2nd annual tea!

my new favorite family tradition is definitely this garden tea that my aunt kathy has put on twice now, this summer and last, always during the week when great aunt shirley comes to town from arizona.  it's just for the women on dad's side of the family, and it's so fun and special to dress up and wear fancy hats and eat scones with clotted cream on antique dishes (<<haha, dad said that sounds like a heart issue and i said that's why he wasn't invited ;)).  and it meant the most when aunt kathy read proverbs 31 and talked about honoring the women that represented that passage before us in our great grandmothers and blessing the granddaughters/nieces/daughters to represent that in our lives as well.  i got to contribute to the tea in small ways this year, too, by creating the menus and invitations and i loved that a lot.  it was fun to talk with kathy about doing these teas when there start to be weddings in the family, as bridal teas and baby shower teas one day, too!  i'm a sucker for this kinda stuff. (:

hooray for femininity, sincerity, serving one another, and intentional time spent together!  (the only thing missing was paiger. :( )

^ aunt kathy really is incredible.  i'm always amazed!  she has the biggest heart i know and serves, serves, serves in every area of her life. ^

^^^ so fancy! ^^^

we were all in tears reading all the instagram hacks i've done on wendy's instagram account over the year... another one of my favorite family traditions (: ...any time there's an occasion, i enlist the help of my cousin, elena, to steal her phone and i post the blurriest, most off-centered shots with the CHEESIEST captions & hashtags!  it's become the best family joke.  aunt wendy's a good sport. (: #lovefamilylovelife #ptl #livelaughlove

^ that tea is the same tea prince william & kate had at their wedding!  and man, they picked well! mm mm mm! ^

^ haha, dihh-vahhh!  taylor took a few of these when she was supposed to be taking shots of all of us (; ^

^^ haha, we love it! ^^

^ elena and mama! ^

pip pip cheerio! (that's british for "til next time!" ;))

last year's tea HERE.