My sister's wedding is over, family parties done, Independence Day passed, visitors gone, baseball finished. Which means that the lazy part of summer may officially commence! And the sticky heat has made it that much easier to enter in. But before all that, are you ready for the photo deluge from all of the above? Good, then. I now subject you to my photo montage of the festivities from the last week in all its random glory. (I'll walk you through them so you don't get too lost. But it is jumpy and random and all things disorganized so be prepared.) Ready? Here we go...
{pretty}
Oh, the flowers were so so so pretty! My multi-talented cousin did them all for the wedding and they were just beautiful. Sunflowers, mason jars, stones, burlap...sigh.
Of course, my sister was also the prettiest of all but I didn't manage to get a good shot. Wrangling children and entering into and participating in the celebration made for few shots on my own camera of the actual wedding. But that's okay. That's what the photographer is for (who was actually a friend of ours and I highly recommend him!).
{happy}
Lots of happy this week...
Bride and groom happiness
Happy is seeing your eight year old choose to take his three year old brother's hand and hang out with him for a while rather than play with the big kids.
The venue was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better!
Happy is dancing with the cousins that live so far away (and those that live close by). We miss them already. How awesome to see loads of children having the time of their lives and dancing the night away with Aunt Caitlin and their new uncle!
Happy is me decorating for Independence Day.
Even our chickens get to celebrate.
Happy is seeing my own firstborn stand for the National Anthem at his very first all star game on the Fourth of July.
His first trophy. Then he treated the family to ice cream with the tokens he'd been saving after each game.
{funny}
What? You don't find your kids playing outside looking like this?
Or...how 'bout this display of ridiculousness...
Sooooo...we have this little tradition in our family that has developed over the course of all the weddings. The six of us sisters do a little dance for our own entertainment for the joy of all the wedding attendees. It started innocently enough with a few off the cuff dances and has evolved into a full blown choreographed spectacle of dancing and awkwardness awesomeness. And this was before the Youtube craze, people. We started it. This time we surprised the bride with a little montage of the dances we've done and welcomed her into her own song...Last Dance by Donna Summer.
Oh my goodness, we are such dorks.
Oh, you didn't think I could get down? I can, y'all. I can.
{real}
Aaaand...back to the holiday. I know I can't be the only one whose had that homeschool realization that you never taught your children the Pledge of Allegiance. Up on the memory board it goes...
But we did get to read the Declaration together which was pretty neat so we get total credit for that. We participated in Hillsdale College's Read the Declaration effort and in the future we hope to implement Leila's idea over here. I love it. Pretty smart lady she is. And the Declaration? Really amazing. Really powerful. Really humbling. Really...relevant.
That is all.
See? I told you it'd be jumpy :)
Yes, really relevant. So true!
ReplyDeleteI love all your ramblings, and -- that pie!! And lovely flowers -- well done.
Was her wedding in the same place yours was? I am not sure if I told you this, but I STILL tell people that was, by far, the prettiest wedding reception area I had ever been to. Also, I loved the dance at your wedding. Man, that night was so much fun. And so long ago :)
ReplyDeleteNo, but it was very similar! Thank you so much! Can you believe it was almost TEN years ago? We are old.
DeleteLots of memories were made last week. Your home was so beautifully decorated for the 4th of July. Thanks for hosting us while we were there. We miss you all already.
ReplyDeleteOh no. I made that same realization about my kids not knowing the Pledge of Allegiance about a month ago.
ReplyDeleteWHOOPS!!! And me, the one who's always complaining that our public schools are making communists, not patriots, out of America's kids.
Ahem.
You CAN get down. I can so tell. You look gorgeous, by the way.
Thank you for capturing some of the wonderful memories we made this past week. I'm still basking in the afterglow! We are so very blessed - and I'm super proud of all my dorky daughters (and son, who was actually seen on the dance floor!)
ReplyDelete