Charleston

My two daughters and I just returned from Charleston, SC where we went to celebrate my oldest daughter, Alyson, special birthday! We did this a month earlier than her birthday which is the end of September.

Here is where we stayed:

It's located downtown Charleston on Ashley Street. It's a typical Charleston home with the porch on the side. I've always wondered what they look like on the inside!

We enjoyed touring the beautiful city of Charleston, seeing the carriages:

The gorgeous homes:

Seeing the iron fences and gates Charleston is so famous for:

The window boxes:

Rainbow Row:

Shopping King Street:

Shopping the Market on Market Street:

Eating at the wonderful restaurants:

Poogan's Porch (on Queen Street)

Wish we had taken a picture of the giant biscuits they served! We also had She-Crab Soup, and Shrimp and Grits, a must have when you go to Charleston!Ashleigh, on the left, Alyson, on the right.

(Another server insisted on taking a picture with our server with us!)

Another meal at Hominy Grill (below) on Rutledge Street

We both ordered vegetable plates (with four veggies) and the huge wedge of cornbread was served with it, along with boiled peanuts! We shared the veggies, here's what we had: Fried Cheese Grits Patties, Okra and Tomatoes, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Squash Casserole, Macaroni and Cheese (made with white cheddar and parmesan) Slaw, Crowder Peas and Rice, and Tomato Pudding (which was new to us, and was delicious!) It was all good!


This was the highlight of our trip, and the reason we went a month earlier than her birthday:

A Beth Moore Conference!

That's her on the stage and on the screen. She is a marvelous Christian teacher, speaker, and author! She has many books, DVDs, etc., and travels often to different states for these conferences. Nine thousand attended this one, so that shows you how popular she is! She also has a praise team with about ten musicians who travel with her. The praise music was wonderful, I wanted to buy all of his CDs! He is Travis Cottrell (and he sounds a little like Josh Groban!) That's him below on the keyboard, on the left.

and on the screen below:

We sat on the second level

The conference was Friday night and Saturday till noon

More excitement was when we were included in a group picture of her blog members and got to see her up close! (This was after the conference ended.)

She is beautiful inside, and out!

and wears the cutest clothes!

If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of Beth Moore's conferences, we highly recommend you go! Or buy her books and/or DVDs, - very inspirational.

It was so nice spending several days with my two daughters! We don't live in the same town and I don't get to see them very often :-(


Oh, I did two photo albums of Alyson's childhood pictures to surprise her with. They enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the journaling!

We were truly blessed with this trip, everything went so well, the weather was nice, etc. God's Hand was in it all and we thank Him and praise Him for His Goodness!!

Two years ago my two daughters took me to Savannah to celebrate a milestone birthday, it was then that we planned a trip somewhere to celebrate Alyson's special birthday. She chose to go here so we could go to the Beth Moore Conference. I am so thankful to the Lord for having children who want to do this type thing and enjoy Christian activities!! PTL!




More pictures of the house!

Mad Hatter Tea Party

I went to a tea party this week! A Mad Hatter Tea Party! This tea party was held at a most unlikely place, but I guess a Mad Hatter Tea Party should be in an unlikely place! It was held at Curves, where I go to exercise! Curves had a members competition and the last Queens standing would be treated to a tea party.

The Mad Hatter above, is one of our trainers. She made that cute outfit! Have you ever seen a cuter Mad Hatter!

Here I am with the Mad Hatter (before she completed her outfit.)

There was also a hat contest for most unusual hat, but I didn't participate in it. I just wore a hat and outfit I wore to a tea party a while ago. Here are some of the decorated hats:


She won for most unusual! She had different tea bags hanging from the hat!

This hat was decorated with a deck of cards!


This hat won for most colorful!









Birds nest on the hat!

And the pretty face under the hat!


Cloche hats!


This hat had a tea pot shaped tea cozy on it! Cute!


Another bird on a hat, this bird is white:




I'm glad I wasn't one of the judges!!! I would never decide, too many great hats!!

The table decorations:

Different bright colored tablecloths and napkins, cute square plates, and large paper flower centerpieces.

The food:

The desserts:

That trifle in the large bowl in the center was my big downfall!! Yuuuummm!!

The Tea table:

The Mad Hatter doing the awards, etc:

Look at those cute shoes and stockings!

Everybody playing a trivia game:

(More of the winning hat is shown on the left above)

The decorations:

Our talented Mad Hatter (Krista) did all of the decorations on a shoestring budget!

Our trainers are both in their early twenties, and do a wonderful job! Stefanie avoided my camera some way! I'll get her later!!


Thirty-three members attended the tea party and a good time was had by all!! Now we have to exercise double time to work off all those wonderful calories!!


I didn't realize I had my hat on backwards until I saw these pictures! Oh, well, it is a "Mad Hatter's" Tea Party!