Royal Wedding, part II

Did you watch the wedding coverage? We had a gathering of a few friends for our Royal Wedding party, and it was pretty fun. And yes, I took pictures of the TV screen. Go ahead and make fun of me right along with Jacob.
We grilled burgers, and I made a no-bake strawberries & cream cake. Because what's more British than strawberries & cream? I'll tell you--a strawberries & cream cake that involves rich tea biscuits. Yes, the same cookie reportedly the star ingredient in William's groom's cake.

What a fun day to live in the UK!! Enjoy the rest of my "screen shots." :)

Royal Wedding, part I

I was a little distracted when Kate and William announced their engagement last year. And even if I hadn't been about to give birth, I might not have thought it that big a deal. But I would have been wrong. It's a HUMONGOUS deal. In the lead-up to the Royal Wedding, it's pretty much all we hear about on TV and radio. Everyone has the day off, and the Prime Minister has encouraged everyone to party in the streets.

We saw on BBC news that the bell-ringers at the parish church in Kate's hometown of Bucklebury have prepared a 4-hour peal for Friday. FOUR HOURS. They're pretty excited.
The same news segment shows her family's butcher. He's also very excited.

BBC's website is helping everyone out with lots of street party recipes and Royal Wedding Recipes. They're excited.

The seating plan, the dress, the guest list, the honeymoon plans, the cakes, the hair (here too), the vows, the weather forecast... I could go on. Who isn't excited?!

This guy: VERY excited.

(This guy isn't. Neither is Jerry Seinfeld.)

Gavin's Easter attire

Our friends Becky & Mike (& Michaela) gifted Gavin the outfit he wore to church today. When he wore it for the first time a few weeks ago, he immediately found a new toy: the necktie. He chewed/sucked on it pretty much the whole time he was wearing it. Today it was in his mouth during the entire Easter service. The above photo is from today; the below are from a few weeks ago.

Macarons

I mentioned my love of French macarons in this post, and this weekend I decided to try my hand at making them. They are rumored to be one of the most difficult things to make with lots of tricks and techniques, and I did find them to be extremely delicate. I used Martha Stewart's instructions here. The macarons are raspberry, and the fillings include raspberry curd (that I made from scratch), lemon curd, raspberry jam and fresh raspberries.

They didn't turn out perfect, and one whole pan was a total disaster, but I was pretty pleased with the way they developed "feet" like they're supposed to. And Jacob was pleased with their chewiness. (We had some in France and Belgium this month that disappointed him with their absence of chewy.) Overall, I'm counting them a yummy success!

St George's Day

Even though he had no direct connection to the country, St. George is the patron saint of England. He did slay a dragon, so he's a pretty cool choice for patron saint. Today is St. George's Day (but because it's so close to Easter the churches are moving their celebrations to May 2nd). We celebrated today by wearing our England colours and eating a delicious pastry with St. George's cross (England's flag).

asleep

I'll keep the commentary brief and just let you enjoy the photos. Gavin likes to cover his face when he sleeps, which is a huge concern. So the next two photos were taken when I checked on him during a nap. Good thing I check, right? The other photos (and video) are just for fun.

Gummibaerchen

I meant to include this photo on the food post from our recent trip. Gavin sticks everything in his mouth, as babies do, and I was thinking that chewing gummy bears (through the wrapper) might be satisfying. He loved it.

Belgium

On our way home from Germany we visited Brussels and Bruges in Belgium. One of Brussels' claims to fame is the statue called Manneken Pis, dating from 1619. Yes, it's the little boy peeing that has been replicated in zillions of garden statues all over the world. Here's a photo of the real thing, then two replicas combining the various Brussels icons: Manneken Pis with Belgian waffles and Manneken Pis with Belgian chocolate (both of which we did partake in).

All that was left of our Belgian chocolates when we got home were a few tiramisu almonds and 2 truffles. (The truffles were ok, but the covered almonds were AMAZING.)

Then it was on to Bruges, which is a city much lovelier than the photos we took. It's beautiful and quaint and cute.

Bruges is also a possible location of origin for French fries. So we ate them (but did not have time to tour the museum).

Germany trip

We drove to Germany last weekend, and in order to get there Gavin took his first boat ride. Here's a photo of him (just after we drove off the ferry) with his first boat in the background.

While in Bavaria we visited a cute medieval town called Rothenberg ob der Tauber, which is completely surrounded by a wall, which you can walk. Here I am on the wall, and below that Jacob and Gavin are at the city gate. You might remember my disappointment at hiking to a certain alpine bridge with the expectation of unspoiled vistas, and seeing scaffolding instead. Well this time we got it right. Here we are with the long-dreamed-of views of Neuschwanstein. We had a hard time getting Gavin to look at the camera. Silly us--of course he wanted to be looking at the castle too.The same Bavarian king who built Neuschwanstein (Ludwig II) also built a small palace called Linderhof Palace. It's small but beautiful, and there are a few eccentricities that made it a really amazing place to visit. The palace was built for one since the king never married and was very reclusive. He was tall and had a huge (unbelievably beautiful) bed. Also, his dining room table was built on a set of pulleys so it could be lowered into the kitchens below and raised back up, preventing the king from having to interact even with his servants. Overall, Gavin traveled really well and was a champion during the long car rides. And his country count is now 5.