A Beautiful Bridal Shower

We've just arrived home from our dear friend Courtney's bridal shower. It was so much fun and Mum and I had a great time. Regrettably the littles both still had icky colds and Sara volunteered to babysit them....thank you Sara!! Courtney greeted us at the door-glowing, as usual. :) The fellowship hall of her church was decorated beautifully and the tables were very pretty. :) Courtney's mom, sister Hannah, and three aunts all set up, cooked for and set up this beautiful shower for their dear Courtney. She received so many beautiful gifts for her and Dan's future home! My gift to Court is going to be a wedding gift, as it isn't done yet. :) Mum got her the Betty Crocker Cookie book and made her an adorable apron, as was pictured in the last post. After a delicious lunch of warm chicken salad, pasta and salad, the games began. The first was tricky but very creative. The second was the traditional bridal 'bingo' as the bride-to-be opens her gifts. The centerpieces were so beautiful and quite a few women there were very happy to go home with them as prizes.

All in all, the shower was beautiful and so much fun. It was fun to gab with friends we don't see very often and to celebrate with Courtney her impending marriage. I was just thinking the other day...each of my friends one day will get married and I'll have the joy to walk with them during this precious season...laugh with them and cry as I witness each of their weddings.

Anyway, here are a few pictures taken of the bridal shower! I didn't take any of the decorations-I could kick myself for not taking any, but oh well. Courtney's mom informed me I would get to wear black flats with my bridesmaid's dress-WOOHOO! I'm pretty excited about my feet not hurting. :)

Here is Hannah, Courtney's sister, who announced and explained all of the games and is such a huge help to her mom and sister.

Miss Bride-to Be, opening a never-ending gift, it seemed. She kept pulling things out! :)

Friends forever. Back row: Hannah, Michaela, Me....front row, Morgs and Bella. :)

Best friends...sisters...maid of honor and the bride

Hannah and Courtney

Our two moms. :) Both of them are such wonderful mothers and examples of Godly wives, mothers and homemakers!

Me and Courtney. :) Isn't she just glowing?

I am off to do some resting and spend some time with the family....Maidens is tomorrow so expect a blog post for that, too!

Ce la vie!

Sunday Mall Crawl

Birthday Girl At the Galleria!Gabrielle in a magenta dress... gorgeaus!
Gabrielle and I in Anthropoligy (We had on matching dresses)MY NEW SNEAKERS! Such a steal, only $4.00!


Sweet Little Peonie :)

Today, after church, we went to the Galleria Mall and had a great lunch at Panera Bread. I got 1/2 tuna salad sandwhich and chicken noodle soup and it was yummy :)

Then we browsed around (as everything was wayyyyy out of our price ranges) and then we just chatted :) It was an amazingly fun day and was quite the memorie maker. Remember, footloose pasket??? LOL

Another Graduation Party Picture/Joint Post

We're two/three days late but we FINALLY got this post up! The graduation party was Saturday but Saturday night and Sunday we were just too tired to post. :) This post is going to be a picture filled post as well as a joint post of the most recent graduation party. Sara is going to write a few things and vice versa. :) We had so much fun at this graduation party because lots of our close friends were there! Namely, our 'Maidens' friends. :) We had just seen Michaela and Morgan this past Thursday at commencements and also a week ago today! Loving summer so far, seeing friends so much!! :) Anyway, the graduation party was a lot of fun and I'm glad we took so many pictures to commemorate the day. :) I'm looking forward to mine in two years. :) Here's some recaps about our day Saturday from Sara and I! ~Meghan~

The Conquering Graduate, Courtney!!

L to R: Bella, Morgan, Meghan, Courtney, Hannah, Michaela and Sara

Meghan: We finally rallied the whole gang together for a picture...well, Mum did. :) I absolutely love this picture of all of us 'kindred spirited' friends.

Sara: This picture was fun cause the wall was a wee bit too small for all of us, as I am perched precariously on the edge (yikes)

Sweetest, chubby Alana!

