Mother’s Day, 2015

To all the mums out there, I do hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  Mine was very relaxed and celebrated with my mother and three of my four sisters and their families.

A vase of lilies

A vase of lilies

In the morning Alfie was a little upset.  He came into my room, empty handed, and said he didn’t have a gift for me.  That came as a surprise as before Easter I filled out the form that came home from the school and I sent it back with $10.00 so he could go shopping and buy me a gift.

Mother's Day flowers

Mother’s Day flowers

A few days before Mother’s Day he proudly told me he had hand-painted the gift wrap for the present so he was all set for his moment of shopping.  But then he was late to school on the Friday and when he arrived his class had already done their shopping so that was that and there were no second chances.  He was shattered.  Drew took him up to Bed Bath and Table and he bought me a candle.  Sorted.

Autumn

Autumn

The week before Mother’s Day the emails starting flying around about who was to bring what to my parents’ house for the lunch.  Katie was doing the delegating and I came up trumps as the only thing I was asked to bring was sausages.  So easy!  All I had to do was walk to the local butcher and buy a couple of kilos of snags.  Excellent – extra sleep-in for Charlie!

Flowers from Meg's garden

Flowers from Meg’s garden

Here’s some trivia…Can you believe, the oldest of the five of us was born on Father’s Day and the youngest of the five born on Mother’s Day.  And mum and dad didn’t even plan that but I think it’s a lovely way to begin and end a breeding program.

A little love for Rosie

A lot of love for Rosie

So it wouldn’t be Mother’s Day if we didn’t also have Lou’s birthday to celebrate and this year it once again fell on Mother’s Day.  But May’s a busy month of celebrations in our family so it was happy birthday to Drew and Katie’s husband as well.  And we can’t forget Ruby would have been 15 that week as well so we had a special toast to her.

Although it’s been quite cold lately, the weather on Mother’s Day was sunny and warm enough to be able to eat outside which is helpful when you have 10 grandchildren running around.

Outdoor dining

Outdoor dining

We started the celebrations with a glass of pink champagne – a very good colour for Mother’s Day.

Pink bubbles

Pink bubbles

My cousin, Meg, brought the appetisers and there was a lovely selection.  I particularly enjoyed the figs wrapped in prosciutto.

Appetisers

Appetisers

Katie brought an eye fillet of beef that was barbecued and left to rest while the sausages were cooked.  The beef was served with a choice of bearnaise sauce or horseradish cream.

Eye fillet of beef

Eye fillet of beef

There were two types of sausages, chicken and chive and Mexican but once they were cooked it was impossible to distinguish between them so you just had to have a surprise.

A mixed selection of sausages

A mixed selection of sausages

Lou made a quinoa salad with roasted beetroot and carrots and a spiced yoghurt dressing – I’ll make it and put it on my blog as it’s a terrific salad that can either be a complete meal or a side dish.

Roasted beetroot and carrots

Roasted beetroot and carrots

Quinoa and roasted vegetable salad

Quinoa and roasted vegetable salad

Katie was going to bring baguettes but the bakery had been knocked over in the rush and were completely sold out so we settled for some sourdough.

No baguettes this year

No baguettes this year

Millie made the dessert which was three very dark and incredibly rich chocolate cakes stacked on top of one another.  No frosting as it wasn’t necessary and instead served with creme fraiche and strawberries.

Triple stacked cake

Triple stacked cake

For those who hadn’t yet eaten enough, Lou also brought some dark chocolate balls rolled in cocoa and some crunchy nougat.

Dark chocolate balls

Dark chocolate balls

Nougat

Nougat

Although it was a shame Em and her family couldn’t be with us, it was wonderful to see the rest of the cousins all in the same place at the same time.  They put the house through its paces while loving being with each other and making up games and running around playing hide ‘n seek.

15.05.14.21

10 of the 12 cousins

I do hope your Mother’s Day was equally as wonderful.

 

Comments

  1. Danielle says:

    What a lovely family get-together in honour of Mother’s Day. I am hungry just looking at all that delicious food! The salad sounds fab and I love the trend for naked cakes 😉

  2. What a wonderful family day for you all – and a gorgeous spread.
    We managed to have all 3 of our kids in the one place (briefly) for Mother’s Day this year – no mean feat!

  3. I’m so glad to hear you had such a lovely celebration! you deserve it!

  4. A belated happy mothers day birthdays and everything to boot!!! Busy week but it is so nice to spend it with family. Wow that was a quite a spread and the children in your extended family are gorgeous and love your parting photo!

