"You will NEVER guess!"

Oh boy, guys.  This is big!  Really, friends.  This news is life-changing.

Well, okay, fine, maybe it's not really life-changing, but . . . it has certainly been "an epoch in my life," as Anne Shirley would say.  (She says that somewhere, doesn't she?  Anywho.)

Do you want to know what it is?  Very well, I shall tell you.

I got to meet up with blogging friends!!!!

TWO blogging friends, to be exact: Miss March and Natalie!!!  And we got to visit for a whole nine days!  IT WAS FREAKING EPIC.

Howzabout a little chat with them, eh??  [Olivia in purple, Natalie in blue, and Alyssa (Miss March) in peach.]

Hi, it's Alyssa (otherwise known as Miss March).

And this is Natalie. *waves* 

Well, I guess someone should explain how this grand occasion came about. Anyone volunteer?

I shall try my hand at it.  Alyssa invited us to her house, and we came, and here we are on our last full day together (by the time you read this, the Fellowship will have been broken).

Staaahpppp. *cries* I don't want to leave!!!! *hugs you guys* Alyssa, can I just stay forever?

Can I second that request??????!!!!!!!

Weeeelll...I don't know about forever...

Okay, FINE, then!  Gosh!!

I guess she wants us to get out of her life and shut up.

She must not love us anymore, Natalie. *cries on your shoulder*

Oh really, girls.  You are so over dramatic.  *eye roll*

*sigh*  Well, whatever.  As we said, this is our last full day together, so we need to go do super-cool things you wouldn't understand--

Government secrets, you know.

Interrupting.  Uh, rude.

As I was going to say, we need to go, but we thought we'd give you some mini (and we mean very mini) reviews of all the cinematic delights in which we've been indulging this past week.

Speaking of indulging....should we mention all the cookies and brownies as well?

Oh, no.  Most assuredly not.  We have our images to keep up.  Onwards to the movie low-down!  (Warning: this is looooong.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ Day One ~

- The Donna Reed Show

This was fun!  I should not be sorry to know it better.

This is one of my very favorite TV shows! However, I haven't time right now to go into detail on why I like it so much so...that's all for now. Just watch it sometime and find out for yourself. ;)

We only watched one episode, and Jeff was grown up. I like him better as a little kid, but it was still fun to watch.

- Penelope

Johhhnnnyyy. And Penelope. and Johnny with Penelope. This movie was ADORABLE. <3

Okay, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie.  I was worried it might be a bit weird for my taste.  But it was actually really fun and the romance was soooooo sweet!!  Yup, I liked it.  :)

This is one of my very favorite movies, so it made me so happy that they liked it, guys.  You don't even know. :')

- Bella 

This was a really sweet movie.  Jose was the BEST!!!  Liked him so much.  

JOSE.  I AM DEADED.

I adore this movie so much and it made me immensely happy that they loved it, too. (And yes. Jose is the literal best. :) :) :))

~ Day Two ~

- A United Kingdom 

Well, not a very productive day movie-wise, I must say. *shakes head*  But I was happy to have gotten to watch this one, since I've been wanting to for a while, and it was new to all of us.  I didn't thoroughly love it, but I have a feeling it might grow on me with a second watching.

This was good, but probably not one I would watch over and over.  I liked the characters, but at the same time I didn't get as emotionally attached to them as I would have liked.  Still good, though.

Same. The couple was adorable and the story very good, but I didn't LOVE this movie or anything. I liked it. (But there was too much confusing political stuff. *cough*) (Or maybe I was just too tired to absorb it. Whatever.)

~ Day Three ~

- BBC Robin Hood 

What I want to know is, if the Sherriff's strong room was that well protected, how did he ever manage to get anything out of it?  ;)

I always love Robin Hood.

We didn't get much of this watched, but it's always good to see my babies again. <333

- This Beautiful Fantastic

*switches intercom on*  "Silence."  I LOVE THIS MOVIE.

I've seen this before, but it was grand seeing it with my fwiends. :D 

I've been wanting to see this ever since Natalie and Olivia reviewed it on their blogs, so it was super fun to be able to watch it with them.  I wouldn't say it made it to my favorites' list, but it was quite good.  (Vernon was my favorite I think.  :))

- Newsies 

IT'S A FINE LIFE, CARRYIN' THE BANNER THROUGH IT ALL!!

*can't decide which lyric to use*  *has identity crisis*  It was so much fun watching this with Natalie and Alyssa. :D

Same.  I had a lot of fun watching this.  It made me want to watch the original movie again though.  

- Napoleon Dynamite

This was gold.  I loved it. xD

This was cheesy.  I hated it.  JUST KIDDING!! It was actually pretty hilarious.  And we've been quoting it ever since.  ;)

I was so afraid of what they'd think of me after watching this movie, so I'm super relieved they enjoyed it. We've been quoting it at each other and even one of Alyssa's brothers who watched it with us. Fun times, y'll.

~ Day Four ~

- Belle 

Another good movie.  Man, there's just too many good movies in this world. I could have used more of John and Dido together but I guess you can't have it all. 

