The End of The Gathering Place

Dear Friends and Family,
After much thought, we have decided to end our family blog, The Gathering Place. We have found it to much of a burden to keep up with. We appreciate all who have commented and linked us to their blogs.

Alli, however, is going to have her own blog. Please visit her at her new blog address on the sidebar under "Alli's Blog". This is a new blog, not her old one. I have enjoyed blogging and maybe in the future, I'll make another attempt.
God bless ~ Julie

The Capitol

Today, Philip and I were invited to join Eli and his friend Daniel to tour the Capitol of Virginia! Eli is a Virginia Capitol Police Officer so he was able to give us the GRAND TOUR of the Capitol and the surrounding historical buildings. I had never visited the Capitol before (isn't that terrible? :), so I thoroughly enjoyed having a behind the scenes look!
Of course, before we left, the moms had to take a parting shot :) (from left to right: Eric, me, Philip, Eli, and Daniel).
Here we are walking downtown from the parking deck. I loved walking through downtown Richmond and seeing all of the old buildings and architecture. It was a perfect day for it too. :)
This was taken near the Capitol. The cathedrial-looking building in the distance is the Old City Hall.
From this spot, the distances from Richmond on the highways are measured. How neat is that?Here is a view of the Capitol from the street. Isn't it huge? We went in the underground passageway(the door to the right) that led to the Capitol itself. Philip was astonished when he saw the whole inside of the passageway was made of marble. :) There was a gift shop, cafeteria (where we ate lunch), and a gallery of various historical paintings.
Eli took us throughout the inside of the Capitol. This is a picture taken at the Capitol 's rotunda. A statue of George Washington stood right in the center and the busts of various presidents lined the walls.
This is a picture of the dome in the rotunda, although I have to say, this picture doesn't really do it justice. :) The archetecture was outstanding!
On the next floor, we saw paintings of all of Virginia's governors. Speaking of govenors, we caught a glimpse of our current governor, Governor Tim Kaine walking in the rotunda! I'm sorry to say, I didn't get my camera out in time. :)

Here is a picture of the Old Senate Chamber.

I thought this was the neatest part! Eli got us into the Senate of Virginia Chamber where we were able to sit in and listen to the senators of Virginia in session. How many times do you get to do that? It was neat to be able to actually see the senators that you hear about all of the time in action! I didn't take a picture while in session because I didn't want to get in trouble. :)
I was the annoying photographer on the tour. :) Thanks guys! Here, we are back outside in front of the Capitol building. We were able to go in the General Assembly Building where we saw the Senators' offices and the Old City Hall.

The Governor's Mansion

Here is another view of the Capitol building from the Governor's Mansion.

Our last stop: The Library of Virginia! Phil liked this place! This picture does not capture the millions of books that are all around! If you are looking for a book, this is the place to go! This library even has shelves of phone books from many years ago up until now. :)
And that was the end of our visit to the Capitol! Philip and I really enjoyed seeing the sights for the first time! I hope I got all of the facts right in my post, there was so much to take in! :) Thanks Eli for taking the time to show us around today, we had a great time! ~Alli

Grab Your Umbrella...

Today we had a surprise baby shower for the Donahue family after fellowship! They are expecting their first girl so we all got to pull out the pinks and frilly fun that only a baby girl can bring!

Mom and I were in charge of bringing a batch of pink cupcakes.

Church was at the Kilpatrick's home today, and Mrs. Kilpatrick and her daughter Hannah did such a beautiful job with the decorations for the shower! The table was set with pink candles, flowers, a pink tablecloth, and winding silver beads. It looked very elegant. Mrs. Donahue was certainly surprised when she walked in this morning to a room decorated in her honor!

The young ladies' end of the table

During lunch, we played cute baby games. First we had to hold a little Easter egg full of ice, and the lady that had her "water break" first won. :) Then we were all given diaper pins to wear and whoever crossed their legs got theirs taken away (since pregnant ladies usually are unable to cross their legs:). After lunch, we joined the men and played some other hilarious games.

This looks rather interesting, doesn't it? For this game, everyone had to try to draw a baby on the back of a plate...on their heads without looking! This game was my favorite. :)

Mrs. Donahue then chose which picture she thought looked the most like a baby.

Philip won with this drawing! We also played a game where we each had a word taped to our backs that had to do with child birth. We had to then go around and ask each other questions about our word, and the first person to guess their word won. Meredith won this one! Yay!

Looking at each other's wedding pictures

After games, Mrs. Donahue got to open presents for baby Mary Elizabeth! Hannah came up with a great idea for a gift basket, and Meredith and I helped her get items and put it all together.

