Grandmother's birthday present

My grandmother's birthday was at the end of October and we had a big party for her last weekend. It was her 72nd, but somehow we missed doing a big party for her 2 years ago, so we did it this year. We came up with the idea of putting together a table or bench for her patio that was all about her grandkids, so each of us painted two 4" tiles, one with our name on it, and the other with a memory or something that we knew would be special to her. It was extremely difficult getting it all together since the 9 of us live in 5 different towns, but we got it all put together, if not completely finished (it still needs to be mortared and grouted.) I found this little bench in an antique shop here in town, and I thought it would be perfect. It was just rustic enough, and it was long and not very wide... we thought it would perfect as a plant bench. We filled in the gaps with some neutral back splash tile.

I just copied these pictures over from Leddy's facebook page, so they're kinda small.

We laid out the tiles in chronological order, and here's what the "memory" tiles mean:

LACI: my grandparents have a huge tree in their backyard surrounded by a brick planter. We've done everything from make mudpies to stand on the edge to cheer.

AMY: every year since they built the house in '83, we've had our christmas in the barn. (the clover by my name is because my bday is st. patrick's day)

LEDDY: grandmother used to have a big white jewelry box that she and Leddy used to play in, until it got stolen a few years ago.

LUCAS: Luke is the only boy in our line that will carry on the family name... and brand. And the yellow rose (of Texas) is Grandmother's favorite flower.

LAURA: there used to be an old play kitchen set on the back patio that Laura and Cadye used to play with, especially when it rained, thus the blue.

CADYE: a few years ago, Grandmother gave us all ornaments that said "the stars at night are big and bright..." and printed up the entire song, most of which we'd never heard.

LANDON: the "T" is for Tarleton, where Lan is now playing baseball. There is a heart in the bleachers of his baseball field. All 9 of us have always been very involved in athletics, and Grandmother and Granddad have traveled the state making it to as many games as they possibly could.

JORDAN: Jordi perfectly sketched the back patio, and filled in Grandmother teaching her to jitter-bug.

JANCEN: Jance drew bluebonnets, another of Grandmother's favorite flowers.

the (almost) finished product

She loved it!

I was so proud of all my cousins for the work that they did. It's fairly obvious that none of us are artists, but each came up with something that was special to them and to Grandmother, and even the boys put out a lot of effort.