Epic Spanish birthday

   For our father's birthday this year, we decorated Spanish style (yay!), and watched El Cid, a movie that Papa has always enjoyed. Since this is one of our favourite styles, you can imagine that the epic decor stayed up for a while, even though it was springtime!

''El Cid'' birthday table in our recently painted dining room!

Although I love springtime, I was perfectly happy to have our dining room/living room this style for that week of May! We LOVE it! :)

stone...chains...candlelight

small trinkets, which we love to collect and use here and there in decorating

a picture during breakfast

Sangria with fruit

bread and candlelight

a birthday breakfast treat

War-themed birthday party!

June 2nd (2013) was our brother Alexandre's 13th birthday and was a Very Special day. 

We did the family party (theme day) later that week! This time, the theme was....WAR! Pretty fun! We played the Great Escape soundtrack, as we enjoyed the decor, meals, gifts....

Sam also set up a super fun obstacle course inspired by combat in the Philippines- complete with real bamboo! (found in the park behind us- seeded from some neighbour's plants!)

A full view (standing in living room, looking at dining room)

Of course I had fun taking closeup shots of the soldiers on the table...

nails for a nail gun represented bullets

pictures on the walls

soldier behind 'barbwire fencing'

HEADING OUTSIDE....
The obstacle course! Everyone tried it, and we were timed. I can't even remember who won, but it was fun! Points were detracted if one made unusual mistakes...

''Sam! you expect ME to FIT under that?'' wails Marjo. To her delight, she did. :) 

1: Put on the backpack, grab the wagon and run towards The Log. (leave wagon at log)

2: Shimmy under the log and the chicken wire fencing attached to it, run over the board-over-log

3: flounder through the pile of leafy branches

4: walk the ''log bridge over the alligator-infested water (without touching the ground, or points will be lost!)

5: crawl through the humid forest of verdant bamboo and leafy trees (without making any descend upon yourself, or points will be deducted)

the forest was constructed of bamboo and maple leaf branches and was watered by an gentle sprinkler

6: run and jump over a piece of wood raised up between two logs, run across another 'log bridge' and jump down into the log cabin. 

7: fill the backpack with as many logs (they were quite small) as you think you can handle, don the backpack again and try to successfully do the whole obstacle course again back to the beginning!

Elodie, looking more like a dancer than an adventurer, crosses the bridge, carrying a log-filled backpack

the dangerous bridge over alligator territory

Those are all the pictures I have for now...we took some videos as well...

the birthday boy...one of those pictures which gives one a glimpse of what one's youngest brother will be as a man! Wow...can't believe how they grow!

Irish Birthday party

Irish step dancer costume

Several years ago, for my sister's tenth birthday, we did an Irish-themed party since she loves Ireland as well as all things the color green!

Our Mum decorated by draping shamrock fabric over the window valance, and placing a bit of ''rainbow'' over the fan! The birthday girl loved it all. :)



Irish woodland party table



The table was decorated as an Irish woodland, with a real log in the center, little handmade gnomes wearing green shirts, a green teddy bear waving an Irish flag, little woodland creatures such as foxes and rabbits, and more.

(note: Norwegian flags stand for the fact that Ireland was first settled by Vikings.

Thanks to P.B for pointing out that many Irish inherited their signature brilliant color of

 red hair from the Norse!)

I made this step dancer costume for my sister's doll Kirsten. In this picture, it is modelled by

a more Irish-looking doll. :)

On the birthday, even the weather co-operated with the theme by acting very wet and green!

(rare for the middle of September in Missouri!)

Of course on the birthday, we watched a video of Riverdance. (which is amazing for the most part!)

And the birthday cake was.....

A log cake!

You can easily make this delightful cake; there are dozens of recipes online!

such as here, here, or here!

Enjoy.

(pictures are actually from a different, more recent birthday party when we also made a log cake.)

(The very happy birthday girl with her log cake, which was decorated with meringue mushrooms!)

Try making  meringue mushrooms!

And another cute idea which we discovered later is... green pepper shamrocks!

I hope you are inspired to do a little Irish party this weekend!

Or any time this spring!

Or even for a September birthday, as we did. :)