Category Archives: birthdays

Oct24

Sean had a nice birthday

Posted on Sunday, October 24, 2010 by Dianne

We traveled up to one of our favorite restaurants in Lahaska, Bucks County, PA that serves a wonderful brunch buffet. It’s about 60 miles or so away and we only go once a year. Last year it was rainy and cool and we had the whole place to ourselves. This year it was in the low 70s and nice, so lots of people…and dogs!

We looked around here a little, drove to New Hope and that was also crowded. Sean wanted to check out the Willow Grove mall and that was ok-got some nice products from ‘The Body Shop’ (banana shampoo-it smells so good and my hair feels so cleam) which I have tried already tonight.

We couldn’t decide on a place to eat and ended up in PF Changs which was good.

1st place scarecrow made out of corks! From the Peddler Village Scarecrow competition.

Sean and Brian

I just had to take Sudafed-so miserable and it helped me within 20 minutes.

Oct24

Sean it’s 24 on the 24th!

Posted on Sunday, October 24, 2010 by Dianne

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Sean always rooted on the Eagles, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

So happy to have a ‘big’ son (my mom and grandmom described sons that way). Can’t believe he’s hit 24 already. So now that the Phillies have lost, he can root on the Eagles like he did when he was 3-4 months old.
Hope to take a daytrip for a nice brunch, but need to get our act together early and out the door. We did it a few weeks ago.
Happy, birthday dear Sean!

Sep23

Brown Sugar Pound Cake Cupcakes

Posted on Thursday, September 23, 2010 by Dianne

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Brown Sugar Pound Cake Cupcakes, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Made these for my mom’s birthday-Martha Stewart Cupcake cookbook. The icing is burnt butter icing which makes the cake! Yum (A baker has to taste her goods). Highly recommend!

Here is the link to the recipe (which I halved).

Sep23

You’ve come a long way baby

Posted on Thursday, September 23, 2010 by Dianne

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My mom Jeanne as a babe, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

My grandparents could not have picked the worst time to have child #2 as 1930 makes my mom a Depression baby. Her brother is 7 years older than her. I’ve heard all about what they would have to eat, like mashed potatoes on bread every night- times were indeed difficult. My mom was so sweet, her own maternal grandfather wanted to adopt her! She was a thin little girl and has never weighed much over 130 at her heaviest as an adult. Her parents would try to get her to drink milk and the glasses would get lined up on the table and she’d take one sip. She has never had a hearty appetite-well for junk food and chocolate maybe! : )
Mom has a lovely soprano singing voice and she sang in church and in school many times. I haven’t heard her sing lately though, it may have to do with her hearing issue. I’m wondering if we even have one recording of her beautiful voice!
Mom has always loved clothes too. She never bought full price and even wore thrift shop clothes, but always looked so ‘put together’ for work. When I was about 18 or so, I made her a salmon pink dress with white polka dots and she wore it a lot. I was so pleased to have made it for her.
She has a big, generous heart, maybe too generous for her own good sometimes. She so much rather give than receive (me too!). She enjoys travel, but just around these parts. When she was a young bride, she lived in San Francisco for the good part of a year but missed her family too much. She never went out west again.
I am so glad to be able to make her happy by taking her on trips or little outings and dinner. She feels like she may have missed out on things in her life. I feel she could have remarried if she really wanted to. She said she didn’t want to impose a step father on us, but maybe that is someone we all needed in our lives-a male figure besides her brother.
Life for mom at 80 isn’t a bed of roses, but as long as she has her sight and can read and watch tv, I think she’s pretty happy. And she loves her family in her own special way too.
Happy Birthday Mom!

Sep16

Typical Amish Farm & a little celebration

Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2010 by Dianne

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Typical Amish Farm, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

We took mom out on a day trip on Wednesday. Sean was the driver as he wasn’t really interested in seeing the first place that we wanted to stop at-the Flower & Craft Warehouse. He dropped us off and went for a drive and ended up at a Farmer’s Market! Too bad he didn’t stay with us as they have tables set up with newspapers, magazines and a few tvs for the significant others who aren’t into crafts and flowers. He did have to come in later to find us. Hee hee!
The scenery was just beautiful, the weather perfect and the skies so blue. You do see mile after mile of farms just like this one.
Mom and I headed to the ‘bargain’ room first. I got lots of little things and things to alter. I got a square wreath that looks awesome in the family room. The colors are perfect! It was under $4. I got a S’mores Christmas house with an attached tree and ornaments-$11.
Mom picked out two things as gifts (I have another gift for her next Thursday). She picked out a festive sunflower table display after much hemming and hawing. She also picked out a glittery pumpkin. I know seasonal, but she will remember her day by these.
After shopping, we went to Shady Maple Smorgasbord. I was really hungry! Their specials were prime rib and ham. For $17 you get a bargain. If we could have taken mom up on her birthday, she would have been free! Mom didn’t eat that great. She makes the mistake of filling up her plate and then that takes her appetite away. I don’t have that problem-I just want to taste everything. Sean said he wasn’t hungry, but the second time around he ate more than salad and cauliflower.
Now get this, we stopped at Wally World. I stayed in the car and Sean got his hair cut (so short he looks like he’s in the military) and mom had to use the rest room. I was glad to relax and people watch.
Mom went home around 3 today and said she loved seeing the sights and going to these couple of places.

