Monday, December 27, 2010

Franzenfam Christmas- African Style

As a family we had a wonderful opportunity to spread some Christmas cheer to a handful of kids in Diepsloot...




Returning home we were enveloped with the aroma of cinnamon and easily consumed these..



There were plenty of smiles throughout the day








A delicious picnic...even my food is monochromatic. :)


Thanks to technology we were able to celebrate with both sides of family Stateside.


Our precious niece Ella made sure we were a special part of the NY Franzenfam gift opening.


We retired after an amazing day of celebrating our Saviour, embracing sweet memories and new soft presents from Christmas Day.


Time to start making out my Christmas list for next year as it will be here before we know it!


Saturday, December 18, 2010

Waking Up in Style

I know I haven't blogged much and the posts I've managed to get out all seem to be about celebrating my Tori. I guess that is because she has been one celebrated little girl as of late.

With her birthday (Dec 17) falling in the South African summer the celebrating started early...in November in fact.

She was celebrated at school last month with a special honoring ceremony...


Then in beginning of Dec. she partied "Under the Sea" with some of her classmates..


So when it came to her actual birthday it was a family event with our little Franzenfam traditions. On a Franzenfam birthday the birthday member begins their day with breakfast in bed. Tori enjoyed this tradition but it was extra special than in years past. This year she was served breakfast in her brand new room..


We changed our home office into a little girl's room, pink and all....


Grandma sent all the bedding from America...so pretty...


Thank you PBC for bringing it all over for us!

We had an old ugly wardrobe in our garage I used for storage. We stripped it, painted it and changed the hardware. Being the room was originally designed to be an office it has no closet so the wardrobe worked out perfectly and the cost saving was a bonus!


It has been a wonderful month of celebrating a wonderful girl, one that we love dearly and is a special part of the Franzenfam......one that is now waking up in style!




Monday, December 13, 2010

A Recipe for One Happy Girl

Take one medium size pool



Add a "water slide"



Stir in 50 water balloons, squirt guns and over-sized, blow-up balls



Add Special Friends (13 to be exact)



Mix in some fun games



Perhaps even a homemade pinata


(any guesses as to what it is supposed to be?)

Gather lots of sweets



Add a dolphin cake



...ice cream of course



Combine all ingredients and let stand (run, play) for 2 hours. Take a look at the finished product...



One happy girl, who happens to be turning 6!