Family Picture and Reunion

At the wedding, Rainman decided that we were going to get a family picture.  He is big on sending family pictures out in Christmas cards.  I prefer sending out pictures with just the kids.  But, here we were all dressed up....so, I agreed....somewhat reluctantly....and for totally selfish reasons...

Before I show the picture to you, I would like to give you a little insight into what I was thinking. 

First of all, I do not like the size I have become (mostly since moving to Georgia - but I wasn't exactly slim back in Minnesota either).  So, I thought ...I will be in the back....I've got 6 kids....they can be in the front and they will sort of block a lot of my, shall we say...bulk? 

Good plan, right? 

Except for one teeny, tiny detail....

the camera angle.

Apparently, I should have planted myself at the front of the pack and let my bulk show - because then I could have looked up at the camera - thus defeating the dreaded double chin. Oh well, maybe next time!

The picture was being taken from below me...so, thus, the double chin...and because of aforementioned "bulk", I took up too much space for the kids to sort of gather in and hide me as I had envisioned!  But look at how beautiful all my kids and Rainman are.....sigh....oh, and on another note, my hair seems to be red now...not blonde...not sure when that happened....but here is proof.  Now all the comments I have been getting from people asking me where the kids got all their blond hair from makes sense!  My dental hygenist even picked me an orange toothbrush to go with my "red" hair last week. 

We tried to take stair step pictures of the kids - but that also didn't exactly go as I envisioned it....they were moving from "their" step....or not looking....and D-man insisted on doing his smirky smile thing in all of them.....so here is the best of them...

This next picture is only for my dad.....so, just move along if you are bored.

Dad, do you think A-man has an engineering mind too?

We saw the bride and groom the next day very briefly at the hotel.

They didn't come to the reunion....for, I guess, obvious reasons.  We missed them though!  Note the smirky smile on D-man's face yet again!  And, now, A-man seems to be doing it too!

I am going to include the reunion in this post because upon further review, I took a total of about 7 pictures of the actual reunion....so, here goes:  We stayed at some cabins in Patoka Lake, Indiana.  They were really nice.....they were less fancy than some of our other recent reunions....and I liked that.  They were comfortable and clean.  I liked that they had porches...the fire pit was right off the porch.  Honestly, I probably liked this place so much because it reminded me of Minnesota.  The only thing I would have liked better is if our cabins were closer to each other....we had 3 cabins for the family - but none right near each other.  The weather was good.  No real family fights erupted - that I know of anyway.  On a side note:  I love Rainman's family!

L-girl won the Most Valuable Player trophy in the family whiffle ball game....she deserved it too....she pitched, she hit, she made some great defensive plays to get people out and she ran lightning quick when she was on base!

This is her, the morning after, when her mother realized that she hadn't taken any pictures and this was the last day of the reunion.  This trophy has been in our house for a few years now....A-girl won it last year!

Anybody know what this is?

This was right above V-girls' head in the last shot.  (Jenners, is this what you saw too?)

We got a few shots with the remaining kids...

Then the grown ups figured out that we would all be headed in the same direction for a bit of our road trip - so instead of saying goodbye here, we piled into our vans....and saw a few things with them before parting ways.

V-girl is holding and early birthday gift from her Godparents - a Dora Talking Microphone.  Ask D-man what he thinks about Dora's Talking Microphone after having an assigned seat next to V-girl for this last leg of our trip!  Hee....hee....

So, up next...Road Trip....

Birthday Girl!

I am interrupting my posts on our recent wedding/reunion/road trip to show you that this little girl...

turned 2 on Sunday.

She really likes Yo Gabba Gabba....I think it stems back to her hearing it in the womb.  We lived in an apartment when I was 8 and 9 months pregnant - without furniture - so I would sleep on the living room floor.  The kids, although they had a bedroom at the apartment, preferred sleeping out there with me.  We got into the habit of turning on Nick Jr. before bedtime and watching a few shows before I took one final trip to the bathroom and turned in for the night.  We would watch Yo Gabba Gabba and Ni Hao Kai Lan....but V-girl has really taking a shine to "Gabby".

So, here is her cake....this is Foofa...

Here is what I used to sketch from....a mask template off of Nick Jr.

I think I did pretty good.  She recognized her anyway!

Getting a closer look...

(Smiling at her siblings....that were NOT holding the camera!)

She blew out one of her candles - decided she was scared of the smoke and had her brave brother, A-man blow out the second candle for her.  She very politely ate a piece of cake and posed for a picture with her gift.  A really cool product that I am reviewing for TOS (so more info to come)

She seems like such a big girl.  She actually sang Happy Birthday to herself....except her version is, "Happy Me".  I like her version....I think I will adopt it as my motto.

Happy Me.

I like it.

It has a nice ring to it.

And, it is true.

The Dance

I had intended to attach a video clip of A-man and his serious dance skills...but, alas....I can't find my cord thingie that will upload my video from the camera to my computer.  I thought I had all my chargers and power cords together in a little basket in my kitchen - but that one apparently made a run for it. 

So, until I hunt him down here are some still shots...

The reception was at a beautiful country club.  There were seating assignments and instead of numbers, each table had a Chicago area venue name, such as,  United Center, Soldier Field, Navy Pier - and then each table had a postcard from that venue.  I thought it was a really fun and unique idea!  We were at the United Center...and since there are 8 of us....we took up a whole table ourselves!

It was a beautiful place....very fancy....from the lighting....

To the butter...

It is at this point that these two....started making fun of me...

and offered to let me take pictures of their chewed up dinners.

