My Sister's Wedding Shower

We had a simple & elegant outdoor wedding shower for my sister in early September; the future Mrs. Love.

Tab, Bride to Be Kayla, Mum, Tash

As I was headed out to pick up necessities of the day that morning, I got trapped for over 15 minutes in a complete downpour.  Like monsoon style.  Knowing that the wedding shower was outdoors with more people than we could have comfortably fit inside, it caused for a little worry that morning. 

Alas, due to a combination of good karma and lots of wishing- the sun came out and the bridesmaids, Mother of the bride, and Ninna (the ever present hero:) got to wiping down and fixing up so that everything was ready to roll just in time for the shower to get started.  Seriously, it was like a real life wedding shower miracle.

The shower was at my parents' house on the back deck and patio.  We set up their outdoor tent and also had round tables with umbrellas.  The centerpieces were simple vases&flowers (thanks Mum!) and we placed pitchers of water with frozen lemon ice cubes on each.  The food was set up on the patio under the pavilion.  We had croissant sandwiches, various salads (linguine salad, spinach&strawberry salad, potato salad, etc) and an assortment of sweets.  Simple and light fare for the day.

 Each bridesmaid had a 'shower job' at different parts of the day, which makes for a big difference when it comes to timing and organization.  At the start of the shower, three maids were directing people to park and taking gifts.  And two more bridesmaids held trays of small glasses of water for guests to pick up on their way to their seats.

Instead of traditional shower prizes, we had each bridesmaid create a 'lottery tree' and the mothers of the bride and groom created 'money trees' that would be given out to guests throughout the shower during the gift opening (at the ring of a timer, whomever's gift the bride was opening received a 'tree').  Each tree was created from the unique ideas of the bridesmaids and moms - so it turned out to be beautiful decor for the shower too!

Our littlest sister had created a set of photo frames called "Meet the Maids" which was also displayed for guests to read a little bit about each of the bridesmaids and a small description of how they know the bride.  It turned out beautifully (thanks Tash!) and was such a sweet and personal touch to the day.

As people arrived, we mingled and caught up with relatives and friends.  Gemmi and Grey played and ran around the yard giggling.  I snapped one hundred and fifty pictures...

the bride and the Moms :)

little flower girl

 After lunch, we got to opening gifts.  There was a beautiful moment while my sister was opening gifts when a huge butterfly kept swooping and flying around her head.  As both our grandmas have passed, my sisters, Mom and I were smiling at the thought that maybe it was the Grams making their presence known on such a special day.

 Gift opening was another important 'shower job' time for the bridesmaids.  I was acting as photographer, Tasha was keeping the detailed gift log, and Kayla's best friends were in charge of keeping the gifts a'moving.  We had a gift giver, gift taker, waste management (hah), and opened-gift-organizer.  It went off like a well-oiled machine and there wasn't any waiting or downtime (thanks girls!).

Speaking of grandmas, our paternal grandma was an amazing cook and baker.  Never as a profession but she was well known for her goodies and treats.  I asked for all of her recipes after she passed and created recipe books for all of the cousins and aunts for one of the first Christmases following her death.  But I heard about this amazing company CustomSepia and knew I wanted to do something special for Kayla's Shower.

I contacted CustomSepia earlier in the summer and with only a scan&upload of one of my Gram's original recipe cards, and a few weeks - I had a beautiful custom platter of our Grandma's handwriting ready for Kayla.  Her reaction was so touching and beautiful.  My sister is the prettiest, most graceful crier ever.

After the gifts, Kayla gave a sweet speech of gratitude and we finished up eating, drinking, and mingling right into a light sprinkling of rain (that held off until the very end).  We made sure to grab several important pics of the Bride-to-Be with different groups of family members, including one with just her and her flower girl.  (hehhe, tiny Gemmi!)

And then the Groom-to-Be arrived to deliver a bouquet of flowers and a couple of smooching photo ops to his Bride.  Ryan spent the day golfing with a bunch of the guys connected to the shower attendants (Brandon, our Dad, various other boyfriends and male relatives).  And they were happy to discover that my Mom had set up a feast in the garage for the boys where they all headed before helping to load up cars with beautiful wedding gifts. 

