The Wedding: Let Them Eat Cake!

As much as Amelia was excited about being a flower girl and the boys were tickled to wear their handsome man clothes, the highlight of the wedding for them was the reception. Specifically, the sugar -- in the form of cupcakes AND cake pops.

When the kids laid eyes on the table full of goodies, I thought their heads were going to explode. Of course, they didn't want to eat anything else, and the bride, God bless her, told them they could have a cupcake right away.

So my kids ate sugar for supper and little else. What the heck. It was a special occasion, and they were happy!

First there were cupcakes:

Amelia

Sam

 Isaac

Alex

(You can see that we are big fans of frosting.)

And then there were cake pops!

 Sam

Isaac

 Alex & Mommy

The sugar high ended around 11 p.m. for the boys. And Alex woke up at 3:30 a.m. asking for breakfast We tried to persuade him that he didn't need to eat in the middle of the night, but nothing doing. I guess it's no surprise he was starving. I fed him a granola bar and a glass of milk and he went right back to sleep.

Cupcakes and cake pops. It just doesn't get any better than that!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

The Wedding: Amelia the Flower Girl

Amelia has been waiting and waiting and waiting for months now to be a flower girl. She even gave up her paci for it!

She finally got to don the beautiful flower girl dress and walk down the aisle last weekend.

Trying on the dress in March 

We started the day by getting her hair done along with the bride and the bridesmaids, and after it was all curled she was clearly upset. "Mom, I just want to look like myself!" she told me. Well, no problem. Baby fine little girl hair won't hold a curl for anything, so within an hour she was back to her usual self.

Aunt Allie and Amelia before...

...and after.

Amelia did a great job for pictures and had a blast playing with her cousin Taylor while they waited for the wedding. When the big moment came, she sashayed down the aisle like she's done it a million times.

Then she saw Jeff singing and started to cry because she wanted to be with him. Luckily, the boys had left the church by then and I was sitting right behind her. She spent most of the service in my lap, but was all smiles and ready to march back down the aisle when the time came.

We all had a blast at the reception. The kids ate cupcakes AND cake pops, and very little else. The sugar high was epic. And then Amelia and Taylor danced and played and played and danced.

Daddy got a chance to take her for a spin on the dance floor, too. Literally!

Amelia tells me she can't wait for the next wedding! 

© Trippin' Mama 2011

The Wedding: Three Handsome Boys

You may recall my struggles to find something dressy for the boys to wear to the wedding that A) came in the right sizes, and B) wouldn't break the bank.

Well, Sears delivered with these vest sets.

Sam, Alex and Isaac ~ Perhaps Isaac thinks they are the three tenors?

The boys got a kick out of their "handsome man clothes." I got a kick out of seeing them look so gosh darn cute. The black Converse sneakers were the perfect touch, and although I do love me some Velcro kids' shoes, it's almost worth it to tie these on all three pairs of feet. ADORABLE!

We didn't get a great picture of the trio, because as you can see, the boys were really hamming it up that day. I think (I hope!) the professional photographers had better luck than we did.

Sam gets in on the fun this time around!

More to come on our beautiful flower girl, as well as the highlight of the day: cupcakes!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Seventeen Years Later

On Saturday Jeff and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary.

Who ever would have guessed that this:

Would turn into this:

We celebrated by taking the kids to the zoo, but they wouldn't keep them so we brought them home.

Jeff's gift to me was to take all four kids to the grocery store to buy a few things for supper. He texted me from the grocery store parking lot to inform me that the way to get a quiet van is CHEETOS. Genius. Pure genius. Yet another reason why I married that man.

We all stayed up late to catch fireflies. Amelia's an old pro, but it was the first time the boys got to catch them. They all had a blast, though we lost a few fireflies to some overzealous catching.

It wasn't a day full of romance and candlelight dinners, but it was a perfect way to celebrate this crazy, wonderful life we've built together.

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Goin' To The Chapel...

Long ago and far away, when I was a junior in college and still had my pre-babies body, I spent a semester in London. I went partly for the adventure, and partly to get away from the most challenging roommate ever.

Long ago and far away. Pre-babies! Ha!

One of my roommates in London was Kris. She hailed from sunny California, and I had traded the Great Frozen North for the Semi-Frozen Midwest for my college years. (Kris later visited me in the Semi-Frozen Midwest in January and nearly froze to death. But that's a story for another time. I'm not sure she's forgiven me for that yet!)

We became good friends, and had many adventures in during our semester in London. I vaguely recall one night when we decided that wine spritzers would make laundry night much more tolerable. They did. I remember lots of laughing and not much laundry.

When Jeff and I got married, Kris came to the Semi-Frozen Midwest in June to be our photographer. It was her wedding gift to us, and it was priceless. She not only took great formal pictures, but took pictures of everything else that happened, too, from me at the breakfast table to my family doing some crazy dance long after Jeff and I had left the reception.

