A very little Halloween and a tiny bit of Thanksgiving

Um, I really am late posting about the tiny bit of Halloween decoration. I still wanted to make a post about it to come back to so here's our little Halloween decorations for this year

A little pumpkin for the table 

A pumpkin garland

A few of our window stickers put up by daughter who dressed up as a nurse. :)

Now on to our "mini" Thanksgiving. I made potato sausage stuff and turkey "rolls" as usual with green bean bundles. The cranberry sauce, etc., was not homemade this year and we didn't have a lot of leftovers, but it was still delicious. And, for once we celebrated on the Thursday and not the following Saturday. :)

Blurry green bean bundles

I printed out some place cards and napkins rings which I decorated with my daughter. We also read an illustrated Thanksgiving story which she loved. Next year I hope to do more to explain the tradition.

19 years and counting...

Earlier this month my husband and I celebrated our 19 year anniversary of being a couple. Yes, we do still celebrate it even though we are now married. It gives us a good excuse to get dressed up and go to a fancy restaurant which is usually what we do in lieu of giving each other gifts.
Anyway, this year was a bit different since I was recovering from surgery, we couldn't go out. So, with a bit of "help" from the grocery store deli, my husband was able to pull together a delicious meal. I don't know if I've mentioned that he's not much a cook and by "much of a cook", I mean not at all. *lol*

My daughter helped me set the table. :)

The appetizers

Lamb's Lettuce salad with Duck Gésiers and vinaigrette

Duck Confit with a gratin dauphinois

For dessert, we had cupcakes that he made with my daughter. I got the cupcake toppers from Kingley's cake and they were made of a thin layer of frosting. :)

As usual, the photos don't do it justice, but I had to document it anyway. It was a lovely day and we're looking forward to many more happy years together as a family! :D

What I ate 3

Breakfast

 I had some muesli bread and a cup of tea. This one is salted caramel

Lunch

I had chorizo mushroom risotto. As usual, the photo doesn't do it justice

Snack

We tried out this popcorn with linseed in it.

Dinner

I had a big bowl of veggie soup (not pictured) and some fruit salad for dessert, all homemade

Mustache party

So we had a bbq/birthday party a few weeks ago. I made the theme mustache because it seemed fitting for the birthday boy. ;) 

Adult table.

I didn't do a centerpiece because I needed the space on the table to put things plus I wanted to keep the "casual feel" of the bbq.

Closer up of table setting

I unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the kids table. :/

The dessert table/candy bar was a big hit! :D

I decorated the cupcakes with my daughter. There are also mustache shaped sugar cookie, peanut M & M cookies made by my friend, meringues, caramel corn, plus loads of different candies.

It was an awesome day and definitely will be doing the candy bar again for another occasion. :)

Current mood ;)

 

http://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2016/09/11

5 photos from july

My cherry tomato plant's first ripe tomatoes

A sleeping lion at the zoo

 I wasn't quick enough for this bald eagle who got a little close for comfort at the bird show

A plant sculpture from the botanical gardens

My phone came with this app that will automatically create albums, make videos, animated gifs and photo effects and show them to me to see if I want to save them. This photo I did.

Father's Day

I thought I'd show some of the Father's Day stuff as well. :)

I bought a cardboard frame which I let my daughter paint and decorate as she pleased. I just supervised. She didn't really like my suggestions so this truly hers and you can tell a 3.5 year old made it which her father loved. A photo of her was added and it was taken to his office. :)

She made this pencil holder at school. So cute! Again, it went right on her dad's desk at work. :) She also made a card that her photo pops out of when opened (not shown)

She really wanted to make cupcakes so we did some chocolate ones which she decorated. :) (This was taken before I turned the plate so she could decorate the others.)

Belated Mother's Day randomness

Yes, Mother's Day has already passed by this year, but I thought I  would share what I got because I thought it would make a fun craft project on a summer rainy day. :)

My daughter made these at school and she is 3.5 so she obviously had help. ;)

First up, the zen garden and card I got for Mother's Day. The base was made from the lid of a shoe box and the little rake is a wine cork. There's a shell and little rocks to decorated.

