Sweet Sixteen

Hey y'all!!  I feel like all I have done the past several weeks is tell y'all about flowers and parties...and, well...that's been a lot of what my time has consisted of!!  This past weekend, I got to plan and decorate for a super duper fun party - a SWEET 16 SURPRISE party for my sweet Meg that is in our youth group at church!!  Her mom gave me the date and the color scheme, and left the decorating up to me.  Everything was in bubblegum pink, black, and white, with lots of zebra and polka dot prints...and what better way to welcome everyone to the party than with one of my infamous tulle rag wreaths :)

I found black and white polka dot and zebra pattern balloons - SO CUTE!! 

We wanted the party to be super girly, and no other flower is more FUN and girly than gerber daisies - in shades of pink and white of course!  It's hard to tell, but the flowers were arranged in moss covered purse containers...love these - I think they would be adorable for bridesmaids to carry for a real casual wedding (my wheels are already turning...)

We set up a table for the guest of honor and her girl friends to sit at, and then everyone else sat around the pool and porch.

We set up the food tables on the porch, and had lots and lots of these big pink Chinese lanterns hanging everywhere - these are so eye catching and super cheap but make a statement.  I've done several black and pink themed parties, so I already had the polka dot cloths and lots of fun serving pieces that we were able to use...

And, of course the best way to celebrate a SWEET 16 birthday is to have a SWEETS table!  I made the little sign and black and white jelly bean arrangements with pink rock candy suckers instead of using flowers on this table, and we had Meg's favorite candy, cookies, and of course her cake...

And, YES she was very SURPRISED!! :)  Happy birthday, Meghan...hope you had a very happy SWEET 16!! :)

80 Years Young

A couple of weeks ago, I did some floral designs for a very special lady's 80th SURPRISE birthday party.  Mrs. Dot Brasher is known and loved by most people in our community - she was a teacher for many, many years and who most say was the best teacher they ever had.  I was honored to be a part of this very special day to celebrate this milestone birthday!! 

The surprise party was a Garden Party, and I chose flowers that had an heirloom look to them - I wanted them to look like flowers my grandmother used to grow along the edge of her vegetable garden.  I used zinnias in vibrant shades of pinks, orange, and yellow as well as hydrangeas and snapdragons...

And, I did fresh cut in water so they looked like they came straight out of the garden. 

I used watering cans and old Ball jars for containers.

 

Her family had worked so hard to make it a special day, and it turned out to be a perfect garden party for a perfectly SURPRISED honoree!! 

Happy 80th Birthday, Mrs. Brasher!

God is WILD about us!!

A few weeks ago we had a WILD week of VBS at church...we learned that God is WILD about us!!

We do our VBS a little different than most churches - the teachers have one lesson that we teach every night for the whole week, and the children (Kindergarten - 5th grade) rotate to a different teacher each night.  (The preschoolers stay with their teachers through the whole week.)  It makes it fun to get to have a different group each night, and you only prepare for one lesson so you know it REALLY WELL.

My lesson was about Hannah and Samuel, and how God answered Hannah's prayer for a child (Ironic for me to teach this lesson I know!!)  And, we learned through this story that, "God gives good gifts", which was our Bible Truth for my lesson.

To make figuring out the Bible Truth and Memory Verse for the story a little more fun for the kids - I made cards with my Cricut with each word, laminated, and put Velcro on the back.  Then I had them each in gift bags and told the kids I had a special gift to share with them.  They took the bags, and had to unscrabble the words, which led to talking about God's good gifts.  They all loved it! :)

We had a great group of kids each night, and they were all so excited about VBS :)

We painted and decorated canvas bags for my craft, and the kids LOVED this!!  Great craft for a party too...

VBS was a great success - lots of children came and learned fun new songs, made some cute crafts, played silly games, made new friends, but most of all they heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ every night! 

It was a great week!!!  Thank you Mrs. Becky and Mrs. Shanna for all your hard work!!

Bailey Bash 2011

Hello friends!! Hope everyone is enjoying summer...I sure am! We have been on vacation the past 2 weeks, so I took a little break from unpacking to share a little bit about what we've been up to. If you have been reading long, you know my family has our annual Bailey Bash on the Bay the week of the 4th and it is BY FAR my most favorite week of the whole year!!

We stay at the lake with my whole extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins, and anyone else considered a "Bailey" - and we have the BEST time playing, swimming, laughing, cooking, eating, and making memories :)

All of the kids (and, Ellie too!!) are in the community Independence Day Parade - so much fun!

It was SOOO HOT, so ice cream and popsicles were a very welcomed treat :)

I love that Carolyne and Sam enjoy this week as much as us "big kids" and get to see what family is all about!! 

Each year, a sweet family friend who also is a great photographer comes to do family pictures for us - thank you Mrs. Vickie!!  This year, we did a "Team Spirit" picture since the Bailey family (with the exception of 3 misfits - but I won't name any names...HA!!) are all AUBURN FANS!!  We ARE the AUBURN Family - All In!!!   

The Auburn men...

We had a wonderful week, and were sad as usual to see it come to an end.  I hope all of you and your family had a blessed 4th as well!!   I'm so thankful to live in a country where we have the gift of freedom!!