June 22nd, 2019

Happy Midsommar!! 🇸🇪

Family heritage and traditions have always been something extremely important to me. When Mike and I got married, I was so excited to bring traditions from both sides of our families into our own home. But I realized that some of Mike’s nationalities weren’t being properly represented, and I wanted to fix that! Midsommar is a Swedish holiday held yearly in June to celebrate the first day of summer. On this day, families will put up maypoles and eat traditional Swedish foods outside together.



The typical menu includes: inlagd sill (pickled herring) on filmjölkslimpa (seeded buttermilk bread), potatissallad med Kålrabbi och dill (Kohlrabi potato salad), and of course sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries fresh from the first harvest of the summer! 🍓

It was originally supposed to rain today, but it turned out to be such a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy our Swedish lunch outside as planned! I’m so thankful for our newest family tradition! I can’t wait to one day celebrate these holidays with our children—and for them to fully enjoy all the pieces that make up their heritage. 💙💛





Later in the day, we headed over to meet up with Mike's family for some more celebrating—this time in the form of birthday celebrations. ;)

Since Charlotte leaves for Canada tomorrow, we went out and celebrated her birthday a day early tonight! It was such a lovely evening being together with the family, as always. 💕



I am so thankful for my wonderful sister-in-law! I cherish our friendship and closeness...and, of course, our puns. 😉 I hope you had a good time tonight! Have fun and learn a lot on your trip! Love you bunches!! 💚❤️💚❤️

June 21st, 2019

Charlotte's 21st birthday is this weekend, so obviously Mike and I had to make her a cool cake. ;) She wanted some kind of plant-related cake, and this is what we ended up with! It turned out really nice—several people we sent pictures to didn't even know it was a cake! Can't wait to give it to her tomorrow and see her reaction!!

June 23rd, 2018

We escaped from The Mad Hatter’s room with 19 minutes to spare! 🎩🐰☕️ Happy happy birthday to Charlotte & Faith! 🎉🎂💕

June 26th, 2017

Today we finally celebrated Charlotte's 19th Birthday! :D

Char got in from California last night, so all of us prepared some festivities for her today. After I got off work, I hurried to the party store to pick up some Star Wars balloons for the birthday girl. :) I got a huge gliding R2-D2, plus a BB8 balloon, a Darth Vadar balloon, and several other fun ones! I also picked up some silly masks and plates for the cake. Once Mike was off work, we loaded up the car and headed over to the Donelson's house.

Charlotte was so excited when we carried in the cake—she loved it! I was so glad. :) She also loved the balloons! (And so did Peter...he enjoyed kicking and beating up R2-D2 😅) We had dinner, which was yummy tuna casserole made by Laura. Afterward, we had cake! It was delicious. I was so happy with how it turned out! We all sat at the table for awhile after, just chatting and laughing and enjoying each other's company.

A little while later, Rach and Laura headed to the library. Charlotte started to show us some new songs she had learned on the piano, then Mike eventually joined and in the two had a jam session!

Eventually the girls came back. Rach had a whole stack of movies for Char to pick from, and she decided she wanted to watch Hitchcock's Psycho. We then all headed upstairs to the media room to watch. The movie was good, though of course that is no surprise. Char and Mike had never seen it before. They both thought the ending was creepy! :) It was getting late after that, and Mike still had homework to finish, so we headed home.

Char was so thankful for everything. She's especially excited about the birthday gift that Mike and I got her: a pickup for her violin! It's still in the mail, so we told her what it was today while we were over. She made me promise to bring it over as soon as it comes in. :)

June 25th, 2017

Today Mike and I made Charlotte's Birthday cake! It's Star Wars-themed...of course. ;) The bottom tier is R2-D2, while the top is Chewbacca. I did all the piping for the fur! Mike made the amazing belt. We both put R2 together. We were so thrilled with how everything turned out. Another successful cake!! :)