Gym wedding

Another big night out for Murray and I recently! My friend at the gym was getting married and invited us all to her reception. We booked the sitter and ran for the hills and danced the evening away! It was quite a swanky party with fireworks and a mountain of cupcakes. The downside of hanging out with your diligent and fit gym friends: you don't indulge at the cupcake tower! 3 minis for me and then I'm pretty sure I danced them all off again, so it's not all bad I guess!

One of my sweet & encouraging instructors!

Wedding Guests Gone Bad!

We had much anticipated going to my cousin's wedding! There were trips to the used clothing store to make sure they all found a dress to wear, some girls even found shoes they liked too! We counted down the days, we inquired regularly which day we were one, how many were left, if the wedding was tomorrow and on and on. It was exciting looking forward to the big event! They planned to dance up a storm and stay up LATE!!!

The venue was a summer camp and anyone that wanted to could stay on site in one of the cabins at no charge! Woot woot, free accommodations and no driving home late at night in the dark! Sweet!

The wedding was held on the beach of a lake and it was a cool, overcast day with a bit of a breeze. Then just as they were saying their vows, the clouds parted and the sun shone down on them. It was pure magic! Their daughter was the flowergirl and she came over to us to share the flowers from her basket with the girls and everyone else nearby until it was empty.

After the ceremony, there was a bouncy castle and bubble blowing station for the kids and hors d'oeuvres for us!

As tends to happen with big events, things ran late and the reception didn't get started until late, which meant the dance, which was what they really had their hearts set on, didn't get underway til almost 10pm. They hit the floor with gusto and hopped and twirled their hearts out, with me, with Grandad, Grammie, Daddy, Aunt Cathy, any cousin they could pin down and also random girl who happened to be near us was also fair game. Then Honey got sleepy. Then Sweetie started winding down. A bit after 11, Murray decided to take them to get ready for bed. I stayed with Lovey and let her dance her butt off a little longer. At 11:25 I decided I'd better pull the pin on things as school was starting soon and I didn't want to have a ridiculously late night.

Little did I know, it was already too late. We were doomed. I got back to the cabin with Lovey and grumbling commenced about things. Squabbly conversations sputtered and sparked as we looked for PJs in the near dark (no electricity, just a small flashlight). We headed out to the bathroom for the final brush and flush and that's when things got U G L Y.

The bathroom building had open doors. In the woods. Where b-u-g-s and s-p-i-d-e-r-s live. Guess where they like to head when there are open doors? Yep. IN. There were spider webs on the ceiling, some moths fluttered around the lights and some spiders were sighted. *insert freak out here*

I'm SCARED.
It's GROSS IN THERE MUM!
I'm NOT using the bathroom in THERE! (despite 27 trips earlier in the day)
TAKE ME HOME.
WHY CAN'T WE LEAVE?
I DON"T WANT TO STAY HERE.


Knowing their bladders couldn't possibly last the whole night, I tried to convince them they had to go in there or out in the bushes.

WHAT?!?!?!?
NO!!!!!!!!!!
I DON"T WANT TO!!!!!!
I CAN'T!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
I WON"T!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO MUMMY NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!

Finally there was just one hold out but she had her heels dug in good and strong. Finally I pushed her into the least spidery stall of the three and made her sit and she promptly took care of business while simultaneously maintaining the loudest and longest and shrillest "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" in the history of girly girldom. The bride's brother appeared in the main entrance to the building, looking concerned and uncertain. Yikes. How embarrassing. He's of course overheard all this drama. Well this is awkward now isn't it?

Him: uhhhh. everything ok here?
Me: yes, sorry, just a sudden case of arachnophobia gone wild.

With a sheepish laugh I turn back to the girls to try and talk them into quieting...... why is he still there?

Him: I just want to make sure everyone is alright.
Me: (perplexed. it's just overtired girls overreacting) oh yeah, it's just the spiders.
Him: (not going anywhere just yet) ummm. well, so..... are you, uhhh, their mother?
Me: Yes. They're tired and need to get to bed.
Him: (still not leaving and now unsure if it's safe to do so or if I'm an axe murdered about to chop them to bits) Oh. yeah. uh, ok then. I have a daughter too, I guess I'll find out about this someday. (hesitantly leaves)

Now I'm good and cranky, he's probably going to phone the police because we can't get our hysterics under control. I march them out and head for our cabin. But it's pitch black everywhere and I've picked the wrong path. and the wrong cabin. and the wrong cabin again with moany groany whining trailing in my wake as we stumble over roots. Then we double back, except this isn't where we started from.... ugh! I see the lights of the reception hall and go back up there and then find the proper path. I think.... "Murray????" I hear him answer so I know we're on the right track and we get back into the cabin.

