overdue! Farmor's 80th Birthday

Easter weekend was quite busy.  It all culminated on Easter Monday with Farmors 80th birthday 'bash' in Sweden. Such a beautiful day, a gorgeous place and fantastic company.  Great day.  Enjoy some pics!

I held a speech for Farmor and of course I started crying pretty much as soon as the first word came out.  I don't know why I do that and why if I know I will cry that I still put myself in these positions, pfft.  Practice makes perfect, maybe?  However, it all went over well and everyone understood my Danish in the midst of tears, haha.

I was once again really struggling with extreme sunlight and the camera.  I just need to read some more and figure it out.  Again, practice makes perfect.

Overall a fantastic day, it's still all Farmor can talk about, haha.  In the process of making a book for her with all the pictures.  

Now we're looking forward to my grandparents coming to visit at the end of May.  Just hoping this ridiculously nice weather holds out.  I can't get over how nice it has been lately!

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farmor's birthday party invitations

So...the buzz around here is all about Farmor's birthday.  In case you don't know who Farmor is, she is Christian's grandmother on his dad's side.  Far in Danish means dad and Mor in Danish means mom so it is kind of a direct translation of dad's mom - farmor. :)  Anyway, she is turning 80 and it's quite the bash she is trying to plan.  She is absolutely over the moon about this party, it's all she can talk about.  I thought it might be nice and fun to make her invitations.

You know might remember that I hand made our wedding invtations (both times) as well.  I actually quite enjoy making cards.

The paper I used is very me but also very Farmor at the same time.  I love the royal designs and 'new-age' floral designs and she loves the classic floral designs so there was a mix. On the inside I glued crumbled tissue paper to give some texture and flare.

I took these pictures this past weekend and the actual invitation texts weren't in yet but you get the idea.  I pinned in the invite text on the right-hand side.  Closed the invite with dual colored ribbons and put in a plain white envelope.  They were finally finished today as I used my sick day to finish up the addresses.  

Every invitation was different.  Here are a few favorites in particular, though.

Farmor says that I could sell my invitations on "the... uhmm that thing there with the computer...".  Yes, well while it was a very sweet compliment I told her that there are much more talented and creative people out there on that thing called the internet doing just that. :)

The party will be on Easter Monday up in Sweden for lunch.  Farmor is from Sweden originally and she hopes it will be easier for her siblings to come this way.  It's on a horse farm - the same one Christian and I did some decorating for his Uncle this past summer.

I think it will be really nice, very much looking forward to it.  But what ever will Farmor have to talk about afterwards? ;)

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summer has arrived

My friends and family love us so much they sent us their east-coast heat wave.  :P Only problem is that we don’t have those fancy, new-fangled things called air conditioners here! Or outdoor public pools.  Plenty of beach, though!  Danish summer is here!

Christian and I went to the beach last week and it was awesome.  There weren’t waves but the water was not atrociously cold and I could see through it (and we know this is important) so I had a blast just slashing around so to speak. 

Before it gets too far gone I should talk about last weekend.  There was a lot going on!

Friday we helped Christian’s uncle with some floral arrangement delivery and decorations for a horse show in Sweden.  The customer was a bit off her rocker and we moved everything like 400x for her but I think it turned out well!

(yes, that is in a horse stable)

Saturday we went back to Sweden for Christian’s grandma’s sister’s 75^th birthday.  Did you follow that?  Christian’s grandma (Farmor – the little one who lives across the terrace) is Swedish and is one of something like 7 or 8 children, no one can really answer that question for me.   So there is a lot of Swedish family.

Lots of Swedish family that no one really knows through whom they’re related.  I thought I was struggling to understand Danish… you should hear Swedish – it makes me laugh mostly.  It’s definitely a whole different intonation than Danish, yauh.

Apparently birthdays aren’t a big gift giving ordeal but everyone comes and brings maybe a small gift and sits down for coffee and 3 courses of cakes, cookies and other delicious desserts (see picture of dessert table below).   I see where Christian developed his sweet tooth!

Sunday we had the brunch for Emilie’s graduation and it was also the 4^th of July and so obviously we had to celebrate!  We hosted a barbeque at our house in the garden (ok backyard ugh where is this proper English coming from already?!) and invited friends and family.

Apparently evite is not commonly used in Denmark and hit half of our friends spam folders instead of inboxes. Whoops! So our brave and handicapped friend, Sillas, made the trip out to grannytown from Copenhagen to spend the 4^th with us and Christian’s family.

We made so much food.  I made Kayte’s guacamole recipe and some fresh pico de gallo and served with tortilla chips as an appetizer. Ok so not American but hello, every American loves Mexican food.  Or it’s just me. Either way YUM. 

We grilled all kinds of meats and corn on the cob. I made potatoes and a salad to serve as side dishes.  I was particularly proud of my salad – mixed leafy greens, cucumbers, red onion, strawberries, blueberries, walnuts and feta cheese with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  Delicious! I also made the cake shown above. Cake mix from a box does exist here but it's just not the same! ;)

We drank a few cocktails and played a Danish yard game.  It’s called I forget… Købclub or something.  Haha I totally forget what it’s called but it was super fun.  I played on the winning team the whole day until the very last round. 

It would take me forever to explain the game so maybe you should just come over and play it with us sometime instead!

It’s been sunny and warm, if not hot, every day for a long time, I almost don’t want to jinx it!  I am loving it! Hope all is well with my loyal readers!

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