Eva, age 14y

Eva's Feast...

This is Evabeth and she's 14y.  Where does the time go?  She was six months old when we moved into this old farm house and now she is a young lady.  Eva is very friendly.  If she doesn't know you, she will as soon as she claps eyes on you!  I love watching her when she processes- "Hey, this is someone new..." and then the inevitable, "Hi!  I'm Eva!"  Never knew a stranger and she is just one of the friendliest people you'll ever meet. She is an amazing artist, truly gifted when it comes to a piece of paper and a pencil.  She draws beautiful fairies and gruesome beasts.  She loves reading her Kindle that her big brother and sister-in-law recently bought for her.  She is also a budding author.  Bekah loves to hear her stories when they go to bed.  She is a sweet and loving sister and tries her best to please her brothers and sister.  And that's not always an easy task.  She works harder than any kid her age I know. She's emotional and sensitive- and because she is so sweet, her brothers freak out when she cries- they start consoling/scolding her - anything to make her stop! John even did her chore for her the other night.  She stresses and then she stresses about stressing. It's amazing how hard a good person works to be "gooder."  She's a blessing to all who meet her.  She's absolutely precious and for those of you who don't know her, personally, I really hope that some day you will.

She had a "book" theme for her feast.  Eva does love her books.  She set her table with stacks of old books and put candles in clear glass punch cups and tissue paper wrapped stemware.  We were running a bit late for her feast... yeah, she was stressing.  It wasn't a big deal.  She got her appetizers of different filled puff pastry- spinach, garlic butter, pimento cheese and orange marmalade- cooked up and sent out early to pacify the hungry guests.  The puff pastry is kinda like thin sheets of paper, right?  Books.  Get it?  She set "wocky" sticks on their plates because they were like pencils... Her main course was stir fry with angel hair pasta, BBQ chicken, and plain chicken.  She made coffee punch for her beverage.  Jacob said that the combination of food was a bit unexpected but contrasted rather nicely.  Her dessert was a holiday favorite of chocolate mousse or peach crepes.  As her gifts, she bought different books for all of her guests from the thrift shop.  Each book was chosen with care to suit the one receiving it.  As Abe said of his book, "The Call of the Wild"- "This stuff is intense!"

Silly Eva

We finished up by being typically rowdy.  John has a large mouth- it's a fact.  And so he accepted the challenge of fitting the rim of one of the stemware into his mouth.  Turns out, you can't do that while laughing.  And if you get most of the rim into your mouth and under your lips, blowing a big puff of air out will allow your lips to stretch even further and fit around the cup... Such a silly activity, but hilariously funny.  By the way, Jacob was able to accomplish that feat, also- although with a slightly smaller glass.  Our friend, Gary, tried and I realized that his mouth is really, really small and my boys' are really, really large!  And then there was the whole trying to break a glass by screaming at it- good thing we live a half mile from the nearest neighbor.  And we're not even gonna talk about the crepe food fight...Eva's feast was just a blast!     

Coffee Punch: 2 cups sugar, 2 cups water, 2-3 Tablespoons of instant coffee crystals- cook and stir until sugar melts and begins to thicken. Cool. 30 minutes before serving, in a punch bowl mix coffee syrup, 1/2 gallon of milk, 1/2 gallon of chocolate ice cream and 1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream. Serve.