Sunday 26 February 2012

Birthday celebrations

After a period of inactivity for my blog due to our internet going down, I am back this week.  We have had a week of contrasts this week, with Andy & I celebrating our birthdays and my Gran passing away.

We went out for dinner with friends last weekened and with family this weekend, the advantage of having birthdays so close together is that we can spread out the celebrations and I can claim them all as my birthday!!

Andy has been poorly again this week, this time with man flu, so once he was better I made his favourite dessert, a chocolate orange torte.  I base it on a pampered chef receipe for a mint torte but change the chocolate and essence and here is the result:

Chocolate Orange Torte
This week we returned to school and work after half term (Andy didn't have any time off for this holiday!) and we spent some of half term completing our normal holiday jobs - tidying up the house.  I have always told visitors that you can tell how long it is until a school holiday by how tidy our house is, as the closer we get the more likely I am to leave things as I will sort them out in the school holiday!

This time though we tidied up with a different style as we are preparing the lounge for its make over.  So although the lounge is tidier than it has been it is barer in places and the rest of the house is hosting displaced lounge items!!

With the rest of half term we went on an outing to Beaulieu to see the James Bond vehicle collection.  We went with friends and had a lovely, if a little chilly, day out.  Josh enjoyed it the most as this combined his favourite pasttimes - James Bond and cars (with Top Gear thrown in as well!).

Martini anyone?
While preparations have been under way in the lounge I have found time to make all the birthday cards I will need for March (I think).  We also made some whoopie pies and then made individual cake stands for some of them to show them off.  As you can see below though there were only three left to show off and they didn't really last that long either - but Jacob and I enjoyed making them.

Whoopie pies and cake stands
I am still working on the craft to incorporate the bible verse from last blog (Easter cards) but the bible verse to inspire us this week is:

Bless those who persecute you;
bless and do not curse.
Romans 12:14

Our prayer this week is with our family as we come to terms with our loss and for my Mum and her brothers as they make the necessary arrangements.

With God's blessings from my family to yours x

1 comment:

Nashes of Chennai said...

Sorry to hear about your Gran's passing.
Lots of love
x