The Cryers Come to Visit!!

     After Easter, we had plenty of things to look forward to.  The biggest one on our list was the visit of our dear friends from England, the Cryers!  Yea!!  They had planned a three week trip to the States, and we were the very last stop before they headed back to the UK.  We felt so honored.
     I've written about Helen and Scott Cryer before on this blog.  They are among our dearest friends.  Grounded, trustworthy, quietly confident, strong in their belief in God - I love them both to bits. And they are raising four incredibly fine children:  Lucy, Jack, Tom and Harry.  When they came to see us, it was as if we had seen them yesterday.  We just picked up right where we left off.  Awesome.
     They just had one day to see San Diego, so we took them to La Jolla cove first, and then on to Balboa Park, and finishing up in Old Town.  Their trip is probably best recorded in pictures. 
     First stop, La Jolla cove:




The kids explore the caves at La Jolla cove

The seals at La Jolla Cove

People could get right up close to the seals

 

     Dr. Suess was from La Jolla, and I can't help that notice the trees near La Jolla cove look a lot like some of his illustrations:

 

 



Hmmmm .... the Lorax?

Sneeches on the Beaches - or something like that

     Next stop was the beautiful Balboa Park - by Helen's request.  Helen is a very practical person, and Balboa was the perfect place to take 11 kids, 4 adults, and a dog without breaking the bank.
     Lucy Cryer and Abigail are BFF's, and they were screaming and hugging and laughing the whole time they were together.  So lots of the pictures from the day are of these two inseparable souls:

Lucy and Abigail

Lucy and Abigail

And ... Lucy and Abigail

     The Cryers loved the architecture at Balboa:

One of many fountains at Balboa

     Something I probably should have mentioned before:  Helen is an amazing, fabulous, beyond awesome photographer.  She has a great eye when it comes to taking photos.  I have no expertise in this area so I just follow her around and try to imitate her in some small, humble way.  So the following pictures of the kids were Helen's idea:

The calm photo

The High School Musical photo, or something

     We also enjoyed the many gardens at Balboa:

Jack Cryer in a garden

I don't think you see these flowers in England



But this looks a bit more like an English garden

 

The Japanese Gardens



Fascinating tree roots

Tim tries the dreadlock look, sort of

All the kids at the fountain

Georgie manages to stay dry

But Samuel definitely does not ....

     We walked, explored, relaxed, chatting the whole time - about family, school, hobbies, England, California, work, politics, food - everything.  We ended up in Old Town, and descended upon a fine Mexican restaurant there in the heart of the town square.  Although I am sure they are used to large parties, we were, I think, still a sight to behold:

Cryers and Bleakleys - a long awaited reunion

Easter

 

          With Georgie's birthday over, all attentions were on Easter.  The four younger children were off for Holy Week, which made all of our Easter celebrations very much easier.  As Christians, Easter is our most important celebration of the year.  But culturally, of course, Christmas is done in a much bigger way.  So, I've taken it upon me personally to change that in our family traditions. Since Christmas is a really big deal, making Easter an even bigger deal is, well, wonderfully challenging.  

     In the beginning part of the week, we made homemade marshmallows in the shape of eggs.  We dipped them in chocolate and decorated them with sprinkles and frosting flowers, etc.  We also did our traditional Easter craft. This year was the most scaled down Easter craft we have done since I started it this tradition about 8 years ago.  We decided to do the Upper Room, and do a model of the Last Supper table, with 13 cups, 13 plates, and 13 pieces of unleavened bread, etc.  We researched on the internet different artistic interpretations of the Last Supper - paintings and sculptures.  We saw some very interesting, and very inspirational work.

     Thursday was our traditional Jerusalem supper/Passover meal.  This is where we have a few foods from the traditional Jewish Seder plate, and talk about what the foods represent.  We tell the story of the Passover, and talk about the connections between the Passover, the Last Supper, and Christ's atoning sacrifice.  This year, we had the Skinner family join us, and Emilia, our German exchange student, was there as well.

