Tea Room

For Haylee's 5th birthday at the end of July, I took her to the English Rose Tea Room. That was such a beautiful little place! I just have to take a few minutes to post some pics. We each had the Royal Tea. It was quite a little feast with several courses of goodies to devour! The scones were so good, and so was the fruit & custard parfait. Those were Haylee's favorites of the day.

It was pouring down with rain outside, but we made a reservation for the afternoon when the tea room was only open by reservation, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was a lovely way to spend the day together, and we got all dressed up for the occasion. Haylee looked like such a little princess! It cost a small fortune, but we had a wonderful time, and I'd like to do it again next year.

For Hayden's birthday, Steve took him out golfing...a full 18 holes! It was equally as expensive, so then I didn't feel so bad! lol.

If you live locally, you should definitely check out the English Rose Tea Room. It won Best of the Beach 2009.

-Kelly

Party was a hit!

Well, after much preparation, the kids' party turned out to be a big hit, I think. Everybody seemed to have fun, and Hayden ended the day by telling me it was the best party he'd had yet. That was enough to make all the fuss worthwhile for me!

The cake turned out really well, and I thought it was absolutely delicious. It was a lot of work, though. I basically spent all day Friday working on it. The decorating took forever, 'cause I really have no experience at decorating cakes beyond simply winging my way through it every year! The chicken recipe was VERY good. I will definitely be making that again in the near future. I don't think anybody, myself included, was fond of the salad. The dressing was icky. I think I'll just toss it. It would have been a great salad with another dressing, but I'll be tossing that recipe, for sure. It seemed like a lot of food once I laid it all out, but it's basically gone already after one night of eating leftovers, so I'm glad I made as much as I did. The Italian Ice punch my friend, Bonnie, made was fabulous! We went through two bowls of that.

So another big Burgess Bash is over. It's good to have it behind us. The next big event to think about is our long-awaited, much-anticipated vacation to the cabin in October. Aaaaaaah, how we all daydream about it. It's been on my mind a lot lately. It's only two months away. It's so peaceful there, and I'm really looking forward to relaxing on that front porch looking out over the rapids in the Shenandoah River below.

Once we get back from vacation, then it will be Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and Holden's birthday party, and alas, Steve and I will be another year older, and another calendar year will be gone. The end of the year always seems to fly by.

Here's a photo of me & Steve...we hardly ever get our picture taken together, so I thought it was worthy of publishing here.