Always a Reason To Celebrate

One thing I love about my family is that we're good at turning relatively ordinary events into parties. This weekend we had a cinco de Mayo party (which we observed on seis de Mayo) and also a Kentucky Derby Party. Our parties are pretty low key and mostly just an excuse to spend time together and eat good food. And in the case of the Derby - make sensational hats!

Here are a few pics of our weekend celebrations:

A welcome sombrero and mom's delicious cabbage salsa


festive table and the cutest little muchacho on the planet

When I read that NieNie was hosting a Kentucky Derby party I thought, "oh, what a fun idea!" But when my sister Kate caught wind of it, she said, "let's have one, too!" and she ran with it. (Thanks for being awesome, Kate!) She bought hats, and flowers and feathers to adorn them. We planned a menu together, but she did all the shopping. We whipped up a delicious salad, some cucumber/cream cheese sandwiches (authentic derby fare, or so we read on google), fresh fruit and some chips & salsa (leftover from seis de Mayo). We fancied up a bit and donned our hats. The boys even rounded up some caps.


pre-party hat making



My dad's a horse enthusiast so he was pretty tickled with this party, which is quite unlike him as he's usually eye-rolls and "do we have to's?" at the mention of a party :) He went on and on about how much he loved our hats; us girls got quite a kick out of that. And then he said, "women really know how to make life fun, don't they? Aren't we lucky to have these women around?" Pretty cute :) We all picked our horses and gathered 'round the big screen for the most exciting two minutes in sports. None of us had picked Animal Kingdom, but we didn't have any money on the race, so we were thrilled with the outcome :) And how fun for Johnny Velazquez to get to ride at the last minute -- and win!


cute Kate, the party planner


Halley nailed the dainty hat hair with those golden curls

We packed this weekend right to the brim with work and fun and life! I have more to write about - not the least of which is that we rescued a baby dove (the pictures will make you coo and fuss) and I got my pots and beds planted - I'm getting excited for mid-summer blooms.

Til the next pocket of blog-able quiet...