Meghan: She was the prettiest baby there! So cute and adorable-she was passed around by mothers and daughters alike. :)

Sara: I had so much fun making Lanna laugh: all you have to do is wrinkle up your face and coo at her... so sweet

Alana and Bella

Meghan: Alana is Bella's family's foster baby and they are treasuring every single minute with her that they have. We love seeing them at mutual friends' get-togethers. :) Isn't this a sweet picture?

Sara: AH, our good friend Bella... she is just the sweetest and is always so cheerful!

The Mothers L to R: Michaela and Morgan's mom Renee, the 'other' Mrs. W, Mum & Bella's Mom

Meghan: I like this picture too. :) All us daughters are so close as are the mothers. All our visits are NEVER long enough and we say that we need to leave at xyz.....we don't end up leaving until half an hour later after "goodbyes."

Sara: Same as Meghan

The Three Little Maidens L to R: Kenzie (Hannah and Courtney's sister) our Anna Banana and Phia (Bella's sister)

Meghan: I ADORE this picture!!! They're part of the next generation of Maidens. :)

Sara: This picture was a steal because of some camera shy gals (McKenzie!) aren't they so ca-ute!

The Marvelous Morgan!

Meghan: I like to call her 'Morgs' but I thought I should put her first name. This picture is positively beautiful. I LOVE it!!

Sara: One of my bestest friends, Morgs has been with me through everything, good or bad.

Bella

Meghan: I didn't put a 'word' next to her name because her name means 'beautiful!' All these pictures of our friends are so beautiful and their faces shine from the inside, out. :)

Sara: AS I said, she is one of the nicest friends ever to have because of her smiling sunny countenance

The Magnificent Michaela!

Meghan: This is my FAVORITE picture of Michaela!!! I love all pictures of Michaela but Sara captured her natural essence (no, not the green shirt with the leaves) but her overall glow of happiness and joviality.

Sara: AH yes, Michaela... she is so nice and her and I get along famously...

The Four Models of the Day

L to R: Michaela, Bella, Morgan and Meghan

Meghan: I'm getting this picture in a frame one of these days!!! Sara had such creative ideas for all these pictures with the angles and the natural 'props.'

Sara: You may have noticed that I am barely in any pictures (works for me) because I was the photographer!

Another Picture of the Four Amigos (with the 5th behind the camera!)

Meghan: This picture is really neat too. Sara was walking down the steps and I almost shouted (very unladylike, I know) "Hey Sara!! Get a picture of us on the steps!!" :) Sitting at that angle was awkward for me in a long dress and I almost slipped, but the picture turned out adorable!!

Sara: I love this natural prop: a photographer's dream: natural wall/staircase!

Anna Banana and Phia

Meghan: Someday soon these two will be having a dance party at Phia's house (Phia is short for Sophia) In the fall they're both going to be enrolled in Grace Christian Dance Co. and will be in the annual spring show next year. They both LOVE to dance so with Sara and Bella tutoring them in between lessons, they are going to shine!!

Sara: AH, these two remind me of myself and Phia's sister Bella when we were five in our bible study... how sweet!

All Dressed Up!

~Sisters~

Meghan: I'm getting this picture framed too. :) It's so cute of both of us. :) I was kind of tired by this picture but voila! The photographer comes out from behind the camera. :)

Sara: Oh, Megs, I am in alot of pictures (unlike some brown haired blue eyed sister, AHEM) i LOVE THIS PICTURE!

~Wow, I am tired, so goodnight! New Post soon with baked good recipes: normal and GLUTEN FREE! Gutt Nacht dear readers!

Seeing the Duggars

*yawn* We are back from Ohio, and we are so glad to be home. We are so thankful for our friends, the Teter family, for graciously opening their home to us so nicely. We had so much fun!
When we got there, we all had dinner at Cracker Barrel, laughing and chatting ALOT! After dinner, we all went home to change quickly and get ready to go to the church. We made a small detour at a nearby Starbucks (yummmm!) then we arrived at the church. We were driving around, looking for a place to park, and that is when we saw it: the Duggar Bus. Autumn and I shrieked and pointed wildly, but our moms said we couldn't take a picture by it :( Darn... anyways, we went inside and got in line. It was 5:30 PM, but there was already a few people there. We stood in line for 30 minutes, then I noticed that there was another door, with NO line... so we ended up being first in line!

