Birthday Bliss

Yesterday was my birthday.

In my husband's family, when it's your birthday you can do pretty much anything you want and you pretty much don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Queen for a day, so to speak!

Growing up in my family we weren't quite that extreme but we were definitely made to feel very special on our special day. We got to choose what we wanted to have for dinner, what kind of cake we wanted, and our place at the table was always set with the special red plate and cup and gold silverware! I'd like to bring the special plate tradition into my own family... it's a good one.

For my birthday, Ben (with the help of his sister Hannah who is here visiting) made me a delicious pancake breakfast to start the day. After Nora's nap and a bit of lunch we all ventured out to do some more sight-seeing in Oxford and were joined by a bit of sunshine and blue skies!

We walked around the city, visited a lovely old church with loads of history, visited the cathedral (which is officially what makes Oxford a city) and wandered around the outside of a lovely meadow and along the river where we saw ducks, geese and swans. We also visited Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlen) where CS Lewis taught. They have a deer park and some of the most lovely wooded paths on their grounds (not pictured).

When we got home Ben and Hannah made dinner for me... Yumm wraps!! We couldn't have done this without Hannah! She bought us a huge bottle of Yumm Sauce in Eugene and froze it, then checked it with her luggage. I have so missed my Yumm...

After dinner and some phone and skype conversations with family, we put Nora down for bed. Then, my crafty cravings were once again satiated. My loving husband who the night before had made (from scratch) a super delicious dark chocolate cake allowed ME to decorate it!! SO FUN! I decided to try my hand with fondant for the first time and then did some piping (out of a ziploc bag.)

(I know, I know, the lighting for these pictures is less than impressive... welcome to my living room!)

It really made me want to practice more of this type of thing and to get a better rolling pin (my good one is in storage in Eugene) and some real piping bags whose seams don't split under pressure (although I may just use parchment paper next time). I feel like I could do A LOT better... but I'm not too disappointed for this first attempt. Plus, the cake was delicious! ( :

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COMING SOON!!!

On an entirely non-birthday related note, we just returned last week from a LOVELY trip to London and Edinburgh, Scotland which will soon get its very own photo-filled post...

Happy Mother's Day!

In England, Mother's Day (or "Mothering Sunday" as they call it here) is in March. Weird, I know. But, when in Rome...

Ben made me a delicious breakfast before we walked to church yesterday morning. It was a beautiful day out and although I'm not sure he can reasonably take credit for the sunshine, he claims that he made that happen just for me! ( : The sky was the most amazing shade of blue. I'm afraid the picture doesn't do it justice.

He also surprised me with some amazing hand-made chocolates from this lovely little French patisserie down the road.

De - light - ful.

Plus he got me a design-your-own travel mug. My old travel mug had been leaking on me ever since it cracked when I dropped it about 6 weeks ago. (Smarter people than me would have just bought a new one back then.) It was really thoughtful of him. He knows I've been really missing all my craft supplies and the opportunity to get those creative/crafty juices flowing. You may have noticed that too as I've been taking it out on the blog lately. Also, he knows that I don't really enjoy wearing my hot chocolate.

Best of all, Ben wrote me a letter in our book. We keep this lovely leather-bound book to write to each other in... sometimes for a special occasion like Mother's Day or a birthday, sometimes to tell each other our hopes, frustrations, dreams, or fears about the future. We secretly write a note and then leave it somewhere where the other will find it. It's so much better than a greeting card.

After a day like that, I'm hoping we get to celebrate American Mother's Day too!!