Just a spoonful of sugar

William and I went to Mary Poppins the musical on Friday. It was fabulous!!! So, so good and yes, she did fly through the audience on her umbrella. Classic! The musical is touring now after being on in the West End for awhile. Mary and Bert were the best, obviously, but the kids (Jane and Michael) were actually so good, too. Not just their singing but their acting as well, which was a bit unexpected because sometimes the child actors are really cute but lacking in the acting department. Did anyone know that when the book came out in 1934 there were 2 other kids in the Banks family as well??? Baby twins. How cute! Wonder when they got cut. I didn't read far enough on Wikipedia to find out. William and I spent the bus ride home from the playhouse trying to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Wait for it, wait for it...............its a new post!!!

Hi Char-blog fans (Madge, Anna, Mom, Francie and Dad...Anthony? Christina?). Anywho, I would like to apologize for posting ONCE last month. My goal for October is two posts at least (and yes, this one obviously counts). Not sure what to talk about.....I have been working hard but doing plenty of fun things lately as well. September was a month for trips to Ireland for me. I went one weekend for William's little sis's 21st birthday party. I had a pre-party dinner at Marios with everyone's favorite newlyweds and then F and I headed to Strad for the partay. The dj was great and Francie and I tore up the dance floor, mostly with William's younger cousins. A couple weeks later I was back in the land of sheep for another party- F and B's second wedding reception! Complete with an old car to drive them to the hotel, it was an extremely well put-together evening. A red carpet was rolled out for them to walk into the hotel on and we all had a champagne toast right before entering. The cake was brought out with sparklers lit and our very own Reesa Dalbotten sang I Cross My Heart for Francie and Bobby's dance. Stine and I joined her for Shoop Shoop directly after (we were back up singers) and I must honestly say I don't think the Irish knew quite what to think of us! It was a fab fab night, full of dancing and of course, a sing-song that lasted into the wee hours. I would say the only slight downfall of the night was that Noreen had to (literally) sew me into my bridesmaid dress. It was a sticky zipper (I swear, I didn't get fat in between wedding receptions!!) that only zipped two-thirds of the way up. Luckily Noreen had some perfectly matching green thread to sew me up. I really should have taken a pic- it was pretty hilarious! I will now try to steal some pics of the night off Thomas's facebook because I think he's the only one who has posted any and I took maybe 1 pic the entire time. We also put on lots of bronzer so see if you can tell. PS- listening to So Long Cowboy. Rich Kay, if you're out there- it's one of your best. A classic really!

Carrot Cake

I just can't get enough of it! I recently re-discovered my love for carrot cake. William and I have had it at least 3 times in the last two weeks and the only reason we haven't had it more is because the bakery where we get it always runs out. It's that popular! You can buy it by the slice and, get this, YOU tell them how big to make the slice! Genius. They have had 2 different varieties: one has the cream cheese frosting and one has more of a traditional icing. I usually don't care for the cream cheese frosting, mostly because the store-bought carrot cakes usually overdo it, but this one is delicious! Thin and creamy. Here is one of many carrot cake recipes. I was going to try to make it myself but there are way too many ingredients so I think I'll just continue to buy it. SO GOOD!

Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoon of baking soda½ teaspoon of salt
¾ teaspoon of ground ginger
½ teaspoon of ground all spices
1 cup of vegetable oil or light olive oil
4 eggs
1 cup of granulated sugar
½ cup of fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2cups of shredded carrots2 cups of chopped walnutsToasted cream cheese icing

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour at 13×9x2-inch baking pan. Sift flour, bak­ing powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and all spice onto a sheet of waxed paper. Beat oil, eggs, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a larger bowl on medium speed for 2 minutes or until well blended. Stir in orange juice and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture on lowest speed just until blended. Stir in carrots and walnuts until combined. Scrape onto prepared pan. Bake in heated 350 degrees oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Spread with cream cheese icing into 16 squares and serve.

I've returned!!

Ok, I've been back in euro-land for 3 weeks but have yet to write a new post. LA-ZY! Here's what's happened in the last few days, weeks, months.
1. I went home to Seattle! (well, KENMORE to be exact!) For some reason the only pics William took downtown were of the viaduct so here is the best one. It's glowing in the sun.



2. Anna, Alex, Max, William, my mom and I hiked to Camp Muir on Mt Rainer. This was an AMAZING hike, 100% in the snow and 100% in the sun! It was a good thing we had some ice-cold (well, really luke warm) rainer beers to sip at the top.













3. William and I went to universal studios and disneyland! SO much fun! We almost couldn't handle the heat but an ice-cream a day certainly helped.










4. Francie and Bobby got married!!! It was a week full of fun activities. A bridal shower for Francie, golf for Bobby and the boys, a delicious rehearsal dinner and rowdy sing-song, a Mariner's game, and white water rafting, with plenty of impromptu pints and sing-songs along the way. It was such a fun week!

Congratulations are in order!

There have been 3 very exciting things that have happened in the recent past. Hip Hip Hooray to these 3:


1. Francie passed her driving test...IN IRELAND! Congrats!











2. William got a 1:1 in his Master's degree (highest possible grade)! Congrats!







3. Claire and Kevin got married! Congrats! (more pics from their wedding in Skye to come!)

Francie's Hen Night!

What a night! Anne and Shelagh joined Francie, Madge and I at Francie's house and we started the evening with a classy glass of champagne. Then it was on to the Anvil to meet up with the rest of the gals. The bride-to-be was given a pink feather boa and tiara courtesy of Debbie. Francie was a little wary of the 'hen' outfit but, as you can see from the photos, she embraced her inner hen and spent the later part of the night dancing with her boa. We couldn't have gotten it away from her if we tried!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!