One Birthday, Two Birthday

Whoa! On Friday evening we celebrated both Spenser and Margaret's birthdays.  Margaret turns 20 and Spenser turns 21.  We had a small get together-the usual stuff: bags in the backyard, dessert, laughing, some gameboard playing (actually taboo doesn't come with a board, so just game playing).  We had cupcakes and pie, of course.  Becca (my always awesome helper) and I felt like it was too hard to get candles in a pie and decided to spare ourselves and have the two blow out a set of votive candles in a metal holder. Silly, but worth it when we saw how excited Margaret was.  "I get to blow these out?! Oh that's so cool!"

happy birthday to the both of you. we love you.

21

21

6 cups pears, peeled and cut

3 tablespoons spelt flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 pie crusts

First, begin by peeling and cutting your pears into slices or chunks.

Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Add pears and stir so that the dry ingredients are evenly distributed over pears.

Roll out crust in pie pan and add the pear mixture; the filling.  Dot with butter if you'd like.

Bake at 450F for about 20 minutes.

A note: I guess I should have explained this in the beginning, but it's a tradition of mine to bake Spenser a pie for his birthday.  He absolutely loves pie!  He's also one who always loves to try something new, so I usually try and make pies that aren't your usual apple, cherry, etc.  In the past, I've baked a bluebarb (mixture of blueberry and rhubarb)-18, raspberry and white peach-19, I didn't have time to bake one for his 20th (I had my hands full with a big surprise party. eek!), and now pear-21.

night swim

 

Last night Becca had us over for an evening swim.

Earlier in the summer, at a bonfire, we had expressed how much fun it would be to take a night time dip in the pool so this was a long time coming. 

And it was every bit as fun and wonderful as we thought it would be. 

It was a beautiful night, just perfect for a swim. ;)

Afterwards, we sat around and chatted for a bit.

I'm in love with those pictures of Spenser and Near, they're some of my favorite candids.

 

It's not too much longer before I'll be missing things like this,

so I'm trying to soak it all in.

I love you, friends, and I love you too, summer.

the olympics

Our friend Dan hosted the olympics party on Friday evening.  Everyone was in a festive spirit, wearing red, white, and blue for the occasion.  Except Adele. Adele was a rebel. ;)

I must confess I haven't really been keeping up with the olympics.  Maybe "keeping up with" isn't the right term? I read the news headlines of who won which event, and sometimes I'll read a backstory on new rules or how a ping-pong player has a ridiculously rigorous training schedule (i kid you not!).  But I don't watch the olympics.  Probably because I don't really watch television in general.  This was met with gasps from a few of my friends.  So it's good Dan had a get together specifically celebrating the olympics.  Because you guessed it-I actually sat down and watched the competition unfold.

We watched swimming, diving and a little bit of the gymnastics.  The diving brought back memories of going to the olympic trials in knoxville, tennessee a few years ago.  I am simply in awe of the athletes' agility.  The same goes for gymnasts.  They have incredible flexibility, balance, strength, and their willpower is bar none. 

*thanks to margaret for photos 1 & 10

The Games

i love this print!

everything about it-the typography, the skyline of buildings, and the pure simplicity.

 

i, myself, am actually off to an olympics party tonight.

 

as for some other olympic art,

check out LOndOn 2012 by Rachel Whitehead

(there are some other interesting olympic interpretations in that slideshow gallery as well)

and this awesome print by Dieter Braun.

(isn't it great?)

Explore the rest of the NBC Olympics tumblr to get in the spirit.

 

happy olympics!