Crowning Moments

On Monday, Dad and I worked on the yard some more.  I ran to the dollar store and found some Alice-esque decor.

I set up the garden house as the Mad Hatter's shop, including hats for characters pertaining to the story.

That night Dad fixed our outdoor faucet, the hose had not been taken off last fall, and you can see how the freezing water trapped by the hose, froze and expanded bursting the solid copper pipe. 

On Tuesday morning Dad helped me set up for the luncheon.

Here's the crafting girls, making their Alice in Wonderland tea cup gardens. From the left, Jann, Ann, Shirley, Nancy, Denise and Kim.

Here are the finished gardens

Note all the tinies I found to go with the story for each of the ladies.  The mini playing cards, the red tea cups I made from sculpy, the key, the crown on the key, the tiny drink me bottle, the mushrooms and the puffy red heart.  Gathering everything to make the cup gardens was one of my favorite parts.

Here is my completed garden.

We set out the food table including the cool charcuterie board I bought from a friend of Brittany's in Idaho.  Its made from a wine barrel stave with handles on each end.  The slightly curved edges make everything stay on the board during transport.  Let me know if you'd like to borrow it.  Or if you want your own Brittany can arrange that for you.  I just loved how it turned out.

Everyone had chosen a hat from the Mad Hatter's shop when they came outside.

Everyone had such a good time, that we all kept posting and commenting on Insta and FB for the rest of the week.  Jann, far left, got to be the queen of the day, wearing the queen of hearts crown.  I actually just added hearts and ribbons to a crown I made in craft group 6 years ago, no one else remembered having made them.  So funny.

I painted this little Mad Hatter for the shoppe, and my friend Kim wore this adorable mushroom dress, how perfect is this.

On Wednesday the boys and Dad, and Eva all went for a sushi lunch ... but I did get cafe rio as a consolation prize for  my lunch at work.  After enjoying his kids and sushi, Dad headed to Darby's for the rest of the day to work on the apartment.

It was super fun to see my friend Laurie for the first time since my mission at work on Thursday.  She went to Round Top in Texas at the same time Dad and I were at First Monday Trade Days ... fun to chat and to hear her family's  conversion story in California when she was in her teens.  It turns our her parents both grew up in Texas, but moved to California after WWII.  Don't you love the Babe Cave sign?

Dad came and got me from work, after he had spent another day working on Darby's apartment, and we drove to a wedding reception in Lindon for two of our missionaries, Sam Ames and Brianna Clayton, who had just married.  Those are always the most fun weddings of all,

On Friday Dad changed out the hardware on our bathroom sink, which has been leaking for a long time.  No more drips, and a choice between just hot or cold water, he's a pro.

On Friday I added a couple of paintings I had brought home from work.

As well as adding the two plates and two vases I had brought home the mall to finish up the cupboard I had curated on Monday.

Dad even placed the crown we decided to add to my 'Brigham Young' desk.  I was trying to find a picture of his barrel desk on line, and ran across a picture of Karl G. Maeser's desk at BYU, and noticed it also had a crown.  Then it dawned on me that I had a furniture crown in the garage that might fit.  And it was perfect.  The desk looks better with the tall ceiling, so that was fun.

I took this picture because I love it when Dad's hair gets longish, usually about the time he wants me to cut it.

We got to watch Davin and Bri's kids overnight that night, so they could have a romantic get away.

It was fun to have them, but as it turned out it was also Penny's birthday.  Her party for kids was for Saturday, and these three were going, but Trevor and Nell have a tradition to invite the grandparents to go out to dinner for their kid's birthdays too, so we had to beg permission to bring these extra cuties with us.

Here is Nenna with the birthday girl at the pizza Pie cafe.

Elias and Eleanor.

Here they are having a one leg standing contest.

They even let me play. Isn't it amazing how tall these ten year olds are?

Then it was back to their house for cake and ice cream and gifts.

Penny has been watching lots Justice League with her family during Covid, and for some reason loves the Hulk.  Her Aunt Ashley made the adorable cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Eva's been making paper cranes and wants to make a thousand.  This one is soooo tiny.

I looks like a paper crown, but in this picture it also looks like a tiny, tiny crown too

And speaking of crowns, Penny wears he school birthday crown as she eats cake and ice cream.

Scott was messaging with Kimmy on Snap Chat, then switched to facetime so we could all visit.

What a cutie. It was so fun to talk to her.

You can see how much they loved visiting.

Eleanor, meanwhile, was down stairs sharing her birds with her cousins.

Here we see Adi wearing one of the birds as a crown.

On Saturday I got up and made pancakes for the grands, before I ran off for a morning of garaging, while Dad watched them, until their parents came to get them around 11.

That night we went over to Kews to watch our Stake Conference Adult session.  We went out for Mexican food afterwards, and they told us they were in the process of buying a house in Maryland.   They expect it will take a bit more than a year for them to actually move, so now we are thinking we should postpone our trip back east until they get moved.  We will miss them so much.

This morning we watched the general session,

Switching over in the middle to watch Jeff and Robin who were speaking in their ward.  Ain't technology great!?

The week's crowing event was a surprise visit from Spencer and Brittney.  They had been to stay with her sister in St. George.  Aren't we lucky?  We loved seeing them and visiting.

