FINE & DANDY

With all the stress of school and due dates hanging over your head, it's hard to find time to hang out with your friends and be stupid together. 

But I'm thankful that the past couple of weeks have been filled with much laughter and exciting moments. 

8/29/15

My little baby Emma (the cute redhead in my arms) turned fifteen last month, and we celebrated by having a stereotypical Floridian beach party. The weather was perfect, for once, and the sunburns on our backs were proof of a fantastic morning. 

9/18/15

A Sarah and Kalli date was long overdue, so we decided to go downtown and try our hand at painting pottery (I'm a little afraid to see the end results). We then decided to have a mini photo shoot because that's just kinda the thing you do when you're surrounded by beautiful, abandoned homes and perfect white walls, right? 

9/20/15 & 9/22/15

Krynnie and I finally got together after about four months of failed attempts!! We went to see that new maze runner movie, and it turned out to be a very interesting night because 1) the movie was way more scary and gory than we thought it would be, 2) we were so scared but yet we were laughing our butts off at the same time, so ??? 3) a random woman decided to turn the movie theater aisles into a catwalk. 

9/22/15

TEAM PHOTO DAY! Words cannot describe how much I love all these girls! And taking pictures with them is a blast and a hassle all in one so it's always a wonderful adventure. Photo day is probably my favorite thing about volleyabll. I mean, who needs all those stressful games and matted ponytails?! Not me! 

HERE'S TO GOOD TIMES & GOOD FRIENDS. 

And now, I shall take you back in time...

Please bare with me as we have a little "throw back Monday" and reminisce on all the fun and exciting things that happened this year!

Highlights in 2014:

A TRIP TO SOUTH CAROLINA IN FEBRUARY TO SEE SNOW. That's right, and it was my first time seeing real snow, too! When you live in Florida your whole life (15 long years...), you don't really get the opportunity to see snow. Or experience a white Christmas. Or a cold Christmas. But anyway, we stayed at our cousin's house and made smores and had snowball fights and watched Disney princess movies so it's cool.

A HOMESCHOOL DANCE (ALSO IN FEBRUARY). Every year my mom will plan a special formal dance for homeschoolers, since we don't get to go to proms and all that jazz. We've had three of them so far, and each one has been a big hit! Sometimes a news reporter will come and take pictures of us and then we're famous because we're in the paper. That's right, be jealous.

FAMILY VACATION TO ST. AUGUSTINE IN MARCH. This was our second time to St. Augustine. We rented a house on the river (which was gorgeous, by the way), climbed over 200 steps to get to the top of a lighthouse, went on a ghost tour and walked on the beach. St. Augustine is the perfect city, it's full of so many adventures!!

SURPRISE PARTY (FOR ME!) IN MAY. For my birthday, I was just planning on getting a few girl together to go shopping or whatever. But after school one day, I went home and put on the tv, and out of the corner of my eye...I see five people crowd around the window outside and start tapping on it. It freaked me out, and I had no idea what was going on. But it was so much fun, we played Apples to Apples and watched a movie.

TRIP TO GERMANY IN JULY. For Christmas, my grandparents took my cousin Tyler and I on a trip to Germany!!! It was my first time being out of the country, and also my first time on a plane. We had such a great time; we went to Berlin and saw the remains of the Berlin wall, spent a night in the Black Forest and saw a woodcarving demonstration, and I also tried wine. I wouldn't recommend it.

SCHOOL STARTING IN AUGUST: SOPHOMORE YEAR! Okay I did not think that school would be one of my highlights, but as I think about it, it's not all that bad. Sure the workload can be a bit much, but it's okay overall. Our teachers really try to make it fun, always cracking jokes and telling stories and throwing a tea party for goodness sake!

BEING CAST IN 'A WONDERFUL LIFE' IN OCTOBER. Being in this musical has been the highlight of my life so far. I had no idea theater was this fun! As much as I love singing and dancing, I think the people are what made it so memorable for me. We always found a way to have fun at every single rehearsal, even when it five hours long and we were all exhausted. I miss them all so much, but I know our paths will cross again in a future show!!

