Birthday (shh, 38th) for Jim

Jim's birthday was on a Friday this year, and he had to work in the evening, so we 'pretended' his birthday was the Entire Weekend, and somehow Jim ended up with two birthday dinners and opened birthday cards and presents on two straight days! Happy birthday, Jim! Another intense year of working in the study abroad office on campus has begun, and so has this year of your life! For those interested, one of the things that Jim bought with his birthday money this year was a swim cap. So you see, we can learn new things as we get older.

Saturday was a low-key family day of yard work and cooking. Sidenote, I (Jul) was really tired and grumpy after a long week (and in anticipation of the emotions of Gemma's birthday coming next week, and what should have been the start of her kindergarten year), and I didn't want to do any cooking. But then somehow, the boys were playing outside and I just started working away in the kitchen ... and by the end of the day of Sunday, we had had such a nice weekend together and I really enjoyed doing all the food (of course!). It was a perfect, quiet "at home" weekend.

For dinner we had 'breakfast' with a frittata (mushroom, broccoli, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes), veggie sausages, pear-ginger muffins, and papaya.

Jim had lots of hlep opening his presents

Ah-ha! It's the second meal! Sunday's meal was our "surprise, new recipes" traditional birthday meal. This year I made falafel with all the fixings, hummus, garlic-dill sauce, parsley-tomato salad, etc. How have I never made falafel before?? I think this type of meal is one of both of our favorites. For dessert it was blueberry-double chocolate brownies and vanilla soy ice cream made in the ice cream maker. Very rich, yummy brownies.

My two favorite things about this photo is that Mattias and Timo are grinning at each other and being silly, which is what they have started doing more at the dinner table, getting each other giggling. And, secondly, you can see the present that Timo made for Jim - it's a little terrarium in a glass jar, with layers of sand, soil, moss, and some tiny seedlings. He found it all in the yard and (with help) put it in the jar and watered it.
 

Look who was very happily eating black olives with Daddy!