Another fantastic sister weekend in the books!

Spring is slowly, but surely arriving!  Last week I spied the first promise of blooming rhododendrons as I stood at the stove at Anthony and Lori's place.

And yesterday it looked like this!

There are blossoms all over the place just waiting to burst out and show off!

There are also a few azalea bushes in full glory.

And so much green!!  And so much rain!

I had no problem whatsoever with motivation last week.  Guess why??  My sisters were coming!  Mary Ellen and Doris (my other two Pennsylvania sisters) come here once a year for a weekend.  We had had a date set a month or so ago, but the weather was going to be cold, even some possible snow, so we delayed it in hopes of having warm, sunny weather.  Well, we didn't have the weather we had hoped for on Saturday - no sunshine, and temps that barely reached 60 degrees, but at least it didn't rain after the early morning.  We have decided that the weather hates us, lol!

This time we decided that we really needed them to arrive on Friday evening instead of Saturday noon like other years.  What a great decision that was, since there was something kind of important on Saturday morning that we would have missed if they had waited.  We didn't even realize when we picked this date that it would be the Saturday of the royal wedding!  When I started hearing all the talk about fascinators I decided to have some fun.  I looked them up on Amazon and decided that 12 dollars each was not too much for some sister fun!  So I ordered three.

On Friday I was busy, busy cooking enough for both Anthony and Lori's family and for us.  I made two pans of Layered Zucchini, which is basically lasagna without pasta.  My sister Doris has to eat gluten-free, so I decided that would be a good choice. I also made a pan of my peanut butter rice krispie treats, since they also are gluten-free.  I headed over to Anthony and Lori's, leaving my door unlocked incase the sisters would arrive here before I would.  And they did!

When I finally pulled into our driveway I figured they were inside and probably didn't know I had arrived, so I took my good old time gathering my stuff together, checking out a receipt I saw lying on the seat, trying to arrange things so I could carry everything in on one trip to the house.   As I stood there trying to balance things in my arms I heard some familiar-sounding giggling.  I looked up at the porch, and there they sat on my rockers drinking coffee!  They had sat there watching me slowly get my act together, knowing I had not noticed them, and after a while they just couldn't keep quiet any longer.  Well, that started the weekend off just right.  Oh, we laughed and laughed and laughed!  (Please remember this story - it comes up later in this post.)

Dick soon arrived too, and we had dinner and then settled into the living room for some gabbing, snacking, and a movie.  (Dick hung out at the computer in the den and later watched some hockey in our bedroom so we could have our girl time.)   

I had two movies I had hoped to watch with them - the new one that came out this year, Wonder, which would definitely make us cry.  And a very old one, North Avenue Irregulars, which would definitely make us laugh.  We decided we'd rather laugh. And laugh we did!  Only one picture from that evening.

It was too late when we finally went to bed, considering that we wanted to watch the royal wedding in the early morning.  We decided we're too old to survive on just a few hours of sleep, so we would wait to start watching until after 6 AM.

Mary Ellen had brought some fancy china cups and saucers for our coffee and scones.

I brought out the fascinators and we figured out how to put them on our bedheads. 

And we watched that wedding.  Oh my, how we loved it all!

When it was over I made some bacon and eggs, and we also had some delicious gluten-free baked oatmeal that Doris had brought.  Then we slowly got ourselves beautiful for the day, lol!

Our big wish was to finally be able to go to the arboretum.  We have such good memories of going there on warm sunny days in previous years and seeing the beautiful tulips.  The past two years we have not been able to because of the cold, rainy weather.  So we were rejoicing that there was no rain in the forecast for the rest of the day, and that the temperature would get up to 63 degrees. Supposedly.

WELL, we were surprised how cold it felt when we left the house.  We went to the arboretum, but after just a short walk into it we decided it was just too chilly and windy to enjoy being there.  We decided we'd come back later after it warmed up a bit.

Mary Ellen wanted to look for a coffee table at Pete's Used Furniture, so we went there first and then to the St. Vincent DePaul thrift store beside it.  I bought a jacket because a sweater just wasn't going to be enough, grrrr!

From there we went to Sower's Harvest Cafe for a late lunch.  We really weren't hungry yet, but they close at 3 and we wanted to be sure to get there before they closed.  Because the semester is over it was wonderfully uncrowded and we were able to sit at my favorite table in front of the mural.  Look at this beautiful fruit/yogurt parfait that Mary Ellen ordered!

When we left there we decided it still wasn't warm enough, so we went to Trader Joe's and Wegmans, two grocery stores they do not yet have in Lancaster (although a Wegmans will be coming soon I've heard.)

