Wedding Attendants

Cousin Matt and new-cousin Shelbie invited Mary and Gussie to serve as Flower Girl and Ring Bearer in their recent wedding.

I know weddings are all about the bride. And maybe a little about the groom, and their moms, and some immediate family. I get that. But if you are reading this and you are not yet married and you at some time get married, I would very, very much appreciate it if you would take a moment of your planning time to consider inviting a few young people to be a part of your celebration and COMPLETELY CHANGE THEIR LIVES FOREVER. Or something close to that.

This isn't the case for all kids, of course. We've all seen the videos of terrified, wild-eyed children being coaxed and shoved down the aisle, traumatized by all the pairs of eyes boring holes through them. If you ask a young person to be in your wedding and they do not respond enthusiastically, please graciously allow them a less conspicuous job and save them a bit of psychological terror.

But you won't know until you ask, and if they do respond enthusiastically, then you've done a very good thing. Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a kid feel special, but if you have an opportunity to do that in any way, it's pretty much always worth it.

Anyway, Mary and Gussie enthusiastically agreed to be part of the wedding. Catherine was understandably a bit disappointed at how quickly she outgrew the standard Acceptable Flower Girl Age Bracket, but she handled herself beautifully. Michael didn't seem to mind, although I have learned from much experience that his preferred method of dealing with any and all emotions or unmet needs is to say nothing, pretend nothing is wrong, and just muddle through making questionable choices until he is so overwhelmed that he either explodes and punches somebody or buries himself under a blanket for a couple hours, so I guess I can't say for sure that he wasn't jealous at all. [We're slowing working on the emotional intelligence aspect, I promise.] Edie was happy once I tied a ribbon around her waist like Mary had tied around hers.

About a month before the wedding, Gussie started asking daily if it was wedding day. He very excitedly shopped for black wedding shoes, tried on his wedding suit and tie, and practiced walking while holding a pillow. Finally the weekend came and Daddy took them to the rehearsal. Afterwards Gussie told me it was fun, but not as fun as it would be when he got to do it wearing his wedding clothes and black wedding shoes.

These kids. Sometimes I'm not entirely sure they are mine. I am firmly in the camp of the "psychologically terrorized" children who wouldn't be able to walk down the aisle with all the staring eyes boring holes through my skin. But Gussie and Mary were not nervous at all (well, Mary might have been a tiny bit nervous but you'd have to ask her). They knew just what to do and they did a wonderful job. I think I was more nervous than they were, one because they were supposed to stand on the stage with the bridesmaids and groomsmen for the whole ceremony, and two because in addition to their wedding duties, we would be spending the whole afternoon with Aunt Jena, who would be the honored guest at a *surprise* party the very next day, and my kids already knew about the party (even Gussie) and were supposed to go the whole afternoon without ruining the surprise. We spent the entire drive to the wedding reviewing what we were and were not allowed to talk about with Aunt Jena.

Anyway, that's a ridiculous amount of writing with no pictures. Here.

At first I had a terrible time getting an actual smile out of Gussie.

Then I asked him to tell me a joke. He picked one about tractors.

I only have a couple pictures from the wedding because I firmly believe the photogrpher should take the pictures at a wedding and the rest of us should just be at the wedding. But I did grab one of each kid on stage. Gussie did great standing on stage for the 15 or so minutes of the actual ceremony. He did tap his foot quite a bit, and when I asked him afterwards he said he was doing it because he thought it would be funny and people would like to see it. At least he chose foot tapping as the entertainment instead of gallopping around like a horse belting out the "Conjunction Junction" song.

Aunt Jena made a flower girl head piece for Mary and she loved it. This is where I think she maybe got a little nervous, just standing up there without much to do, but she made it, and remembers her role fondly. Maybe she should have tried Gussie's foot-tapping trick nonetheless.

Edie mostly slid around on the floor at my feet.

All dressed up! Do you see Michael's annoyed/bemused look happening here?

This was on our way to the car when we were leaving (because that's when I usually remember to take pictures like this). See how Michael Jr has his finger in his mouth so he looks like a walrus? I asked him if could take his finger out of his mouth for the picture, and he refused. Actually, not so much refused as simply ignored me. Daddy asked him if would take his finger out of his mouth instead of looking like a walrus for the picture, and he was similarly ignored. I know just enough about kids to know that this was not a battle worth fighting at the moment, so we continued on our way to the van, buckled up, and headed out, Michael Jr dragging his feet and ignoring my invitations to tell me if something was wrong the whole time. About two hours after we got home, I finally coaxed him into telling me what had been bothering him since this picture: we left before Matt and Shelbie left in their getaway car, which was a fancy old timey car we had seen in the parking lot when we arrived, and Michael wanted to stay and watch it drive away. So, now I know: do not make Michael leave a wedding before the fancy car drives away unless your plan is to toss him in a dark pit of despair. (Like I said, still working on the emotional intelligence factors; while advocating for yourself is something that apparently comes quite naturally to Edie, Michael Jr has to work pretty hard at it.)

Gussie and Mary still randomly reminisce about their day being ring bearer and flower girl. Sometimes Gussie walks around carrying a pillow just so, and Mary has saved her headband in a special spot.

So I just wrote an entire post recapping a wedding without any pictures or stories of the bride, but I promise she looked stunningly beautiful and we are so happy for her and Matt and very thankful they invited us to be a part of their day! It's just I have two two eyes and five kids and my brain is basically maxxed out at any given second of the day. No worries - I'm sure the photographers did their job!

Edie's Babywearing Gallery

If you're around us while we're around any other babies or small children, you'll likely see me hovering over Edie and/or warning parents of said babies that I pretty much expect her to try to snatch the baby's eyes out at some point. It's just a fact; snatching baby eyes and smacking small children whom Edie has decided have offended her in some way is something that happens (or nearly happens, since I've learned to hover in these situations) on a regular basis.

