Our Soulie turned seven about a month ago, and she’s the one that intentionally tries to be like me, so her birthday request was to stay in bed all day (like I do) and do nothing, but watch movies. Thus, that’s exactly what we did. She did have specific food requests… pancakes for breakfast, In-N-Out for lunch, two pies (1 pecan, 1 pumpkin) for her birthday cake, and homemade pineapple and prosciutto pizza for dinner. Funny thing is she barely ate any of it! When she’s excited, she tends not to eat, and this pretty much happens every birthday. She’ll make these grand food requests, but just have a bite or two. Nevertheless, I’m happy I can make her little birthday food wishes come true.
Ben and I had 7 gifts for her, her handmade birthday outfit (see more about it here), her own Fuji Instax camera, film, photo album, a bag, and mechanical pencils. Her sisters went all out with handmade gifts for her, and Brave even played the Happy Birthday song on the guitar for her. It was such a chill day, and we all hung out together and watched a bunch of movies in bed. I’d say by her smile you can tell that it was exactly the way she wanted to usher in seven.
We’ve started doing our own Bratcher Thanksgiving on Wednesday nights (here is last year’s), so we can have some quiet time together to reflect on the holiday and share what we are thankful for. During last year’s Thanksgiving, we learned that the first Thanksgiving, more likely an autumn harvest feast, did not serve stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, or pies (they didn’t have potatoes, wheat, flour, or butter). Thus, we discussed that for our next Thanksgiving, we would do research and serve things that were more likely seen at the first feast.
The stewed pumpkins weren’t super popular. The girls and I were fans of the sweet pudding of Indian corn, but it was so much better the next morning served as a breakfast porridge with fresh fruit in it. Fresh cranberries are tart and take getting used to, but once we adjusted to the tartness, we were popping them in like (sour) grapes. Only half the family liked the roasted turnips, but I threw the leftovers in a soup for tonight’s dinner and everyone like it much better that way. The turnips absorbed the soup and it took away some of the pungent flavor. The stewed turkey was True’s favorite (she had 4 slices!), while the rest of the girls devoured the clams. I think I like this menu for our Bratcher mini Thanksgivings because we celebrate Thanksgiving so many times with our families, so it’s nice to serve something a little different at home. For next year’s meal, I think we will skip the bird and serve mussels, lobster, and striped bass.
For our tablescape, I rolled out kraft paper, set out each plate settings, and then painted their names on the side as the place cards. We’re assuming the original Thanksgiving was likely earlier in the fall because we read they served plums and melons with their meals. The mandarins we placed on each plate definitely weren’t true to geography/era, but since our garden has plenty to share, it added a nice touch to our tablescape. I snipped off a couple vines from my jasmine and that provided our table with some greenery, and the white candles (from Dollar Tree, or order from here) set the mood.
I love our mini Thanksgiving feast tradition, and I especially love hearing what the girls are thankful for. After dinner, the girls read us a story about the first Thanksgiving, and put on a show for us.
The birthday tradition is breakfast in bed for the celebrant with whatever it is they request. Well, I wanted my usual cup of milk, with 1 scoop or protein and peanut butter powder, plus 1 tablespoon of chia seeds. It may sound boring, but it’s my favorite breakfast. Along with my simple breakfast, my family gave me a couple other little treats. They gave me a box full of kid made jewelry (rings and yarn necklaces), along with chocolates to snack on while I spent my day in bed, and Wicked on vinyl. I think my favorite was how they decorated the box!
My only birthday request, besides my specific dinner requests, was to spend a couple days in bed doing nothing. Ben was home to take care of the girls and everything else, so I got caught up on some shows and read a book. I was also able to work on some hand-sewing projects. I love (and appreciate) having a couple days to do nothing. I’m always in go-mode, so it’s nice to stop and take a day off sometimes.
Before lunch, the girls came in my bedroom to surprise me with a show. It was complete with props, outfit changes, memorized poems, choreography, big bundles of cuteness, and a lot of laughs. It was the best “Happy Birthday Mommy Show” ever!