When we came out of the store and got into my van I sat and waited for the person in the car facing me to back out of her spot so I could pull through instead of backing out of my spot.  She was taking her good old time.  I told my sisters about the time I had done this same thing at TJMaxx and after the person backed out I had gunned it to make sure I could pull through before someone else would decide to park in that spot - only to discover that there was a low barrier between and I ran smack into it!  Of course we laughed ourselves silly over that.  As we sat there waiting for this person to get her act together and back out, Mary Ellen started saying that this was like the one time some ladies were sitting on a porch waiting for their sister to get out of her car and she took so long..... After a while I realized she was talking bout me the day before,  so we laughed some more.   And then!  Someone pulled right into that parking spot in front of me before I had a chance to pull through it!  Oh my goodness, we laughed and laughed over that.  And then as I backed out Doris starts saying, "That's like the time some ladies were sitting on a porch and were watching their sister take her good old time getting out of her car....."  I said, "Doris!!  That's what Mary Ellen was just saying!!"  OH MY GOODNESS!!!  Doris had been checking her phone and not even listening when Mary Ellen had been saying that.  We had one of those I-can't-catch-my-breath laughs right there in Wegman's parking lot!!

And then we headed for the arboretum even though the weather had really not gotten much warmer at all.   There were some beautiful flowers, but the tulips were completely over.

What we DID see were lots of beautiful prom gowns!  Apparently three high schools in the area were having prom that night and there were couples and parents EVERYWHERE for photo shoots.  We were freezing in our jackets, and these girls were there in their sleeveless prom gowns!

At least this girl had one sleeve, lol!

My friend Peg was there talking pictures of her granddaughter, so she took a picture of us too.

We sat on our "boardwalk" for a while, but we were mostly just too cold to enjoy it.  Some of us were catching up at home.

On the way back to my house I decided to show them Peg's view from her house.  She and Bill live up on a hill and have such a beautiful view.  And that's on a cloudy day!  Imagine a sunny day.  Or autumn leaves!

We then hung out at my house for a while until we had a bit more of an appetite, then we headed out to one more favorite place - Berkey Creamery.  Yum, yum, yum!!  We sat and ate our ice cream and talked for a long time and I was shivering the entire time even with my jacket on - on May 19th.

Then we came home to my warmer house feeling tired and happy and full.  But we had to have some of the red beet eggs I had made earlier in the week.  Oh so good!!

And we had a little wine too.  Not nearly enough to be tipsy.  Trust me, we don't need wine to be silly or tipsy - just a lack of sleep and too much to eat and the fun of being together puts us over the edge!

We were DELIGHTED to wake up to the forecast of a warmer day and even a bit of sunshine from time to time!!  As we got ready for church we remembered that we had to do our re-enactment of our 2013 pajama porch photo.

Of course it started out with spilled coffee!  More laughs!

When we first came out Mary Ellen had her coffee in a different mug.  I said, "Mary Ellen, you have to have a mug like ours!"  So she went back into the house and poured her coffee into a matching mug and Dick took our picture.

When I later posted the 2013 picture along with this one, I noticed that Mary Ellen had had a non-matching mug back then, hahahahaha!!  So here we were in 2013 in the very same pj's and housecoat that we still wear five years later!  I'm sure everyone has seen enough of this now, so I promise this is the last one, lol!

It was a special morning at church.  Anthony once again joined us to sing and play guitar with our choir.  We did Try a Little Kindness again.  I cannot believe that I forgot to get someone to take a video for me!  I was so disappointed afterward.  So I'm going to just post the video from last year.  Of course we now meet in a different church building and the choir has some new faces, but Anthony still sounded as fantastic as ever.

It was so special for me to have my sisters and also Anthony, Lori, and the boys at church with us.  Peg snapped this beautiful photo during the service.  What a good-looking family!

One of my sisters snapped this one of our praise team. 

After we came home from church it was time for our fascinator photo shoot!  (No, we did not wear them to church, although I'm quite sure Mary Ellen would have been happy to!)  Once again Dick was our photographer and Mary Ellen was the director!  Enjoy!

I wonder what Doris was noticing on our porch ceiling??  Cobwebs maybe??

Then we got into more comfortable clothes, the sisters packed up their stuff, and we all headed over to Stauffer Acres for a brunch cookout on the patio.  The weather was absolutely perfect finally!!!  Warm and just a bit overcast, so it wasn't too hot to be at the fire.  And best of all - the men did the cooking!!  Belated Happy Mother's Day to us!

We had a wonderfully relaxing time together.  Mary Ellen and Doris left for home soon after 3:00.  They would be stopping to pick up Grandma Mary at the Mifflintown exit.  She had been visiting with her sister in that area for the weekend.  

Hunter went down for a nap and Austin came home with us.  Anthony and Lori had small group later and there are no kids Austin's age in the group.  He was happy to play on his iPad while Dick and I caught much-needed naps.  There may have been some snoring taking place in the living room, but Austin graciously ignored us, lol!!  

When we woke up he wanted to go to Orchard Park, which is on the way to their place.  By that time the sun had come out and it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!  Anthony, Lori, and Hunter soon joined us on their way home from small group.  We had such a great time.

And if you're still with me after all those pictures, here's one more from my walk on Monday morning.  It was another perfectly beautiful day.

Today it's raining again, but that's ok.  Everything I need to do is indoors anyway. I'm just so happy that it's May and we have the whole summer ahead of us!  Woohoo!!  I just LOVE summer!