Gifts of Love

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are currently "squatting" with family, this family is my sister and her daughter, and they have been away all summer. It has been wonderful to have this time, we have had a sense of living our own way of life for these few weeks, for while my sister and I are best friends and full of love for each other, we are as different as night and day, 

I mean complete and total opposites. 

The children were so excited for them to return that they wanted to make some 

special gifts for their home coming. 

First we made them some book marks, we used some flowers that we had pressed, we made the edge by smudging a charcoal pencil from one piece of paper on to the book mark, added a tissue paper heart, and sealed it with self adhesive laminating sheets.

Kaleena made this one for herself, so pretty..

Then we baked lavender shortbread cookies using this recipe, (scroll down to the second recipe).

They turned out really delicious.

And as a new favorite, Kaleena wanted to share the frozen orange cups with her cousin, we made them with a mixture of fresh lemon and orange juice, fresh mint, a couple of lavender flowers and a hint of agave, then froze in the orange shell. For the grown ups we left it as a drinking lemonade.

My favorite part of all these projects was the love and affection that the children put into the return of

our family. They couldn't think of enough wonderful surprises for them, 

and the joy of giving was such a blessing for me to see.

~Have a wonderful day~