Party Time in Texas!

I was able to spend ten days in Texas at the beginning of July with the Stinsons to help both girls celebrate their birthdays.  Lissa has done a wonderful job of documenting the parties with lots of pictures on her blog, so I thought I'd put in some miscellaneous shots of Kiera and Savannah that I took while I was there.

Savannah LOVES bling, but she wasn't so sure about the sunglasses I brought her. 

 Lissa put on a fabulous Hello Kitty birthday party per Kiera's request.  Hard to believe Kiera is four already!

 The series of photos below crack me up, because it shows the challenges of getting both girls (especially Savannah) to cooperate during a photo shoot.  This was on Sunday and the girls are in their church dresses.

  The one below is probably the best one of the bunch!

  Daddy had to come in and try to get Savannah facing the right direction.

Savannah chilling with her necklaces. She puts the necklaces on by herself and is usually wearing at least one.

 Kent was able to come for six days and really loved interacting with Kiera and Savannah.

 This is a picture of Savannah on her first birthday, and I think it really shows her usually cheerful and easy going personality.

 Kent and I were able to go to Kiera's gymnastics class and watch lots of great moves.

As usual, our time went by too quickly and it was hard to say good-bye!

Three Saturdays in June

June is a piano recital month.   I enjoy trying to create a unique invitation for each recital.

                             It's fun to use my piano-themed serving dishes for the refreshments. Please note the treble clef picks that the fruit kabobs are on.

The next weekend I hosted a garden party for the new sisters in the ward, and for those who are moving.

The other members of the Relief Society presidency helped make the food.  I used some hydrangea paper I'd bought a couple of years ago for the invitations, and amazingly enough the hydrangeas in our yard were blooming

pretty much the same color.

 

 I  found hydrangea napkins, and also some lavender Martha Stewart paper lanterns on sale for a dollar each.

 One lady who came said there were more decorations at my garden party than there were at her daughter's wedding reception.  I took that as a compliment!  Kent and I had worked at the temple on Friday night and didn't get home until almost midnight, so I did most of the decorating on Saturday morning.

 The weather was PERFECT--in the 70's with a gentle breeze and no humidity.  We had a lovely time, and I may just have to have a hydrangea garden party every June from now on.

                                                                               We were entertained at the garden party by the nest of baby robins in the cross beam under the deck.  I told the ladies who came that I'd ordered them for effect from "baby birds r us." 

 The last Saturday of the month we took a daytrip with Jim and Bonnie Jeo to a lavender farm near the Shenandoah mountains.

 It was a day when volunteers could come harvest the lavender.  We were worried about being too hot and getting sunburned, but that didn't happen. 

     The lavender harvesting wasn't too strenuous, and smelled wonderful.  Afterwards the owners of the farm fed us lunch.  There were some menu items with lavender in them, like lavender lemonade and lavender blueberry sauce on the cheesecake we had for dessert. 

It was another enjoyable day in Virginia.

Our 100th Post!

Now that June is almost over, I thought I'd better post some pictures from May.   Kent and I went to see Brian Regan's show in Washington, DC.

 The show was in a beautiful old theater right downtown in the "Theater District" of DC.   No, I didn't know there was a theater district in DC, either.

 The show was very entertaining and clean; we had a great time.

 I was able to get away to Texas for five days to visit the Stinsons.  While I was there I put Savannah's hair into pigtails for the first time. 

 Kiera and I did some fun activities together.

 We all went to the Houston Zoo.

 Hmm, I guess I took more pictures of my sweet granddaughters than I did of any animals!

 One of my favorite pictures of the girls in their matching church dresses.

On Memorial Day weekend I decorated for a wedding reception at our church building. The decorating crew and I started on Thursday evening putting the lights across the ceiling.  I spent about 15 hours decorating on Friday and about four more hours on Saturday morning.  I was mostly pleased with the way it turned out.  I was able to use some of the lighting ideas I'd seen on Pinterest.

 The receiving line stood here between the pillars.

 Putting the gazebo in the middle of the cultural hall over the food table was an idea I came up with all by myself! And yes, that is a chandelier hanging from the middle.

 Hanging paper lanterns in the trees outside was an idea I'd seen before, and liked the way they looked.

 On the same day as the reception, Tyler and his fiancee', Rachel Judd, came into town for a visit for the Memorial Day Weekend.  In the morning they did some sightseeing in DC, and Kent and I spent the afternoon with them at the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial.  Rachel's parents and younger brother were in town on a band trip from their home town in Michigan, so Tyler was able to meet his future in-laws for the first time.

Here are Tyler and Rachel reinacting the signs that say "Caution: Slippery Conditions" in the Jefferson Memorial.

  The following three pictures were taken at the FDR Memorial.

 On Sunday morning before church wev met Rachel's parents and did some sightseeing at Arlington National Cemetery for a couple of hours.  Rachel had never been to DC before so everything was new to her.  After church on Sunday we had some of Tyler's friends who we knew in Japan and Germany come to dinner to meet Rachel.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.

 On Monday morning I asked a young mother from the ward, Leah, to come take engagement pictures of Tyler and Rachel in our back yard for them to use on their wedding announcements.  She did a GREAT job.

 I thought this was a cute "behind the scenes" shot. (Kent is holding a battery-operated fan to keep them cool.) 

 I don't know why this picture is sideways since it isn't that way on my computer, but it was just too cute not to put in.  After the serious pictures, Tyler and Rachel took a few silly ones.  I think their expressions are really cute.

We also thought that Kent and I should get the chance to be in a picture, too.  It was a busy, but really wonderful weekend, with Tyler and Rachel.  They flew home on Monday afternoon.