Joy Dare::August

 12,528. Lower humidity for a day
12,529. Our kids spending time together

12,530. Date night (literally) for Jeremy and I
12,531. A walk through SU
12,532. A deep cleaned back porch
12,533. Future planning with Aliza
12,534. Laughing until I was crying
12,535. When the kids decide it's a good night for Island Creamery and their Dad agrees
12,536. Staying up very late to watch the live stream of our favorite concert
12,537. Grace to be humble
12,538. Brainstorming ideas
12,539. Receiving an encouraging note
12,540. That Henry and Audrey love coming to our house
12,541. Listening to the rain
12,542. Dear friends around me
12,543. The first yellow leaves reminding me the next season is coming
12,544. Reading time with Isaiah before bed
12,545. Maggie "bringing me messages" from Aliza
12,546. Mini golf and lunch with my boys
12,547. Making supper for Laura and Sean
12,548. Christie
12,549. John is home
12,550. Anna telling me all about the rides
12,551. Company for supper
12,552. Talking to Mom
12,553. Bearing witness to another's story
12,554. Josiah's work ethic
12,555. A full Sunday School class
12,556. Talking to my brother and sister
12,557. Smooth travel
12,558. Aliza and Josiah did so well with wisdom teeth removal
12,559. Anna taking on a big project
12,560. Mom's visit
12,561. Reaching out
12,562. Aliza and Josiah's good attitude
12,563. Having Renee and Lydia for the day
12,564. Lunch with the youth group
12,565. Shoulder-to-shoulder time with Anna
12,566. Excited that I am actually re-learning piano
12,567. Taking the first steps to get school ready
12,568. Time with Maria
12,569. Isaiah helping with supper
12,570. More planning with Aliza
12,571. High pitched squeals means they are having fun
12,572. Evening driving
12,573. Listening to Aliza talk about her summer
12,574. Grandma and Grandpa time
12,575. Bible reading before bed (Anna is reading out loud to everyone)

12,576. Laughing together

12,577. Home in time for youth group
12,578. Known 

12,579. Prayer
12,580. Playing piano
12,581. Hearing all about Aliza's day
12,582. Rain
12,583. Thrifting and lunch to celebrate Lydia
12,584. Jeremy
12,585. Learning history from John
12,586. Aliza sharing her summer experience with the church
12,587. Riding home with Jeremy
12,588. A win
12,589. First dahlia

12,590. Anna's friends
12,591. Saying Yes to a spontaneous invitation
12,592. Asking for and receiving forgiveness
12,593. An evening with ladies
12,594. Saying Yes to putting myself in a new situation
12,595. A long talk with my mom
12,596. Laughter at the supper table
12,597. Picnic by the Pocomoke River
12,598. Celebrating John's birthday in Sunday School
12,599. Staying up late talking and laughing
12,600. Austin hanging out with us for the day
12,601. The men making sure John gets safely into our house
12,602. So many hard things, and my family still prays
12,603. A sister to adventure with
12,604. Watching Hamilton on Broadway with my daughters
12,605. Anna's face while she experience Time Square at 10pm
12,606. Breakfast in Times Square
12,607. An easy drive out of the city
12,608. Back home in the country
12,609. To do lists to keep me organized
12,610. Friends with so many talents
12,611. Brian
12,612. New blades on the lawnmower
12,613. Family evening at the beach
12,614. Aliza's heart
12,615. Lunch at Mom and Dad's house
12,616. Beautiful afternoon for a walk around SU
12,617. Food prep and balloons
12,618. Aliza, Anna and I working together
12,619. Alena's bridal shower was perfect
12,620. Friends

Bridal Shower

 Aliza and I had the privilege of hosting a bridal shower for Aliza's best friend, Alena. This was our project as soon as Aliza got home from camp. Aliza knows Alena so well. I wanted her to take the lead in the vision for the shower. 

Pretty quickly, Aliza knew she wanted to use wildflowers to decorate. I had recently come across a local u-pick wildflower farm and knew it would be perfect for the bridesmaids to pick and arrange flowers for the shower. It turned out that the farm ended their season earlier in the week. When I asked for other ideas on facebook, the farm owner reached out to me and offered for the bridesmaids to forage for whatever was left for a discounted. For these girls, it was absolutely perfect. They were alone in the field and had the best time together. 

Food was a little challenging because food is not Alena's thing and Aliza really wanted everything to be food that Alena would be comfortable eating. 

We decided on individual charcuterie cups, a fruit plate and individual lemon blueberry trifles. 

The charcuterie cups had nuts on the bottom, salami, cheeses, blackberry, raspberries, cracker and a pretzel roll bite. 

 

I want to make this lemon blueberry trifle again! Lemon pound cake, lemon curd, lemon cheesecake filling and blueberries. Served in mini parfait cups with tiny spoons made it feel extra special! 

I am now a huge fan of personalized water bottle labels. For a couple dollars on etsy, I could get the template to personalize and then my friend printed them. 

We held the shower in the youth room at church. Aliza's goal was to make this church room feel more homey like a living room. She added a coffee table and tray tables, the wildflower bouquets were a perfect touch, and she covered the whiteboard with a backdrop that said "Miss to Mrs." and filled in the sides with balloons. 

Aliza was also led the games. She asked the bride and groom's moms for pictures of them at different ages and then the guests guessed their ages. It was a fun decoration and people had fun guessing and talking about the pictures. 

