E and E 9/27

This is the longest I've ever neglected the blog...ahh!  Under the conviction that it's better to just start somewhere than not to  write at all for fear of imperfection, we'll start back with the wedding of last weekend! It was the marriage ceremony of a dear friend who goes by her middle name, Edith. John has known her and her family since she was about ten, and was almost like an adopted brother during his years at grad school. Then, she spent many hours babysitting Gemma Grace on our choral society nights back before Ruthie was born, and often Eli would come along, too.

They chose to get married at a mountain chateau, which was utterly enchanting (heh, I'm not sure if it was actually a chateau, but the term seems fitting :)). It was basically a destination wedding, with the wedding party, immediate family and some of the other single folk staying ok location in the main house or guest house, but they had both the ceremony and reception outdoors. And they asked Gemma, Ruthie and another little one all to be flower girls! Gemma was very excited.

When we first made the intrepid drive up the mountain road, we saw a flock of turkeys and some young deer!  The miss the rock-work, the bends and streams were unsullied and elvish, and when I caught my first glimpseof the elegant roofline rising out of the mist, I also had to catch my breath.  

Friday morning the girls and I spent at a bridal tea with the ladies, and the rest of the day we spent exploring the grounds and home (which had an impressive playroom for the children) and holding my inconsolable, teething toddler while others ran about helping with food and preparations. Ruthie was not at all her cheerful self for the first day and a half and we had just about lost hope that she would be a flower girl at all. Gemma and the other little toddler rehearsed together on Friday night, and then we all enjoyed a cookout on the veranda.  

I loved how they ordered their flowers by the bucket from a local farm and made up all the bouquets and centerpieces themselves. I also really loved how brides of the past had left their bouquets hanging from the exposed beams in the kitchen.

Well Saturday afternoon came and Ruthie had gotten a decent nap. We got her into her dress but she still wouldn't be put down for pictures. At least there were some good ones of Gemma with the bride. And then John and I had a face-palm moment and gave her a small dose of Tylenol, which changed her demeanor within minutes! 

Soon she was happily trotting about inside the house holding her sister's hand! She was also happy to carry her little basket...once I put a chocolate in it. Heh. 

So, marvelously, all three little flower girls made it down the aisle! And the ceremony was lovely and uninterrupted by childish noise. Our girlies thankfully did fine and I don't know if the 14-month old was there the whole time or not, but everything was quiet and lovely! 

Since the groom is culturally Jewish, they chose to have a traditional Jewish ceremony with the wine, the huppah, and the stomping on a glass, among other things. It was very neat to witness. Our pastor's recent preaching from Romans 11 has warmed my heart to the Jewish people in a new way as we've been learning about the special place they held in the heart of our Father and their need for salvation. It was just neat how these events came on the heels of that preaching, and were all the more stirring and intriguing for me, personally.

I also loved how the bride incorporated some lovely crocheted lace into her dress! 

And it was a great idea to have the bridesmaids all wear black dresses of their choosing. Here are the three sisters of the bride...

 

Abi is the one on the left, is the photographer of the family. She's the one who has taken newborn/family photos for us when both our girlies were born, and she is SO talented! 

A few more photos....

Gemma seemed genuinely confused by the tug-of-war photos. :)

The bride and her parents. We love them all so much!

The reception...

...and the giant sandbox right next to the reception! This was such a child-friendly wedding! 

(For the curious, Ruthie's dress washed up just fine! We're getting Gemma's dry-cleaned since it was borrowed.)

Time to cut the cake! This was another smart idea they had: having just a small special cake and serving sheet cakes to the guests. 

Our children had so much sugar for two days!  And then the bride and groom had their send-off out the front doors of the house in the dark while we all waved sparklers.  It was an exceptional weekend in many ways. :) I regretted forgetting our good camera, but having only phone pictures has certainly made blogging about it easier. ;) 

We love you, Edith and Eli, and hope you're having an amazing honeymoon!

Our wedding day, part 2

It was five years ago now, but sometimes if I meditate on something long enough, the memories surprise me by how vividly they come rushing back!  So, as I began recording the details of our wedding day two years ago, I wanted to finish it!

