Anne of Green Gables and the Conclusion of the Butterflies (and where we've been)

This is a very long, extremely photo heavy post. I guess if you missed me you will read it and if you didn't that is fine - I've clearly showed an abysmal lack of dedication to my blog lately. However, I've thought of it often and have tons to share.

C's 12th birthday party was an Anne of Green Gables Tea Party. It came at a rough time. My Dad had a quintuple by-pass ten years ago and he was having problems again. The week before C's party, they performed an exploratory surgery to determine what was going on (it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped - but Dad has recovered from the surgery and is following the new treatments given by his doctor).

My sister AJ and I drove down with all five of our children to be there with Mom. We arrived back the day before C's party. I was a bit apprehensive about the party before the sudden trip and more than a bit apprehensive when we got back with such short notice. But it went well and we had a good time.

C made most of the food. We used the Anne of Green Gables Cookbook that you see below for most of the recipes. C made Ruby Tea Biscuits and Chocolate Caramels. I made the Liniment Cake (sans liniment) and C and I made the Raspberry Cordial together (which I never did photograph). K went out into the yard to collect flowers, which I arranged. We used a box full of lace curtains I got from my MIL for table decor. 

Ruby Tea Biscuits

C's Caramels (they were fabulous)

I am sharing lots of photos of the flowers because I think they turned out great, plus I love photographing them. :) K took gathering the flowers very, very seriously. T went with her into the backyard while C and I cleaned and decorated and he said it was agonizing for her to make the decisions.

I am editing to insert a comment here. I forgot to share the party favors, which were one of my favorite things about the party. I posted them in a new post for you if you wish to see them. 

The first thing we did for the party was release the three monarchs as they had emerged from their chrysalises while we were in IA.

Following the caterpillar release we had an Anne of Green Gables photo booth. I've never done a photo booth before and I was very apprehensive about how it would go over with the girls but they loved it.!!

We curtained off the hallway for a changing area and the girls went in together in pairs to dress. I had splurged on a kitschy Anne hat with fake braids, we gathered all our aprons and costumes together, and C and I spent several weeks combing Goodwill for other suitable items. We stacked some old luggage from Tim's grandmother on the deck and shot - the photos were fun and the girls had fun and I counted it a great success. You can see the girls and a couple of my favorites below.

Following the photo booth, we ate and played gossip. For gossip, C collected quotes from the book to use as starters for the game. I wish I had written down the end results.

We've been busy. I've had multiple photo shoots in addition to the general business of our life. I am going to share a bunch of single shots to give you a clue. Some of them will be expanded in later posts. If you have questions feel free to ask. :)