 

Then we played Scattergories. The categories were all wedding related and we used the letters L-O-V-E. The older ladies had never heard of Scattergories. They were good sports especially given that we did not choose easy letters to get them started! 

I asked everyone to write down a memory they have with Alena or marriage advice. When it was time to open gifts, I read one, Alena figured out who said it and then she opened the gift from that person. 

This is Alena and Aliza's "best friend" picture pose. 

This was the first event that Aliza and I planned together. It took a lot of communication for us to understand each other's vision. The day of the shower, I prepared the food while Aliza and Anna decorated the room and it was just perfect. 

I am often Melinda's "wing woman." This time she had no idea what was being planned and she got to just arrive and enjoy the event as mother of the bride. This season of launching children is special one that we share and cheer each other on in. Let's me clear though--I'm just fine that this is HER daughter getting married at 20 years old and not mine!! 

Times Square

Our hotel was on 7th Avenue. We could walk out the door, turn right, and walk 7 blocks to the middle of Times Square. 

 

We experienced a Tuesday afternoon and night and a Wednesday morning in Times Square. 

 

In the afternoon we watched street performers and went into a few stores. 

On the top of Lydia's list was the Hershey store. I thought about Gramma a lot while I walked through that store. Lydia stuffed her own Reese cup. 

It was a HUGE Reese cup!

Next was the Disney store where Janell and I continued to copy our girls picture poses. Janell and I started doing this first thing in the morning when our girls were taking car selfies. We thought it would be hilarious to put the pictures side by side knowing the joke would be on us because we would look ridiculous. It was fun to put the pictures together and when Aliza realized what we had done and was laughing so hard she was crying, it was totally worth it. 

The m&m store was mostly for me. It's my favorite candy and I had seen the store when we went in May, but that was beyond the scope of that trip. Aliza stuck with me and walked all around the huge store with me. 

There was so much to look at! I could have walked out without buying anything, however I decided that a couple souvenirs were in order. 

When we walked out of the Hamilton theater at 10pm, Times Square felt like a whole different place. There were so many more people. It was just a Tuesday night! The weather was perfect though. I decided if I was living in NYC, I would have probably wanted to be outside that night too. 

I wish I could adequately describe how EXCITED Anna was. Her smile took up her whole face. She was laughing...and crying. She couldn't take enough videos and pictures. I just asked her what words she would use to describe herself in Times Square at 10pm--she immediately grinned and said "estatic", "adrenaline rush." 

We made it back to the Hershey store for ice cream and then Janell and I were quite ready to go back to the hotel. It looked like most stores in that area closed at midnight. 

In the morning, we picked up some breakfast at Starbucks (at that point we just wanted to stick with what we knew) and found a spot to sit in Times Square. We had some time to take in the scene. The girls took a lot of pictures. 

After a little morning caffeine, Janell and I joined in. 

I'm so glad we did this! I'll hold these memories close to my heart. 

Broadway

 When we went to NYC in May, Aliza realllly wanted to see a Broadway show. Financially and logistically, it just wasn't possible then. I started looking into possibilities and asked Janell if she and her girls would be interested in joining us for a girls trip. She was in and we started looking at shows. The DREAM was to see Hamilton. I didn't think we could make it happen, but with an educator's discount card, Hamilton was just $45 more than the other show we were considering. I decided that amount of money was worth making the dream come true. It was very fun to tell Aliza and Anna that we were going to Broadway on Aug 27 to see HAMILTON! 

We booked a hotel, made a game plan of what we were going to do in the city and took off! I was designated as the city driver and, thankfully, it was a smooth drive in and out of the city. We arrived before we could check in at the hotel. We parked, checked our luggage in and set off to explore the Times Square. (All of our Times Square adventures will be in the next post!) This is Janell and my face when we realized that we were an easy 5 blocks with just 1 turn away from the theater. (The theater is in the very background of the picture.)  

 

Everyone was very exited about seeing the theater and since it was mid afternoon there was no one around. Of course that meant we needed to take pictures. There was some discussion about whether pictures should wait because we were not dressed in Broadway attire yet.

After some shopping and walking, it was time to check in to our hotel. The girls thought it was amazing that the bellhop brought our luggage to our room. The room was appropriately New York City small, but we happily squeezed in. The girls got started on hair and makeup and I laid down until the last minute. 

We ate supper at Applebee's and waited in line for just a few minutes before the theater doors opened. More pictures were taken. 

We went straight to our seats which gave us a few minutes in an empty theater because most people were buying merch or drinks. Our seats were at the top of the theater which was on a steep incline. My legs just about touched the seat in front of me. I could not cross my legs. 

The theater itself was very ornate and felt time period correct to the musical. During the show we could see the top of a man's head right at the edge of the middle of the stage. We realized he was conducting the orchestra that was under the stage which added a level of interest for me. 

Aliza was in her element. She just absorbed every aspect of the production from line delivery to choreography, to set changes. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out why I find this musical so interesting. It's not the set or the costumes...or maybe it is the LACK of a complicated set or colorful costumes. I do enjoy the music and am amazed at the diction of the actors to make all of those words understandable. Regardless, I enjoy Hamilton. 

As we sat there, Janell and I exchanged a grin and sigh of relief that we pulled this off for our girls. It's a memory that they won't forget and neither will I.