The Garden Party

(Sigh) A garden party. In my mind, there are few things more lovely. I love the idea of combining the cool warm of a summer evening with cut flowers strewn about and delicate finger foods arranged on trays. Plus, you get to wear a dress. I like that a lot, too.

Megan and Kait's birthdays were earlier this month and we decided to celebrate them with a joint garden party at Lyndee's and my house this past Monday night. Ever since the tulips started coming up earlier this spring, I've been looking forward to entertaining formally in our back yard. The lilies and the phlox and the sage have all been blooming lately, but the hydrangeas steal the show. The blossom heads are as big as my head and are blue, pink, lilac and all the hues in between. Bekah, bless her, took charge of arranging the layout and decorating with hydrangeas. The effect was graceful and elegant. (Another sigh)

Kait arrived first and faked a "surprise" face because she thought we were joking by pretending she was Megan, the real birthday girl. It was only after we showed her the signs saying "Happy Birthday, Kait!" in size 1000 font that she believed us. David and Cindy did an excellent job throwing her off the scent: it makes perfect sense to fix the car in a white polo, David!

After Megan arrived and we all ate the fancy food with our pinkies raised (Brad even tried and liked egg salad!!), it was time for the evening's activity: painting aprons! Perhaps we weren't thinking when we planned to have a party in nice clothes and also paint, but miraculously, there were no major disasters. It was so cool to see how everyone chose to design their aprons. There wasn't one that didn't perfectly match the personality of its designer. Makes me reflective on how perfectly we, too, match the personality of our Designer.

Painting aprons continued until it was dark (and a bit after!). We lit and blew out birthday candles, ate cake and pie, and took group pictures with all of our apron-creations. Scroll through the pictures below to see how lovely our garden party turned out to be!