But in fairness I have to point out that Edie can also be really gentle and sweet with small humans. I have yet to figure out why she chooses snatching and smacking over gentle and sweet in any particular situation, but she definitely has the capacity for both.

And if she knows anything about babies, it's that babies like to be worn, and as soon as you pick up a baby you should start bouncing up and down. I don't have her signature "bounce and pat" routine on video, but here are some pictures of her with her favorite doll in Gussie's ring sling.

I know these pictures are almost all the same. I try really hard to be ruthelss in cutting unnecessary or similar pictures, but I wasn't able to delete any of these.

I'm not entirely sure what's up with the duck lips. She makes them any time she is concentrating, angry, pouting, or trying to make an "f" sound.

Her smile. I just want to memorize this picture in my brain.

Kisses.

(Yes, that baby doll's head is that dirty. It's pretty much permanent. That doll has been around longer than me.)

"Ffffff. Ff. Fffffff. F."

Another Picture Catch-Up - April

Whoops. I thought I got everything in my last picture catch-up post but I forgot about the "April" folder, so here are a few more!

If Edie naps during the day, she is still usually wrapped up on me, but once in a while I can successfully transfer her from being wrapped to sleeping on a bed.

Musical Theatre class might be over, but the kids and neighbors still put on several plays a week at home. I can't remember who Catherine was here... maybe a mom, or a teacher because she has a "rapper" (the wooden pointer stuck into her coat belt), or a famous singer travelling to London? One of those.

Yes, Mary is wearing sandals with bright green socks. And swimming shorts with a sweater. And a doll's horse's spare tail piece in her hair. And she's clearly having a good time.

Meanwhile, on the swingset...
(I promise, I make them wash their feet every night before bed.)

Gussie took this picture of Michael. It might be my favorite recent picture of him.

Gussie also took this picture of the Lego tractor he got in his Ester basket. I'm pretty sure most of the pieces for it are lost now.

Ballet and Theatre

Catherine and Mary both participated in the end-of-the-year performances for their ballet and musical theatre classes. Musical theatre performed "Cinderella" and they both had chorus parts; Mary was a village child, a mouse, and a maiden at the ball and Catherine was a village mom and a maiden at the ball. They had so much fun in musical theatre this year that they are signed up for a musical theatre camp this summer. After this performance, Catherine told me all she wants to do for the rest of her life is sing in musicals, and when she gets too old to perform, she'll be a director.

I wish I had better pictures, but you get the idea.

Here they are at the beginning of the ball scene.

And making their curtsies to the prince.

And Mary as a mouse.

We have a DVD of the whole show and if you ever want to watch it, I guarantee both girls will be happy to show you.

Not long after that they had their ballet recital. I do have a whole video of that because it is only a few minutes long.




Since I know most of you won't watch a three and a half minute video, here are a couple pictures as well.

Getting ready.

They were of course on opposite side of the stage the entire time, but I managed to get a couple of each.

I forgot to ask Catherine what this is called before typing this. I called it a "leap" and I remember she told me that is incorrect, but I don't remember what it really is. Either way, she got really high!

And Mary's "not leap".

I'm glad they've been able to do these types of classes at the co-op. Since the very idea of being on a stage makes me want to throw up and crawl under a bed, I don't think I'd really excel as their teacher in these areas. But it really is fun when your kids are not exactly like you; I'm glad I didn't accidentally train them into stage fright before I knew it was something they would actually enjoy!

Another Picture Catch-Up

I've once again reached the point of picture backlog that the only sensible thing to do is mash them all into one post in a totally random order and move on.

This was the first outfit Mary put together with her new skirt.

Daddy was getting ready for a bike ride and photobombed her portrait.

One rainy, cool day we met Carrie and kids at the Gardens to check out the newly rennovated children's discovery center. It was great and all the kids found something to entertain them for at least an hour, then we walked through the Climatron as well. Luckily it wasn't yet raining when we headed through the Gardens back to the parking lot, so we stopped for a quick peek at the floating onions, as well as a little frog who was swimming at the surface of the water.

Catherine has mastered babywearing mirror selfies.

Since most of my pictures of me and any of the kids are a weird close crop -- the result of taking selfies with a real camera and a 50mm lens, every once in a while I have one of the kids back up and snap one for me.

Mary took this one. The boys were completely undirected. I laughed when I saw it.

Michael has started his second season of t-ball! Unfortunately 3 or their first 4 games were rained out, and the one that we did play was pretty squishy and cold so I had Edie and/or Gussie in my arms the entire time and this is the only picture I got: Michael running to third. Hopefully we'll get some dry games soon!

Science project: You're stuck on a desert island and you need to make a hat to protect you from the sun using only what washed ashore in your lunch bag. They enjoyed this one (although not as much as the one where we tried to find the relative melting points of various types of candy).

Gussie charged into the house the other day and asked me to take a picture for him. This is the picture he wanted:

He worked hard, then needed to relax.

Edie Bug has been watching Mary very carefully on the sewing machine lately.

You know how some kids stick out their tongue or bite their lip when they're concentrating? Edie makes duck lips.

We've had a nice coloring streak since it's been so rainy. I picked up a pack of postcards that have intricate coloring designs on the front so the kids can color and mail them. These are the only ones I got a picture of so far. By Mary:

By Gussie:

Yep, this is a nice picture of the kids helping Daddy fix up a bike tire. [Reality Side Note: they were touching everything and spinning the tires and losing the tools and making a fairly quick job entirely impossible.]

The blackberry bushes in the back have hundreds of these buds at the tips of the new growth, and each one looks like a tiny chandelier after a rain. Mary says it is fitting for Blackberry Cottage.

Ta-da!