Tea Party Bridal Shower

A Tea Party Bridal Shower is the perfect way to celebrate a bride to be or a tea party baby shower for a mommy to be!

Last week I hosted a tea party bridal shower for a friend of my daughter Tessa’s, I was her Young Women’s adviser in church and she was also on the same study abroad program in London that Tessa was.  Since she had just returned from London I decided a tea party bridal shower would be very fitting.

You can check out another bridal tea party I hosted here.

Tea Party Bridal Shower Decorations

Recently, I had made this cute polka dot tablecloth following the directions over at Oh Happy Day. I had been looking for an excuse to use it and so I decided to go with a white/neutral color scheme for the tea party. The tablecloth was perfect.

I also used some scraps of white and off white fabric I had to make the pennant banner. 

My chalkboard party backdrop was the perfect backdrop for the food table and for the darling bride to be.  Of course it had to have a Beatle’s quote on it to go with our British theme!!

We had two varieties of scones – plain and lemon blueberry and shortbread that were made by the bride’s mother.

Of course there was also a selection of herbal tea and lemonade.

The food and company were enjoyed by all!

One of our party guests made a cute hat out of a paper plate and the package ribbons for the bride.

Here is the bride, her two sisters and her mother.  You may remember that I did a crepe bar bridal shower for Charlotte’s older sister Annette a few years ago!

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Going Away Party

Send your friends off in style with a fun going away party. We’ve got all the ideas, food, decor and fun!

One of our next door neighbors is moving.  Their family is heading off on a very exciting adventure to live in China for two years – the bad part is they are leaving us all behind!  We are going to miss them terribly and my husband Jim is really going to miss his buddy Declan!  We are so excited for their family though.  

Of course, we couldn’t send them off without a party.  

Going Away Party Decor

Since the Wedding Carnival lights are STILL up in our backyard, a year later it makes for a great party place.

We just added a few Chinese lanterns to the lights.

Moving Away Party Food

We decided to keep the food simple and had a gourmet hot dog bar like we did at The Wedding Carnival.  Thanks to my friend Hannah who made the Hot Dog Menu chalkboard.

Everyone loved the hot dogs and creating their own fun combination or using the suggested ones on the board.

We asked everyone to bring a side dish to share so we had lots and lots of amazing salads.

We pulled out the Lemonade Stand from The Carnival Wedding.  It’s amazing how often a lemonade stand comes in handy!

And the hit of the night was dessert.  We had a shaved ice truck come to the house.  The kids were in heaven and many visited more than once.  The adults even lined up too!

I think this may have been this guy’s third!!

We couldn’t talk Declan’s family into leaving him behind to live with us while they were in China.  We have known Declan since the day he was born and he is my husband’s buddy but I am totally going to miss this guy even though he once called me Jim’s mom!

Going Away Party Entertainment

There was music and dancing too and we pulled out the dance floor we built for the Wedding Carnival.

Music and dancing just makes any party better!

After the sun went down the lights came on and we built a fire for some s’more making.  At the end of the evening we sent our neighbors off with good wishes, lots of love and some floating lanterns.

Here’s hoping the next two years are an amazing adventure for our sweet neighbors and we’ll keep an eye on things at home while they are away!

For all of my other favorite kitchen products and tools visit my Amazon Store. 

Did you know I wrote a cookbook?  Check out the Holiday Slow Cooker Cookbook for 100 delicious recipes.

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Every Day Holds a Possibility of a Miracle

Today I am going to get a little personal on the blog.

Last Fall, on a quiet Sunday evening we received “one of those” phone calls.  The type of phone call you don’t want to receive and you never forget.  My parents called to let us know that my 16 year old nephew, Spencer, was being life flighted from their home town of Longview, Washington down to Emanuel Hospital in Portland. You see my nephew had just suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.  At 16 years of age. Spencer had been at the gym with his high school teammates for a work out, his usual Sunday night routine. But this Sunday workout, was different for many that day… Early in the session, Spencer, an otherwise healthy 16-year old, started to feel dizzy.  While running down the floor, he knew something wasn’t right, and called a time out.  After putting his hands on his knees, Spencer hit the floor face first.  His heart had stopped working normally.

As other players yelled for help, Spencer’s coach and another student’s parent rushed to his side.  CPR was administered while advanced care arrived.  Spencer’s heart was re-started almost 8 minutes later through the use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).  He was rushed to a nearby hospital and flown by Life Flight to a children’s hospital in Portland, Oregon.

After nearly a week in the hospital and a surgery to receive an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), Spencer returned home to his friends and family to begin his new life.  To this day, after extensive testing we do not know why Spencer suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) With a renewed appreciation for family, friends and community, Spencer quickly wanted to turn focus onto helping others and paying back the gift he’s been given.

