Preparations

There will be a party here tomorrow!

Tomorrow, July 17th, is my 70th birthday.  I'm throwing myself a party.

In the afternoon friends will come for a garden party.  There will be tea and goodies and visiting and garden touring.  Later in the afternoon family will arrive and stay into the evening for a BBQ/potluck dinner.  There will be cake.

It has been a long time since we had a party in our garden.  We used to have them every year, end of the school year staff parties, and some family events too.  I decided it was time to have another one.  Preparations have been going on in my head for a long time now, but this week it was time for the real thing.  

I made lists, and then broke the lists down into daily tasks.

Monday we cleaned the house and then I assembled serving pieces for the garden party.  

 Tuesday we cleaned the garden.  All the edges are crisp and everything is snipped and clipped and swept and groomed. Then we went grocery shopping.

Today I made more food, a cake, potato salad for the dinner, and other stuff to go along with the goodies already made and in the freezer.

Tom moved tables around outside and cleaned up the patio.  We are trying to study the shade patterns.  It was 87 again today.  We are hoping for a bit cooler tomorrow.

Then the party rental truck came and delivered umbrella tables, chairs, and teacups.

There will be at least two more trips to the grocery store, and a busy morning tomorrow, and then about 1:00 I hope to be greeting guests in my garden.  

I will try to remember to take photos and have someone else assigned to take them when I can't, or so I can be in them! Tom and Jill and the kids will be my event staff.

Planning is done, prep is good so far.  Now I just have to pull it all off and remember to have fun!