I've been to San Diego to visit Kris, too. I think she worried the entire time that my pasty, white Midwestern skin would get burned to a crisp. And, because she can't imagine living away from the ocean, she tried to ensure that we spent as much time as possible in sight of the Pacific. We had a great time.

Me, Caryn (whom I also met in London), a friend of theirs, and Kris. San Diego ~ 1998.

Over the years Kris and I have kept in touch in spurts, but every time we reconnect, we pick right up where we left off.

So last week when a heavy, cream envelope addressed in beautiful script arrived with a return address of San Diego, I was breathless with excitement. Kris was getting married.
I tore open the envelope, scanned the invite and then ran to the computer and dashed off an email titled "Yay!"

When the invite arrived I immediately started trying to figure out if I could make it to Kris's wedding. For Jeff and I both to go would be impossible, but maybe, just maybe, I could sneak away?

I checked ticket prices and hotel prices and started figuring out logistics. And then I started debating the cost and how little time I'd get to see Kris, and if it would be better to go later instead.

I almost let my head make the decision instead of my heart.

And my heart leapt for joy when I got the invitation. My heart cheered that Kris had finally found the man of her dreams and was going to get married. My heart wanted to be with her on that big day.

So, I'm going. I'm flying out on a Friday night, and I'll be back by Sunday afternoon. It will be a short trip, a crazy trip, but most of all, a JOYOUS trip.

Sometimes love trumps logic.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Writer's Workshop: Excuse Me Father, I Just Need My Hanky

In a few more weeks Jeff and I will be celebrating our 16th anniversary. Our reception was probably more memorable than our wedding, thanks to the bag dance.

But Jeff and I still laugh about one thing that happened during our wedding.

We were standing at the altar lighting our unity candle. I started to cry, of course. I knew it was going to happen, so I was prepared. I had a hanky on me.

Since no one has figured out that brides cry and put a pocket in wedding gowns, I had to improvise.

I put that hanky down the front of my dress, which was the only place I could carry it without it being seen.

I didn't quite think through how I'd discreetly remove it when needed. But our backs were to the congregation, so I squeezed close to Jeff and with a little flick of my wrist, extracted the hanky.

I would have gotten away with it, too, except the priest had joined us at the altar and was standing directly across from us.

I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head when I pulled that hanky from my cleavage like a rabbit out of a hat.

After the initial shock passed, the priest simply turned around, walked away and sat down off to the side.

Jeff and I started to chuckle silently. It was supposed to be the most solemn moment of our ceremony. The moment when, with prayer and the church's blessing, we celebrated becoming one.

We knew it was inappropriate to laugh, which just made us laugh even harder. We stood there shaking with silent laughter. Suddenly the song that had seemed to go on forever couldn't last long enough for us to compose ourselves. Tears were flowing down our cheeks as we finally pulled ourselves together.

As I pressed a sodden hanky into Jeff's hand so he could put in his pocket, we thought we'd gotten away with our moment of shared laughter. We were wrong. Everyone at the reception asked us the same thing: "What was so funny?" Even though we never made a sound and they couldn't see our faces, they all recognized silent laughter when they saw it!

At least the bag dance made them forget our moment of inappropriate hilarity.

Play along with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. This week's prompt was to tell about a time you laughed at an inappropriate time.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

The Shoes Redux

My shoes and I returned from California late last night. I'll do a post later with pictures, but for now, here are some of my favorite moments, in no particular order:

1. Catching up with two of my sisters on the flight out.

2. Seeing the look on my brother's face when he figured out I wasn't Mary (my sister) and realized I had left the triplets behind to make the trip.

3. His bride, Karen, greeting me and then coming back an hour later to say, "Wait a minute. You weren't supposed to be here!"

4. Being recruited, along with all the other women at the rehearsal dinner, to arrange flowers for the centerpieces for the reception. No experience required. Tequila shot beforehand, mandatory. (The flowers came out surprisingly well!)

5. Watching my brother's oldest son grin from ear to ear during the entire wedding.

6. Breakfast with my mom & sisters.

7. Margaritas at lunch Saturday.

8. Getting my nails done.

9. Sitting in the California sunshine talking with my family.

10. Wearing "big girl" clothes and those killer heels.

11. Eating my meals while they were hot, and without interruption.

12. My brother's comments at the wedding about the role model for marriage and family life that my parents have provided for all of us.

13. Showing off pictures of my kids!

14. Giving my mom her Mother's Day card in person.

15. Watching my brother surprise his bride by singing to her during the wedding.

16. Catching up with my niece and nephews whom I rarely get to see.

17. The opportunity to sleep all night, though I woke up anyway!

18. Coming home to all my children peacefully sleeping while my husband waited up for me.

Photos and video of the flower arranging session to come. You won't want to miss this. Trust me!