This afghan was crocheted by Micah and is so beautiful! She did a wonderful job! I love the edges of it...they look like lace. Micah, I need you to teach me how to crochet so beautifully! :)

Here is the little project I've been working on this past week. I made a little Regency dress for Mary Elizabeth using a pattern from Sense and Sensibility. I had so much fun making it, and I hope she will enjoy wearing it!

Well, after that part, my camera ran out of batteries! Arg! Well, Mrs. Donahue received many beautiful dresses, frilly clothes, blankets, toys, and baby necessities for her new little one, and all of the ladies got to "ooh" and "ahh" over all of the adorable girly things. We had such a wonderful time today and hope the Donahue family was as blessed with this shower as we were blessed giving it! ~Alli

Monday Fun!

Today, Meredith and I travelled to the Pregnancy Support Center in a neighboring county to help out! We hadn't been in a couple of weeks so it was a real treat to get to go with her, just the two of us. We arrived and found a huge bag of baby clothes that needed hanging and some other items that needed to be placed in our "Little Blessings Boutique" store. We had a great time of laughing and freezing in the shed and quickly finished while we could still feel our fingers!

Afterwards, Mere and I drove over to the storage units that hold all of our extra supplies, clothes, and diapers for the store. We needed to pick up some wipes, and Meredith wanted to see inside the sheds that were completely cleaned about a month ago by some very helpful volunteers! It's absolutely amazing what they did to our poor little storage units! They were packed full of stuff, and if you wanted anything, you had to dig!

This picture was taken a few months ago, and you can see just how stuffed the units were. This is only one of them.
This is what they look like now! Amazing! What a blessing it was to have the help of those volunteers!
They truly worked a miracle, and we are so thankful for the commitment and service that they gave to the Pregnancy Center! We can actually find things now!

Whenever we go to the Center, we love sewing afterward. Although most of our time was spent talking, we managed to get a lot accomplished today!Our quilt is coming along quite nicely and we only have four more squares to sew! I can't believe it. :) Today we put together one square, and got another one cut out to work on during the week. We had set a goal when we first started to have our quilts finished by Christmas, but we decided to move our deadline to next Christmas. :)

Meredith had a fabulous idea to lay out what we had sewn so far just to see what our quilts would look like! This is Mere's! I think the colors that she chose are beautiful! Her outer border is going to be the white fabric that has light blue flowers on it, and I think it's going to look fantastic! I can't wait to see it all finished! Thanks for coming over today Mere!

This is a picture of mine. :) I thought at first it was going to look WAY too pink, but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be! My outer border is going to be the floral pattern that you see in my quilt. I can't wait to finish it and be able to enjoy it! We only have one more row to sew and then we get to put it all together at last! I can't wait!

Well, that was my day so far! Now I must go and study for the final exam I have to take for my Biblical Wisdom course through Telos on Thursday. How exciting! I always get nervous with tests! Oh well, off to hit the books! ~Alli

(This is our 100th post by the way! To celebrate, we are going to be having a giveaway! Stay tuned... :)

Sew, Sew, Sew Your Quilt...

Today was a "sewing day" for Alli and Meredith. First, they both made love knot blankets for their hope chests. This was a very easy blanket to make. They were excited to finally get something completed.
Next, they worked on their quilts. This pattern was very time consuming. I overheard a lot of laughter upstairs so I'm not sure if they were working or playing.... Can anyone guess the name of this pattern? No fair Sarah G. You're the only one who can't guess...That is unless no one else can guess it. :) ~Julie

A Baby Shower Tea

Last month, Meredith and I were asked by the ladies in our church to be in charge of planning and catering a baby shower for the lovely Mrs. Prueitt! This was my first time coordinating anything, and I cannot tell you how much fun this was! Mere and I spent these last few weeks organizing our ideas, shopping for supplies, cooking, baking, and getting it all finished for the shower this past Saturday. The theme we picked for Mrs. Pruiett's shower was a ladies' luncheon/tea (notice the hats in the above picture :) ).

Here is a picture of the main dining table. We were so happy to have Meredith's grandma with us this past weekend! She beautifully arranged all of the flowers for the tea making the whole setting very elegant and tea-like. :) She even pressed dainty flowers from her own garden in between each plate...they looked beautiful! Also on the table was a place card for each guest, a folded lavender napkin (folded beautifully by Mere's brothers, Elliot and Oliver:) ), and a little bootie filled with dinner mints. Since the Pruiett family is expecting a little girl, we incorporated a lot of different shades of lavenders and pinks into our decorations. On Friday, Meredith and I prepared the dishes that we were going to serve. On the menu was chicken salad and croissants, turkey and spinach pinwheels, pasta salad, cheese and crackers, a vegetable platter, and fresh watermelon. On the day of the shower, we set everything out and made some very pink strawberry punch to go with the iced tea and water.

