A Birthday Party ~ Oooh, la, la!

I said I’d post pictures of Ivy’s birthday party (shared with Ben—isn’t he a lucky guy?), but I only have a few. I’m so disappointed because Ilex had picked out a fantabulous pink and black outfit for Lola while we were gone, but I didn’t realize it until we got home from the party. C’est la vie.

I missed getting a picture of the dessert table after it had cookies, cupcakes, and croissants with chocolate.

It was the last Friday night garden party at Shannon’s and Ben’s for the season. I’ll miss them! (The parties, not Shan and Ben. Grin.)

Summer

While I’m working on photos from the past month, I want to say a current ‘hello.’ [grin] The weather has been gorgeous here in our piece of God’s green earth. I just noticed yesterday that our blackberries have begun to ripen. We had our first hot, fresh-picked, juicy berries for an afternoon snack. Like manna is this free gift…

My grandparents are visiting from California for this month. Do you remember our road trip last summer to visit them for their anniversary? Since then my grandmother has battled cancer with both chemo and radiation while grandpa slowly regained strength after his cancer and other health battles. Grandma is just now recovering her strength. We are so happy to have them with us for a whole month, and we had the privilege of celebrating their 66th wedding anniversary with them!

I have a bunch more photos to share (of course). We are enjoying dinners in the garden. Knitting lessons with grandma. Star-gazing with grandpa. Concerts in the park. Oh, just lovely.

I pray that your summer is just as lovely, whether sprinkled with little gifts such as blackberries, family, and free concerts in the park, or loaded with big adventures!

Edited to add:

Some of you may enjoy this note my grandpa wrote after being knighted! by the French government (just the day before travelling to see us in Oregon) for his service in WWII:

“A few lines to keep our relatives and friends up to date with our comings and goings.  Both Helen and I are gaining strength after this past couple years battling with health problems. How we thank the Lord for sustaining strength. Right now we are visiting with our daughter Cheri in Oregon and having a delightful time with her and her three daughters and eight of our great grandchildren. 

The day before flying up here our son John drove us to the Los Angeles area where at the Trinity Lutheran church in Hawthorn, CA, June 27, 2013 the Consul General of France pinned the elegant French Legion of Honor pin on the lapel of Paul (Jim) Pietsch making me a ‘knight’ among the prestigious group of people like Generals Eisenhower and Patton who had helped to liberate France during WWII.

I easily qualified for the award as I had landed with the 80^th Infantry Division on Aug. 6, 1944 at Utah Beach as the Division entered combat in the Hedge Row area of France.  With the “St. Lo Break Through” we were a part  of Patton’s 3^rd Army which crossed France in record time and then met severe resistance at the Moselle River with many casualties.  It was then east through France to the German border preparing to cross the Rhine River when on Dec. 16 the Battle of the Bulge diverted us to Luxembourg.  After crossing the Saur River into Germany we returned to France near Strasbourg, crossed the Rhine and helped take numerous German cities.

During nine months of combat with the 80^th without becoming a casualty (or with hardly a scratch) I became more and more conscious that there was someone higher than I who was watching after me.  This consciousness led to Helen and I spending 40 years of our lives as overseas missionaries.  After retirement we have lived in California on property with our oldest son and had frequent visits with our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

So, it is with pride that I wear the French Legion of Honor pin for helping to liberate France from Nazi aggression and tyranny including its spread throughout the world.”

More Lovely

A Mother’s Love

“No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother's love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star.”

~Edwin Hubbell Chapin

 

Happy Mother’s Day to my friends and my fabulous mother!

 

(We have had incredible weather the past few weeks. Yesterday we spent time at the home of friends visiting animals and riding horses. Yesterday evening we had a Mother’s Day garden party with my family. Today we spent six hours on the lake/river with more friends. It was spectacular. We live in a wonderland and are blessed indeed!)