Only to start up a new chorus of "I don't like it here." "This cabin is DIRTY and GROSS!" "Can I go sleep in the van?"  "I just want to go HOME!"  Of course these things were mentioned at top volume in our whiniest tones and with full on tears. It was the most misery in the smallest amount of space I've seen since the infant days when  I was trapped in our living room with 3 inconsolable preemie infants and just praying to hold on til 5:00 when Murray would be done work. The shrieking and caterwauling went on til after 1am and somehow one of them fell asleep. The other two decided that if they HAD to stay there, they'd hunker down inside their sleeping bags and pull the top over their heads. This created a new conundrum. It's freaking hot when you do that. So we grumble and groan and thrash around a lot, in case anyone hasn't noticed our discomfort. "Settle down and stop rumbling around over there!" "I'M HOT!!!" "Well unzip your bag a bit." "I CAN'T. A spider might jump around and get inside my sleeping bag!!!!"

Murray tried to reason with them that it was no worse than sleeping in our tent. Well they didn't like it THERE either! "Fine. we won't be doing any more camping either then!" Nothing we said was making any headway so we changed tactics.

I played some soft music on my phone and laid down with the most hysterical girl and finally got her calmed down and the thrasher eventually passed out from lack of oxygen, exhaustion, heat stroke or a combo of all three. After awhile I crawled back to my own bunk only to be awakened a few hours later by the same girl I'd left not that long ago! She was hollering, terrified a spider was coming for her. I was too sleepy to stir right away and told her to come crawl in with me. No dice. It was way too risky to walk across the room through the throng of web spinning monsters (that were never actually spotted by the way, it was the POTENTIAL threat that was cause for alarm). This must have been around 5am or so. She was hollering that she wanted to leave NOW. Murray asked her to hold it together so he could get another hour's sleep so he'd be able to stay awake to drive home. Ever heard of the honeybadger? Well she cared even less than a honeybadger. Deciding to take one for the team, I dragged myself out of my bunk, grabbed her, sleeping bag and all and stuffed us into my bunk and told her she could stay there ONLY if she was quiet or I was putting her back. Zonk! Never heard another peep out of her.

Around 8am, I heard a little male voice asking a question. It almost sounded like he was IN our cabin with us. Then I heard my cousin Shawn answer him and although he was speaking fairly softly, EVERY WORD WAS CLEAR AS A BELL. OH dear heaven. There is NO way on earth that any nearby cabin wasn't affected by the parenting fail of the century.

We gave them a quick hushed lecture on the horrible events of the early morning hours and warned them within an inch of their lives to get their stuff gathered and to get out of there without a scene. We packed up in record time and slunk off without making eye contact with anyone else. Luckily not many were up and about yet. We didn't stick around for the brunch and gift opening party. I'm afraid to think of the conversations at that event!

There wasn't anything to eat so we drove home for breakfast. Not one of them spoke a word the whole way home. Murray's pretty sure they were afraid to! Over an hour and a half of silence in the vehicle is practically unheard of so he must be right!

How the angelic faces below turned into such raving lunatics, I have no idea but lucky for them, they're so cute and loving during the day. All I can say is that it will be awhile before we let them stay up late again, special event or NOT!

Sneak Attack!

Lovey's teacher got married in early July and had told me about her day, and plans for pictures before the ceremony. We decided to sneak in for a little photo op ourselves and got to the park ahead of the wedding party and waited for Ms J to arrive and another little girl from Lovey's class met us there. They were quite excited as they waited and were so pleased to see their teacher all dressed up in her finery! 

Ms J was equally happy to see them and took a few minutes to come talk to them and let us take a picture!

Wedding Fun

My cousin got married a few weeks ago and we had some downtime in between the dinner and the dance. The girls and I went exploring outdoors and cranked out some new shots. They were actually into this shoot! I took them by themselves one by one while the others ran around with Grammie & Grandad or Murray. 

Each girl picked out all her own spots to pose in and it was so interesting to see what appealed to each one and what they wanted to do there. I made a few suggestions but these are mostly their own!

Here are their official "8th Year Portraits":

 

It was party party party all night long! I had thought they'd stay for a bit of the evening, maybe we'd let them stay up til 9 or 10 and send them home to our place when M&D went. That opportunity presented itself around 10pm but these girls still had a lot of dance left in their shoes and were adamantly opposed to leaving early. They were having the time of their lives and were so well behaved that we decided to let them stay and just go home when they got tired. TWO hours later only one of them was starting to fade and willing to leave. One had worn holes in the toes of her dancing slippers and that red whirling dervish was never going to be done!

Finally at midnight, we pulled the plug on their all night dance-a-thon and went home. They slept very very well!

Lo and behold!

I had one bright spot on the weekend so I thought I should post something upbeat so I don't have to type through tears again!

Back in 2008, one of my cousins asked me if I would shoot his wedding and then I also ended up making their wedding cake. I didn't have my photography business set up then and they were looking for a free photographer so it was a perfect match! However, they had planned to make me a pair of earrings as they felt it would be a more fair exchange of services that way. I wasn't too concerned about it and had long since forgotten about the offer until Aunt Cathy dropped by with a little box for me!

I had had a pair similar to this but as with all favourite earrings, one got lost. When they had asked what I'd like, I had given them the remaining one and she recreated them almost exactly!

Something very positive and much appreciated in such a sad time! Loving my new earrings!!!