Once everyone had arrived, Mrs. Alexander shared some thoughts of encouragement and a lovely prayer for Mrs. Pruiett. She shared from Psalm 128 and I was really encouraged with these verses: "Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table. Behold for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord." (vs.3,4) Mrs. Alexander encouraged us who were not yet married to continue to fear the Lord and trust Him with the size of our future families. The Pruiett's are expecting their sixth child, and it is a beautiful thing to see God's blessing on their family as they continue to seek the Lord's will for their lives.

After lunch, all of the ladies picked up their chairs and relocated to the living room for baby games! We had asked each lady and young lady to bring a baby picture of themselves for a guessing game. It was called "A Face Only Mama Could Love." Everyone had to guess who was in each picture, and it was tough! Hannah Girotti got the most right! We also played a measuring game where each guest had to cut a piece of yarn to wrap around Mrs. Pruiett, and whoever was closest to the actual size of her waist won. Mrs. Winter and another young lady came the closest.
Once the games had been played, the ladies gathered around to open baby gifts. Everyone say "Awwwww!". :) Mrs. Pruiett's daughters, Isabelle and Noelle (pictured here), are both excited about their new baby sister!While the presents were being opened, Meredith and I were busy clearing the main table while preparing for dessert and tea.
For dessert, we decided to make a New York-style cheesecake, a German Chocolate cheesecake, lemon bars, and chocolate covered strawberries. We also had the Winter girls make some chocolate chip cookies as well.
Here is a picture of the tea table. Meredith and I thought the mismatched teacups atop doilies and plates added charm to the table. :)

Time for tea!


Here I am with Sarah and Hannah Girotti, Meredith, Noelle, and Isabelle. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to see the Girotti family again!

Planning this baby shower was such a wonderful experience for me! But the real encouragement came when I saw everyone fellowshipping and celebrating together as we anticipate God's newest blessing in the Pruiett family. ~Alli

A Trip To The Thrift Store

Today Mom, Meredith, and I decided to hit a tiny thrift store in Farmville, VA after working in the Pregnancy Center this morning. When we pulled in the parking lot, we noticed an absolutely wonderful sign that stated a brown bag sale for clothing. Any clothing item that could fit in a grocery-sized paper bag was ours for only $5! We immediately hopped out of the van and started rummaging through the racks! Even if we saw name brand items that weren't our sizes, we threw them in the bag to sell on eBay.

The cashier said that in order to cram as many clothes in as we could, we needed to roll each item into a little ball. I think they were pretty eager to get rid of some things! After a while, she even said we could put shoes in our bag too. Our poor little brown bag was piled high and bulging at the seams! Meredith and I counted 45 thrift items when we got home. Several of the shoes and other clothing items we kept for ourselves, but the rest is going on eBay. We figured that we spend about 11 cents on every piece. What a blessing! I love thrifting! :) ~Alli

My Weekend

This weekend was such a blessing because I was able to attend the Jamestown Quadricentinnial celebration with the Alexander family! On Saturday, they picked me up and we all travelled to Jamestown together in our colonial attire, of course. :) The event was sponsored by Vision Forum Ministries, and it was so neat to be with so many like-minded families there.

I especially enjoyed being able to see the different speakers that I've only listened to on tapes in real life! My friend Meredith and I were excited to see many "famous" people such as the Botkin sisters, the Bradricks, Kelly Brown (now Kelly Bradrick), Jenny Chancey, the Brown family, the Philips family, the Hendrys, and so many more! We were a little star-struck. :)

Here, Meredith and I are surrounded by beautiful scenery at Fort Pocahontas. This was our first attempt at making dresses like these! It definitely took a lot of patience! Meredith and I just loved wearing our puffy dressed during the weekend. It's funny how wearing a dress like that will make you feel even more feminine, cause you to stand up straighter, and walk more gracefully. Well, I had to walk gracefully because I was afraid that I would step on my dress on accident and cause it to unravel. :) Besides that, I loved walking around Jamestown in a fancy dress! This is the closest we came to the Philip's family! The top picture is of Mr. Philips' lovely wife and children, and the bottom is of himself . On Saturday, we enjoyed listening to the messages of many different speakers, including Doug Philips and Paul Jehle. We also saw the firing of muskets, colonial dancing, fifers, sword fighting, fireworks, and so much more. The Alexander's and I were so excited when we heard that my family and the church family were going to meet us there for the church service on Sunday morning. The service was beautiful but very hot! Afterwards, we all followed each other to the home of a family from our church for lunch. A perfect ending to a perfect weekend! Thank you so much Alexander family for taking me along on this exciting experience! It was definitely one to remember. :) ~Alli