this week and next...

As I have mentioned many times before...this month of July has been just crazy..but so, so much fun! I wanted to touch on a couple of important July events for my family.

July 14th was Matt's birthday. My sweet, little brother Matt is so amazing. He is thoughtful and sentimental, loves his family, so much fun, hilarious, the life of the party, all boy...and I just can't say enough! We celebrated with him at Hibiscus in Dallas on his birthday. Olivia could join us for a quick bite during her dinner break from studying for the Texas bar exam...that is THIS WEEK...GO OLIVIA!! But, we missed Bart and Ben so much! They were working in Cali and studying for a big exam, respectively. I guess someone has to work while we play! (not sure why these pics are a little grainy...sorry!)

I wonder where she gets it???

Kinley was pooped from celebrating!

Then, July 23rd is Alex's birthday. I just love my bro-in-law. He is so much my brother that I forget he is really Ben's. I am so excited for him to marry Mendy...and I could not pick a better person...but, I am still just a little sad that I am not the girl he will call for advice anymore. I just love him. Everyone loves him...he is hilarious...absolutely Ben's best friend...and just so much fun.

The day after Alex's birthday was his "Abilene wedding" to Mendy. Not everyone gets two weddings! But, it was so special to have their wedding ceremony in Mendy's parents backyard. It was just our families and her grandparents, under their back porch, and so simple. We all did communion afterward, they signed their wedding license and had brunch. It is official...they are Alex and Mendy Harrison...but, we are all pumped to leave tomorrow for the Mexico wedding! Their wedding in Mexico will be special because Mendy will wear her wedding dress, they will recite vows, exchange rings, and have their dream ceremony! I am so excited!

The Harrison's!!

Two minutes into the car ride home...she was pooped again!

I made Kinley some new accessories to her "wedding" dress to match Mendy's colors. I made a new sash and flower for her hair..and bought this cool shell / accent pin for the sash that looked kinda "beachy." I think it turned out cute!

I cannot wait to post pics from the Mexico trip when we get back next week! I just can't believe it is here! So exciting!

Mendy's Bridal Shower

Sunday was Mendy's Bridal Shower in Colleyville. Cheryl, Diana Read and I were the hostesses and there was a great turn out to Cheryl's house for the event! We went with the coral, grey and white color scheme from the invites that I made earlier this summer. I was in charge of decorations and flowers and Cheryl and Diana made all of the food (appropriately so).

It was my first time to do floral arrangements and I was so intimidated by it! I am not a good florist. I went to Market Street and bought all the coral and white flowers I could find and put them together. I also printed some black and white pictures of Mendy and Alex and put them on pale pink cardstock and hot glued them to some thin dowel rods to add to the centerpieces.

For decorations, I bought a few shells, a perfect coral starfish, some white chinese lanterns, and gathered anything that was white or looked "beachy" from my house and some white corals from the Harrison's house. I had some beverage napkins made from For your Party in grey and pastel pink and...of course...made water bottle labels that matched the invitation.

One fun and personal touch that I added was that I bought some flat, see-through shells from Pottery Barn for guests to write a personal note to Alex & Mendy. Since they are getting married on the beach, I thought it would be fun to buy a vase and fill it with sand for the shells to go in. I cut out their monogram 'H' out of adhesive vinyl and added it to the vase to personalize it.

This was my first bridal shower to host and it was so fun! Mendy got some fantastic presents and everyone had a great time!

Not the best pic of Kinley..but, what a cute pic of the Bride and Groom!

Alex also had a fun time during the shower :-)

Next up...the actual wedding! So excited!!

Mendy's Bachelorette Party

I am still trying to recover from this weekend and wanted to blog as timely as possible..but, I am just exhausted from party planning. It has been the craziest / funnest (is that word) month of my life! Non-stop celebrating and crafting and party planning. I have loved it! And this weekend was really the last weekend of my responsibility. Saturday night was Mendy's bachelorette party and if you were at or saw my post for Amy's...it may seem a little like deja-vu to you...but, I tried to make a few things special and different for Mendy. Mendy's sweet sister L'Nae was a host as well and did as much as she could do...even though she moved from College Station to Abilene this week also!! So busy! I am not going to blog every picture or all of our adult bachelorette fun...but, overall it was classy and I think everyone had a blast!