We were man and wife at last, and, all smiles, we recessed out of the church hand-in-hand while the trumpet and piano blared Clarke's Trumpet Tune.  The children and then the rest of the bridal party paired up and trailed out after us.  We waited on the lawn to greet any who weren't able to make it to the reception, plus a few others . . . 

Even though everyone was supposed to drive straight to the reception, several understandably stopped by for a quick hello and photo.  I'm pretty sure someone tagged us on Facebook right away.  :)

Then we took pictures on the lawn and went inside for more pictures, and finally got in John's Honda Civic with Keith and Heidi, the best man and maid of honor, who were supposed to drive us to the reception.  I don't know who parked it out in front of the church for us . . . but thank you, whoever you are.  :)

Poor Keith and Heidi . . . we were kissing the whole way there, and discovering that the backseat of a Civic is not very big, and that kissing is very wet.  ;) The reception was being hosted back in my parents' hometown, so it was a long, country, awkward drive for our chauffeurs.  The rest of the bridal party followed in John's parents' big Expedition, but I wish we had communicated better.  We were all supposed to enter by the back "secret" driveway and appear out the front of the house in formation, but we got a bit too far ahead of them, and so they turned in at the sign for the reception.  It didn't really matter, though.

When we pulled around the back, our photographer friend was ready with the camera.  :)

And we took some quick pictures of just the two of us against the backdrop of the trees before heading inside.  They ended up being some of my favorites.  :)

And then we went inside and all waited until it was time for us to be announced.  In the intervening time, our guests were supposed to have had cookies and punch inside while the pianist played on the grand piano (which we'd paid to have tuned).  But of course the photographer was with us, so we don't have any shots of that, and we'll never know if there was actually any piano-playing going on!

But finally it was time!  One of the deacons from church acted as MC, and we all emerged in turn out the front door with the children waving their ribbon wands a la Sense and Sensibility.  I didn't know that the hostess was going to arrange the children on the porch like that, so it was a pretty nice surprise!  

Oh, we were so happy!  We just couldn't help it.  We found our seats under the tent, greeted folks casually and took a few pictures, and I remember feeling slightly disgruntled to see some folks at the wrong tables, when we'd arranged the seating so thoughtfully.  

We went back in for yet more pictures, though trying to get a serious photo with all the children was a bit of a challenge!  :-D  How much bigger they all are now . . .

The band played!  And we ate dinner, and after hearing stories of brides who never tasted their wedding food, I was determined to enjoy the full dinner!  I was looking forward especially to the tortellini with broccoli and garlic, chicken marsala and eggplant parm, and they were excellent.  Marcella's catered, and maybe someday we'll go eat there on one of our anniversaries!  

After eating, we started working around the tables and greeting everyone.  But soon the hostess was saying it was time for us to cut the cake before people started leaving, so we paused to do that.  I poked my fingers too far into John's mouth.  ;)  Keith actually gave his speech and toast first, which we all loved. 

After yet more photos and more milling about, it was time for our dance.  :)  We'd planned to dance to Steve Green's wedding song "Holding Hands," though that was really the only recorded song we were counting on.  While John tried to sort out the technology with the band, Derek took the mic and did an impromptu rap for our wedding day!  Eventually we realized they didn't have the jack that we thought they had, but they played a lovely waltz for us to dance to, and it was just perfect.  (You might also notice that I'd somehow managed to keep my veil until now!  With the first turn, I tugged it out accidentally, but the photographer's wife blithely took it for me and we hardly missed a beat!)

There was another neat detail-- a few of the flower girls were doing little ballet steps around us while we danced.  It actually annoyed me a bit at the time and I was wondering where their parents were!  Later, though, people remarked on how precious it was, and looking back I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Our Fifth Anniversary

Five whole years!  Five years since our lovely wedding day.  The days between have been filled in ways beyond our imaginations . . . three pregnancies, but only two happy births.  Much more materially than we need, and a burglary to remind us that it's not really ours.  Dozens of road trips to NY, a few to West Virginia, family vacations in Florida, a week in California and three(!!!) trips to Europe!  One Thanksgiving and one Christmas spent at our home on Cottage Lane because of babies being born, and those two holidays were two of my favorites of all time.  Cuddles and kisses and lots of wrestling with our two energetic little girls, and many doctor's visits of varied urgency because we have one child with asthma, and, as we discovered in recent months, another child with a rare genetic condition!

