Hello friends!

Like I mentioned in this photoshoot post, I recently attended a beautiful girls’ retreat in the mountains with some friends. Over the weekend we had several lovely adventures that I wanted to share with you guys today.

Read on for cute animals, a beautiful hike, and the fanciest tea party. (Warning: this post may make you hungry.)

Starting off with a couple phone shots from the first night. Fancy mocktails and halva + other tasty appetizers. And friends! I got a selfie with Aria, a dear friend I met through blogging. It’s always so special to see her in real life since it doesn’t happen often.

The weekend was filled with heaps of beautiful and delicious food, much of it grown on Aria’s parents’ farm where we stayed. Including this gorgeous and yummy plate of breakfast fruit!

We stayed in a super cute little camper where Aria’s mom had set out goodie bags, notes, and clean towels just like a fancy hotel. ❤ She also designed themed shirts for each of us using the logo I drew for her!

We explored the barns the first morning and found Bobert the cat! 😀 Megan attempted to make friends with him, and documented her mild success.

These cute cows lived right outside the camper. So pretty in the morning light.

Aria’s grandmother taught us how to make mozzarella cheese using milk from the aforementioned cows. It was a fun experience, but also a lot more math-heavy than expected because of a few measuring accidents we had to figure out how to remedy. Oops.

We convinced Aria’s brother to take us waterfall-hunting in the woods around the property. Mopje was very excited to accompany us.

Unfortunately the waterfall pictures don’t look like much since there hadn’t been enough rain to make them fall instead of just drip… But it was a beautiful hike nonetheless!

Megan found and caught a crayfish in the creek. She let him go after being pinched a few times…

We also found these beautiful shiny buckeyes! We thought at first they were chestnuts to roast over an open fire, but alas, they are toxic and inedible. Sadness. They were still delightful to collect and hold in your hand.

Mopje made a great photo subject all along the creek, hehe.

Then we came back for tea! It was held in this not-quite-finished solarium with so much natural light through the big windows, ah! A photographer’s dream. 😉

Most of the pictures from the tea are of the food, heh, but here’s one of some of the guests in their pretty dresses.

Here’s a camera photo of the setup with food and a BeReal of after most of the food was eaten/cleaned up. LOOK HOW PRETTYYYYY.

This was the menu. O.o If it’s not obvious by now, Aria’s mom is the absolute queen of hosting fancy parties. I always feel so honored whenever I get to attend one! It brings her so much joy to make things beautiful and that shines through everything she does. Also she’s a fabulous cook, my goodness.

And now for the food! Yes, everything tasted as good as it looked. I told you this post would make you hungry.

Cheesecake with gold foil on top and farm-grown chocolate-dipped strawberries. :O

This is one of my favorite food pictures. It features “strawberry soup,” which was basically a really yummy smoothie! I wish I could eat everything again…

Such a sparkly photo! More fancy drinks to go with our tea.

Here’s my little tray of food all ready to eat. Yum.

We ended the day with even more food – a collaborative charcuterie board we enjoyed while watching “Miss Potter.” So fun!

I will close this post with some cute ducks swimming happily about in their pond.

I’m so grateful to Aria’s parents and grandparents for hosting such a lovely, memory-filled weekend. Everything was beautiful and delicious and fun, but it was also wonderful just to see her family again and make new friends. Ah, good times.

What is your favorite tea party food? Mopje, Bobert, ducks, or cows?

Thanks so much for reading, my friends, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. You may have gotten an email with a broken link for my last post. :[] I accidentally published and unpublished it which messed things up a bit, so if you haven’t seen my poem book launch post, check it out here!