Spencer’s story is one of survival, a miracle, and a true gift.  Unfortunately, there are too many other stories every year in communities where the result of a similar occurrence is death.  Spencer and his family took what was a difficult and life altering situation and turned it into something positive and good.  Something that helps other people. Spencer’s HeartStrong Foundation was formed with the purpose of helping educate others and preventing SCA in other children and young adults. Spencer, his family and many friends now volunteer their time and energy to help provide free heart screenings, help raise awareness, host CPR/AED trainings and purchase and place AED’s in their community with a goal to place 12 before the start of the school year. Spencer shares his experience with other youth and helps encourage community members to become trained in CPR and AED use.  It saved his life. Thanks to CPR and an AED these three youth survived SCA. I recently went and received my CPR/AED training.  It cost about $30 and only took about 3 hours of my time. While not all deaths from SCA can be prevented, you can help make a difference in saving a young life.  Please visit their website to learn more about what you can do to help, be prepared, and find other resources available to support the cause to Stop Youth SCA

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The Thrill of Finishing

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I have always been an ambitious person. I derive a lot of enjoyment from setting and accomplishing goals. For the first 27 years of my married life, many of my goals were focused on the raising of my four children and running a successful direct sales business for 20 years. I got a lot of satisfaction from both “jobs,” and the recognition I received from my business validated me professionally.

Two years ago. I found myself in a different place in my life. My husband and I became empty nesters, and I decided to resign from my business. I felt a little lost and lacking in direction. Becoming an empty nester was much harder on me than resigning.  I missed my kids, and being needed on a daily basis.

Fortunately for me, my college-aged daughter Cali came home for the summer and announced that we were all going to run a 5K.

My first thought was – “NO Way!” I am not a runner. I have never been a runner, and I had no desire to be a runner. But one thing I have learned as a mother is that when your teenaged or young adult children ask you to do something with them – you do it!

To fully understand what a stretch this was for me — my fears about it and lack of belief in my ability — you need a little background on my athletic history.  All through school, I hated gym class. At my a private girls’ middle school, we spent every PE class playing lacrosse or field hockey. I did everything I could to avoid getting the ball. When we played volleyball in the winter, I always tried to position myself behind the tallest girl so I would not have to hit the ball. I was terrified of breaking my fingers. In high school, I did the same thing. I hid out as much as I could and when you are 5’2″,  it’s not that hard to do.

At the age of 50, and in response to this request from my daughter, I decided that I wasn’t going to hide out anymore!
My daughter became my exercise inspiration. Cali downloaded the Couch to 5K app on my phone, and we started training.

The first day, we alternated 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking. I could handle that, but was sure there was no way I was ever going to be able to run for 20-30 minutes STRAIGHT.  Without stopping! NO way!

But I did. We finished the Couch to 5K program, and although we didn’t run an official 5K, we did run our own “Wilkes Girls’ 5K.”  I had such a sense of accomplishment. Honestly, I couldn’t believe I did it.

Then the girls went back to school and my running career ended, or at least I thought it had.

A month or so after my girls returned to college,I got an e-mail from a group of “younger” moms at church — I am old enough to be some of their mothers! They were going to form a running group to work toward running a half marathon, and everyone was invited to join. Much to my surprise, I actually considered it. I think maybe I just wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t “old.” I talked to my friend Marsha about it, and we decided to join.

The next February our little group completed our very first official 5K.  It was a run up Mt. Tabor here in Portland. Mount is the important word here!  The course was half uphill and half down, and I don’t think there was any level ground the entire time.  It was hard. But I finished.

I was the last one of our group to cross the finish line, but I did it, and they were all there, along with my husband, to cheer for me as I crossed the finish line. An enthusiastic audience is one advantage of being the last of your group to finish.

I did it. I was a runner. And I have the medal to prove it!

I took a lot of pleasure and satisfaction out of accomplishing my goal to become a runner but I wasn’t quite done yet.

I decided I was going to run a half marathon. I totally surprised myself with this one. Who was I?  I didn’t even think a 5K was possible a year ago.

I signed up for a women-only race, and got my friend Marsha to do it with me. We started training. It was hard, but on those cold, rainy, Oregon mornings, we had a mantra that we would say over and over: “I can do hard things.”

Race day arrived, and we were ready. I had done the work, I had put in the miles, and now I just need to have confidence in myself and enjoy the journey.

It was fun and exciting to be among 3,500 women with the same goal – to finish.  Okay, some of them probably had a goal to finish in a certain time, but ours was definitely to finish.

Our cheering squad –- our husbands and my daughter Tessa — were there as we started off, and Jim even showed up along the route to snap a few pictures.  He brought a sign to cheer us on!

My friend Marsha had only planned on running the quarter marathon and then walking the rest of the way, but she hung in there with me, and we did it together. I was so proud of her, and so grateful to cross the finish line with her. She has been my cheerleader, along with Jim, through this whole experience, and I loved being able to share it with her. My favorite part of the whole race was Marsha yelling to a bystander cheering the runners on: “104 years here!!“  This is our ages combined.

I work hard in life to enjoy the journey, and I did enjoy the race. The weather was perfect, sunny, not too warm, with a nice gentle breeze, beautiful countryside to run through, and a good friend with me.  But I have to admit that I really enjoyed the thrill of finishing.  As we entered the stadium, I heard them announce my name, and as I ran through the finish arch, it felt great!

The satisfaction that comes with finishing something I start, finishing something that I wasn’t sure that I could really do at all, is amazing.

This post is part of BlogHer’s Goal, Accomplished editorial series, made possible by P&G Always Infinity.
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