A special young ladies victorian luncheon!

Today was the day...Meghan and Sara have been planning Meghan's special 16th birthday Victorian Luncheon for months now! What a perfect day it was! Look at Meghan's smile!
Sisters....Best Friends! Someone said Sara was 'practicing' to be a maid of honor someday! We couldn't have done all of this without Sara...she was wonderful!

Lots of fun photo opps! Notice 3 of the girls IN the tree!

The outdoor tables....Meghan made beautiful placecards, printed on vellum...antique doilies under the flowers....


Some pictures of our day....Meghan's color scheme...pink and yellow...fresh, young and beautiful! The candy dish above was Meghan's great-grandmother's....and filled with Sarris Chocolate!

The pink lemondade went quickly! Cool and refreshing on this warm summer day! (and doesn't it look pretty?!)


Here is the table with all the food. The menu consisted of mini hot ham and cheese sandwiches, homemade chicken salad in mini phylo cups. A green salad, fruit salad, fruit punch, and lots of sweets...strawberry cheesecake bars, triple fudge brownies, chocolate gobs, and warm butter cake..delicious!

Our special guests.....

GabrielleSarah Michaela
Alaina

Danielle

Morgan
Bella

Lissa
Meghan recieved so many special gifts from special friends! She got a lot of things for her hopechest...like these antique dessert plates....recipes, napkins, a craft bag, cookbook, special dvd's that she wanted (Elizabeth Gaskell!!!)...and beautiful handmade notecards among other things.
THis is Sarah C....up in the tree...in her pretty party dress....typical, special Sarah!
Gabrielle's first ride on a tire swing!
This is so precious...these girls have been friends since they were little babies...and now beautiful young women!

Our lovely group of young guests! Some of the young ladies stayed for dinner..of homemade grilled reuben sandwiches ...and more pink lemonade! After a special, very full day...it's off to bed! The girls are staying up for Gabrielle's last night in Pittsburgh before she heads home to Idaho...but I am more than ready for bed! It was a memorable, special day of blessings! ~Sue~

A "Three" Celebration weekend!

What a full, blessed weekend! We have had celebrations since Friday, with Meghan's 16th birthday...and we have a few more this week to go! First, Saturday, we had Tommy and Kelli's bridal shower! Here are Tommy and his beautiful bride-to-be, Kelli!
Kelli,with the chenille afghan that I made for them.

Beautiful cake!

One of their engagement pictures. ( sorry...took a photo of a photo...but loved the pose!)
Love this one! It was a great shower, and we're all looking forward to their wedding day over Labor day weekend.
Then...it was Meghan's birthday party with all our family and a few special friends, who are like family! Because Meghan was born on my Dad's birthday, we always celebrate together with both of them.

Meghan and Gabrielle....one of the best birthday surprises that Meghan has ever had!

Sara and my beautiful niece, Tina.

Some of the people helping us celebrate were.....

Cousin, Jill

Jill's son, Michael with Ronnie
And, Jill and Mike's daughter, Mia with Anna

Ron and our dear friend, and former neighbor, Jamie!
My beautiful Mom, flanked on either side by two of her big sisters...Aunt Pat on the left and Aunt Marilyn on the right...all they were missing were Aunt Joan! Missed you, Aunt Joan!
My sister, Lori, her husband Todd and everyone's favorite baby....Ty!
Meghan and Elissa...these two have been friends since birth...she is Jamie's daughter, and we have oh, so many pictures of these two from babies on up! Aren't they beautiful young ladies?!

Meghan recieved many, many special gifts for her hopechest, from items that belonged to her great-grandmother, to these special needlework works of art made by our friend, Debbie.


One of the special gifts that she received was a new "winter" Vera Bradley purse and a matching wallet...was she surprised!

Meghan and my mother, her Grammy!

Meghan and Ron's mom...her RoRo! (both grandmothers are where she gets her blue eyes...as Ron and I both have brown eyes)

Meghan and her "M.E." and "Zedoh"...my Dad and step mom.

Fun cousins picture! (Ronnie looks up to and loves Timmy so much!)

Love this pyramid! The girls had a lot of fun!
My youngest sister, Pam and cousin Kim.
Ron and my cousin, John....HUGE Penguin's fans!!!!
Jolyn and Debbie....special, old family friends!
The five of us, myself, my two sisters, and Jolyn and Debbie....friends since the 70's...we have so much fun together! It was so nice to be together!

~We all had a wonderful time Saturday night!~

Now....on to our last celebration of the weekend! After church today..which was great, and focused on the mission trip that members of our church recently took to Zambia...we headed over to our friends, the Webber family for Alaina's graduation party.
Meghan and Alaina have been friends since Alaina was 6 1/2 and Meghan was only 5 years old. We all met at the playground, they girls went to Jubilee Christian school for Meghan's kindergarten year, then we started homeschooling together the same year. Our families have been thru so much in the past 11 years...even adding sons on the same day, born at the same hospital! Here are our two girls....grown up!

Meghan....baby-stealing! Little Camren....only 4 months old!

Alaina and I
A beautiful group of young ladies at the graduation party.
My dear friend, Dayna...I was so happy and surprised to see her here today!!! She and her family will be leaving for Mozambigue, Africa in only 4 days....they will be there for at least 2 years with the ministry "Samaritan's Purse". It was so nice to visit with her and her family today! I will really miss you, Dayna!
The Whitlock family! God bless you all on your journey and your adventures in Mozambique!!!! We'll miss you and will be praying for you!

~So ends this very LONG post....hey, it was a very LONG weekend!!!! Tomorrow, the girls are working 12 -5pm, and we're all getting preparations ready for a special garden tea party luncheon with Meghan's closest friends on Tuesday.... I'm off to bed.....God bless you all! ~Sue~

Happy Sweet Sixteenth birthday, Meghan!

My baby girl is 16 today! Seems like yesterday that she was the precious newborn in these photos...my cherished, long awaited little girl! We tried so hard and long to have Meghan...to conceive a child....2 1/2 years....but a lifetime of waiting....all I had ever wanted was to be a wife and mother, and the day that Meghan was born, both came true! I was a mother at long last, and she was such a precious little 6 lb bundle!

Meghan Mary 7 weeks old

Meghan 8 months old

Now this morning...the morning of her 16th birthday....time has flown way too fast! Just as precious to us, but how grown up she is...and all she, too, wants is to be a wife and mother someday....

The "Blueberries"! That is what Meghan and Ronnie call themselves...as Sara & Anna are the "Brownies"!
The long awaited "Hopechest"! Meghan has waited so long for this! This Lane cedar chest belonged to a friend of mine from church, and it was her mother's hopechest. It is a 1930's Lane. It was 70's burnt orange when we got it, and my mother, step-dad and I tried stripping it...but the orange had sunk into the wood...so we primed it, and painted it ivory....perfect! A friend of my mom's stencilled the ferns on it, and trimmed it with 14 karat gold paint as the finishing touch.

Meghan's first reaction! Tears!

Tears, excitement and laughter...this has been a secret for many, many months!
Along with the hopechest, we of course, put some things into it! Meghan has been collecting things for her hopechest for a few years now, and storing them in mine. It is almost half filled already and I have a feeling that, like me before her, she'll fill it, empty it, and fill it again and again before she finally gets married and moves it into her new home.

~Happy Sweet Sixteenth Birthday, our precious daughter!!!! We love you so very, very much!~

Love, Mum and Dad