Yay, Alyssa finally got to watch this one!! :D

It was such fun watching this one with Olivia again, as it was the first movie I ever watched with blogging friends--her and Eowyn. And now we got to show Alyssa, too. It's such a beautiful, moving story. <3

~ Day Five ~

- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Umm.....I was curious to watch this again, as I've seen it before a long time ago and didn't care for it very much. I liked it slightly better than I did the first time....*hem hem*.

Yeahhhhhhh . . . watching it through someone else's eyes does drive home how truly terrible it is if you take it seriously.  I mean, I still love it dearly, but . . . yeah.  We kept telling Alyssa's little brothers who were watching it with us that Adam is NOT a man to be emulated.  ;) ;)

Yeah, don't take it seriously.  Just don't.  You'll ruin all the fun of it if you do.  ;)

- The Man Who Invented Christmas

I'd watched this once before, so it was fun watching it again with Natalie and Alyssa and Alyssa's family.  It's really quite an excellent movie, I think.

I've been wanting to see this since it came out, and it was quite enjoyable and quotable and altogether delightful. And Dickens' relationship with his characters was fantastic. "I'm going out.....ALONE." xD  (Also, Alyssa's dad has a reproduction copy of the original publication of A Christmas Carol....it was SO cool to see after watching the movie. It felt like a piece of the movie come to life. :D)

I really enjoyed this movie. It was surprisingly good, and better than I expected. Dickens' interaction with his characters was hilarious...and very creative.

- Priceless 

Good.

Very good, indeed.  It was pretty intense and kind of difficult to watch, but I'm glad I did.  *has inarticulate, emotional feelings*

I've been obsessed with For King and Country lately and just watched Priceless myself for the first time. It's super intense and serious, but I love how the story is told and the hope it offers. I'm really glad those two ^^ like it as well. :) 

-YouTube clips of Jesse and Michelle from Full House

HOW IS THIS SO CUTE I CAN'T DEAL

So adorable!! <3 <3

I'm so glad these two started fangirling over them, too!  I discovered these clips a month or so ago and quietly died from the sheer adorb.  I NEED THIS SHOW IN MY LIFE.  (But my library doesn't have it. *scowls*  What library doesn't have Full House???!!)

~ Day Six * ~

- Sarah Plain and Tall

I always like this movie and it's always good, but I think it was a bit too quiet of a movie for when we watched it, since we were already rather tired. 

It was sweet, but it was a little too much like Love Comes Softly. I was kind of hoping for something different. And, like Olivia said, it kind of put me to sleep. Almost. :P

Like Love Comes Softly, Natalie? Now, now. That's going a bit too far, don't you think?! ;P Seriously though, I really do like this movie (and I think it's much better than Love Comes Softly...'hem), but I guess I can sort of understand where Natalie's coming from. And yes, it was rather putting us to sleep that day, I have to admit. CALEB IS THE CUTEST CHILD THOUGH! I love him so much! <3 <3

* We also started watching some Boy Meets World episodes, as well as Doctor Thorne.

~ Day 7 ~

(more Boy Meets World and Jesse + Michelle)

~ Day 8 ~

- Doctor Thorne 

I really liked this one. I didn't love it--some aspects of the story and characters seemed hard to connect to--but overall it was fun to watch a sweet, new-to-me period drama. Frank and Mary were super sweet and Dr. Thorne was awesome. Can't wait to show this one to my mom. :)

I enjoyed this, though I had some quibbles.  Tom Hollander as Dr. Thorne was probably the best thing about it, but I also enjoyed seeing some other familiar period drama faces and meeting some new ones.  I was a little confused by some of the "artistic choices" -- the costumes were rather weird sometimes (as Alyssa says, "too many flowers" ;)), and some of the actresses' line delivery was weird too, and some other stuff.  BUT, again, I did enjoy it.  

Ditto to a lot of what Olivia said.  It's hard to describe it exactly but there are definitely some things about this film that could have been improved.  Still it was fun watching it together and it's definitely grown on me since the first time I saw it.  (But yeah, seriously.  Too many flowers.  ;))

At least the flowers make for pretty stills, though.

- Boy Meets World

This is pretty much my favorite TV show at the moment, so it was really fun to be able to share it with my friends. :)

I'm low-key obsessed now. This show is so fun. (Stupid sometimes, yeah.) I can't stop laughing when we watch it. :D 

Love it!  The quotability is strong with this one.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Aside from movies, we've had fun engaging in Many Deep Talks (mostly after midnight *cough cough*), reading each others' writing, singing and playing the piano, playing with Alyssa's little siblings, eating, running thither and yon, attending a dance, attending a Sight & Sound show, taking pictures of ourselves like the vain hussies we are, using far too many Napoleon Dynamite quotes, and, of course, laughing, laughing, laughing.  

(Okay, now it's just me, Olivia, again.  I've taken off the differentiating color.)  Seriously, this trip was SUCH a blessing.  Alyssa and Natalie are the actual best, and Alyssa's whole family was really nice, and everything just connected to make this trip the perfect blend of relaxing, exciting, and healing.  Huge thanks to God for allowing everything to work out, logistically and otherwise, and for giving all of us such wonderful blogging friends -- you all included!!  <3 <3 <3

How are your summers going so far??!!