I'm finally done, thanks for being patient! 2014 has been a great year, I'm hoping 2015 can live up to it's standards. #bringonthenewyear

DECEMBER LOVIN'

"You have one month to finish the book of 2014. Make the last chapter a good one."

OH HOW I LOVE DECEMBER!

Every year the month of December just keeps getting better and better. But honestly, I don't know if this one can ever be topped!! From tea parties at Heritage to surprise ice skating celebrations, every day has something exciting going on!

I've met so many new people, shared so many laughs, and too many hugs to keep count. I have really been blessed by such wonderful friends who are always up for anything, including impromptu Starbucks dates and late night facetiming! (I'm talking about you, Kryn!) 

Let's hope 2015 can live up to this year! It'll be hard but I have faith!

For the win!

Last night, our homeschool volleyball team beat some public schoolers, and basically our whole town came to watch. (and by "whole town", I mean about thirty people.) Maybe it was our wonderful signs and cheering that made them win, or maybe it was their awesome skills...or maybe it was both!

Behold, the tallest volleyball player I know. Jacquelyn is 6'4" and made of 100% beast. Trust me, you don't want to be under one of her hits!! They're powerful enough to knock out a tooth or two.

And this is Trish. She's just like Jacquelyn, but half the size! But don't let her height fool you because she's a pro!

And here we have our little cheerleaders. They did a great job at screaming and making sure everyone heard them. They were so cute though, and really got the crowd cheering! 

And what better way to end a wonderful win than a trip to Chick-Fil-a?! It's kind of a tradition that we go there after a game, but the other team must've been thinking the same thing because when we got there, there the line was wrapped around the whole restaurant. Oh well, the more the merrier! 

So fat the season is going great, let's hope we can keep up this winning streak! 

ZURUCK NACH DEUTSCHLAND

(zuruck nach deutschland = back to germany)

I've been home for about three weeks now and honestly, I wish I was still in Germany!! That was the most fun I've had in forever, and I'm pretty sure nothing can top it.

But today I decided to do a little "Throw back Saturday" or something because when you go to Europe, you can't just stop with one post! So enjoy reading some of my stories.

It was our last day of the tour, and we were in the Black Forest. We stopped at a little shop that had basically everything, including the world's largest cuckoo clock. So this guy is giving out free samples of cherry wine, and he looks at me and says, "Try some!" after I said no many, many times, he is still very persistant! I finally gave in and took the little cup. Let me just say, I will not be anxious to try more wine anytime soon. (my throat was burning for ten minutes.)

Our tour director was from Italy, and she is so sweet! She really loved Tyler and I, and kept on joking around with us. But she also had a tendency to talk on and on and on, about the weirdest thing such as the highway. "And if you look on the left, you'll see traffic." No way!!! Traffic!

One last note...Germans have very good style. I saw so many adorable heels and skirts up there! And oh my goodness, H&M's are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I didn't even know they had those in other countries! Let's just say that sometimes, I considered wandering away from the group to go do some quick shopping.

That's all for now! Thanks for being patient with me while I continue to whine about how much I miss Germany.

PS:

Okay, most of the Germans have good style...

GOODBYE TO SUMMER

I have one day left of summer and how am I spending it? On the computer!! Am I smart or what?!

I'm sad to see summer go already, it seems like I just got out of school two weeks ago. But even though my summer didn't go as planned (I only went to the beach once. Pathetic, I know!), I still had fun! I had fun while eating macaroons with my Krynnie. I had fun while going on a picnic with my sister and our friend Angela. I had fun touring Germany with my grandparents and my cousin, Tyler. And I had fun with my donut raft, of course.

Everyone always dreads going back to school after the best summer of their lives, and I admit, I dread it as well. But I think this year, I'll try to be a little bit more optimistic about things and have fun while at school!

Anyway, my school starts on Thursday. And I've already planned how tomorrow will go: netflix, netflix, and more netflix. The perfect day!! You guys will probably be spending your last day at the beach or something productive like that. But I prefer to go a different way. So netflix it is!