We sat down (finally) and it was great! They all lined up on the stage and sang, then Mr. & Mrs Duggar spoke their testimony. It was great to hear and we had a good time. But the best was yet to come... afterwards, they all came out to sing two more songs. I even got a video for you! You're welcome...

After they sang, they all went out, and we headed towards the end of the aisle. Then we realized, Jim Bob and Michelle were meeting and taking pictures! So were Josh and his wife Anna! Meghan, Jolyn, and her mother decided to wait out in the car, but Autumn, Mum, and I wanted to meet them! There were big crowds, but I (being SO polite) kinda sidled towards them. I said excuse me and that is all that matters, right? Right? Okay, so I finally got over to where Mrs. Duggar was and she signed our book! So did Josh and Anna! Here is a picture of the inside:I was so excited! I was able to hug Mrs. Duggar and Anna! They were so nice, poor Anna looked so tired, but she was there! (If you haven't followed their story since after the wedding, they are expecting a baby!) Here are some more pictures:

Mr. and Mrs. Duggar laughingly telling about the first time they met :)

(From L to R) Jinger, Jessa, Jill, and Jana playing a violin piece

Jeremiah, Jedidiah, and Joy-Anna playing ( They were so good!)

Almost all of them, excluding the three youngest, John-David, Jana, Anna, and Josh.

This is Mrs. Duggar and I! I was so excited, she was so sweet and gave me a hug!

Anna, Josh, and I (And the baby, who we don't know what it is yet!)

And, there you have it! We had so much fun and cannot wait to go back to Ohio again sometime soon and visit some more!

The Music Man

I love The Music Man. From 76 Trombones to Shipoopie, I love the songs. BPHS was doing it as their spring musical this year, so Mum, Meghan and I went with out dear friends The Williams. Well, this was phenomenal, and I think it is my favorite HS musical I have seen so far ( I have seen 3) because it was so professional and so well choreagraphed (sp?). I had a great time, and wish I could post more, but it is bedtime. Goodnight, my blog readers, sleeptight, followers (couldn't resist!) :)

THE MUSIC MAN!

Crazy Days!

My mom left to go visit my grandma, grandpa, and aunt; today has been pretty good. I will post pictures later, but I will give you a list of the things we've done so far:

1. Played our new rod hockey game for, like 2 hours, (we got an old table top game, and it is fun!)
2. Megs baked chocolate chip cookies with Anna, and they are delish!
3. We received a get well soon package from our dear friend in Washington, The Nelsons, including individual tea bags! THANK YOU! I am now hooked on Vanilla Creme Nut flavor.
4. We had a little Tea Time (Anna and I) and talked while we sipped our tea (she insisted she use a real tea cup)
5. Meghan is at piano and we are once again playing rod hockey :o) If you live close by, come on over and play; it's a blast!

Thats about it, I need to go watch the littles while Dad runs Meghan to piano... pictures are coming!

~Happy Birthday Sarah Elaine!~

Yesterday was our dear friend Sarah's 13th birthday, so today after church, we invited her over here to hang out and celebrate. Along with Sarah came Ronnie's buddy Aaron, whiich made Ronnie one happy boy. We were driving home from church, when my mom realized that she had no clue what to feed six hungry kids. So while she drove over to Aldis to pick up hot dogs, buns, and fudgescicles; she dropped Sarah and I off at our library (which was on the way) to borrow a chick flick that we could watch. By the way, to church I wore a peasant top, skirt, and heels so if anyone saw a girl tiptoeing through the library barefoot, you probably saw me. Anywho, we decided on Ever After with Drew Barrymore. Let me say this, that movie is awesome. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it an eight. Only 2 swear words prevented it from getting a 9...

After lunch, we ate our fudgescicles (a delicacy in our house) and watched Ever After (how much better can life get????) and sketched. Until we were needed to help make dinner, that is what we did, huddled under blankets in our gameroom. We peeled and chopped carrots and potatoes, then sat down to eat. After dinner we all pitched in to help clean up the kitchen (Thank you Sarah and Meghan!) then finished our movie.

