Gabriele's wish

Gabriele's wish for her birthday was that we would do new portraits. Other than the ones from the wedding last year, we had never done a full group and the ones of the 4 kids we had was at least three years ago.

Let me tell you-it was an experience...I mentioned in another post that although our two didn't particularly like having their photo taken when young, they sure like to now. No matter how they look...

This first photo was taken by a photographer friend, but the rest were taken by Gary with a few by Karl.Amy and her mommy-
the girls-
Nick and Gabriele-
Karl and Amy-
There she goes...
the two of them together...oh my...
Gary and Nick-
and don't think that the kids were the only ones goofing off-
The guys...
The two that started the family...
Oh look how nice they look...
oh sweetness...
and then...





And those were only some of the images we took. All in all-between Karl and Gary-they took about 500 shots before editing.

I have a new website I spend a lot of time on called Pinterest. The link will take you to my page with the "boards" of images I like. One of the images I saw on the site was a lower body shot with each person holding something that represented their hobby or job. This is our version...

Totally love it...I think I will get a large print for over our fireplace.

Thanks for letting me share...I do so love these people!

June is fun too!

Hey did you see the mini loaf van at Burgerville Salmon Creek last weekend? We have been waiting for it to make it's way here.They cut down regular size vans to make these-I think they made 4 and have been making their way across the U.S. In June we celebrate the birth of Mrs. Gabriele. I made these layered streamers in her honor.
Her cake was white with chocolate chips and fresh strawberry frosting.
Dinner was Lemon chicken risotto...
Then we celebrated Father's day last week. Everyone came even our friend Vicki who rents from my dad. Kinda handy when you want a family shot...even a raccoon showed up...
Dinner was lasagna made from this recipe... I did use ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese and chicken italian sausage instead of the hot breakfast sausage. No draining needed. Salad and garlic bread. Most of the meal (not the bread) was organic and I used a rice based lasagna noodle. It was the first time I had made it and it is now the only one I will ever use!
Dessert was only one of these chocolate cakes with strawberry filling and ganache. The other was for Vicki to buy for her family celebration.
Shockingly- Karl got a photo of my dad smiling...
oh look...another one!
and this is my favorite of Gary that night. Amy gave him a card that said he kicked ass as a dad. And then something about since she was an adult now she could say ass.
This is the envelope from the card Nick made. To make the card he used my typewriter and wrote about the things he remembers most about growing up with his dad. But the envelope just made us laugh because of the sketching he added.
Karl tried out some fun techniques while Gary shot pool-

and the rest of us played Cranium...
another post will soon follow-about some more fun we had as a family...you won't want to miss it!

I love May-part 3

Another party!!

This one was with the family and since most of them are working, I prepared dinner. We had pork chops baked with Rib City bbq sauce and roasted potatoes.

When it was time for presents I asked for my boa so I would be dressed for the festivities...
This is the cake I made...meringue disks with chocolate mousse layered between and frosted with mousse. Then I covered the outside with meringue sticks.
And this is what it looks like cut after sitting in the fridge overnight. Let me tell you - this was a yummy dessert and everyone liked it too.

We walked around the yard and looked at all the flowers blooming. Karl was on the look out for birds and bugs to photograph...he found some silly things too.
and this is Daisy helping herself to a bit of dinner...
So that was May...now you know why I like it so much!

I love May-part 2

I had only a couple parties growing up for my birthday so I plan my own every year! This year I did a take off on the movie "13 going on 30".

Amy designed the invites-

I neglected to take an photo of the goodie bags but they had wishing dust, razzles, pixie sticks, twinkies, a mixed "tape" cd and other assorted fun stuff.

In preparation, the kids strung twinkle lights and balloons for me-

I made "tie dye" cupcakes with chocolate frosting-

We had snacks popular in the 70's-

and mini sandwiches, wienie wraps and bbq meatballs too.

my partner-who knew just how to decorate for a 13 or 15 year party-
and did my bright eye make up and nails...

we had to have a wall of heart throbs-can you name them all??

Presents- including this huge flower-

I did take photos of the gals who came but...since I asked them to come in pj's and not all of them had make-up on-I decided for everybody's sake not to post them!

Part 3 will be coming up soon-