Van is at such a cute age!

How adorable is Cam?

and I have decided that I really like this Swiss Banker's hair. 

So that was our fun week.  Socializing with friends and family is always the best.  We also managed to get some things done around that house and yard, which is very satisfying.  We hope your week was fun as well.

 

A Wedding, Reunions and Family Time too.

A few pictures from the end of our time at Britt's, like so many, Britt had a bad reaction to her covid shot on Sunday, so that she had to take it easy on Monday, and we were on our own.

Here you see Dad with Alex installing the American Girls Doll Bike carrier for Charlie.

She was thrilled.  We spent most of the day junking and checking out the Whole Foods store.

I picked a couple of pictures off of Insta Gram of the Summers trip to Bonham, Texas to see the Talleys, cousin time is always the best.

So fun for all.

In Idaho I got to pet a scotty dog, a lot.  I've always loved Scotties, but a pure breed dog was never in the cards for us.  Now I get to pet Missie, but don't have to deal with having a dog.  Yeah, the best of both worlds.

Britt was pretty disgusted with feeling like crap while having company, after all she is a second generation cruise director personality.

Dad and I got to go and watch Charlie at her dance class though, through a one way mirror, which was kind of cool.

The receptionist at the dance school presented her with the trophy she had won the previous weekend.

Britt was feeling much better by Tuesday and took us out to a subdivision where some of her clients are building a house.  For some reason she thought I would be impressed, and she was right.

Who wouldn't want to live on the corner of Darcy and Pemberley.

Then we headed to Best Buy where the manager helped us get a deal on dash board mounts for our cell phones, which are long over due.  Here we see Charlie walking hand in hand with the manager, her Papa.

Then it was off to lunch at an all vegan restaurant, and art gallery.  I loved this artist because she evidently likes freckled subjects for her portraits. 

Yum, vegan bruschetta. After lunch we headed home, listening to a Dan Brown book, and working on bagging jewelry for the antique mall, which made the time fly by.

It was fun to be back to my emerging English cottage bedroom, and since I took a picture last Sunday at Britt's while doing the blog and watching, You've Got Mail. This is the Meg Ryan character on her couch, I captured that it is the same pattern by Laura Ashley that I had just wall papered our bedroom in.Yes, small things do entertain me.

On Wednesday Dad finished to outlets in the living room and put up insulation.

The south wall is also insulated

Here are the last two outlets for the living room/ kitchen.

The heating contractor said we needed to frame in the mechanical room so here is Thursday's project.

This was the last of Thursday's work; the framing to the right of the door into the apartment. Dad got a lot done at Darby's on Wednesday and Thursday, while I worked at the antique mall.

On Friday we worked together on the house.  Here Dad is measuring for the hanging of a clock that has been sitting on the shelf since we bought it 5 years ago.

I also moved my collection of blue and green pottery from this shelf into the display cupboard on the opposite wall, to make room for more original, or limited edition art.  I still need a couple more pieces of pottery to finish up the display in the cupboard so I will show you that later.

That night we met up with the Crumps for Mexican food.  They are actually serving a service mission from home, since they put their papers in a week before the covid closures.  They hope to serve another mission later.

On Saturday we spent the day working on the yard.  I am having an out door Mad Hatter's tea with my craft group on Tuesday.  I thought these glass plate 'flowers' would be perfect for Wonderland.  Dad cleared out three of our four grow boxes, and I cleared the leaves and weeds out of the daffodil boarder on the side of the garage.  I'll share more pics next week.

At 5 that afternoon we headed to Provo to see this beauty, shown on the arm of her Dad, as she married Ben Heuer.  It was held at the White Willow in Provo, and every detail was perfect.

Here we see Kylie Moe as she takes a picture of the cake.

Christopher Heuer's daughter, Lily is show to the right, she was one of three bridesmaids, and looked lovely.

We sat down to dinner with the Moes, Quiggs, Kylie and a couple of Barb's grandkids.

Dad looked dapper in his polka dot bow tie that matches my dress.

Here we are with the bride and groom.

It was a lovely evening.

Dad found this on line this morning.  A Finnish girl was the 2nd pick in the WNBA draft and will be Emily's neighbor playing in Dallas.  How cool is that?  Its good that all young Finns have great English skills and of course being 6 feet 5 inches doesn't hurt either.

Then this afternoon we drove over to the Jamsa's house in Salem for a Finnish Missionary get together. I am shown talking to Joseph Sellers who we served with on our first mission.  He is attending Utah State, and is from Ohio. To his right is Porter Aitken and Amy Gilliat.

Here are Tyler Davis, Nathan Chugg, Chase Halverson and Darien Reed

Nicole Perterson, Porter Aitken, and Emma Wolfenstein

Karli Moss, Chase Kimball, and Nathan Kester

Dessi Anderson, Olivia Pluim, and Zoe Forest

Denise Jamsa, Stephen Shurtz and Jane Shurtz

Here we see the Jamsas, our hosts who served with us until covid sent home most Senior Couples, behind me are the Shurtz, who live on Grandview Hill  in Provo.  We replaced them in the mission.

Here are Ashleigh Bicknell and Pete VawdryVawdry

Hanging out with family and friends made this an amazing week.  We hope yours was joyful as well.