How good our loving Father has been to us.

For posterity's sake, I'd like to share how we celebrated our fifth.  :)  We've always said, "when Jenni gets married, then we'll go to Ireland!" and she finally did meet her husband and got married just a few weeks ago!  So, we spent two weeks on that beloved island celebrating with them and rekindling dear friendships, and since we were returning on July 23, we considered it sort of an anniversary trip, as well.  Still, on our acutal anniversary on the 25th, our friend Becca sweetly offered to babysit for us at the last minute, so we enjoyed our happy tradition of dinner at Outback in my honeymoon dress.  :)  We ended up ordering a handsome print of an old engraving of Rome as a present to ourselves, and plan to get it framed and hang it in our dining room.  And it seems like we just keep celebrating and celebrating, since we still haven't given each other our cards, and plan to this evening!  

Really soon, I want to write the rest of this post . . . maybe tomorrow.  :)  Welcome back, blog!

Pillowcase Nightgown!

Well, we can check this project off!  Except that I loved it so much I may make some more sometime. . . :)  A couple of years ago, I pinned this free tutorial, where the author made some precious nightgowns from upcycled vintage pillowcases.  Then a friend at church came upon a lone flannel pillowcase in blue toile and thought of her toile-crazy friend gave it to me!  

At first, I used it as a bassinet sheet on Ruthie's bed in our room, but I'd always had this project in mind for it!  When in September I finally was at an Ikea which had the right size blue toile duvet cover I'd been eyeing in stock, our room suddenly got an abundance of toile, so I didn't feel too badly about cutting this up. I'm so happy I did!  The tutorial only gives a pattern for size 4.

The directions were pretty straight-forward, but I would note one thing:  one of the first instructions is to cut the pillowcase straight across, 21 inches from the opening, and then to cut the pattern pieces from the remaining fabric.  I had a feeling that my pillowcase might have been a little smaller than a standard size, so I held up the pattern pieces first, and, sure enough, I only had enough fabric to cut 20 inches off.  It's certainly not too short, but I'm so thankful I checked!

The author also leaves the finishing of the back and neck kind of up to you.  I ended up using a bit of lacy hem tape along the back slit and doing a rolled hem around the neck, and was very happy with the result.  Since my beloved ancient machine doesn't have a button-holer, I just used a heavy-duty sew-on snap.  

Of course, the advantage of using a pillowcase is that the side seams and hem of the skirt are already finished for you.  This took me three short sittings, and was really easy and fun!  I just love how pretty my big girl looks--and feels!--in it.  :)

Ruthie's first haircut!

Now that it's been a month since the big Florida family vacation, maybe I'll finally go through my pictures and share some!  Until then, here's what is new!  Gemma and Ruthie both got their hair trimmed by mommy.  :)

Ruthie got to sit in the bathroom sink.  :)

Her hair didn't need a trim per se--it's not in her eyes--but her bangs were a little uneven, and I thought we'd test the theory that trimming her hair a bit will help it to become thicker.

See the whispy unevenness?  It was a little easier to see when I wet it down.

And here's the back before.

*Snip snip* Ok, smile!

Maybe only Mommy can tell . . . 

Gemma was a little easier, and it was actually Gemma's hair that got the haircut ball rolling for me!  I hadn't trimmed it at all since her first haircut almost two years ago, and it was looking like this:

So long and pretty!  And yet a bit thinner at the bottom, with lots of breakage from lots of pigtails.  Hmm.

I don't know why I didn't wash her face for this!  (And isn't it funny how early in the morning one's shirt can get marked with strawberries?)

Straight across.  And somehow I didn't cry!

Precious you are, both of you girlies.  I wish I'd been recording and sharing as many entries for Ruthie as I did for Gemma two years ago, but such is life.  My two gifts, my two gigglers, my two daughters, and Ruthie is now officially a toddler!  Now with shorter hair.  :)