These two were allowed to wear high heels for the very first time.  I tried to warn them....but I guess we all need to learn these lessons on our own....they lasted for about 30 minutes on the dance floor - before they joined the leagues of barefoot women out there! They looked too grown up in their heels anyway!

Sprite is.....spicy!

Guess what A-man turned his chicken into?

Yup, a gun.  I think he sort of fancied himself as James Bond - the tux, the chicken gun....the ladies...

Okay, let's move onto the dance portion of our evening.

From the moment we stepped into the room, A-man and S-girl could NOT wait to get out on the dance floor.  There was mood music playing in the background and that was enough for them.  The problem was the wedding cake was on display in the middle of the dance floor - so a few of us spoilsport moms said no dancing until the cake was gone.

Fast forward a bit and here is what you get...

Here he is with his cousin C....in the background was his other frequent dance partner, his cousin A.

There was fancy footword, twirling, dipping, and yes, even lifts...

 As Rainman said later that night...."That boy watches too many dancing shows with his mother!"  Who knew he was absorbing it all like a sponge???

He was Tom Jones-ing it up later in the night - he was just missing the big gold jewelry....and ladies throwing undergarments at him.  He even had ladies getting him his drinks (Sprite) all night.

My little Tom Jones....(looking pretty innocent)

Tom having one last dance with the bride..

A caught bouquet for L-girl...

Crash number one...

And crash number two...

So, back to the hotel we go....a great time had by all!

Next up:  The Reunion....or, if I can find it...video clips of Tom Jones in action!

The Wedding

This one will be pretty heavy on pictures....so here we go!

He was so excited to be a ring bearer!  He could not wait to get dressed.  The only thing he was disappointed with is that he didn't get to wear a bow tie.  The only thing he wasn't excited about wearing?  In his words, "The shiny, girl shoes!"

I didn't get to see S-girl get ready. (insert sad face here)  The bridal party asked if we could drop her off at their house, so the big girls could fix her hair.  So, off she went to get changed into her little flower girl self....she even got to ride in a limo to the church....here she is after:

It was very important to her that they "hooked" arms.

Her hair matched all the big girls hair....

Here they are with the lovely bride....

And again, with A-man's "signature" look...

Isn't her dress just gorgeous??  My slightly blurry picture doesn't do it justice!

Here he is with the lucky groom!

These next pictures were taken by A-girl because I sang 2 songs before the ceremony, so I had to run up to the front of the church and sing.  For those of you interested, I sang the tried and true - There is Love and The Prayer - made famous by Celine Dion and Josh Groban.  In case you are interested, I think I did pretty good - as long as you don't really speak Italian - because I am fairly certain I butchered the Italian -  normally sung by good ole Josh!

Taking a little nap before heading down the aisle...

Getting last minute instructions and a little shove from the wedding coordinator...

I don't know if you can tell or not, but the ring pillow has a picture of Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) on it because that has been the bride's favorite princess her whole life.  Oh, and she trusted A-man to actually carry the real rings up the aisle and give them to the best man.

And off they go...

I hope the pictures from the real photographer turn out because they were just as cute as can be.  A-man was all serious and manly - doing his job.  S-girl had a smile on her face the whole time...but instead of looking straight ahead or at the people in the pews, so was looking adoringly up at her big brother!

Exchanging vows...

S-girl and A-man didn't stand up front during the ceremony, but sat with the mother and father of the groom....Auntie Debbie and Uncle Frank....

V-girl was pretty good throughout the ceremony....she got a little restless, so she went over and joined her cousins for a little dancing time during the service...

Pinky wasn't far off during the ceremony...

And, finally, one last shot before heading out for the party!

All in all I am pretty disappointed in my pictures....not sure if it was the camera, or me ( I was feeling a bit rushed with my singing, Rainman reading scripture during the ceremony and the all the kids' jobs) - but most of them are a little (or a lot) out of focus.  I am hoping that the photographer took enough of my kids (honestly, it didn't seem like I saw her taking many formal pictures with them included - so I am a little nervous)....but, if she did, I hope I will be able to afford them!!!

Next up:  The Reception/Dance

The Rehearsal

Our Niece got married a few weekends ago.  S-Girl and A-man were flower girl and, in S-Girl's words...ring boy.

Here they are at rehearsal...

V-girl wanted A-man to escort her down the aisle too....little did we know that this popularity would foreshadow what was to become of A-man's weekend...more on that later...

V-girl got a little bored during rehearsal and decided to run along the pew seats....many of us tried to stop her/catch her and it just made her louder...faster....and happier....

Can you see the blur?

Here is the beautiful bride...

Yes, this is a bad shot of her with her eyes closed...but look at her gorgeous dress!

Here are her sisters....

bridesmaids....awesome nieces....babysitters extraordinaire.....

Apparently, I forgot to take a picture of the youngest sister at rehearsal....so, I will give you a little preview of the wedding and show one of her on the day of the wedding...

It is really too bad that they are such bad looking women, isn't it?!?
The kids got the best thank you gifts ever...perfect for them....

A-man got...

Yup, Star Wars lunch box!

And...

Her very own teddy bear...she named "Pinky" which Rainman called "Fao" all weekend.  He thought he was VERY funny....can you tell why?

L-Girl and A-Girl handed out programs and clappers at the wedding so they got gifts too...

Can you tell that it was wrapped in a Victoria's Secret bag.  I am not ashamed to say that I was a bit nervous as the gifts were walked towards my daughters! 

The dinner was held at a place called  Bella Vita Ristorante in Indianapolis, IN.....which I highly recommend.  It overlooked a beautiful lake and marina.   I had a chicken alfredo that was to die for....I know the sauce is really bad for you....but it was mighty tasty.

Next up....The Wedding!