Larissa’s Baby Shower ~ Little Red Wagon Goes to Farmers’ Market

My sister Shannon has some magical event-planning skillz. You might remember her best friend’s wedding. (I had many posts full of pictures, and I won’t link them all…) Well, this was her best friend’s baby shower. And, again, I just got to show up and take pictures. And then post them on my blog so you can all enjoy the lovely. And it sorta looks like I had something to do with it. But I didn’t.

[Maybe y’all could help me convince Shannon that she needs to start a blog now that she’s home with sweet baby Rilla Grey. She could share all of her creative genius with us. I could link to her blog posts and feel better about the fact that I rarely post anything in the design category now that I have gravitated toward crisis-management mode. But I digress…]

Shannon and Larissa have spent many a summer Saturday at a local farmer’s market, ending their morning at Great Harvest Bread. Shannon did a terrific job of channeling a bit of summer for all of us.

Shannon set up a table full of scrapbooking supplies so that each guest could create a page for an alphabet/guest book. I took pictures of the guests with Larissa, so that the picture could be mounted on the back of each page along with a personalized note. The table was a busy place all afternoon—the guests really got into the spirit of things!!

Cheers

I was in the mood for something bright, fresh, and cheerful on my mantel. I think this qualifies. (It’s certainly better than the stagnant display that sat there all year last year!)

Bonjour Bebe

In celebration of my sister Shannon’s Christmas baby, we put together a “Bonjour Bebe” French fete fit for a queen. My sister Holly, my mom, two of Shannon’s best friends (Larissa and Domini), and I made a great team. (Ilex and Ivy helped, and Drake even helped people park out in the freezing rain). It was a dark and stormy day and I didn’t get all the pictures I wanted to get, but I think I caught the essence. {grin} (A few pictures here were taken by Larissa.) We had a great turnout of over 40 people, some traveling a long distance in nasty weather!

Shannon is the queen event-planner so it was a great privilege (and challenge!) to throw her a party (in classy Shannon-style) where she could just relax and enjoy herself. After years of creating parties for others, she deserved to be the star of the show!

Details:

• White linen tablecloths with burlap runners
• French-themed children’s books and toys (French wooden blocks and memory games) on the guest tables
• White pitchers with hawthorn branches and lovely red berries (arrangements by Holly)
• Water carafes on the tables
• Personalized French-themed bookmark party favors handmade by Domini
• “Wish” papers for guests to share wishes for baby, made by Larissa
• A French-themed children’s book, Chasing Degas, used as a guest book (guests signed the inside cover)
• Burlap “Bonjour” banner made by my mom, Aunt Melody, and Grandma when my mom was down visiting
• Silver tray chalkboards made by Domini
• French children’s music playing the the background
• Vintage pram, oversized Eiffel Tower, and large chalkboard on an easel at the entrance

Menu:

• Croissants and French rolls
• Meats and cheeses (including a yummy soft cheese from France)
• Chicken salad
• Multigrain crackers
• Artichoke and spinach dip
• Sugar snap peas
• Olives
• Nutella and raspberry preserves
• Grapes
• Caprese bites (cherry tomato, fresh basil, fresh mozarella)
• Chocolate pie bites (made by Domini)
• Sour cream pastries (made by me)
• Lavender heart cookies (made by Holly and Ivy)
• Belgian chocolates
• Pirouette wafers
• Cream puffs and Madeleines
• Orchard punch and coffee

This was the invitation (with some of the personal information erased):

Celebrate

Homemade breakfast burritos and pre-Christmas crafts and baking.

Christmas day at ‘Bambi’ and ‘Poppy’s’ house.

(Manger built by my nephew, Drake:)

(Luke reading the Christmas story:)

(Drake made catapult kits for the boys, wrapped them himself, and then helped the boys build them!)

(Bambi made capes, tunics, and Robin Hood hats for each of the boys. I’m pretty sure Levi is going to live in his.)

(My Dad came walking with us! It’s been six weeks since his open-heart surgery.)