Collage cards haven’t been worked on yet-have one idea. I showed my mom and she took the one of her dog Kelsey. 🙂 She really liked them a lot.

Aug24

Variegated Nasturtiums

Posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Dianne

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Variegated Nasturtiums and flower, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I took this photo a few weeks ago and this particular pot is just taking off well with it’s display of jewel tone flowers. I’ll have to go take a few new shots of the different ones. I think the variegated leaves are so interesting, like milk was spilled on them. And how easy is it to plant nasturtiums-you poke your finger in the dirty, drop in the seed and cover!
Our veggie garden is finishing up and mostly presented us with cucumbers. We only got 6 zucchini and a few cups of green beans. I see one spaghetti squash. And we have had at least 3 dozen tomatoes, but tossed a lot down the hill too. I asked Farmer Brian if he put down any fertilizer and he said ‘no’. We used Miracle*Gro a few times, but there is nothing like good old manure to sweeten the earth.
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On Saturday we went to a surprise party for my sister-in-law Colleen who hit 40. She’s the youngest of the in-laws and looks great for her age. She was very surprised. I gave her the cutest piggy watering can from good ol’ JoAnn’s with a gift card from Home*Goods. I think she got lots of them, but isn’t it fun to pick out what you really want or like?
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Heading back down to my hometown in the late afternoon. Sean is off and is nice enough to drive me as my van is still iffy with the transmission. It’s a 48 mile round road trip and that’s when we had a leakage issue before. I said we could stop at Tar-gay and the California*Tortilla for dinner.
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Finished the main design on my birthday gift-1 down 8 to go, but the small motifs can probably get finished in a night or two. I’m doing good!

Jul4

Happy 4th of July

Posted on Sunday, July 4, 2010 by Dianne

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Philly Art Museum and 4th of July Fireworks display, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

First-Happy Birthday Dave-my oldest brother! We’ll light a few fireworks for you. : )
This was taken off the tv last year…and I may take a few more later.

Jan8

My little brother Ken turns 43 today

Posted on Friday, January 8, 2010 by Dianne

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This was a ‘video capture’. Now that we have a HD, I’m going to redo this set for Flickr to get out the lines, etc.

My little brother Ken and those cheeks, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

He was such a cute little kid. He must have been absorbing amazing qualities from people around him, namely our uncle because he practically redid his entire home by himself. Of course his sweet wife Colleen was by his side every step of the way. And you know how much I love my nephew and niece. Definitely warm fuzzies time. Thanks to mom for having a baby at 36 and me being 7, could practice my motherly skills on him. He has a nice smile in big part because of me. And he also doesn’t mind cooking and cleaning up… I could go on. He was suppose to be a girl, but I really don’t mind now-lol. If I could have at least a granddaughter someday…
Happy Birthday Ken!

Nov27

Good stuff

Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 by Dianne

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Thanksgiving was mostly pleasant. Sean and I arrived at my brother’s house around 2:15 so I could get our turkey cooked. Then I helped out when Colleen needed me, and almost fell asleep!
Brian came down later as he was going to bring dinner over to his dad who refused to come to over even though he would have been driven back and forth to the my brother’s house.
My middle brother, who is moving in with mom is feeling the pressure of packing and trying to get a room painted. Sean offered his assistance to move boxes and he said ‘no’. I think in the next week he’ll need Sean more.
My brother and his family presented Don and me with a birthday cake (Don’s is the 28th and he’s a year younger than me) which was nice.
The cheesecake was popular and I believe there is only a sliver left.
Today I got a much needed smile maker.
Thanks to Carole over at ‘Pea’s Corner’ for this delightful framed snowman print; and some heavenly bath powder and body lotion.

Here is a photo of my brother trying to figure out what his gift from me was:

Take a guess and I’ll tell you tomorrow! (You can click on this and make it bigger)
Here is my sweet niece and me. I gave her the outfit she had last Christmas. Her mom gave her some sweet Shirley Temple curls. I’m wearing the earrings that Brian gave me for my birthday.

Here’s a photo I had my nephew take-not bad for the first time using a fancy camera. This was taken for Jennifer F., but I’m mailing a snail mail form to you!

And finally, I was making ornaments for a swap and I think I’ll make some for gifts as they were challenging and fun to do-plus I have the template now!

By the way, the serviceman never came to fix my oven today. No courtesy call to say where he was. Brian called them three times! They rescheduled for Monday. If one hour goes by without a ‘I’m on my way’ call, I’m calling Maytag up as they send these idiots out. I didn’t go shopping, too tired. Sean did go out and said Wally World was crazy. We aren’t giving each other too many gifts, just can’t afford it. We got an almost $300 plumber’s bill and we are disputing a $50 charge for ‘misc’ as they had to use a big roto-rooter. Come on, isn’t that part of the $160 service fee? They at least came right away on a Sunday.
Have a great weekend!