Greek Party

For my mom's 60th birthday, my cousin Andrea (my mom's niece) and I decided to throw her a little party with dinner at a hibachi grill. My mom is the most selfless person I know, and no matter what we do, it would never measure up to what she has done for us. So we all went, had a fantastic time, the cook kept referring to my mom as, Saki Mamma, it was hysterical. Everyone loved the themed food, so we decided that once a month, we'd take turns hosting a different food-themed party. June's theme was Greek, and my mom was hosting.

We try and dress to fit the theme (if possible), and eat a bunch of appetizers/dinner/drinks from the country we're representing. We also had a lot of fun playing some lawn games (bean bag toss & ladder golf). Here are some photos!

A little blurry, my mom offered to take a picture of Alex and I.

Clearly I'm very awkward and have no clue what to do. My mom said, "Put your foot up." I look ridiculous hah. 

Foooood! Alex & Andrea on the left. My dad in the back, Uncle Angelo & Sue (holding Guiliana).

Prosciutto wrapped fig with sage and feta.

Food table!

"Mmm!" says Isabella as she smells the flowers.

  

My mom and I.

Strawberry marshmallows (from Bulk Barn). Andrea picked these up for me, because I was craving them all week!

My attempt at Greek themed hair/earrings/dress, hah.

Cupcakes!

I made these lemon lavender cupcakes for the party, check out the recipe here in the "Food" section of my blog.

 Next month's party is this Sunday, at Andrea's house. Theme: USA/Canadian favorites for the holiday. My mom and her sister were born here in Buffalo, my Aunt married a Canadian man and moved to Port Colborne, Ontario. They had two children, Andrea & Aaron. Unfortunately my Aunt passed away in 1989 from breast cancer, and my mom has been more of a mom than an aunt  to Andrea & Aaron, and we're more like siblings! They all still live in Canada, and we spend a few days a month visiting back & forth.

Now that our summer clinical session of school is done, we have 6 weeks off to study and sit for our part 2 board exam. Mine is scheduled for July 23 & 24th, day 1 = 8 hour exam, day 2 = 4 hours :-( I'll be spending the next month studying around 4-5 hours/day (or however long it takes me to get through 70 cards/day (See picture below). It seems deceiving, the front has a multiple choice question, then you flip it over to the back and the answer is there, but wait! There you will also find the tiniest font, with paragraphs and paragraphs of information on the subject. Bahhhh, they take forever to go through. Either way, there are just about 1,500 cards, so doing 70 cards/day will take me around 3 weeks to finish the deck. Then I'll have a week to review. I did the same thing for my part 1 exam last summer, and it worked out well, so I'm not too worried.

Dental decks. Yuck.

This is what my studying has looked like the past two days. It's the only way I can stay focused and not consume buckets of food while studying.

Tomorrow: Andrea & Craig are coming in with the kids, and we'll hang out with them. I also have to get in my 70 cards for the day. Bor-ing.

Thanks for reading!