counting blessings

every summer i find myself yet another year more blessed.

not another year older right, but rather another year to count 

the many blessings i am surrounded with.

i find myself incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful 

group of grandchildren keeping me on my toes and keeping me 

laughing. 

"God gave us the gift of life, it is up to us to give ourselves 

the gift of living well"

-voltaire

hope your week is off to a great start!

Ruby's Petite Tea Party

My beautiful granddaughter, Ruby, turned 7! Where does the time go?

My talented daughter, Christine, went all out (as usual). She hosted a lovely tea party for Ruby and her friends.

Mid Morning Tea

~MENU~

Passion Fruit Tea

Scones with Butter & Jam

Nutella Flower Sandwiches

Cream Cheese & Cucumber Sandwiches

Chicken Salad Croissants

Pink Pavlova with Berries & Cream

She found the sweetest mini pie dishes and made the apple pie filling and dough from scratch! See what I mean by going all out? Each young lady was able to roll out their own crust and scoop in just the right amount of yummy apple filling. These girls were becoming professionals and even got super fancy with a lattice top.

Such concentration!

Of course, what professional little pastry chefs don't have their own apron? Christine made special one of a kind aprons out of her stash of fabrics for each special guest. (Keeping a stash of fabrics...hmm...wonder where she gets that from?)

She also purchased adorable pink pie boxes, topped them with a chalkboard label (available at The Willows) and let them write their names so they could take their masterpieces home.

 Happy Birthday, sweet Ruby!

 

A special thank you to my insanely talented youngest daughter, Emily, for capturing these wonderful moments for us. To see more of her brilliant photography, check out her blog HERE.



i just love making pillows...

I cannot help myself.  When I see beautiful fabric, I just have to make pillows!  I picked up this amazing, cheery fabric in France and brought it home with me with no real set plan for it.  Then, I found these colorful zippers and I just had to sew up some pillows.  My daughter, Christine, loves to mix up the pillows on her already adorable front porch, and with her newly painted front door, I just knew this would be the place for these bright, happy pillows!

Cheers to new pillows!

summer travels {balboa}

Another great year at the beach with the whole big crew.  

One of my grandkids said this was his favorite week of the whole year :)

Bags for each family.  With the way we are growing, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep up :)

Numbers 20 and 21 were born this summer!

Carpooling to the beach!

Even the big kids need a nap...

Family soccer.

Meeting new cousins.

So happy to be reunited with favorite cousins :)

Until next summer!

another great 4th of july!

This year with our big family week coming up at the end of July, Brian and I took a few grandkids over to the beach to celebrate the 4th on Balboa.  We had some surprise visitors when my son Al and his wife Mary decided to fly in last minute with our newest grandchild, Evangeline. Everyone had a wonderful time with lots of hours at the beach, paddle boarding, front row seats to the boat parade, trips to the toy store for swords, and lots of time to gush over the newest little miracle in our family.

It was a wonderful long weekend!

Happy 4th to everyone!

Hope yours was great!