Of course I had to make T-shirts and all Mendy had to do was throw out the idea that she kind of liked the Tiffany blue color and that was it! Theme for the entire night. These t-shirts were definitely the most difficult I have ever made...I special-ordered the dye color from Dharma Trading Co. and all the necessary ingredients for the science-experiment that was dyeing these t-shirts! It was nuts, 20 gallons of water, 20 CUPS of non-iodine salt, soda ash fixer, special oil, constant stirring, etc, etc. Man, do I LOVE the good ole RIT dye after this! Then, getting the Tiffany font to burn on the screen via photo emulsion proved a little difficult because where the letters are super skinny, it does not burn through very well. So, I had to go over every shirt if there was a spot missing with a tiny paintbrush to finish the letters....I blame my OCD for this craziness! But, in the end everyone loved them and I think they turned out pretty cute. My vision was to only put "Mendy & Co." (i.e. Tiffany & Co.) on the front and tie them in a white satin bow like a Tiffany's box. Lauryn helped me tie them and that was my favorite part! So cute!

Instead of bra cupcakes, I got a lingerie cake made at Texas Star Bakery (Tiffany blue bra and panties of course). I made some water-bottle labels that matched the theme color and evite and postitioned them in the shape of an 'M.' We also had pink panty droppers and I had special cups made for the party, party-goers, and extras to take to their Mexico wedding. The bummer thing was that the company mis-spelled Mendy's name as "Mandy." It was kinda funny and we played it up...but, so disappointing for my party! (Never fear, I did get a full refund and new cups are being re-printed and sent so we can still take them to Mexico.) L'Nae helped pick out all of Mendy's bridal bachelorette attire..and we stayed true to the idea that she should look as cheesy as possible.

We ate at La Familia and, as always, it was a blast and we had a big table of 14 people to celebrate Mendy! Flaming margaritas are alwasy a hit and the night was made when some random dude came over to "dance" for Mendy. It was so funny because his family was there and his mom came over, gave us her email address and told us to email her some pics of his funny stunt if we had any.

We went back to the Worthington for the lingerie shower...not too many pics here so as not to spoil the suprise for Alex...but, it was a blast!

We ended the night at 8.0's dancing away...and inevitably, random strangers want to talk to the bride, dance with her, etc. It was a great night and I hope Mendy felt so celebrated!

More to come about Mendy's bridal shower too!

Howe family breakfast

This week has been busy, busy. We have been trying to recover from all the wedding events last weekend and also get ready for all the events this weekend! I will have lots of fun posts coming after we have Mendy's Bachelorette Party and Wedding shower! More t-shirts and party decorating...I just love it! When July is over, I will wonder where I will get my creative outlet!

But, one thing I totally want to post is pics from is our Howe family breakfast last weekend. Amidst all of the chaos, we managed to squeeze in a breakfast at Lois and Jack's on Friday morning (the day of Amy's wedding). It is so rare to have both Bart and Olivia and Sean and Camila in town that we just HAVE to get together! The table was so full we had to rotate in and out to get everyone to eat. Because we had 3 of 4 great-grandkids there, even babies had to share the high chair! So fun!

Sweet Winlon was there and, I mean...how cute is this kid!

Kinley was mildly obsessed with him....we may have to break it to her one day that he is related. She kept trying to comb his hair with puzzle pieces. So crazy...maybe she is just obsessed with the hair..who knows. Finally, Camila got her Winlon's brush and she was very excited.

She even wanted the blocks Winlon had...

He's like..."If I go over here, she can't get it"...but, she is aching to grab for it. Sharing is a tough process!

So cute and so much fun. We can't wait to all get together again! Next time, there will be 5 great-grandkids...yay Sean and Camila!

Photo Booth fun

This weekend was filled with photo booth fun at Amy & Danny's wedding on Friday and at David & Ashley Read's wedding on Saturday night! It was an exhausting weekend...but, so much fun. I just love a good photo booth and at both of these weddings there were photo booth scrapbooks set up for the guests to get one copy of the photos and put the second copy in the scrapbook for the bride & groom with a message to them. Love it!

Amy & Danny's Wedding Photo Booth

David & Ashley's Photo Booth

The Read's are a part of the Harrison extended family and it was so fun to celebrate with them.

Here are some more pics from Ashley & David's wedding night of the Harrison's!