Then we drove her home, anda visited awhile with her family. When we realized it was ten minutes to ten o'clock, we skedaddled home to crash into bed. That reminds me, I have to go to sleep! Happy Birthday Sarah, and many more!

A Spot of Tea

Today we went over our friend Bella's house to have a fun afternoon of crafts, slot car racing, and dressup clothes. Our mothers got to talk while Meghan, Bella, and I made cards. I am telling you, card making is really fun and I made two cool cards: one in a standard card style and another flower style. You use scrap book paper and templates and the cards turn out super well!

Anna had her very first real tea party at her first playdate! She and Sophia played baby-dolls, doll house, ballet class, and of course princesses. Everything a little girl should do! Ronnie had a blast with his friend Dominic playing cars, legos, and watching Lego movies. My mom and Mrs. Porcari talked until it was time for the tea to begin! Everything was set up beautifully, from the teacups to the candles and centerpiece. They served delicious gluten free apple spice cake that was so yummy! Anna and Sophia were pleased to be included, and they even had their own namecards in a decorative way: This was the place setting: little mirrors with the name written using special marker. Lovely!

Even if my name is spelled wrong, it is still lovely!
When we made cards, we talked and observed the little girls playing and chattering. They were adorable when they were playing together!

Mrs. Porcari and Mum (Below)

Well, I need to go finish cleaning up dinner and the the Duggar's will be on at 8:00 PM! You all know how much we like the Duggars :)

More time spent with wonderful friends

Since Sara blogged about our wonderfully fun time with our friend Dani yesterday evening, I will blog about our time spent yesterday afternoon with our friends Michaela and Morgan.

Morgan and Michaela

It was so much fun! We took lots of pictures, laughed and teased a bunch and overall, had a swell time! As you can see by our laughing faces in the picture below. :)

Me, Michaela, Arianna and Morgs

Sara took the picture. :)

Tess taking a picture. :) She's so sweet!

Michaela and Morgan thinking and talking. "Awkwa-turtle!" :) (Inside joke) :)

Arianna and Tess (Michaela and Morgan's younger sisters) played so nicely with Anna!

Left to right: Tess, Anna and Arianna

We all hung out together and played Balderdash near the end of our visit. That was interesting and hilarious! :)

Michaela and Tess playing Balderdash-they were a team!

Our visits with all our friends never, ever seem long enough. :) Michaela and Morgan's younger brothers, Seth, Colton and Titus, played Legos with Ronnie-which he loved! Poor Ronnie usually plays Legos with one of his sisters. :( Playing with boys was a refreshing change. :)

Michaela and I spent some time by ourselves looking through her beautiful hopechest! I read her VERY FIRST short story that she wrote when she was ten. Apparently (humph!) she'd never shared it with me! :) We talked about how weird it seems to be thinking of when we're married living with our husbands. Randomness is a blessed quality in our friendship! :) I then pointed out how weird it'll be that for the majority of our lives we'd be married-and not with our moms and dads and siblings. She showed me her beautiful placemats she sewed, her (ahem, matching) crocheted pot holders, and some old pictures, among other things. She had some antique photos of her grandparents in there and I verbally pounced on them with a squeal saying, "OOhh! Old pictures! Is there any wedding ones?" :) It was really neat to see all her childhood mementos, treasures and gifts. When we were looking through some of her old letters to me that I had saved, I found some adorable 'doll letters.' When we (sniff sniff!) still played with our dolls, we had them write letters to one another. So, Michaela's (doll) daughter Jess would write letters to my (doll) daughter Samantha, and so on and so forth with the rest of our dolls. :) On more than a few envelopes it said, "Meghan, Maggie and Samantha Gorecki." Those were the days! :) Just a random thought, does getting older mean you get more reminiscent? Like I've seem to be doing. :)

We all had such a wonderful time! Mothers included! :)

I am so, so grateful for our friendship-it feels just like we're family. :) Love you guys!

