A Beautiful October

It's been a beautiful month!

We celebrated Decker's 7th birthday on the 6th. He was pretty excited to receive two new toys: a big worm by the Tuff brand that he loves and a lobster from Maine. We love our sweet boy!

Mia was so sweet and wanted to surprise Lily with a little treat on the day she passed her drivers test. She bought her this beautiful fresh bouquet of flowers, and a balloon on top of a jar of candy. The candy was about half Starburst and half bubble gum, but Mia knows Lily much prefers Starburst, so she bought extra Starburst and switched them out beforehand. I love how thoughtful and generous this was of Mia to celebrate a big milestone for Lily!

Mia recently discovered a Bind Date with a Book seller available on Etsy. I always love doing this when we go to Asheville, so we were both excited when she ordered this. The seller sent a cool-looking teen dystopian novel which is Mia's current favorite genre. She also included a bookmark, stickers, and a packet of hot chocolate to enjoy while reading. Mia couldn't wait to finish the book she was in the middle of to get started on this one!

Mia has been loving her practicum sewing class with Mrs. Wilkinson at school. They started with some basics and have been growing quickly. She recently made this pillowcase. It's so soft! It has the regular pillowcase material then has a beautiful flannel end piece with a lovely burnt orange trim layer. I'm so proud of how quickly Mia has taken to this lifelong skill!

We bought this poster at camp over the summer and have finally gotten around to framing it and hanging it up downstairs. I love it! Camp Crestridge is such a special place for our girls; we are glad to have this beautiful reminder hanging up year-round.

I'm still enjoying ordering different foods from Goldbelly! They had a pizza sale recently, so I ordered a sampler pack from Arcaro & Genell in Pennsylvania. This is the "Old Forge" style of pizza which we had never tried before. Our pack included one traditional red cheese pizza and one white pizza with olive oil and rosemary. Both were pretty tasty. This is such a fun little dining adventure each time!

The Stonehaven varsity girls volleyball team had a great season! They made it to the regional tournament just after Lily's birthday which was cool. They placed high enough to then advance to the state tournament which was really awesome! The school held a pep rally to see them off as they had to leave school early that day. The girls played hard but unfortunately lost in the first round. Since we have no seniors graduating, we can truly say, "we'll get 'em next year!"

Our Halloween was lots of fun. It was a beautiful evening which was nice. We made fun little cheeseburgers for dinner.

Our friends, the Hurst family, have never been trick or treating before. They asked if they could come over to our neighborhood since it's close to them, and if we could go trick or treating with them. We were happy to oblige! The girls put together some fun costumes. Lily went as El from Stranger Things and Mia was a theater lover (she hand painted the sweatpants!). They both looked so cute!

Alyssa came as Tris from Divergent and Audrey Grace was a precious kitten. These four girls had a lot of fun trick or treating around the neighborhood together before engaging in a good old fashion candy swap with one another. It was a fun evening!

What a great month it's been!

16th Birthday Party!

We were so excited to celebrate Lily's 16th birthday! We originally had it planned for the Friday after her birthday, but the Stonehaven volleyball team made it to the regional tournament which started that weekend (and it moved on to the state tournament the next week!). Definitely a good reason to postpone the celebration! We pushed it out a couple of weeks which ended up working out well.

While Lily was at school, Ryan and I decorated the basement. We filled it with all sorts of fun items!

Lily kept the main event as a secret from her friends. They all met up right after school, and that's when she told them we were heading to The Splatter Studio over in Sandy Springs. None of them had even heard of it before, so this was definitely a surprise! Everyone was excited to get ponchos and shoe covers on.

So many colors to choose from!

Everyone gathers around to learn some different splatter paint techniques.

Let the fun begin! These girls splattered, sprayed, drizzled, threw, shot, and swirled paint all over the place to make some beautiful abstract paintings!

Each girl had her own station to make her own painting. Then, they came together for several pieces. We bought Lily a Splatter Studio shirt to commemorate the event, and she had everyone splatter on it which was really cool. For parties, they allow up to 12 kids. We had 9 which meant there were three extra blank canvases. The girls had fun collaborating on these. Ryan and I loved this first one so much that we asked if we could keep it; the girls agreed that was fine, so it's now hanging up in our house!

The girls also collaborated on a larger painting that is given to the birthday girl. This first painting shows each girl with her chosen color for the painting, and the second picture shows them with their finished product. This is now hanging in Lily's room. What a great reminder of an awesome birthday with friends!

I snapped a picture of each girl with her painting as each finished up. They all turned out so good!

Lucy Elrod and Kate Jackson

Lauren Martin and Hannah Mauldin

Mary Preston Harvey and Raegan Miley

Emma Scott and Addison Corley

I think it's safe to say they all had an absolute blast!

After our time at The Splatter Studio, we came on home. Ryan and I had decorated the dining room table earlier in the day too.

Lily wanted Chick-fil-a nuggets, so we ordered a big tray for everyone to split. We also had their fruit tray, a variety of chips, and all the Coke products to choose from.

We are so thankful for our friend, Sherilyn Johnson, who is such a great baker! Lily's not a big sweets person, but she raved about a cake Sherilyn had made for someone else, so I reached out to see if I could order one for Lily's party. It's a strawberry cake with a cream cheese icing, and it was so yummy!

Lily's friends spent the night afterwards. These girls always have a lot of fun hanging out together, and we're always happy to open our home up to them. We're thankful Lily has such wonderful friends. The next morning, Ryan cooked bacon and pancakes on the griddle for everyone, and we had more of the fruit tray too. This was an absolutely perfect party for Lily! Happy birthday!