July is finally here...

and that means in a few short weeks we will welcome our second granddaughter, Bailey, into our family! Yeah! Since I haven't blogged in almost 2 weeks, I thought I would share a little of what I have been doing. First off I spent lots of time with little Miss Brooklyn - including one night in a hotel and bringing her back to my house for a few days while her parents fought to save and cleaned up after flooding around her house.

After helping out with Brooklyn, Jeff & I spent a weekend helping Jayme and Scott clean up some of the flood debris and basement repair before heading back home where I started preparing for 2 garden parties I held last week. The first thing I did was weed the gardens and craft a new bird feeder out of an old chandelier and some dollar store ramekins.

One of the garden tea parties I hosted was one donated and sold at a benefit for Justin back in January 2011 and was rescheduled for this summer after a couple of date conflicts last summer. I wanted it extra special for the generous buyer so my sister, Tammie and niece, Rachel came and helped the day before and the day of the parties. We created 24 food items and 4 different beverages and served the afternoon tea in 6 courses. Since so much food was created we invited 13 of Justin's family members over for a second party that evening. Pictured below is a sampling of the food, I was so busy I forgot to take photos of many of the items served.

After all the parties, I spent a full day in the office and then spent time at the sewing machine making Brooklyn a holiday ruffled skirt for her first vacation this coming week. Jayme found a tutorial online and asked if I could make it and the skirt turned out so easy that grandma will be sewing many more ruffled skirts soon.

Finally this weekend arrived and it was time for a little relaxation so J & I enjoyed a great camping weekend along with attending a friends wedding.

July is a less busy month so I look forward to more blogging and I know once little Bailey arrives this Grandma will be sharing her as well!