Food fun!

While making Vaida's birthday cake I had a bit of a disaster...the apple bundt cake came out of the pan in two parts.  Boo!  It tasted awesome though.  :)

My plan two was to make chocolate cupcakes...they weren't puffy on top, so I used the rest of the batter to make a cake (which was the dessert that we actually used for the celebration.)  Here are the cupcakes after Amanda decorated them!  The recipe I found online was called the "BEST chocolate cake ever."  I don't know if I'd call it that, but it was very rich and chocolaty.

Tonight for dinner I made the roasted summer vegetable recipe from the "Simply in Season" cookbook.  It was wonderful...onions, zucchini, potato, red bell pepper, onion, and carrots!

Here it is in the bowl mixed with some pasta.  (And my cherry limeade crystal light drink!)

Haircuts!

Bethany, Amanda, and I went to the mall last night together and got our hair cut!  It was a fun "group bonding" outing!  :)

before

after

My hair looks basically the same, but the stylist actually cut a good amount off the back - you just can't see it in this photo.  But don't the girls both look adorable?!?!  This was Amanda's first proper salon experience in her life...or at least in her adult life!  

Happy Birthday Vaida!

Vaida's birthday was last week.  We were all out of the office, so we started our Monday morning out with a birthday celebration!  A great way to start the year in my opinion.  :)  Here are some photos from the party.   

(Sorry the photos aren't great - we took them with my phone and the lighting wasn't the best, but at least we caught the moment for posterity!)  

Birthday lady!

Those who were around to celebrate (about half the department)

me, Amanda, Bethany, Olena, Vaida, and Margarita

Beauties!

Vaida, Olena, Amanda, and Bethany

Sea Festival Breakfast

A wonderful LCC tradition is the Friday morning breakfast before the Sea Festival.  A group of LCC women gather at Navalis for breakfast in the outdoor seating area and then head down to the city center for a morning/afternoon of shopping!  It's a mini kick off to the year as this is the first LCC gathering that many expat women participate in upon returning from summer travels in the US.  This year Amanda had flown across the ocean the day before and arrived in Lithuania just 7 hours before we met for breakfast!  :)

Ilona, Alisha, and Marlene

Jane, Amanda, me, and Rachel

RD dinner

Our Residence Life team for the 2012-2013 academic year are all now in Klaipeda!  Amanda just returned from America Thursday night/Friday morning.  So Friday night the Residence Life team got together for dinner and a movie.  Alisha had sent me a recipe for bruschetta that looked really good, so I made that.  Afterwards Josh went downtown and us gals stayed back and watched a movie and an episode of "Miranda".  (Miranda is a British tv show that is so so so funny!)  It was a great evening of team bonding, delicious food, and fun!  I'm so looking forward to the year ahead!  :)

Bruschetta with caramelized onions, oven roasted tomatoes and fresh mozzarella!  

Res Life 12-13

me, Amanda, Alisha, and Josh

Homemade Chinese!

One of the gals from my FYS class last year is living in Klaipeda this summer.  We both had some free time this week, so I went to her flat in the south end of town and we made Chinese food together for supper.  We made fried rice and egg rolls.  After dinner we watched a couple movies and spent time just chatting and laughing.  It was a good time of continuing to build relationship and invest in a student's life.

Fried rice is done (back burner) and egg rolls in process!  Yumm!

Charlotte's Web

My friend Rachel read "Charlotte's Web" to her children this summer.  I offered to let them watch my copy of the movie once they finished the movie.  They finished to book on Tuesday, so Wednesday they invited me over to watch the movie with them.  We made popcorn and had a fun time!

Chayah & Noah all excited before the movie began!

Family cuddle time during the movie...John, Chayah, Noah, and Rach.

Love this family!