What a day yesterday!
Confirmation. Bon and all her school friends have been working toward this day for months. Learning about the reasons and meaning of confirmation, and choosing a Patron Saints name for confirmation, then doing a project on that particular saint. Bon chose St Agnes, who died a horrendously gory death at age 13...and is the patron saint of girls education. A perfect choice for our little academic. She loves school and study and projects! With all this preparation, it brings a lot of meaning into the day and isn't just about a pretty new outfit and a great lunch, though this is also very nice!
Bon was chosen to say a prayer at the mass, it was really long and old! Full of "thou" and "dost" and 'Woe" and she nailed it! Perfectly spoken and projected, she practised hard and her pre mass nerves didn't show at all. Gorgeous.
For the Sacrament of Confirmation the children needed to choose a sponsor. A sponsor is someone close to the child who is a practising Catholic (hopefully!) and is usually their Godparent. My brother, Ant, is Bon's Godparent, but he lives overseas...Boo Hoo, we hate how the tyranny of distance always gets in the way of important family gatherings. Lucky for us though, we had a back up plan...in the form of a close friend, Brenda, who is very involved in her local church and who's daughter is one of Bon's closest friends. So win, win! Perfect Confirmation Sponsor and brilliant to have her family to play at our house for sunday lunch!
One problem...Bon's sponsor's husband is French. Why is this a problem I hear you ask? Because not only is he French and therefore has taste buds expertly tuned from infancy, but he also imports french food to Australia...I'm talking he seriously loves food! And they have been living in France for the last two years - surrounded by amazing cusine on every street corner. And though I have always found their family incredibly easy to feed on the many occasions I have fed them, I still find I put a little more effort into my recipe choice when they are coming over (or any guests for that matter!) I never plan traditional French cusine...no way am I that brave, though I did experiment with a raspberry clafoutis once, just to see if I could make a fairly authentic one. It was pretty good!
So anyway...The menu today? Bon wanted spaghetti!! What??? Of all the dishes she could have chosen...Spaghetti? (My cutting down on how often we eat pasta must be frustrating her!) OK, spaghetti it was, but not for the adults. The 5 kids had to tackle that one on their own.
Adult menu? Chicken and Leek pie. Homemade, down to hand rearing the chicken, wringing its neck and de feathering it....almost. I did start with a real dead chook which I turned into meat and stock. No BBQ chook or powdered stock in sight - this time! It was fabulous. Quinoa, feta and pomegranate salad on the side - delicious!!! I think Bon was a little regretting of her Spag Bog. In fact, Bel decided the adults definitely had the better meal and totally snubbed the pasta! Chicken pie will be blogged soon...as well as the rest! It was all so good and worth sharing.
Home made vanilla poached pear tarts, with a divine blob of double cream, for dessert. Sooo YUM. The kids had berry and yoghurt parfaits, and just because...cupcakes!! Every girl needs cupcakes on a special occasion ...or any occasion!!
To move off all things food and onto the other important stuff in a girl's life - clothes...We managed to find Bon a gorgeous outfit for today that didnt cost the earth. I hate buying clothes that they will hardly ever wear (she loves jeans and shorts!) so I was thrilled to find a reasonably priced, beautiful skirt and top at 'Target,' a matching headband, and very cute shoes at 'Harbour town'
and a gorgeous cardigan that was a little splash out, from 'Forever New'..but its an adult size 6 so will fit her for a couple of seasons and we do have two nieces to pass down to, lucky for them!
The other major fashion item? Earrings! Once girls hit the age of about 10 or so, their minds start ticking over to when they can get their ears pierced...for us, to stop peer pressure in its tracks and turn the primitive act of putting a hole in a body part into something a little more acceptable, we have allowed the girls their ears pierced in time for their confirmation and the ONLY time they are allowed to have a piercing!!! Bel has a little chip on her shoulder that her confirmation was a whole year later than Bons...bad luck baby! Same stuff, different school.
We got the timing of Bon's ear piecing just right. It was 6 weeks this weekend...the minimum time needed before taking out the earrings they use to pierce with... so guess what her gift from Grandma Min was? Earrings! Pearl ones of course. Every girl needs pearls in her life. Brenda gave her a stunning trinket box (which would look perfect in my bedroom...watch out Bon!) and a sweet bracelet.
From Dude, Bel and I, a bigger jewellery box to keep her earrings, and other girly bits and bobs in. Bon gave Brenda a bunch of roses as a Thank You.
It was a big day, a beautiful day. Good food, great company, lots of laughter.
This week, exams for our Bel. Yuk. So its batten down the hatches and keep a low profile until they are all done. Healthy meals, early nights...study, study, study.
I have some good news to tell too, but that can wait for a few more days!!
