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.