MP3 Players and Movie Night

First things first:
We got our MP3 players! Since both Meghan and I have laptops with our music on them, it was a constant conversation as to who's going to play her music when we were in the same room. Since I like more upbeat christian and Meghan likes hymns, slower music. Well, we decided (with our mother's blessing of course) to use our babysitting money and buy them while they were on sale. We went to Kmart yesterday and picked them up and they are the best! Now, instead of Meghan and I fighting over music, we put on our ear buds and we each have the music we want. We, despite the popularity, do not crank up the volume, so we can still hear if our parents or anyone needs us. Conditions for them are: my mom will do routine checks on our music, we cannot use them at the meal table (obviously), and we need to take very good care of them. I gotta go, my friend is here.

Later...
Tonight, instead of going to Farmhouse Coffee (a christian coffee house nearby) we instead had a Girl's Night In with our dear friend Danielle. When she arrived, we pulled on our PJ's (fuzzy slippers included) and headed towards the kitchen. After we brewed coffee, we made homemade Lattes with chocolate syrup and whipped topping. Then we went downstairs to our gameroom and put in our movie: Phantom of the Opera. Oh my goodness, I love that movie! Since all three of us are movie talkers, we provided ourselves with running commentary on it. For example: "Why is she doing that? She is being hypnotized by the phantom, who has major anger issues, and she is oblivious to the man who truly loves her!" or "The phantom is crying! He is actually feeling emotion! Told ya he had feelings!" This went on through the entire movie. With a slight pause to run up and get popcorn: butter, salt, and parmesan cheese for Meghan and Dani, chocolate syrup for me (I know, gross, but it is sooooo good!) and back on the movie went. We watched, engrossed with the film, until my dad yelled down the steps, "Dani, you need to leave like now if you want to get home by eleven." She still has her 'Cinderella License' and has to be home by eleven or else... so we stopped the movie reluctantly and said goodbye. Here's hopin I don't have nightmares :o) So here's to a great girly night with a great friend.

Super fun before the Super Bowl

This sunday was very fun. After going to church with my cousin, Tina and my family, Meghan and I went out to lunch with our dear friends fir Dani's birthday: Dani, Lane, and Sarah C. Our purchases of food were examples of how differen from eachother we are:

Dani: Oriental chicken plate (two different types of chicken with rice)

Meghan: Subway lunch wrap

Sarah: soft Taco Bell burrito

Lane: Taco Bell Wacko Taco (Not really, but I like calling it that!)

Me: New Orleans Chicken with fried rice and a egg roll. Yummmm!

(Here we are at the food court!)

After chowing down on un-healthy goodness, we were off on our girly mall crawl. Dani's brother, Dillon, came with us (he had to go home with Dani) and we all had a good time. First stop (A little weird) was the American Greetings store to look at Valentine's Day stuff. Then we walked down to Macys and headed upstairs to try on dresses. Poor Dillon walked around and finally went down to Aeropostale to look around. After we tried on tons of dresses, we made out way down to Aeropostale to meet Dillon. That is one of my favorite stores! My favorite style of jacket is a hoodie, and I have four of them so Aeropostale is a great place to get hoodies on clearance! Then we made our way down to American Eagle, where everything was so expensive! I much prefer the clearance rack at Aero. Anyway, back to AE, after contemplating many purchases (and ending up buying nothing) we decided to make one last stop at Claires. By the way, my other love is hats so when I saw a purple rainbow fedora, I almost died! I tried one on, fit perfectly. However, it was $16, so I immedietly put it back. There were also purses and fingerless gloves (which I also love, don't ask why), earrings and notebooks galore. Before we could get any tempting offers, we walked back up to the food court where our final stop was Dairy Queen to get Ice Cream. Oh my goodness gracious, whenever you find yourself at a Dairy Queen, try a Chocolate Xtreme blizzard, it's to die for.

So all in all, it was super fun before the super bowl. I can't tell you how many Steeler jersies I saw people wearing! It was a bunch of fun and I hope we do it again soon. Happy Birthday Dani!