A Fairy Garden Tea Party!

On Thursday, June 27th we celebrated our little Sophie's sixth birthday. She had been dreaming of having a fairy garden tea party in our very own back yard so that is exactly what we planned. Sixteen little fairies joined us for a fairy garden tea followed by fairy games and the making of their own fairy gardens to take home. Despite some earlier storms in the day that had me dumping water from our back yard tables, the party was filled with sunshine and all things enchanted and little girl. In addition to celebrating Sophie turning six, the Avery House Blog is also celebrating turning five years old. I began this blog to chronicle the happenings of our life for family and friends. My first post was to tell all about our little Sophie's first birthday. I have enjoyed writing about our life over the past five years and cherish the memories I have recorded here. I also have enjoyed the friends I have made through this blog land. My blog home is small, however, it is a place that I do enjoy and will continue over the next years to come.

 Sophie picked out her birthday invitations from Amy Adele at amyadele.com. Birthday invitations may seem like a waste of money to some, however, I enjoy doing these each year and love having the girls help me with the design and wording of their invitations. We have all invitations saved along with photos from each year of the girls birthday parties in a special Birthday Party scrapbook. I hope they will one day look back on their birthday celbrations and enjoy them with great nostalgia.

 Simple outdoor table setting complete with flower horn blower and fairy crown for each guest from a local paper store.

 Our back yard court yard. You can see that the pavers were soaked. The forecast was for possible light showers. There came a monsoon that had me dumping water off of these tables right before the party.

 We had some very special centerpiece teacups from the girl's Mimi and Nana. This one above is from Great-Grandmother Grace's china. The rose tea cup below was from Great-Grandmother Josie's.

 A view of the path to Sophie's Enchanted Garden :-)!

 We have become enthralled with all things fairy garden. We started a large fairy garden in our back yard with the help of Miss Dee at Sweet Pea, a local garden and specialty store. The party fairies each got to make their own miniature fairy gardens complete with a beautiful moss and fairy garden accessories.

 Here is our Miss Sophie Rose with all of her little friends. These friends are all so precious and we are blessed that Sophie has them in her life.

 Being quite celebratory with the flower horn blowers!

 Beautiful little fairy friends!

 The beautiful birthday girl!

 We served strawberry cupcakes, strawberry cream cheese and flower shaped cheese tea sandwiches and fairy wand fruit kabobs at the party.

 The birthday girl and fairy Mommy and Daddy!

 Singing happy birthday!

 Making a wish!

 My beautiful fairy godmother friends. They helped me so much during the party!

 Fairy Nana!

 The girls waiting patiently to plant their fairy gardens.

 Waiting to open up all of the wonderful presents on the pavilion.

 Just what every little princess needs!

 Every girl loves jewelry especially if it's monogrammed!

After the party and getting ready for bed. This was actually her last night to be five as we had her party the night before her actual birthday. Happy birthday to our sweet girl!

Good Intentions and a Family Portrait

I have had the best of intentions of posting so many, many things here on The Avery House Blog. Life has been happening at warp speed and there are so many wonderful things to share. May came and I went off to a wonderful event called The Pearl Event the Triple Strand in Nashville. It was amazing and I will share more soon! We also had an amazing end to the school year and went straight into Vacation Bible School (of which I was a co-director, yikes!) Howie and I just got back from an incredible 15 year anniversary trip to San Francisco and Napa Valley just a day ago, and the girls are full force into summer swimming and tennis. We have Miss Sophie's birthday coming up and a planned visit from Nana. Life is just awesome! For my own sake, I will be getting on here to back-post and post about the wonderful life events we have been blessed to be a part of. Until then, I received a family photo from my sister's Kelly's wedding back in April. This may just be our Christmas card, y'all. But just in case it's not, I wanted to share it here. Hope your summer is all things wonderful and fun!

Twirling Ballerinas

The month of May has chugged in at a steady pace and is passing by as quickly as the express train from Washington DC to New York City. I feel I have blinked once and here we are at the end of school. Really? I just can't believe school only has one half day left! May is notoriously busy with recitals, end of school year projects and happenings, teacher's gifts to buy, parties to attend  . . . oh and don't forget Howie's birthday, Mother's Day and a wedding anniversary too. One of the highlights of May is definitely the dance performance the girls participate in with their dance studio at the Tennessee Theater. This year the girls each danced in a ballet piece and a modern piece during the performance. Although I feel my photos from this year's performance are not as wonderful as they could be, I am posting them for posterity's sake. Emma-Caroline danced in "Garland" for her ballet piece and "Nepali" for her modern piece. Sophie danced in "Raceway" for her modern piece and "Peasants" for her ballet piece.  We were happy that Emma-Caroline's first grade teacher, Ms. Ellison, our wonderful baby sitter Miss Ali and our friend Mary Caroline were also able to join us to watch the performance. We are very proud of our little dancers! I will be back soon to catch up on more May happenings. Happy summer!

 

From the Dogwood to the Dandelion

One of the first things that Howie and I fell in love with in our current home is the back yard garden. It is filled with so many varieties of plants that showcase the glories of God's creation throughout the entire year. I am always thankful for this garden and find it to be a wonderful sanctuary. Amongst the numerous plants, shrubs, and flowers in our garden is a lone tall willowy dogwood tree. 

It's blossoms bloom white each year around this time as it joins with its neighbors in welcoming in Spring.  The dogwood tree has always been one of my favorites for its beauty as well as for it's symbolism of Christ's death on the cross and resurrection on Easter day. In gazing upon the beautiful cross-shaped blossoms of my own dogwood tree, I recall the gift of everlasting life that was given to me through Jesus' sacrifice and through his resurrection. I remember his everlasting love for me and that he is always with me in everything from happy to sad moments that make up my life.

My dogwood tree is a welcome presence and I am grateful it was planted there by another caretaker long ago. There are other items in my garden that I don't always welcome with such enthusiasm.

Each day I go into my backyard and pull weeds and extraneous grass that seemed to have crept into the  beds overnight. On one bright sunshiny morning, I came across a dandelion whose tall shoot had made her way through the stone wall that edges the garden path.

At first, I thought I would yank the dandelion up by its roots, expelling it forever from my garden. But the loveliness of the fluffy white puff of the dandelion caused me to pause, and I took a moment to stop and to see it  for more than just a weed invading my garden path. In my pause, I thought of how the girls would love to gently pluck the flower, make a wish and then blow upon the fluffy cotton ball of the dandelion.

 I decided to leave the lone dandelion flower in its spot as surely it too had a proper place in my garden. As my appreciation for the dandelion's presence in my garden grew, a gentle wind blew across my cheek. I looked up to the blue sky and watched as a cardinal made its way to the branches of a hemlock tree. When I looked down upon the dandelion once more, I realized it had taken flight into the wind to be scattered hither and yon and to begin a fresh new life of many new wishes to be had.
In spending time in my garden I realize that God's creation, whether it be a welcomed dogwood tree or a newly appreciated dandelion flower,  serves to remind us of God's plan for each of us in life. We were born to be reborn through Christ and to live with him forever. But we were also born to have our gifts and talents scattered and planted to bring God's hope and love to others wherever hither and yon may lead us. Our life is the dogwood and our life is the dandelion. I am thankful for the gift of these beautiful flowers in God's creation and for the lessons I receive when I take the time to appreciate each in the garden of life.