A Fine Feast Day

We love St. Nicholas' feast day.  Don't ask me why, none of our children (yet) is named Nicholas and we have no family ancestry tying us to Lycia or Turkey.  We just like him.  He is a saint after all...what's not to like?  Maybe it's because we want to focus more on St. Nicholas and less on the commercialized Santa Claus.  Here is how the two stack up against one another.

Anyway, every year we celebrate this day in a special way: I bake cookies and the kids leave out their slippers the night before and in the morning they find goodies in their slippers along with a personal note from St. Nicholas himself. There is also a gift wrapped in plain fabric from St. Nicholas for all the kids to share.

I make these coins every year.  I buy chocolate coins and paste vintage/traditional images of St. Nicholas on them. They look so cute! (I get the images from the Shower of Roses blog)

I put the coins in their slippers along with a candy cane, a clementine and a personalized note from St. Nicholas.

And in the package, the kids found this book.  A family favorite! I just found out that this book was Hilda van Stockum's first picture book ...how very talented she was.  It is perfectly charming as a read aloud.

Included in the little package was this Saints Stained Glass Coloring Book: a great way to showcase your kids' coloring abilities and evangelize the world;)  They look lovely on the windows!

Last but not least a game for the whole family to play.  

These took way too long to make.  I'll probably never make them again unless someone pays me a LOT of money or the Queen of England herself makes a request and seeing as how she is Protestant, I think it is highly unlikely.  

They sure do look cute though and they tasted delicious!!  St. Nicholas, pray for us.

Christus Resurrexit

Nooo, I did not give up blogging for Lent.  I just happen to be, as I said before, a bad sort of blogger.  I'm the kind of blogger your mother would not want you hanging around.
I'm a random and reckless blogger.

But enough of this self deprecating talk, Christ has Risen...let us REJOICE! ALLELULIA!!

 Happy Easter !

April has proven to be a most exciting month! To save on time and mental exertion I've narrowed down the excitement to a "Top 3" (not in chronological order):

#3- Our garden is planted:

We've got Zucchini, Eggplant, Cucumbers, Tomatoes and yellow and green Peppers. What did I tell ya? Exciting times, people.

#2 - We got chicks!

 Meet Ginger.  I wanted to name her Dolly (as I have always thought the name Dolly would be an incredibly suitable name for a chick).  I tried and I tried and I tried to get Mila to name her chick Dolly but she would NOT budge! Insolent daughter. So Richard bought me my very own chick just so I could name her Dolly.  At least, somebody loves me.

 Of course, barnyard (or in this case, 'garage yard') social etiquette is immediately put into practice.  Here is Mila introducing Ginger to Bella, the Top Dog in this joint.  They have become fast friends these two.

Heeeeere's Dolly! She's the super cute super fluffy one in the back; the off-white darling keeping a modest distance. She's on the smaller side but definitely makes up for it in her handsome and agile ways. 

And here's their new pad.  Originally it was the kids' playhouse that my father built.  We had to gut the place and put in chicken wire windows and lay down new wood chip flooring.

Freedom!

#1 - The 2014 Easter Celebration

Decorating eggs.

 Simon helping Richard who's helping me out by making Apple Fritters.

When they are done, you sprinkle icing sugar on them and stick a feather in your cap! These are delicious.  I hated to share them.

Mila helping me make Chocolate Chow Mein Nests. I need all kinds of help these days.

Adorable and edible. Speaking of adorable and edible, let me introduce you all to my peaches...

People...Meet Peaches.  Peaches...Meet People.  These are Italian Pastry Cream-filled Peaches that I only ever saw at massive Italian weddings.  They are divine.  A special Easter treat soaked in a Rum/Peach Scnapps mixture.  None for the kiddos, hahahahahahaha!

This year we decided to do a Treasure Hunt.  One clue led to another...until...you get the idea.

Eureeka!

 I remember getting a big chocolate egg for Easter...and that's it.

   

 I adore that little pincer grip of his!

Try not to focus on the neon whale onesie Richard dressed him in.  Instead, concentrate on that gorgeous smile or his chunky, down right edible legs or his cute little toes...

Let's take a closer look at some of the goodies:

Every child got one of these bad boys.