  5. I’m glad you had a wonderful Mothers Day! Everything looks fab and how lucky you only had to bring the sausages 😉
    It’s really wonderful that the cousins have this opportunity to be together, I think family time is really important. My family is spread all over the U.S. now and we don’t get such wonderful opportunities. Hope you had a wonderful day xx

  6. sounds lovely – your family is great at bringing along food to family gatherings and it is lovely for cousins to have family time together

  7. How wonderful that so many of you could be together. What fun. What love. And you all bring such delicious sounding dishes.

  8. This is such a lovely family gathering… may you all live a healthy happy lives and many many more Mothers’ days to come.

  9. I miss my family. I definitely do. But these photos do remind me of the aunts, cousins, and grandparents I grew up with–loving, surrounding, always there. Lovely food, lovely family.

  10. Oh, what a lovely family day – Charlie.

  11. What a great get together. You have a lovely family and all that good food must have made it an even nicer occasion.

  12. Looks like you had a wonderful Mother’s Day, Charlie. Me too. xox

  13. It’s nice to see Rosie doing so well. I was worried about her – and you. Your Mother’s Day was very exciting compared to ours but a relaxing day is a good thing to have, even if you have all those kids. 🙂

  14. How lovely for you all. So nice to get together! The food looks fab too. Glad you had a good day.

  15. What a wonderful and happy mother’s day you all shared together – well almost all and what a luck to just have to bring sausages.
    Have a super weekend Charlie.
    🙂 Mandy xo

  16. What a fun and delicious day. 🙂 So glad Alfie was able to get you something after his disappointment. 🙂

  17. Nice Charlie. We dont all get together as much now that mum and dad are gone. I really feel a bit sad about that but life has moved on very quickly. glad you got to see your sisters

  18. What a marvelous celebration! I love that so many of the grandchildren were in attendance. A belated happy mother’s day to you, my friend!!! xo

  19. What a fabulous mother’s day Charlie! I had to laugh – Mr. N came into my room upset that morning as well. He too had nothing because he missed school on Friday. Poor boys! He made it up with lots of hugs and kisses all day – he was super attentive! Your meal looks delicious and I’m still thinking about that appetizer plate. Delish!

  20. Awwww….that’s just such an awwwww post. And what a lovely family you have. Your parents sound wonderful. Breeding program…lol!

  21. Sounds like you had the perfect Mothers Day, Charlie … it’s such a special day!

  22. Good to hear that you had a nice Mother’s Day Charlie. I was relieved to see that there wasn’t any drama! 🙂

  23. b e a u t I f u l!!!!!!!!!

  24. Happy mother’s day Charlie and it sounds like you had a lovely day. I too like the bookended birthdays on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day and am impressed you got most of your family together for this year’s celebrations.

  25. Already Hungry looking at the pictures <3

  26. What a lovely get together! The food looks amazing as always. So glad you enjoyed the special day. 🙂

  27. What a great Mother’s Day. I like the sound of the quinoa salad. I was taken out to lunch by my son (for the first time ever!) at a fabulous cafe and had terakihi fillets, whitloof and a few other bits & pieces – all tasted delicious. Now if I were Charlie I’d have taken photos and reported on every detail of the menu. Never mind, I had a good time.

  28. I love reading about your family and family events. And I do remember everyone in your family knows how to host/cook!!! What a lovely trivia about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. 🙂 Seems like you had an awesome Mother’s Day, Charlie! So nice and fun to have lots of kids in the family.

  29. Happy Belated Mother’s Day, Charlie! Your parents idea of planned parenthood was indeed very clever =) Pink champagne does speak to celebration in any season…Glad you made a toast to Ruby <3

    Thank you, too, for enhancing my vocabulary…Gotta to go snag me a few snags! =)

  30. That was a real celebration – how wonderful for most of you to be together for the day. Great food.

  31. Happy belated Mother’s Day! That cake looks scrumptious!

  32. Happy Momma’s Day for a few weeks back, Charlie (sorry I havent been around lately…. life has been freakin hectic with budget). Looks like you had a wonderful family day, I especially love that last pic, everyone looks so beautiful. xo

  33. I wish my family was close enough for a get together like this Charlie. I had a lovely time being spoilt by my girls, brekky in bed, a big roast dinner, and lots of pressies too 🙂 xo

  34. Wish you an amazing mother’s day this year too.

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