 

Jerusalem dinner, with the Skinner family

      Good Friday is not a holiday in the US, which is always a pain.  However, the kids were still off school, so we go to do a big Easter egg hunt with the Sommers, the Golds, and the Hubscher families. There were an obscene amount of eggs - there may have been near 500? - hidden over three gardens.  It's always a great event for the kids. 

 

Eleanor hunting for her allotted 27 eggs

  

Samuel, the confident 12 year old, too cool for the hunt (but then why is he there?)

Verity cannot hold all her eggs

 

Georgie hunting in the midst of the palm trees

The golden egg? 

 



     Saturday marked the start of General Conference weekend.  General Conference is the official semi-annual conference of our church.  It is broadcast live from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and there are four 2 hour sessions over 2 days.  It's always a big event in our house:  we all settle down in the living room together with personalized notebooks sent to us every six months by a dear friend in England, Margaret Curley.  We surround ourselves with lots of good food, and take lots of notes from the conference talks in our notebooks. At first I wasn't thrilled that Easter was on General Conference weekend , because I love going to church on Easter Sunday, and General Conference weekend is one of two weekends a year when we don't go to church.  But this year Abigail said quite spontaneously to me 'I love it when Easter is on General Conference weekend'.  'Really?'  I said. 'Why?'  And she said 'We can relax more and enjoy Easter more when it is on General Conference weekend.  So there you go.
     Easter Sunday morning was lovely. The Easter bunny left Easter Sunday outfits for everyone, and laid out 7 baskets full of various candies and chocolates - one for each of the children, plus one for Emilia.  Before the children could see their baskets, however, we had a short Easter devotional upstairs where we read the story of the Resurrection, talked about our belief in Jesus, and had a family prayer.

 

Samuel on Easter Sunday morning, having just received a much needed new suit coat

 

Georgie, Nelly and Verity, with their new Easter dresses

The children in their new Easter outfits, with their notebooks ready for General Conference
 

            Our big event for the morning was a full-on Easter brunch.  We invited several families from our church congregation to join us, so I was catering for something like 40 people.  Yes, here is where we talk about the food.

     I love Easter food.  Again, very different from standard Christmas food, but there is so much tradition surrounding the culinary experience of Easter.  For some reason I find myself thinking about the Orthodox Christian traditions when thinking about Easter food - so I look for traditional Easter food from places like Greece and Russia.  Israeli food also features high on the list; any kind of food from Jesus's time and place gets a nod.  This year, Russian hard boiled eggs with anchovies, olives, and homemade mayonnaise really caught my attention.  It seemed to be very important that the mayonnaise was homemade, so for the first time in my life, I made mayonnaise.  I'm a total convert!  The mayonnaise was exquisite - nothing like what we buy in the stores.

     Standard Easter fare in our house representing Israel is unleavened bread, so that was on the brunch table, along with a smoked salmon pate.  I also made a kind of 'Jerusalem pie', a kind of quiche with Israeli flavors like mint, dill, and pine nuts.  But the dish I was the most excited about was a recipe from the cookbook Jersusalem for pickled lemons.  I was skeptical at first, as all you do is marinate lemons in a bit of salt, sugar, chilies, lemon juice, and a few spices.  They were, however, delicious and I am fairly sure they were my favorite food on the table this Easter.  



 

Russian Easter:  olives, anchovies, hard boiled eggs, and homemade mayonnaise

 

Beautiful California avocado and prawn salad; pickled lemons on the left hand side

 

     Another piece de resistance was my Greek Tsoureki bread, a sweet bread braided and then baked with colored eggs.  I think its totally fab to stick decorated eggs in bread!  And of course, I made tons of hot cross buns.  There were also artichokes and asparagus on the table, in honor of Italian spring food.

 

 

Hot cross buns, Greek Tsoureki bread, unleavened bread, etc.