For Simon: Felix and the Spider is a great little book that any child would delight in.  The illustrations are as delightful as the story itself. With a talking spider and mean soldiers to round out the story, 

what's not to love?

The Hungry Caterpillar stickers were just a lucky purchase.  I came by them at the Dollar Tree. 

 I heart The Dollar Tree.

For Ezra: Alexander the Great by Demi (granted, it's not exactly Easter-y, but the unique, vibrant illustrations somehow work) and a fun Easter sticker book that has a reading to go along with each sticker  both make for a highly satisfying Easter gift for a boy.

 Mila got this sweet little bonnet...

and these great books and stickers.

I also ordered these Lemon Iced Sugar Cookies online (Williams-Sonoma) for all the kids to share. Aren't they darling? 

And let's not forget my FAVORITE chocolate: Lindt chocolate carrots.

That's me, in case you've forgotten.

Two out of Four of my favorite boys.

Party Business

  

"There are no safe paths in this world.  Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, 

and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go."

Here at the Meloche household, we love all things Hobbit.  In fact, we had a whole house full of Hobbits and other characters invented from the mind of Tolkien this past Sunday.  They descended upon our Hobbit hole to celebrate Ezra's 7th Birthday! A merry time was had by all, which makes all the effort and preparations heartily and acutely satisfying.

Before I begin, I should warn you though: there are a ridiculous amount of pictures in this post.  

In fact, you might do well to give your index finger a good, long stretch before you start scrolling through this post willy nilly.

Go ahead, I'll wait...I'm patient like that.  Ready?

Let us begin at the beginning...or shall I say, at the entrance:

Next, we have our resident cartographer generating Middle Earth:

Ahem, then I, added all the final touches: words and such...

Then there was the birthday banner with special Hobbit lettering.  

(Thank you Shower of Roses for the idea!)

Here we have your typical pound cake and, if you watch carefully, 

you can see it transforming itself...  

into Elven Lembas Bread! If I had known better I would have called it 'cram'.  

"If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise."

If I read The Hobbit before throwing a Hobbit-themed birthday party, I would have certainly called this 'cram'.  Anyway, I used these as prizes for a game we played...more on that in a minute.

Moving on, we have Gandalf the Grey's wizard hat that I made using this pattern.  The Churchwarden pipe is all Richard.  Yes, he smokes it.  

(One day, I would like to make a t-shirt that reads: "I Love my Non-Conformist Husband!" and wear it).

From left to right, we have Samwise Gamgee, Arwen and Frodo Baggins.

The cloaks I made using this pattern.  Material and leaf buttons are from Joanns. 

Aren't they cute?  Oh the kids are cute too.

I threw this picture in the mix because it is just so cute.  This was taken 2 years ago.  The kids were invited to a birthday party with a literary theme and the boys went as Frodo and Samwise. Isn't it uncanny how closely they resemble Hobbits? 

A little bit of man power:

And...a hobbit cake to call home:

The gravel is made out of crushed Cookie's N Cream Hershey's Bars. Genius, right?

Frodo in front of his cake.

Veritable Hobbit Fare: Fish Sticks, Root Veggie and Beef Stew, Po-Tay-Tohs, Mushrooms, Pickles, Cheese (our favorite Manchego and Baby-Bel) Homemade Candied Pecans, Mini Ciabatta Bread, fresh radishes ( I bought them for decoration but Richard insisted I serve them and they were a hit!) and hot tea.

" I cook better than I cook, if you know what I mean."

Welcome friends!

Look, a Hobbit baby!

Arwen with Galadriel and other Elven company. 

Frodo on a journey: 

Having quite the adventure!

Hobbit Love.

Kids had to recite/read their favorite word or quote from the Hobbit 

to win some Elven Lembas Bread:

Fun Stuff.

Waiting for cake.

Super. Cute.

Wizards.  They're notorious flirts. 

A Swiss Army Knife for his pocketsie.

Oh, in case you are asking yourself, "Where is Augustin?".  The short answer is: 

He was sleeping.  But I will leave you with these most recent shots. He wouldn't let us put the 9-month label on him, nor would he stay in one spot! Little turkey.