They packaged it in cellophane and they put the sand in a separate bag for gift giving. I thought it was quite clever. :) (I also got a fitbit)

I got a strawberry cake decorated with macarons for dessert. Delicious! :)

Teacher end-of-year gifts sorted :)

I thought I'd do a quick post for those who may be stuck for ideas for end-of-year teacher gifts. School doesn't end here til July, but in the States I was told that it's nearing the end of the year.
One gift I was advised by a former teacher to give was handcream in a neutral scent since teachers tend to wash their hands a lot. I thought that was a great idea, but also wanted to do something original along with that.

For the teaching assistant (this isn't really an exact translation of what he does, but the best equivalent function I could find) or ATSEM (Agent Spécialisé des écoles Maternelles) who is male I got a keyring with "Super ATSEM" and a Superman logo

And for her teacher, I got a pocket mirror with "Thank you, teacher, for helping me grow" (loosely translated) written in French.

I think I will add something more personal like a drawing done by my daughter and a mini cake decorated by her.

I'm hoping these are things that are useful to them, but who knows. I went ahead and got them now because I was afraid I would forget to order them if I waited.

You can find all kinds of things like around the web with varying price points. Perhaps an initial or name keyring or mirror would be more personal, but those are gifts they might get at other occasions so I chose these. :)

5 Photos from the Forest

Huge trees make you feel so small

Little streams gather in corners of the forest

 The path leads up, up, up...

Very steep, almost too steep, but onward we go till we reach the end

Dandelion pre-blowing away :)

Tiptoe through the tulips or smelling the roses...

I have to admit that lately I have been out taking walks in the lovely weather we had been having. Highs to where we were in mid-season jackets and the sun was shining brightly.  We were enjoying our family walks and spring had definitely sprung.

This week, the cold came back and the skies are back to being grey and filled with ominous clouds threatening rain at any second. Winter coats are back on.

This past weekend we did make it to a Nature and Bio sort of small festival and my daughter was able to go on her first pony ride. No photos of that shared, but these photos were taken on walks around our neighborhood.

I miss living in the city sometimes, but I must admit there are definitely benefits to living out in the country. :)

Cupcake Party

We decorated cupcakes when a niece and nephew came over for snack time. I like to come up with little activities for them and last cupcake decorating, they weren't present and were interested in trying it. Last time, I had a mix I found on sale, but this time I made a homemade cupcake recipe from Natasha's Kitchen. I halved the recipe and it was the perfect amount for everyone to have 1 then each kid had one to take home. I just made a standard vanilla icing for them and they were a big hit. You know it's a good sign when kids prefer eating to decorating. ;)

I did a very quick decorating set up. The kids were ages 3, 4.5, and 6.5. I didn't want to have too many things on the table because I didn't want to overwhelm them. The crocodile gummy candy and marshmallow were more for eating than decorating. Each child had a cup with a bendy straw, napkin and plate (cups and plates from Ikea). Yes, there is a placemat and tablecloth which made clean up much easier. :)

I set up tea for the adults and we all had cupcakes to eat with it.

I forgot to take photos of all the cupcakes, but here are a few of them

Overall, it was really fun. It just required getting the kids started and helping them once in a while. The kids loved it. Did I already mention that? And it doesn't require a lot of prep. I think a more "sophisticated" version will appear for birthday parties in the future. ;)

Great Grandmother + Gardening

My daughter is very fortunate to still have a great grandparent in her life. He great-grandmother is approaching 90, but still lives on her own. She's an amazing woman for a number of reasons and I am happy my daughter is able to get to spend time with her. Unfortunately, my parents and grandparents  passed away well before she was born. She had a set of great grandparents up until 18 months ago when her paternal great-grandfather passed away.
Enough babbling, here are a few photos from her great-grandmother's garden. Yes, she still manages to garden. :)

And lastly, a bouquet of wildflowers my daughter picked (with permission) for me held by my husband :)