Day 5- not as horribly awful as days 1-4 but still pretty darn empty...

Royal Watchers

I've been looking forward to checking out the Royal Wedding. I didn't realize how interested I was until I jerked awake yesterday morning at 5:50, hopped out of bed, ran downstairs, scanned the channels madly, getting desperate when I couldn't find ANY coverage!!! I checked news sites, I googled and got frustrated. The most annoying was some site that hadn't updated their countdown clock properly and was still showing that there was a whole day plus an hour before the ceremony started. What on earth were THEY thinking?!?!?!? I went back & forth from the TV to the computer a few times before I realized it was only THURSDAY!!!!

I did find a channel that was doing some coverage of the lead up and showing the main players in the big day. Lovey wandered down to see what I was doing and sat with me & listened avidly as I told her who everyone was, how they were related to the Royal family or the bride etc. When we went up to wake her sisters & have breakfast, she looked up at me with her big eyes and said "Mummy will you wake me up to watch the wedding tomorrow????!!!!?????"

Last night they all picked out their clothes & put them out on the couch so they could get dressed while they watched. I wasn't sure if they'd actually get out of bed when it was time today. I came down ahead of them & made sure I had the right channel and put the fire on to warm up the room. At 6:15, I went up to call them and all 3 popped out of their beds in an instant and downed their breakfast in record time and flew down the stairs.

We admired all the gorgeous hats, fascinators and outfits (well, the reindeer antler look alike, not so much). We were anxious to see THE dress!!! Finally we got a peek of Kate in the car on her way to the church & thought she was absolutely beautiful!!!!!

There was time to see her come into the church, go up the aisle and a bit of the ceremony before they had to go catch their bus. They were quite put out to have to leave before seeing the couple ride off in the Royal carriage but left without a fight. (once I promised to record the rest!!!)

I remember watching Charles & Diana get married when I was 10 and it was so much fun to share the excitement of this Royal Wedding with my girls :)))

The Last of the Wedding!

I think this is the best photo of Sweetie I've ever gotten! She rarely stands still, never mind patiently pose multiple times for me to get the lighting & settings figured out. She was in a very good mood that day & must have wanted to preserve the memory of her fancy attire!

Ok, I think this is the last of the wedding photos from last weekend!

The wedding planner/venue owner, took the kids to the bar and let them pick ingredients and create their own "drink" in these fancy cups! They were thrilled to say the least. i got to sample their work & it tasted as good as it looked!

Sweetie was so excited that HER sister was the flowergirl! Look at the big eyes she's gazing at Lovey with!



Is that a happy mom of the groom or what??? this picture is crap except for those fantastic smiles, otherwise it would have gone into file 13!

Wedding Part II

I thought I'd be updating sooner but then felt like crap the night after my last post & went to bed early instead! It turned out to be a case of "ate too much junk" and not a full blown flu virus!

The wedding made for a long day for the girls but they got to see Nanny & Grampy and Trish so those were definite perks! Honey must have been exhausted because once the ceremony was over, she started asking if she could go to the hotel because she was so tired. Since it was only 3:30 I told her she'd have to wait awhile and that the only thing to do if we took her back would be to have a nap. It worried me when she was happy with that answer and said she WANTED a nap. She hasn't wanted a nap in 4 years!!!!!!! I was sure she must have had some terrible virus about to surface and make for a miserable night!

Once the pictures were done, we went back to "Aunt" Cynthia's for dinner as the reception wasn't starting til 7pm. The kids planted themselves next to a jumbo bowl of chips and were munching away contentedly til I fired some peanut buttered rolls and a glass of milk at them (they passed on the homemade seafood chowder, surprise surprise!).

As soon as we got back to the reception, Honey started complaining again and clinging to one of us constantly, unless she was playing her DS, then she was ok! I was hoping we'd catch a bit of the dance but by 9pm I didn't dare put off bedtime any longer. We zipped back to our hotel & got them tucked in and Murray settled in to do some programming work so I decided to go back for the dance since we were quite close by.

Unfortunately they had run out of music and most of the guests had left by the time I got back! No matter, I got to sit with my flowergirl and chat at a leisure. She was pretty exhausted from pulling an all nighter decorating the wedding cupcakes with her mom! Once everyone left we packed up the centerpieces and loaded the car and called it a night.

I was pretty tired myself, all the rushing around and stress of trying to get everyone ready on time had taken their toll! I was looking forward to the cushy bed at the hotel! Unfortunately for me, our room was in a wind tunnel and the screaming and whipping around the building kept me up for awhile. Then at 6am, construction or snow removal began and it seemed like every truck in the city was outside our window and constantly in reverse.. beep beep beep beep!!!!!

The kids wanted to go for a swim in the hotel pool so while they did that with Murray, I ran out for a little shopping & came back to pick them up & check out.

We stopped for lunch on the way home and then I slept til we hit the driveway!

Wedding Details

I thought I'd put up a few pictures from the wedding I helped with last weekend. I tried getting a few shots of some of the wedding details when Shelley didn't need me doing other stuff. Here are a few! So much fun!