Mia x
What a day yesterday!
Confirmation. Bon and all her school friends have been working toward this day for months. Learning about the reasons and meaning of confirmation, and choosing a Patron Saints name for confirmation, then doing a project on that particular saint. Bon chose St Agnes, who died a horrendously gory death at age 13...and is the patron saint of girls education. A perfect choice for our little academic. She loves school and study and projects! With all this preparation, it brings a lot of meaning into the day and isn't just about a pretty new outfit and a great lunch, though this is also very nice!
Bon was chosen to say a prayer at the mass, it was really long and old! Full of "thou" and "dost" and 'Woe" and she nailed it! Perfectly spoken and projected, she practised hard and her pre mass nerves didn't show at all. Gorgeous.
For the Sacrament of Confirmation the children needed to choose a sponsor. A sponsor is someone close to the child who is a practising Catholic (hopefully!) and is usually their Godparent. My brother, Ant, is Bon's Godparent, but he lives overseas...Boo Hoo, we hate how the tyranny of distance always gets in the way of important family gatherings. Lucky for us though, we had a back up plan...in the form of a close friend, Brenda, who is very involved in her local church and who's daughter is one of Bon's closest friends. So win, win! Perfect Confirmation Sponsor and brilliant to have her family to play at our house for sunday lunch!
One problem...Bon's sponsor's husband is French. Why is this a problem I hear you ask? Because not only is he French and therefore has taste buds expertly tuned from infancy, but he also imports french food to Australia...I'm talking he seriously loves food! And they have been living in France for the last two years - surrounded by amazing cusine on every street corner. And though I have always found their family incredibly easy to feed on the many occasions I have fed them, I still find I put a little more effort into my recipe choice when they are coming over (or any guests for that matter!) I never plan traditional French cusine...no way am I that brave, though I did experiment with a raspberry clafoutis once, just to see if I could make a fairly authentic one. It was pretty good!
So anyway...The menu today? Bon wanted spaghetti!! What??? Of all the dishes she could have chosen...Spaghetti? (My cutting down on how often we eat pasta must be frustrating her!) OK, spaghetti it was, but not for the adults. The 5 kids had to tackle that one on their own.
Adult menu? Chicken and Leek pie. Homemade, down to hand rearing the chicken, wringing its neck and de feathering it....almost. I did start with a real dead chook which I turned into meat and stock. No BBQ chook or powdered stock in sight - this time! It was fabulous. Quinoa, feta and pomegranate salad on the side - delicious!!! I think Bon was a little regretting of her Spag Bog. In fact, Bel decided the adults definitely had the better meal and totally snubbed the pasta! Chicken pie will be blogged soon...as well as the rest! It was all so good and worth sharing.
Home made vanilla poached pear tarts, with a divine blob of double cream, for dessert. Sooo YUM. The kids had berry and yoghurt parfaits, and just because...cupcakes!! Every girl needs cupcakes on a special occasion ...or any occasion!!
To move off all things food and onto the other important stuff in a girl's life - clothes...We managed to find Bon a gorgeous outfit for today that didnt cost the earth. I hate buying clothes that they will hardly ever wear (she loves jeans and shorts!) so I was thrilled to find a reasonably priced, beautiful skirt and top at 'Target,' a matching headband, and very cute shoes at 'Harbour town' 
and a gorgeous cardigan that was a little splash out, from 'Forever New'..but its an adult size 6 so will fit her for a couple of seasons and we do have two nieces to pass down to, lucky for them!
The other major fashion item? Earrings! Once girls hit the age of about 10 or so, their minds start ticking over to when they can get their ears pierced...for us, to stop peer pressure in its tracks and turn the primitive act of putting a hole in a body part into something a little more acceptable, we have allowed the girls their ears pierced in time for their confirmation and the ONLY time they are allowed to have a piercing!!! Bel has a little chip on her shoulder that her confirmation was a whole year later than Bons...bad luck baby! Same stuff, different school.
We got the timing of Bon's ear piecing just right. It was 6 weeks this weekend...the minimum time needed before taking out the earrings they use to pierce with... so guess what her gift from Grandma Min was? Earrings! Pearl ones of course. Every girl needs pearls in her life. Brenda gave her a stunning trinket box (which would look perfect in my bedroom...watch out Bon!) and a sweet bracelet.
From Dude, Bel and I, a bigger jewellery box to keep her earrings, and other girly bits and bobs in. Bon gave Brenda a bunch of roses as a Thank You.
It was a big day, a beautiful day. Good food, great company, lots of laughter.
This week, exams for our Bel. Yuk. So its batten down the hatches and keep a low profile until they are all done. Healthy meals, early nights...study, study, study.
I have some good news to tell too, but that can wait for a few more days!!
Mia x
