Happy Birthday Gregory!

Yesterday was Gregory's 5th birthday.  Wow, some days it seems like yesterday we were hurrying to Landstuhl after my water broke and other days I KNOW it wasn't yesterday.  It has been such a blessing to be back in Germany for so many reasons and Gregory is one of those reasons.  Since he was born here, it's so much fun to show him things like the hospital he was born at, the building we lived in where his first bedroom was and so many other things.  HE LOVES living in Germany...funny thing is, he is the kid who would find something great about where ever we live.  He is my encourager, compassionate, smart, active, creative and so much more preschooler (who is more than ready for Kindergarten).

 Gregory picked out a Lego birthday theme quite a few months ago, so I had been combing Pinterest for every idea under the sun and then had to narrow them down to what was actually going to be possible.  So we ended up invited FIFTEEN kids to the party and 13 were able to come.  It WAS CRAZY!  We have a pretty small apartment, so there was very little walking space after all the toys were drug out and with the mom's and dad's which came too...BUT, it was an awesome fullness.  The kids had fun, the parents enjoyed YUMMY food and Gregory ended up saying it was the "best day ever".  So we count it a big success :-)  I made some super yummy yellow cupcakes from my cupcake recipe book from the Cake Mix Doctor books.  They were topped with a homemade chocolate syrup frosting that was easy and yummy, from the same cookbook.  We had pizza biscuits from one of my favorite websites, Onceamonthmom.com and we had a delicious fruit salad (with almost every possible fruit) and there was also dill dip to go with some fresh veggies.  Tom doesn't usually have time or take time in the kitchen, but for this party he was a huge help making the biscuits after I showed him how to make them.

We played two games, I Spy the Lego Guy and Put the Smile on the Lego Guy.  The kids really loved hiding the lego guys and trying to find them.

For decorations I made the birthday banner that turned out amazing...I must confess I didn't design it, just found it online and put it together, so awesome!  And then I had gotten two molds - a lego mold and a lego figurine mold.  So I made yellow lego guys for on the top of the cupcakes, made chocolate lego bars, lego guy crayons and lego soap.

Gregory was INCREDIBLY blessed by all of the gifts his friends gave him.  There were plenty of legos, some Kre-os, a Spiderman car that does tricks, games, a ball and glove and a Leapster 2 (that will be awesome for the airplane ride we take in a few days!).

Oops I forgot one thing about the day before the birthday we all (as a family) got to go enjoy cupcakes with Gregory for snacktime at Preschool.  This was a great start to the birthday fun.  And to cap it all off there was a Kid's Fest on base today, so we got to meet some friends for this and enjoyed pony rides, balloons, games and the Kid's Flea Market where the boys got even more toys they didn't need :-)

So now that the celebrations are done and the house is still pretty decently clean, we move on to packing for our trip to MO and MN.  We will get to be in MO to see my sis-in-law graduate from CBC and then we'll head up to MN where I'll get to see the majority of my family (all except Kevin's family - which we will miss).         

As always there are tons of pictures to show things better than I could ever describe them :-) 
http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday to me!

So this past Sunday was the first time my birthday has fallen on Easter and I believe it is the only time in my lifetime that it may happen.  We celebrated the most important event first, my Lord and Savior's resurrection and then in the evening we celebrated my birthday.  Oh and we even continued celebrating on Monday when we enjoyed my meal of choice, Italian food, from Taormina's in Landstuhl, Germany.

All throughout the week prior to Easter Sunday I had been discussing with Gregory and Joshua the Easter Story.  We had fun with a few different kinds of resurrection eggs.  We made some beautiful stained glass looking crosses (with saran wrap, construction paper, tissue paper and glue).  We also had fun making resurrection  cookies (that had to stay in the oven overnight) and we made resurrection rolls for Sunday morning breakfast. 

We also had a special Easter snack while watching one of the VeggieTale Easter movies.  I took plastic eggs and put snack foods in them and delivered them to the boys in their Easter baskets.  We also did a special Easter egg lunch, where I put each of their meal items inside the plastic eggs and then served the meal in an egg carton to each of the boys.  Both times they had so much fun being surprised with what was inside each egg.

Of course we went to church in the morning and then there were Easter baskets and Easter pictures, Easter ham (which I learned not everyone does to my surprise j/k).  We had a yummy meal and then later in the evening after dinner we had some yummy ice cream cake that Tom & Gregory picked out for me. 

 For my birthday I took a raincheck on my gifts since we are heading back to the states in less than a month, so I get to do some easily justifiable shopping when we are there :-)

So it was a busy weekend, but a nice time to be together as a family celebrating Jesus' resurrection.
And Tom did a nice job helping make my birthday special.  Oh and I almost forgot, but I got BEAUTIFUL flowers from my friend, Amanda.  Daffodils and tulips, very nice spring bouquet.  I was so surprised when she gave them to me last week.

Hopefully all of this rambling will help you understand the pictures if you go HERE to look through them.

Food

So I don't usually blog about thoughts or memories, but I really want to write about this since it's on my mind...so here it goes.

FOOD, there are so many memories wrapped around food in my mind.  As I was making some chicken salad for me for lunch, I was flooded with emotions and thoughts and memories.  So I am going to share some of these memories...

-Chicken Salad-
When we lived in Colorado Springs, whenever Ruth Fravel would have the female youth group volunteers over for a lunch we frequently had chicken salad and strawberry's with Brianna's dressing, SO YUMMY...this week I made chicken salad and bought some strawberry's and dressing...so I will be thinking of so many of you this week, to name a few...Gentri, Ruth, Tabitha, Laura, Katie, Jenni, Susie

-Knepfla Soup-
It's a rainy dreary day here in Germany today and thinking of making some Knepfla soup...this has been a family favorite for a long time, and when I say family, I am thinking back to when I was in college living at home and would make this for me and my mom and dad.  Missing them today as I make the soup.

-Garlic Shells & Cheese-
This makes me think of my incredible sister, Raquel.  I remember sitting at her and Bryan's table in their first apartment in the DC area after they had been married for not very long.  It was one of my many visits to them while I was still single, but got the benefit of traveling so much and spending time building a deep relationship with my sister, who is now one of my best friends.

-Ham-
Since it's Easter time and thinking back to a few Easters ago when we were in Germany the first time...we were having our Easter meal with our friends, Brian & Amanda Collins.  They had baked a ham and were getting ready to serve it up.  Amanda forgot to be careful when cutting the ham and went through the foil pan, so ham juice had leaked EVERY where, including under the oven.  What a mess.  Oh and you'd think I would have learned from someone else's mistake, but no, I know I've done it before and had meat juice all over the top of my glass stove top here in Germany the second time  This might have even been when they announced to us they were pregnant with Emily.  And now this week they are celebrating the birth of their adorable son.  Congrats!

I am pretty sure I could go on and on and on about food, not just because I like food, but because I LOVE the memories food and meals create.  Oh one more from just a couple of days ago...I want my boys to have great food memories too!

The other night the boys were ready for bed, relaxing and watching a movie before bed, "Twas the Night Before Easter," the latest Veggietales Easter movie, from a couple of years ago I think.  I got this great Easter snack idea.  So I got the boys Easter baskets/buckets and got 12 plastic eggs for each of them.  Inside each egg I put different snacks (choc chips, raisins, puff corn, m & m's, etc.).  Then I delivered the baskets to them on the couch.  Gregory (and Joshua) was so excited about opening each egg to find what surprise snack they would get to eat!  When he was done with his snacks he said, YOU ARE THE BEST MOM EVER!  Talk about making me smile and thank God for him.  :-)  This is the stuff that life is made of :-)  Good stuff.