Bourbon banana cake

This was delish.  We've had a few cool typical spring days, with rain this week...and so I was baking!

  I found a  recipe for bourbon banana cake in a book I picked up at the library called One Bowl Baking.

We visited the Arab Orthodox church, for their festival.  I had been there about 6 years ago.  That was where my littlest sister was married. 

And tonight is the first swim meet of the season!  My girls are swimming freestyle and breast stroke.  They are good at butterfly and backstroke, but slow.

Feels like summer

Olivia is now 11...we celebrated her birthday twice.  I made a cake with a layer of raspberry jam in the middle, in the shape of a dog bone (she's a dog lover, and that's what she requested) on her birthday, which was the feast of Ascension, so we brought that to church to share.  AND 36 dog cupcakes (we used Trader Joe's super-scrumptious chocolate-covered sea salt caramels for the nose, they turned out really cute!) for the party with friends. 

It really feels like summer, although we still have a bit more of spring left. We went to Graeter's to enjoy some ice cream, thanks to Uncle John, Aunt Susanna and kids who gave Olivia a gift card there for her birthday!

 My niece Natalia and friend Warren taking turns blowing bubbles.

We walked across the Purple People bridge on Friday with our homeschool friends.

It connects Kentucky to Ohio.  Here the kids are climbing the Serpentine Wall which borders the Ohio River:

Early Saturday, we went to the Parkinson's Steady Strides 5k.  It was a hot morning!

Saturday we got to go to King's Island!  It had been about 20 years for my husband and I...but the first time for our girls to go there.  Rob's company picnic was there, they paid for parking ($15), lunch and admission for all of us.  We all went up the Eiffel tower to the look-out and then on the Beast (which has been open since 1979)! 

Then we cooled off in Breaker's Bay, which makes huge 6' waves, like the ocean!  Finally, we went home, changed and went to Vigil for Pentecost. 

Phlox and peonies

Hannah picked some phlox growing by the stream near her great-grandpa's grave.  We picked up great-grandma from the nursing home and went to visit the cemetery, where her husband is buried.

It's peony season here!!!  Peonies in the kitchen, on the dining room table, brought some to church over the weekend, gave a few blossoms to my mom, and also brought some to the cemetery...

 Sunny days...at the park with friends from our homeschool group!

 My niece lost her 2 front teeth! 

And tomorrow is Olivia's 11th birthday!  She is trying to play the 

accordion we bought over the weekend for $100.

A gift

My husband commissioned an 8 x 10" hand-painted icon of St. Martha for me.  It wasn't ready by my namesday, like he'd hoped.  What a nice gift!

It was a complete surprise to me.  I have another icon of my patron saint, but it is smaller.  Now, everyone in our family has the same size hand-painted icon.  The girls' icons are hanging above their beds.  Above our bed, are our wedding icons, of Christ and the Theotokos.

I printed off copies of the girls' icons for our family icon-corner-shelf in our living room.

Friends from our Orthodox homeschooling group...

Yesterday, we planted more of our garden.  Our peas are coming up nicely (on the left) and Olivia planted onion sets.

At the park

Sunday afternoon we went to the park.  That's me under the tree on the bench.

My namesday

This past Sunday, was my namesday.  That's the day we celebrate the Myrrhbearers, my patron saint, St. Martha is one of them.  Two of my sisters celebrate then, also.  I got quite a few gifts.   My mom made bread pudding (with kulich), with bourbon sauce for us.
Bourbon sauce:
Melt 1 stick butter in pan. Add 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water, cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Beat an egg in a separate bowl. Remove butter mixture from heat and gradually add the egg while whisking the mixture rapidly. Add bourbon and serve hot.
It's great over a dish of vanilla ice cream or bread pudding!
AND yesterday, was our church feast day, St. George.  After Liturgy, we had a procession around the church:

Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev from Moscow was visiting and gave a talk (we didn't stay, as Hannah's had some neck problems, and we had a chiropractor's appt) later in the afternoon.  Fr. Eugene Antonov from Atlanta came, too, he is the priest who is blessing everyone with holy water!

The weather is wonderful, sunny and warm, today it is supposed to reach 83.  We are going to water our garden carefully, those tender young seedlings need extra care!

While she is sick...

While Hannah is still sick, Velvet sweetly curled up next to her, and they slept.  Rob was home.  Olivia and I went to the zoo.

 4 days ago a baby giraffe was born here.  There were SO many people waiting to see the giraffe baby.  Olivia bought herself a pink snake toy with some money she had right before we left!

Although I'm not into gambling, tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby...and I love the hats the ladies wear. Isn't this yellow one stunning?

Wow...such lovely long feathers....too fancy for my taste, but still beautiful, a work of art.