A shower, a banquet and Keith

Holly came home one weekend in April for her first bridal shower.  Niece Carissa and cousin Emily hosted.  It was such a special day!  

Carissa is an amazing hostess!  She has the gift to make everything look beautiful.  

So...this past fall, a couple of us church ladies were going through the kitchen organizing and purging.  We came across a bunch of these little coffee cups that hadn't been used for years.  We put them on the give-a-way table, but I thought for sure I'd be boxing them in a couple weeks and taking them to the thrift store.  Apparently, Carissa grabbed them with the idea of turning them into little charcuterie cups.  

I was cracking up on the card Anna and Harvey made for Holly.  She lived with them when she first moved to Salem and they are pretty special to her.

She got some really nice gifts.  It was so much fun to watch her get excited over everything.  She has always lived in furnished apartments so she was excited over finally getting "her own" stuff.

Thanks Carissa and Emily!

While she was in town, she had her wedding day makeup/hair trial by her friend Leah, 

got her wedding dress all altered (no pictures, she wants it to be a surprise), and we experimented with her tablescapes.  It was a fun and productive weekend!

Katie's junior/senior banquet (LC's version of prom) was the first weekend in May.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening, the kids took pictures in our yard.

Katie was a student counselor for outdoor ed so just a couple hours before pictures, she had been camping with a bunch of middle schoolers.  I'd say she cleaned up pretty nice!

I'm a little biased but I think this weeping willow the property (actually it's on our neighbor's property) is the best place for pictures!

She went with a different group of friends then she usually hangs out with.  She said she had a super fun night.  

Another "last" with our girl...sigh.

And here's Keith.  Apparently, I did not get out of the car quickly enough for him.

More of April

Trying hard to stay updated on this little blog of mine.  Not an easy task with a very long to do list every day.  As of today, we are 24 days until our first wedding!!

Katie and I took a little girl's trip to visit Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.  It was a school she had "on her list" and it was fun to check it out in person.  John dropped us off at the light rail early in the morning (Katie was super pumped she can still ride it for FREE) and we were on our plane (last row) by 9:30.

We landed in Boise and picked up our rental car.  As we were driving out of the lot, it started to snow!  Lucky this college visit was for Katie and not me or I would have immediately crossed it off the list!  We drove around Nampa a little bit (much bigger than I thought) and drove through campus (smaller than I thought) and then out for a Chinese buffet - Katie's choice.

This girl loves a buffet!  She had me take this for her dad who loves bacon.

We stopped at Walmart for a tub of ice cream and took it back to the hotel.  The next morning, we headed to campus for our visit.  We went to chapel, had a tour, ate lunch in the cafeteria, talked to the nursing recruiter and financial aid person.

The campus was actually very similar to Dordt's...minus this giant polar bear.  He was cool, Dordt needs one.

Nursing is their number one major and they had lots of "patient" simulators.  This guy was my favorite.

She chose a local burger place for supper.

We walked around a nice park in town before heading back for more ice cream before bed.

A super fun girl's get-a-way!

Pastor Bryan's puppies have been a HUGE hit.  Katie is really going to miss visiting them after church!

She brought this home the other day.  Not ready for this.

Keith checking out my weeding progress.  Lots and lots of weeding happening at the Hiemstra House.

I was heading out for a walk with a friend and something didn't feel quite right.  

John has been working hard to clean up our woods.  Nothing like five wedding receptions in your back yard to motivate you.

Yep another Keith picture.  I have to brag on this cat just a little...especially because I didn't really want him.  Thanks to Keith, we have had zero issues with birds building nests in our patio this Spring....now if he would just catch the moles.

Katie had her last Pops concert.  Her section dressed as Greek goddesses.  She was Artemis, goddess of the hunt.  

Such a fun show!

Her and a friend sang a duet from Mary Poppins...complete with cockney accents.  They did such a good job.  I have it recorded but I can't figure out how to get videos to upload here so let me know if you want me to send it to you. :)

Lots of progress on the Love Shack.  It won't be completely done for Sam and Paige's reception but it looks super cute in the spots it needs to!

That's all for today...weeds are calling!

A little bit of April

John and I took a chance and planted the dahlias really early this year.  The rule is you are supposed to wait until the lilacs bloom but we just didn't have time to wait this year!  Lucky for us we have had a dry, warm Spring (so far) so they are doing well.  Unfortunately, that means the weeds are growing well too!

Katie left for Spain!  She spent her Spring break on a class trip with 38 other students.  We'll see if I can get her to do a guest appearance on the blog with some Spain pictures and tales of her adventures...    

 

She had a wonderful time and is excited to go back some day. I told her she had to take me along.

I hosted Easter this year.  We had a nice crowd.  Good food and family time.

The weather was gorgeous so we could have the egg hunt outside and a cornhole tournament.  First and second place finishers.

First toad spotting! 

Macys was having a suit sale and a certain handsome guy in my house happens to need one some special events for this summer.  These were contenders but I think his daughter and future daughter-in-law might have disapproved!

Keith.  Enough said.