This week has been a crazy one! My grandparents came to visit us a week ago, so we’ve been doing a lot of entertaining. Since this week has been so full of field trips and activities, I thought it would make a great recap post!
Sunday was the day we used to go on a field trip. We went to visit a private art museum, we didn’t even know existed! It wasn’t far from us, so we took a quick drive and checked it out. The snow was just starting to melt even though it was rather chilly, so it was a perfect day to be inside. 🙂
It was located on such a beautiful and incredibly large property! We felt very VIP going to this museum, since they had to call in from the front gate to check and see if we truly had an appointment to go in. Another bonus was that they only let a maximum of 20 visitors at a time, which gives you a rather intense and in-depth experience. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the inside, but we did get a few from the outside!
There’s a sculpture garden you can tour on the outside, but with the last appointment you don’t get the 1,5 hour tour. We did explore one sculpture outside though – and it was incredible! The angles of it were impressive considering that it seemed to be made of metal, and it spiraled towards the inside. I wanted to lie on the floor and stare at the sky in the center of the spiral sculpture, but since it was quite chilly I’ll save that for another tour in the summer. 😉
The sky was such an incredible color, it was impossible to pass up on a picture!
Monday was my mom’s birthday, so we started it like every birthday. I set the table in the morning, putting fresh flowers in a vase next to the stack of birthday presents. Mom asked to have some cranberry orange scones and a green juice for breakfast, so that was her special breakfast!
One of my mom’s birthday wishes was to go to PA to the Longwood Gardens botanical garden. It was such a stunning piece of paradise, well worth the 2-3 hour drive!
We ate lunch there, which was rather good but very pricey. I had the orange honey cornish hen with lemon asparagus and potatoes. We ended up spending a good 3 hours there, with so much more to see! I’m definitely planning on going there another time 🙂
The colors were so vibrant, and it was clearly the place to be for photographers. We saw at least five photographers whipping out their cameras to take gorgeous photos. I wish the pictures would truly show how stunning this botanical garden was, but you’ll have to go if you want to see for yourself!
And of course there were plenty of great backgrounds to take pictures in front of!
On Tuesday we kind of settled in again, after being gone pretty much all weekend. Neighbors came by to bring a homemade cake, which was just plain gorgeous! It was a gluten-free chocolate nut cake with chocolate icing and fondant. I loved all of the decorations, especially the pearls that were made of chocolate!
Most of the week was spent preparing for the upcoming weekend, specifically the party my mom was throwing for her birthday! Friday was grocery shopping day, and Saturday was spent cooking and baking. We needed the full day to cook, and the result was delicious. Mom had 20 of her closest friends at the house and we were able to provide enough food so that everyone was full. Mom asked me to bake her the cranberry orange scones again, and I also made some blueberry lavender scones. Besides that we also served fruit salad, a kale clementine salad, BBQ meatballs, a vegetarian african stew, pork tenderloin, some puff pastry tomato bites, and so much more!
The rest of the night I ended up sipping on some tea to soothe the overly stuffed stomach and nibbled on some of these goodies my mom’s friend made. They were just too cute to pass up on! Can you believe these were handmade?!
So here are some questions for you:
- How do you celebrate a birthday in the family? Do you have any traditions?
- What do you typically do with guests when they come over from another country to visit?
- What’s your favorite botanical garden to go to?
Love,
Maxi
Such pretty photos Maxi! I loved the recap! We don’t have too many birthday traditions, I don’t think any of us are big on parties but my Mum just turned 50 also and Dad took her on a holiday to Hungary where they visited one of my favourite restaurants ever.
I also unfortunately haven’t been hosting family in a long time but usually I’d take them to some spots that aren’t too commercial, like my favourite corner shop or a little tea room.
For the garden question, we visited the botanical garden in Gran Canaria (even got a post on it if you want to see some photos) and it was absolutely beautiful. I wouldn’t have thought so really as it’s mostly cacti but it was stunning!