The Easter brunch table in all its sunny glory

     The brunch was lovely.  It was great to have so many people in the house on such a special day.  We had another General Conference session, which rose to the occasion of providing great spiritual nourishment on the most important Christian holiday of the year.  The kids and I especially liked this talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about Jesus's incomprehensible love and power.

     We then went for a hike before our Easter dinner; it was good to get out of the house on this sunny day.  Plus, the puppy had to get some exercise, so we headed for the foothills. 

Easter Sunday walk with family and friends

Max the dog got tired!

     Then we came home and had our Easter feast - the paschal lamb, spring vegetables, something with mint, and then of course my famous strawberry and rhubarb Easter trifle for dessert.

Tried and tested strawberry and rhubarb trifle

Family photo on Easter Sunday, 2015



Birthdays

 

          January and February are big birthday months for the Bleakley family.  Two birthdays in January, and two in February.  There was a stretch of many years where I just gritted my teeth and tried to get through four birthdays within a 30 day period - presents, parties, cakes, balloons, birthday dinners, birthday breakfasts, blah blah.  Not ever seeing the need to spend more money than is absolutely necessary on a party, we always do the 'do-it-yourself' kind: at the house, homemade cake, with old fashioned party games.  It might be boring but I always justify this no-frills approach by telling myself that kids these days are way too stimulated and it is good for them to be bored. 

     But these boring parties are still really stressful to execute, because you have a large group of screaming, hyper children who you have to organize and entertain and discipline and, well, babysit frankly.  This situation has been known to bring both Tim and I to our knees.  The most famous story is when Imogen had her fourth birthday party.  Tim spent 90 minutes trying to do party games with a bunch of four year olds while I escaped to the kitchen to do the food.  It was an excruciating exercise in herding either unwilling or uncomprehending cats, while at the same time keeping up the pretense of being Mr. Happy and Mr. Fun and Mr. Resourceful all rolled into one.  Anyway, it nearly killed him.  The whole experience brought on a terrible migraine, and he had to come home early from work the next day because he was still suffering mightily in body and spirit from it all.

     Anyway, so this is how I still face children's birthdays:  it's gonna be bad, it's gonna be exhausting.  But the kids are getting older, and things really aren't as stressful as they used to be.  This year, Verity only had two friends over for her party.  It was really just a glorified play date, with a spaghetti dinner at the end.

     Verity's birthday was special this year in that she was 6 years old on February 6th. That will never happen again so best make note of it while we can.

 

Verity on the morning of her birthday. 

Verity at her birthday party with her friends, Sophie and Anatasia

         In between Verity's birthday on the 6th, and Abigail's birthday on the 22nd, lies Valentine's Day.  I always make each child a homemade Valentine's card, and a personalized heart-shaped sugar cookie, along with a bag of special Valentine chocolates and treats.  Tim usually gets some kind of special meal as well.  This year it was breakfast in bed, and it was pretty fancy:  goat's cheese omelette with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh herbs; smoked trout gratin; orange, grapefruit, and lemon salad on a bed of watercress with a lime dressing; homemade orange and apple marmalade; sourdough baguette slices; and last but not least, Neufchatel cheese imported from France, in the shape of a heart.  Yea!!

Tim's Valentine breakfast in bed

Abigail on her 17th birthday, with the famous apple dumplings

      Then it was Abigail's birthday.  17 years old. Very, very hard to believe.  It was rather low-key, but with several different celebrations:  one was a trip to the mall with friends, which included a disturbing foray into Victoria's Secret; another was a miniature golfing expedition with another set of friends; and finally, a day at home with the family, complete with a roasted dinner of pork, applesauce, roasted potatoes, roasted butternut squash, red cabbage, and apple dumplings for dessert.  Food is very important to us, and Abigail has inherited the 'food means celebration/special occasion/relaxation/love' gene.
     A month later, on March 27th, it was Georgiana's 10th birthday.  I can just about handle Georgie's birthday because it is a whole month after Abigail's, and 5 months away from the next birthday, which is Imogen's.  But it turned out that I didn't need to worry. Georgie is developing into a very mature, very creative, and very organized girl.  It turned out that she did the guest list, the invitations, and the party activities all by herself.  And, I had extra help this year.  On March 24th, Emilia, our 14-year-old exchange student, arrived from Germany.  She was a great help in entertaining Georgie's friends.  All I really had to do was make the dinner, and the birthday cake.