When we started dating, Ben gave me this “1000 Things I love About You” book, with the intent to keep writing in it throughout our entire lives. He redid the whole book a few years back into this antique French journal, so for my birthday, he added more sweet things into it. We are up to reason #55, so he still has a long while to go until a thousand, but Lord willing, we have a long life, so there’s plenty of time. He fills this in on random days, not just birthdays, but he was a little behind (maybe really behind), so he got caught up for my 35th birthday.
To spoil me even more, the girls gave me more handmade gifts… a little paper box to hold my nail polish, a personalized notebook, and a homesewn bag. It was a pretty simple and laid-back birthday, just like I requested, and it was the best way to usher in my 35th year of life!
After Halloween last year, True decided that she wanted to be Alton Brown for the next Halloween. The other 3 decided after watching Star Wars Episode VII. True and Brave blended the two ideas together and came up with Cutthroat Kitchen: Bratcher Edition.
We are huge Cutthroat Kitchen fans, so they were so excited to bring one of their favorite shows to life. We even had some arguments because they wanted to film a full 1 and half hour episode (each cooking time is 30 minutes). Obviously, they cut it down a bit. What you see here is completely planned by them. They wrote a script, True directed (my sister filmed and edited the video together), and they would even practice for it! I just came in to do my “judging” and I was having a hard time keeping a straight face as I played along.
The girls are so proud of their episode (Ben and I are too!), so we hope you enjoy it!
We had a very full weekend. On Friday night, we had a pumpkin carving/decorating party with friends and neighbors. It was fun to see all the neighborhood kids (and adults) dressed up in their costumes. There were 11 pumpkins carved and 26 mini pumpkins decorated. I think I want to make this an annual neighborhood thing. Everyone brought something to share, so there was food galore. It’s been such a blessing to get out of house and get to know those who live around us.
Saturday night, we headed to L.A. for the Dream Halloween event for the Starlight Children’s Foundation, which was sponsored by Michaels. I went as the Michaels’ correspondent and shared all about the event on their Instagram stories. The girls had fun going from craft station to craft station, and they came home with large goodie bags filled with stuff. I came home stuffed with dessert from all the sweets that was getting passed around.
The girls each chose their own costume and they even created a story to go along with it. We filmed the little story earlier today, so we will have it ready to share on Halloween. I will have a tutorial post up this week on how I made my costume (mine is fast), and another to discuss how I made Glow’s (hers takes about a week).
I’m so glad all our costumes are done and now I can relax a bit. I even picked up a new little craft, so I’ve been kind of obsessed with that lately. I’ll share what that is once I have my first project completely done.
Here are some past Halloween projects we’ve done in our home. We have a couple ideas of things we want to make for this year, so if we end up having time for it, we will be sure to share. I’m hoping we get to make one of them tomorrow, but we have to get school done first, and one more costume to finish. What are some of your favorite ways to decorate for Halloween?
Last week has been special because Ben's mom and sister were in town (they haven't been here in a few years), so we were relishing our time together. There was a lot of special grandmama time with the girls, and a lot of sister bonding time between Ben's sister and me. We saw them in Texas this past Christmas, but it's been awhile since they've been on our turf, so we are having fun hosting and cooking them some of our favorite foods. If you know us, well, more the girls and me (not Ben), the first thing on the agenda was take them to our favorite ice cream place, A la Minute. His mom and sister agreed that their ice cream is pretty terrific and the best they both ever had. There wasn't much on our agenda during their stay except spend quality time together. We did have plans to go to the Lavender Festival, but Ben's mom and sister got sick the last two days, so we had to scrap that idea. Thankfully, the festival will be going on next weekend, so Ben and I are hoping we can still take the two little ones. It was a fast 5 days with them and we look forward to seeing them again in July when they come back to drop off the big girls.
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Our Soulie turned seven about a month ago, and she’s the one that intentionally tries to be like me, so her birthday request was to stay in bed all day (like I do) and do nothing, but watch movies. Thus, that’s exactly what we did. She did have specific food requests… pancakes for breakfast, In-N-Out for lunch, two pies (1 pecan, 1 pumpkin) for her birthday cake, and homemade pineapple and prosciutto pizza for dinner. Funny thing is she barely ate any of it! When she’s excited, she tends not to eat, and this pretty much happens every birthday. She’ll make these grand food requests, but just have a bite or two. Nevertheless, I’m happy I can make her little birthday food wishes come true.
