Summer Fun


20120512-_MG_6773


My dad's birthday and this year's Mother's Day happened to be right next to each other, so I decided to combine the two events into one fun event. Why? Because I'm hella lazy.

In the last post, I made the mason jar lanterns especially for this event. I decided that we'd have a nice little summer "picnic" in our backyard. To make it a bit more festive than just sitting around, I made these flags by taping triangle paper sheets to a piece of twine.

20120512-DSC_8514


20120512-_MG_6797

My sister helped me hang this up. We created this somewhat rectangular shape around the eating area.


20120512-_MG_6805

She and I set up this low table that I got from Nur for $10. I get a lot of stuff from Nur. We picked these flowers that my mom planted around the house and my sister arrange them in small wine glasses.


20120512-_MG_6792

She did a wonderful job! She also spent a good 20 minutes (maybe more) blowing all of the ants on the flowers. I guess the pollen were pretty sweet because these pink flowers were swarming with them and my sister had a policy of not killing any of them.


20120512-_MG_6774

We lined the 3 flower "vases" in the middle of the table and placed two lanterns in between them. I got some rose petals (also from the backyard) and sprinkled them along the vases. It was nice that the table was already white so all of the colors popped out really well.


20120512-_MG_6805

I thought it would be cute to have place cards, so I used some old greeting cards, turned them inside out and wrote our names on it.


20120512-DSC_8553



20120512-DSC_8484


This is the general set up.


20120512-DSC_8528


Mason jar lantern

We went around the yard and hung up the lanterns on tree branches.


20120512-DSC_8460

Since it was a "summer picnic," I decided to make a fancy fruit bowl. I was very proud of my pineapple carving the Asian way because it was a lot of work.


20120512-DSC_8465

My mom had half a watermelon in the fridge so I decided to used that for a fruit basket. Since I didn't have a melon baller, it was a bit challenging to remove the watermelon from its rind. It took some time, but I finished it well and filled it back with watermelon pieces, pineapples, strawberries, and blueberries.


20120512-DSC_8467


20120512-DSC_8470

When I was taking the photos, Sophie decided to come by to investigate.


20120512-DSC_8488

My dad set up the grill and we grilled some garden burgers and vegetables.


20120512-_MG_6806

20120512-_MG_6808

That was me pretending to do work.


20120512-_MG_6811

My sister set up the camera and tripod for photos. She and my dad got some fun testing it out.


20120512-_MG_6814
20120512-_MG_6817

The birthday dad!


My mom came out and we had a few photos taken together.

20120512-DSC_8495
20120512-DSC_8504
20120512-_MG_6820
20120512-_MG_6824
20120512-_MG_6833
20120512-_MG_6836
20120512-_MG_6837
20120512-_MG_6839

Finally, a normal photo!


20120512-_MG_6848
20120512-_MG_6858

We are so photogenic. After all the silliness, we sat down to feast!


20120512-DSC_8507
20120512-DSC_8533
20120512-DSC_8548
I got my mom a pretty summer hat!

20120512-DSC_8538
20120512-DSC_8546
20120512-DSC_8542
20120512-DSC_8560

When the sun set, the lanterns were lit. It was magical.


20120512-DSC_8565
20120512-DSC_8569

All in all, I think it was a great night of fun. A bit of work, but everything turn out to be very pretty. What made my mom really satisfied was that we did not buy any flowers. Instead, we just spent a lot of time in the heat picking the flowers.

It was fairly easy to set up. All you need are a few pieces of paper, some twines, jars, candles, food, and some flowers.

4 comments:

Stinkeepoo said...

So much work! But definitely very pretty.

Helen Lam said...

This is definitely very Martha Steward-y. You did not disappoint!

Unknown said...

You should get into the children party planning business.

Kylie Young said...

Great blog you have heree

Post a Comment