the jolly vegetable's existence seemed to be a dramatic plunge from the lofty heights of the second-story window. No sooner discussed, but the plan was bravely carried out.

the owner of the pumpkin