Never Ever Ever Ever Ever

... miss lunch at Rachel's House if you're invited!  

I'm pretty certain I don't even need to add words to this page to prove why you should never ever ever miss an invitation to lunch at my friend Rachel's house.  Honestly, she puts on the most beautiful spread at every occasion. This luncheon was for our dear friend Alice who was celebrating her 80th birthday!   I'm after Rachel to start a blog about her lunch and dinner parties and then turn it all into a book ... you can see why:

Hostess gift, birthday gift and party favours.

I make it a habit to never ever arrive to a lunch or dinner engagement without a hostess gift of some sort. I like to bring flowers, and while Martha Stewart frowns upon bringing fresh cut flowers sans vessel to a dinner party where the host may be too busy to source a vase and put the flowers out, I say poo poo to you Martha! My friends have got it all going on and can handle such a little aside.

Party Favour

The theme was Alice's Blue Dress so I bought Blue Belle and Iris bulbs then attached a note about friendship and some of the lavender from my garden

Rachel explaining the dishes to Doris

NOM NOM NOM

Asparagus with chopped egg

Quinoa salad made by our Kadra

Blue

My plate piled high!

Asparagus, quinoa salad and chilled lemon trout over baby greens...

Iced tea - a southern staple

Local cantaloupe and strawberries thank you Doris!

Wave Babies

Last week, on what turned out to be a perfect beach day, my friend Susan; her boys Jonah and  Luka, Fin and I headed to Fort Macon Beach on the Atlantic Ocean in Morehead City NC.   We arrived in time to picnic lunch and spent the whole day exploring the beach.  It was AWESOME!

Happy Mamas 

Luka & his Boogie Board

Finner & Luka Dooo

Jonah

Jonah catching sand fleas

Playing in the poodle

We have made some very good friends while living here in the south.  Our kids get along famously, our parenting philosophies are similar and it is easy and fun to hang out in a group...let's face it when parenting  - it's awesome to have allies!

The best part of having a three year old is having some autonomy.  There are brief breathing spaces where I can find myself separate from the attention I give my toddler.  At three she can entertain herself a lot better and play with friends more cooperatively.  I'm not saying there are no melt downs or me/mine behaviours they just seem to be a little further apart which is SUCH A RELIEF after the TWOS...Susan and I could actually hold a conversation ... that's HUGE!

Anyway it was a great day punctuated with ice cream sandwiches, shell collecting, attempting to swim in huge waves, dinner out at El Zarrape and a quiet drive home with three snoring kids in the backseat. I can't wait until we can go again!