Birthday and My Little Piece of History

Any ideas what this is? You will probably never guess.

So this past week when I was watching news about the 20 year anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down I remembered my little piece of history. I suddenly remembered and went ransacking through my closets until I found my chunk of the wall. When I was in England in '91-'92 I met a family that lived in Germany during the time the wall came down. He was in the British Army serving on a base there. They had made a trip to East Germany after the wall came down and got a large chunk of the wall. During one of our visits with them they got out their piece of the wall to show us and I asked if they would break me off some. They gave me this little piece. You can see the paint on it that was part of bigger graffiti.

Last Friday for my birthday and Stacy's we decided to go to The Roof restaurant. I had never been there and so I was excited to go. In fact only Josh had been there before. Shelley was down for a few days and so she went with us. We had lots of yummy food. There of course was lots to choose from and we were stuffed when finally got up to leave. The temple view was from the The Roof.

The famous creme brulee We all really enjoyed it. I remember when Lizzy got obsessed with it after her visit there.

More yummy desserts. It was hard to get pictures there with my camera because of the lighting.

Then on Saturday I made a cake for Stacy and myself so that we could have a little party that the kids could be a part of. Maren was very happy to help put the candles on. We had a fun weekend. I didn't get as many pics as I was hoping to, oh well. Oh by the way it feels just lovely to be 41. I think Stacy feels the same about 37. I think that's what age she is now.

Looking forward to next weekend down in C.D. to see Tenny's stage debut.

Annual Halloween Party

So we had another fantastic, fun-filled Halloween party. I was glad that Halloween was on Saturday so we had the day to prepare and then the extra hour to party because of the time change was of course great.

We decided to do a fondue party since the one for Leah's birthday was so fun last year. So we all got out our fondue pots and went to work. I did a cheese fondue which was very simple. So I thought that I would share the recipe.

2 c. ginger ale
1 clove of whole garlic
Simmer this in the fondue pot. I use and electric pot and so this is easy to do.

2c. shredded Swiss cheese
2c. shredded Cheddar cheese
2T. flour
Mix the flour into the cheese and then add a little at a time stirring into the ginger ale and garlic.
Salt and pepper to taste

We served it with cubed French bread and meatballs. It was very yummy.

Stacy did a chocolate fondue and Rebecca did a peanut butter fondue. And of course we had lots of yummy things to dip in them. It was a very nice spread as usual. Also as usual, we had tons of food and so Stacy invited the Hoffers and Deckers to come over after we went trick or treating.

We had to do some spooky vittles as well. Stacy made these from apples and almonds.

And of course we wanted to try the mummy dogs. Whitney made these and I thoughtthey turned out so cute. We forgot to do the eyes, but oh well.

I had promised sugar cookies. Leslie was in town for a few days and so she did the decorating and as Leslie usually does she wanted to make the cookies into works of art and that she did. I used these cookies as treats for the cake/cookie walk. The kids enjoyed it. Maren wanted the black bat cookie and her teeth looked like mossy rocks while she enjoyed it.

She always was a rocker at heart.

Jonas requested that Whitney be Princess Leia. Don't they make a dynamic duo.

All dressed up and getting ready to trick or treat. Maren had decided that she wanted to be a kitty a week ago and thought that last Sunday or Monday should be Halloween. She waited patiently and finally it was here. She was so determined to do her trick or treating. She had to hold my hand the whole way and carry her very heavy caldron full of candy. She would not let me carry it. And she also had to carry her black tail because she kept on stepping on it. I was a kitty as well, but I did not have a tail. I did however have some cool, hand drawn ears that Leslie did for me. Hopefully Stacy will have a picture of them on her blog

Essie Bug

The Kittycat, Obe, Cowboy Gabe, Princess Hannah and Little Bug

I don't know who invited the cling ons but someone did. Worf had to get her hair just right. That is Erica underneath the wig and Kelsie underneath that mask, if you couldn't tell.

Of course we had to do the donut eating contest. I think that Kyli won the kids contest and Kelsie barely won the older kids contest. Maren was very determined to eat her donut. Everything was so fun. It was such a perfect party between the food, company and good weather for being out it was a great night. We did some name gaming and then to top things off some Mafia. Wish you all could have been there. Hope you all had a great Halloween as well.