Georgie and her friends at her birthday dinner, with Emilia.

Georgie's famous birthday cake.  She was born on Easter Sunday, so her birthday cake is always an Easter-themed carrot cake. 

Georgie's birthday present:  a Slyvanian families Country Mansion.  Let the fun begin.
 

Eleanor's baptism

 

     Much has happened since my last entry.  At the end of January, Eleanor turned 8.  This is an important milestone for Mormons, as this is when our children get baptized into the Church.  So it was a very special occasion for us.   Grandma and Grandpa Hamilton came down from Idaho for the event; they drove, no less.  That shows real dedication - 13 hours, and 13 hours back again, is nothing to be sniffed at!

 

Eleanor with Dad and Mom on her baptism day.  Daddy baptized her, which is why he is dressed in white.
 

     She was baptized on her birthday, January 24.  It was a Saturday, so we could make it a really special day.  The program was lovely.  Grandpa Hamilton spoke first on the importance of baptism and Grandma Hamilton spoke on the Holy Ghost.  Imogen, Samuel and Grandpa played a few primary songs in their little chamber group of Imogen on the violin, Grandpa on the viola, and Samuel on the cello.  Tim baptized her and confirmed her, with Grandpa assisting in the confirmation, which made me very happy. 

     The Holy Spirit was strong and we were surrounded by loving family and friends, witnessing our daughter commit herself to Jesus Christ.  It was a wonderful day.

     Then we had the celebrations after the baptism.  Me being me, the post-event celebrations have to be good.  Very, very good.  No, they have to be fabulous.  And not to be shallow, but a fabulous event needs fabulous food.  And fabulous people.  The people part is easy to take care of, but the food bit takes a bit of planning and work.  But its always worth it .....

 

 

The celebratory feast

     Due to the fact that this was nearly four months ago, unfortunately I don't remember everything about the menu.  Dad and Mom helped me wrap about a million baked potatoes, and we had a big ham.  William Kilmer kept asking how he could help, so I gave him a bowl of avocadoes and limes and asked him to make guacamole.  He was in his element!

William Kilmer talks to my dad while making his awesome guacamole

      I made my specialty dishes of lemon tart - a must in the California mid-winter, when the lemons are at their peak - and chocolate raspberry trifle.  We also did a strawberry, apple and tortellini salad, which was interesting.  Everyone who came brought something, which is always a success.  I love potlucks!

Lots of kids at the festivities:  Matt Woolley, Maddy and Noah Miles, Josh and Elizabeth Kilmer, Kingston children, Bleakley children, etc. 



Tim talks with Cathy Woolley, Laura Worthen and Elizabeth Kingston
 

     Eleanor was baptized on her 8th birthday, which made the day especially nice.  So during the evening we brought out her birthday cake - Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Truffle Cake, which ends up being the birthday cake for most of my children each year.



Eleanor with her birthday cake during the 'Happy Birthday' song

     The next day, Sunday, happened to be a big day for us as well.  Samuel, too, had an important rite of passage at church.  Samuel had turned 12 two days before, and 12 is the age at which boys receive the Priesthood in our religion.  So he was ordained to the office of a deacon at church.  My dad was there, and was able to assist in the ordination, which was really special for me.

The Bleakley family, with Grandma and Grandpa Hamilton, after Samuel's ordination

Samuel with Grandpa and Grandma Hamilton

Grandpa and Grandma with Eleanor

Just to make a note for posterity, Samuel got the Tower of Orthank for his birthday