Valentine's Dinner/Tea Party

Saturday evening was much needed...filled with valentine's outfits, pearls, tea cups, laughter, great food, wonderful discussions, and more laughter...all with these wonderful ladies!!

Oh it was a LOVELY night to say the least!!!

{my cute friend Penny brought favors for everyone!...butterfly bath fizzes for the ladies and bracelets for the girls}

While sipping pink hot chocolate from our tea cups, we enjoyed a lasagna I made (1/2 vegetarian and 1/2 ground turkey), fresh baked herb bread from our Smith's bakery, and a DELICIOUS spinach and strawberry-banana-blueberry salad with a homemade vinaigrette that my mother-in-law made.

FANTASTIC FOOD + WONDERFUL WOMEN = perfection.

I'm sad I didn't get more pictures especially of the people!...I need to figure out how to host AND photograph everything :) I guess I need more practice...more tea parties at my place?? okay!

For dessert we enjoyed some cute pink mini cupcakes my great friend Penny made, and of course the Hearty Cinnamon Twists I made last week. (except, instead of using two strips of dough we just used one...smaller, but just as sweet;)

{from left to right: Katie, Penny, Mandy, Mama Kjar, me...sorry, not going to share the sweet little girl's names}

I've been so excited to have my sisters-in-law Katie & Mandy meet my friend Penny!! My mother-in-law had met Penny a few times when they swapped watching Brooks while we were away on our cruise). And it was fun to see my nieces play with the sweet girls Brooks and I play with, er watch every week ;)

We all had such a great time together!!...from sharing tender experiences, to hilarious stories. By the end of the night our cheeks hurt from laughing so hard! Adam and Brooks even joined in at the end, which made it even better :)

I can't wait for our next ladies get together! Home-spa night, oh yes :)

(click here to see the tea party last summer with the lovely Kjar ladies)

Tea Party for the Birthday Girl

It was Momma Kjar's birthday on Saturday!...and we (her daughters & daughters-in-law) thought that a tea party would the perfect way to celebrate and treat her like a queen on her special day :)

The weather was heavenly so we had our afternoon tea outside in the Kjar's backyard...

We sipped cool, delicious raspberry lemonade from our tea cups (I got them all from the D.I. for under a dollar each!) with plump raspberries afloat to give our "tea" an extra sweet touch...

We each had a gorgeous, fragrant rose by our place setting... along with an adorable little card with "Afternoon Tea Etiquette" that Katie made :)

I had fun making these finger sandwiches that morning...

There was cucumber dill on rye, egg salad on a multigran baguette, chicken salad w/ pineapple & cranberries on potato bread, and tuna on multigrain crunch bread.

There was also a delicious relish tray and a scrumptious pasta salad.

These 3 little ladies are just adorable...I am one lucky aunt.

Here's the whole group :) Grandma Kjar and Shauna (Stana's sister) came too...it was so fun visiting with everyone.

For dessert, Mandy, with the help of her 2 cute girls, made these divine fruit tarts with a creamy lemon curd. So refreshing, and so addictive.

Here's the birthday girl!!!

We love you Momma Kjar! You're a blessing in our lives :)

Saturday was better than perfect :) And we've all decided that we're going to make this afternoon tea party a monthly event...gloves, hats, pearls and all (I'm already excited for a winter afternoon where we'll have hot chocolate with a variety of creamers and warm scones...while enjoying great conversation with phenomenal women.

*cheers* to classy women that love and appreciate much needed girl-time and good ol' fashioned tea party!

Tea Party

A sweet girl in my ward invited me to be apart of these monthly girl's nights with some of her family & friends. Her name is Oakley Howard (she's an awesome mom of 2 aDoRAbLe little kidlets, she has a sweet hubby, & she has her own at-home children's clothing line :). I'm SO grateful she invited me. Honestly, I'm so blessed I get to live with my best friend...but there's nothing like the a friendship between women. I really miss my sisters & my college roommates sometimes, and I work with only men all day at work...so I'm so excited to start doing this monthly get together and get to know these awesome women better!

Oh, & this wasn't any normal tea party...we most definitely took this as an opportunity to get all dolled-up! ;) Gloves, hats, flowers, dresses, clutches, pearls, red lipstick adorned all the ladies...the works

We had a late afternoon tea at Tea's and You in Farmington...it's a beautiful, old home that was turned into a tea house :)

* This was our table...there were 3 tables in the room...full of friends & sisters having a lovely time together! *

* me, Oakley's sweet grandma, and Oakley :) *

Pinkies up ladies!!

* So many delectable choices...veggies, little sandwiches, & scones...mmmm! *

* Oakley's mom, Sydney, had a great idea! She brought her digital camera & her docking station so she could print pictures right there at the tea house! She brought those cute little gold frames & took a picture of each of us all dolled-up to put in the frames...a fun little keepsake :) When I came home, I told Adam he should take it to work and put it on his desk...haha! *

* Here's Oakley posing for her picture :) i LOVED her black lacy gloves...and he hair piece! And SHE made it!! (you can see the hair piece better in other pictures) *

* Oakely and me *

* Here's Sydney...she had the most OUTRAGEOUSLY, AWESOME hat!! And, just like Oakley, she made her hat! It's one-of-a-kind, that's for sure ;) *

* Here are some of the "younger ladies" *

*[almost] the whole group! (some had to leave early) *

I had such a great time! Thanks so much Oakley!! :)

And I've loved herbal tea forever...but this inspired me to start shopping for cute tea pots & cups & saucers :)