October 17th 2014....
...we did a massive theme for all the October birthdays, and Laura-Lise's (Sept. 19th)!
It was great fun to plan and prepare for. I had the fun task of making the delicious foods, as well as decorating a bit. We have two wonderful African-style cookbooks, and we've done two other African parties in the past so planning this menu was a breeze!
Decorating was also incredibly easy, partially because my room was already decorated in an African style. so we just borrowed props from it! (And these props came from dozens of past birthdays themselves from Colonial to Filipino...it's amazing what you can do with items!)
Pictures are usually important for our birthdays :)
...as well as draped fabric and such
Our useful trunks make yet another appearance! This was the best part of the theme.
I found a lot of new favourite musical pieces in the African genre in preparation for this birthday! :) We got a whole CD of traditional songs, but these were our favorites to fit the mood...
Love this one! It's so fun to dance to!
So we sat at our table and listened to African music while we dined upon...
Breakfast crepes stuffed with fruit and cream
and nutty baked bananas which were delicious despite the photo
and the lemongrass peanuts!
trail mix as favours.
You've never seen these Dr. Seuss-style fruits, have you? Our Mum discovered them while at our International market. I disremember the title of this honorable fruit. But no matter; they weren't incredibly well-received by the general consumers.
The rest of the day was spent outside in the amazing fall weather! We visited a favourite spot, Spanish Lake and picked more persimmons
God created such amazing, amazing colours! I am so grateful!
Following that, we headed over to Columbia Bottoms to spend some time on the shore.
Lovely sister and October birthday girl Nikola
Surprisingly, there weren't a whole lot of pleasant photos taken of people that day.I have plenty of pictures, but they excell in randomness and candidness band I am wise enough to surmise that my siblings would protest if I were to put them up on this here blog. Don't worry: I fired the photographer already.
This is NOT funny.
Yes it is.
I can't decide.
Anyway, all I was doing was demonstrating to my dear sisters (and faithful listeners)
how African women have a very healthy posture as they lean over stirring their stew, washing clothes, etc. which we Americans need to emulate.
In case anyone was wondering, Jessie is a good and obedient student.
I like her.
Nikola on the other hand...
just kidding. :)
Well...home we went at dusk and prepared a delicious supper of...
Smashed (yes, on purpose!) potatoes topped with corn, peas and chile-garlic oil
flat bread with a spice blend called dukka which was an instant favourite.
We also had meat patties thingys which weren't very photogenic.
And for dessert....
The most amazing healthy cake ever! It's from the cookbook Afro-Vegan as well, and includes an avacado or two, coconut milk ganache, etc. It was incredible! It also had some spicy notes in its rich chocolate-ness from cayenne and cinnamon...mmmm!!!
Nikola got the healthy one
(btw this theme was for L-L, S, N and J but the latter got the cakes since they hadn't had a real cake yet. Make sense?)
I made a super-healthy (flourless) one for Jessie, Katia and I! hehe; nobody notices that we get more cake to ourselves than the others!
There was also homemade icecream.
Need I say anything more?
Just to make you jealous
We concluded this fun African birthday with an appropriate movie which was new to us: Duma! We quite enjoyed it. Esp. the bushbaby creature.
(insert example of bushbaby):
I need one.
(Duma movie)
Another African film we enjoy is Jock: A True Tale of Friendship (1994)
I'll close with this song which is at the end of the Jock movie...
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