puzzled?

Made another jaunt up to Wisconsin in July, my Dad had to have a pacemaker put in and I surely wanted to be there to support him and my mom. It was amazing though, how quickly they put pacemakers in. He was out of surgery in about 1-1/2 hours and is doing just great. He had to stay in the hospital just one night. Here he is in the waiting room beforehand with my sister-in-laws husband. Looking pretty relaxed huh. All went well and he is recuperating very well too.

While I was there we had the rest of the family over a few days later to celebrate my moms birthday.  We also worked on the puzzle from *H E (double hockey sticks) that I started while there.
*If you don't know what H E double hockey sticks means ask someone older.
Anyway this was a puzzle of a Gee's Bend quilt, mostly black and white with a touch of red. I would tell you the name of it but it is still on the table at my parent's house! Of course we assembled all the areas with red in them and now all that's left is black and white.

 My niece and nephew (seen here) told me I was evil for bringing it. Even though there were about 7 or 8 of us working on it - it never got finished before I had to leave the next day. I keep asking my dad if he finished it and all I get in response is a chuckle.

My mom and I went to the grocery store and picked out her birthday cake. Heve you ever heard of a Fürst Pückler cake  ???? Well...neither had we until then. We saw it in the bakery case and it looked really good. It had a chocolate glaze instead of frosting. We asked the lady at the bakery counter and she said it was mutitple layers of vanilla and chocolate with strawberry filling and marzipan under the chocolate glaze.  When we googled it there seem to be several versions. It is a German recipe and named after Prince Pückler, Hermann Ludwig Heinrich Fürst von Pückler in fact. If you are bored or curious someday, google him.

Fürst Pückler cake - no really

Turns out it was a REALLY good cake and my mom (and everyone else) was happy she choose it.

mom's birthday ( she's at the piano)

Oh, and I just have to share this pic of dad (great Grandpa) with our newest family member, Miles.. my great nephew - he is so adorable!