Holiday Tea Party

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. How is the New Year going for you so far? Did you make New Year's resolutions? If so, how are they going? I don't really make New Year's resolutions. I did make a goal for myself this year and my husband I made a goal together. My goal is to work on finding balance. I am ALWAYS working on this goal. Sometimes I achieve this goal for a brief moment in time then things get crazy again. Finding time to get outside and exercise, read and have quiet time, be a mom, wife, sister, daughter, worker, and basically get it all done as stresslessly as humanly possible maybe even having some joy and fun in there too. My husband and I are working on building community for ourselves. Since moving to North Carolina almost two years ago we are wanting to feel more connected to our neighbors. We joined a small community group with other couples which meets weekly and I am loving it! Lots of community building happening.

Last Monday, Martin Luther King Jr day, was a holiday for kids- no school. My daughter, Bryce, had the idea to have a tea party for her neighbors (more community building plus a reason to dress up and eat sugar). We are very fortunate to have four houses in a row on our street of families with kids about our kids' ages. Invitations were sent and my kids got to work helping prepare the food. They, literally, could NOT wait for the party to start.

Preparations:

Decorations:

The menu:

Strawberries dipped in whipped cream and rolled in candy sprinkles and carrots:

'Ladybug' cookies (you have to use your imagination):

'Ants on a log' (celery, cream cheese, and raisins) and grapes:

Lots and lots of candy:

Party favors included a tiara, bracelets, and a goody bag of candy to take home. Bryce designed the personalized placemats herself for each guest:

Now, let the party begin (Brayden joined us too, after all, the party was at his house and there were lots of sweets involved):

After all that sugar, the party headed outside to burn off some of that energy:

Here's to a great weekend for you. Take care my friends.
Megan

Happy New Year from the Brew Crew!

Hi friends,
Happy New Year! Do you have some fun plans for New Year's? If so, please share them with me so I can live vicariously through you! I remember the days when we used to go dancing or dress up in black tie digs or even have a really nice dinner out. Ah! Those where the days! These days my honey and I are happy campers snug as a bug in a rug in our bed by 9pm reading our books on our Kindle Fires. That is happiness! We're old, huh? Oh well. It had to happen. I can't even remember the last time I stayed up until midnight. It just doesn't happen over here at the Brew Crew. 6am comes way too early.

I wanted to share with you that today after church I finished taking down all of the Christmas decorations and my honey took all of the boxes, bags, and tree up to the attic. I was kind of depressed about having all of the decorations put away- honestly, the house looked so stark and plain. So I decided that this year, we would decorate for winter! Why not?

Mostly I reused snowflake decorations from our Christmas tree. Away went all of the red and green and welcome to the blue, white, and silver. See what you think:

 

I also added some super cheap scrapbook paper, snowflake stickers, and ribbons that I purchased at the Craft Store yesterday for less than ten dollars to add to our 'winter motif':

I also decided to add some of our silver pieces to our winter wonderland (I love mercury glass, don't you?):

 

 

Here is our family's new year's resolution (believe me, it's needed by all of us!):

 

 

I still couldn't bear to take down the Christmas cards:

I spiced up my home office with snowflake lights that my honey just got on sale (really for outside use for next year):

 

 

Here's the living room (I couldn't bear to take down the garland and it does have snowflakes on it so I think it qualifies as winter decorating):

Here's my honey cooking dinner for us:

Happy New Year friends!
May your year be filled with love, laughter, and light!
Megan