It was a perfect afternoon- even with a monsoon of a rainstorm right before!  What a wonderful start to the wedding festivities for my little sis.  Can.not.wait. for more to come in the upcoming months.  eeek! #Lovepartyoftwo 

the brilliant, albeit exhausting, small beings that live in my house

I've said it before and I'll say it again, these children are growing too fast.  Sometimes it feels like hours are so unbearably long that I'll never make it with a shred of sanity until bedtime.  And by 'sometimes it feels like' I mean everyday around 5pm it feels like that.

And then all of sudden, out of the blue it's nearly another Thanksgiving and my three year old is correcting me constantly "I'm three AND A HALF, Mum!" and the baby is 21 months and I'm silently wiping tears away as I pack up more baby clothes that she doesn't fit in.

Howwwwww?!

These moments of panic are usually triggered by the children using a new phrase suddenly, like Gemma speaking in full on understandable sentences this week - "Hold you, Mumma!"  and "What are you doing Bully?"  It's like it was bumbled words before and now we all understand what she's saying.  insanity.

And me trying to trick a sick Greyson into thinking The Croods movie was on tv instead of officially telling him we will own it for Christmas, and doesn't he notice me for one second turning off the DVD player as slyly as I possibly could when it ended.  Two minutes later he walks into the kitchen holding the disc announcing, "Mum, this is why The Croods was on!"  I can't slide anything past this kid anymore!?

And then they also got their pictures taken this week which always brings a massive wave of heartache when I switch out their old photo frames to new ones.  I stand over the long line of pictures comparing each minuscule facial feature change between the different photographs.  And, ouch, it's terribly painful to see the incremental growth you watch every day stark and all lined up in a row like that.

 I'm, by nature, a very nostalgic person and can nearly start feeling wistful about things before they've even completely passed yet.  With Thanksgiving around the corner, I am already feeling a little sad that it will be over in a week and the fast-paced, tradition-filled weeks of Christmas will be upon us - before also very quickly passing.

Because of this reflective bit in my heart, in the present I contemplate my future nostalgia as a reminder to slow down and try to remember that someday these will be 'the good 'ole days.'  Like how long will it be before I miss waking up to a child's size 9 foot in my throat?  How long will it be before I think back with a longing heart to the days when our daily family dinner consisted of the kids getting approximately three full bites in their mouths while the rest of the food splattered on the table, chairs, curtains, and floor?

Along with the passing of these difficult times too, I know also comes the passing of Gemmi's scrunched up nose smile when she thinks I'm in on her little joke.  And the passing of finding 34 dinosaurs and plastic cars underneath our living room ottoman daily.  These are certainly some hard times, but undeniably some wonderful ones too.

Someone recently told me, "Little kids; little problems.  Bigger kids; bigger problems."  It was on a day that I needed a reminder that even though I can't speak on the phone without a little hand grabbing it away from me ("I talk!") and our house only ever looks clean within the ten minutes of actually cleaning - we still do only have little problems.  Spilled bowls of chips crunched into a million pieces, bumps and bruises that are cured with ice and bandaids, someone having trouble with sharing...these are problems that someday I will look back on and wish for when I'm contending with hearts broken into a million pieces, and broken bones, and reminding teenagers to be wise with what and with whom they share.

In any case, tis the season for thanksgiving and I am so grateful that I have these two brilliantly amazing, however exhausting, little beings that call me Mum.  Sometimes it is just unfathomable to me that these little humans belong to me and I to them.

So don't mind me over here, simultaneously trying to speed up and slow down time, because the baby is waking up from her nap and Grey just dumped half a cup of milk on the carpet - xxxoxo

Word of Mom Guest Post - 8 ways to teach kindness to toddlers

Hi friends!!

Exciting news - I'm guest posting over at What to Expect Word of Mom Blog today with a post on 8 simple ways to teach kindness to toddlers and preschoolers.  I feel honored to have been asked to contribute to their Word of Mom Blog and especially to get a chance to write about something I care so much about:  kindness!

Thanks for jumping over to WTE Word of Mom to read my guest post and I'll be back tomorrow with a regularly scheduled post here :)

xxxox