I hope you all have a GREAT school year!

Hashtag Germany adventures

Just two days ago I got back from my trip to Germany! It was amazing, and I have so many stories including everything between men with mustaches and my first wine experience. But you'll hear them all in time, I assure you! (I probably won't be shutting up about this trip for a while now..!)

Couple notes about Germany: there are literally ice cream shops everywhere! And it's ten times better than the ice cream we have here. They have flavors that we didn't even know existed.
Also, Germans have really good style! I often found myself having a clothing crush over someone's dress or sandals.
And finally, watching tv shows in Germany is really funny because you can't understand what they're saying but that means that you can interpret what's happening! Like, maybe there was a show about a girl running away but I thought it was a show about a girl trying to find the bathroom. It makes it that much more fun to imagine!

Going to Germany was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, and I'm so grateful for it. I had so much fun there, and the memories will last forever! I'm also missing it terribly, but it's a good thing I took over two thousand pictures so I can relive each moment every day.

OOTD

QUESTION: how long has it been since I've done an outfit post?
ANSWER: too long!!

This outfit is one of my favorites, and it is so perfect for summer, so let me share with you where it's all from!

shorts - kohls 

top - gift

earrings - forever 21

sunglasses - target

flats - american eagle 

My wonderful Kryn and I had a sleepover yesterday, and it was filled with MarioKart, donuts, taking embarrassing videos, talking till 2 am, and of course, pictures!
I'll be leaving in 3 days for Germany, and I'm going to miss this beautiful girl so much!! Everything is ten times more fun when she is around! 

THE DAY OF SPARKLES

This week, I kind of celebrated Independence day two times, because I'm just that patriotic!

Okay, okay. It's because it was storming all night on the fourth, so I played with my sparklers on the fifth.
Anyway, usually I'm not all that excited for the fireworks and lights and such because ever since I was little, I have always hated loud noises (when our family would go to Disney and stay to watch the fireworks at night, I was a wreck. Crying and screaming the whole time. Also, I was afraid of automatic toilets...there, I said it!!). But this year, the fireworks were canceled, and I kind of missed them! It's a family tradition of ours to sit in the parking lot of McDonald's (so classy) and watch the city fireworks. But that didn't happen this time!

Lucky for us, though, there were some people setting them off around our area.

Also, a bright side to the rain: rainy photo shoot!

Photo cred to my sister!

SUMMER DAYS.

Lately my summer schedule has consisted of Netflix and sleeping in. But I had hoped to actually get out of the house once in a while, rather than staying in gym shorts and no makeup all day! So I finally did one thing that I consider a good summery event, and that was a picnic in the park. 

It was so nice! We biked to our neighborhood park and laid out a very nice picnic blanket, played some music, and ate muffins (which the flies soon got to). I love picnics, and when you have the perfect picnic blanket it makes it 10 times better. In other words, go out and buy one! 

Hopefully I'll keep doing things like this. I am still yet to go to the beach!! But it's okay because I have been drinking plenty of frappuccinos from Starbucks and listening to some summer playlists. Also, heads up: in the end of July I am going to Germany with my grandparents, so brace yourselves for about 50 thousand pictures. (it's going to be my first time going out of the country, so yeah. Lots of pictures.)

I'll stop rambling on now. How has your summer been? 

ADVENTURES WITH THE TRIO

Birthday bliss! I was spoiled yesterday by getting together with my two favorite girlies and having tons of fun. It was an adventure; we walked about a mile but what seemed like 40 years, took lots of cheesy self timer photos, and went to the dollar theater to see Frozen. Also, Kryn tried her first sip of coffee and cringed all the way through it! I was so proud of her, though. 

(Emily was obsessed with these leaves. I just thought you should know.)

(Also, I am happiest when coffee is in my hand.)

We had the greatest time! Hiding from people in the mall, happy hour at Starbucks, (half of frappuccinos!) and taking pictures of everything.

Thanks guys for an awesome early birthday! Love you much!