a day of weddings

We had a full day of weddings a few weeks ago.  Definitely the first time we've ever had 2 in one day.

 Gavin's high pitched squeals came out in full force during the weddings.  I think he knows when everyone else is quiet is the best time to make himself be heard.

 

 

Dave's 1970 Cuda was in the first wedding.  And Dave was in the 2nd wedding.

Dave was as close to a hard attack as you can get when he watched the groom swing open the door.  Dave didn't realize he had parked the car right by a pole.  It seriously came within centimeters.

The cow bells were a unique touch to the morning wedding.  They fit in well with the entire wedding party's cowboy boots.  But really, they have made quite the fun noise maker at home for Gavin.

 

We had a little break in the afternoon.  Which really wasn't much of a break.  Dave was the best man at the next wedding, which meant he had that infamous speech to prepare for.  And there's nothing like preparing at the last minute.

I'm not sure how many best men practice their speech beforehand.  I'm guessing a lot of them wing it in the moment.  Which for obvious reasons can sometimes turn out to be disasters. But as quoted by Dave in his speech he is "the furthest thing from a public speaker you will ever meet." 

So to help him feel better, the kids and I got to sit and listen to him say it about 5 times.

Half way through, Taylor said "when can I say something?" 

Her new favorite activity might be giving speeches now.

 

I don't think you can tell in the picture above, but at this point I'm pretty sure Dave was a nervous wreck.  He could hardly even eat the yummy meal that was served.  I felt so bad for him and just wanted to get it over with so he could enjoy the rest of the evening.

 

 

Finally, he got it over with.  And he did awesome! 

He got several "that was the BEST best man speech ever."

Whether they were just being nice, or they really meant it, they were nice compliments that I think he definitely earned!

 



 

They kids had a blast dancing the night away, until they had to go home with Nana and Papa.

And this little babe was pooped and fell asleep in the corner of the room.

My favorite part of weddings is definitely getting to dress up.  Especially when my hubby is in a handsome tux.

 

 

But then go figure, we don't really even get a good picture.  The only one we got was taken by Mason.

 



 

I borrowed the black dress from my little sis, but now she's letting me keep it!  She's the best!

Guess I just need another reason to where it now.





celebrating back-to-school {sharing ideas}

Our week was far from the perfect, fun, back-to-school week I would've imagined in my head.  Actually, we've never really had a back-to-school week before, so I have nothing to compare to.  But regardless of what week this was, it wasn't a great one (for a few days anyway). So the bar has not been set high.  Monday was plain awful.  Tuesday was a bit better.  And Wednesday we decided to celebrate! 

We tried to get donuts at the donut shop.  But silly me, you can't show up at Drubers after 9am on the first day of school for the whole town, and expect to get a donut.  There were 3 donuts in the whole place left.  And the guy in front of us took one of them.  So we headed to the grocery store to get donuts for the park. 

We at lunch at the little pavilion near our house (something my kids always beg to do but I never seem to make time for, especially with Gavin). 

And read lots of "The Kissing Hand".

We did make-your-own pizzas for dinner and added some fun details to make our soon-to-be Kindergartner feel as special as we could.

I absolutely loved this back-to-school party over at eighteen25.

   I pulled this off in a matter of an hour probably. So not a lot of prep at all. The only thing I bought in advance was the sentence strips and stuff to make rice krispies.  I loved the idea of the rice krispie cake, SO easy during such a hectic time. We aren't too much into cake at our house anyway,  and as much fun as I have making cakes for the kids' birthdays, I really didn't want to start a tradition and feel pressured to keep something up that takes so much time. So I opted for this simple version of a cake.  It will be easy to duplicate in other years if I want. I used the free printable for the banner on the cake, the straw toppers, and a little quick tag that I stuck on some pencils. In the Walmart dollar bins I found packages of sentence strips that were perfect for this table setting.  I even went back to get more for future parties. It will be so fun to always write the grade they are going into on a strip for their table setting. And then I stapled another, with her name on it, around her jar.

 We also gave her her first REAL bible at dinner.  She's been wanting one so badly.  She always asks when she can get a bible without pictures.  We knew she needed one for school, so we waited till this night to give it to her.  She was so excited she asked if she could read a story out of it.  After she found out it was a little more difficult than she thought, she opted to ask if we could just read the Proverbs that corresponded with the date.

Before school on the first day we had a pancake breakfast.  I prepped it all the night before, knowing I tend to run out of time ALL the time when trying to get places in the mornings.  Oh man, is this new routine going to kill me.  When we go camping we store our pancake batter in an empty ketchup bottle, it stores easily and is so easy to squeeze out on the griddle.  So I made the batter the night before and the ketchup bottle made it super easy and fast to cook the pancakes the next morning.  And of course, we had to have cool whip, strawberries and sausage.

Then it was picture time! I am not all that creative on my own.  I get inspiration from others (aka copying).  Isn't that what all these lovely ideas online are for anyway?  Surely people don't post these ideas hoping no one uses them. I think it's awesome to be able to inspire each other with fun ideas we'd never think of to do on our own.  Parties, picture ideas, ways to celebrate...I definitely need help in these areas most of the time.  I totally understand not copying things that you're not supposed to copy (for legality purposes), and giving credit is definitely important.  But other than than, copying is the best!  It may seem like lots of people are doing the same thing right now, as we see the pictures being posted and blogged about.  But in the scheme of things, in 20 years when you look back, you won't remember that 5 of your friends did the same thing.  You'll just be glad you did it, because the memories are so sweet.  So copy away.

Since some of you asked, here are the details of the back-to-school photos. 

I got my First Day of School printables from How Does She - they are free and super cute! It's nice to have cooperative children for early morning photo shoots. I'm guessing it won't always be like this.

Last year for preschool I started the yearly "Favorites" photo.  I almost forgot about this, so I'm glad something sparked my memory so I could make sure to set up one of her pictures to be able to add the font to the side.  I just used Photoshop Elements to add the font.  After creating the file last year, it was super easy this year to just replace the photo and adjust the font as needed.  I saw this idea on Pinterest last year and then a friend did the same thing for her boy starting preschool too.  She was even kind enough to email me her psd file. Thanks so much Laura - I love that I started this tradition.  The font I used the for the title is School Script Dash and the rest of it is in Chalkdust font.  You can google them both and download them for free.

Check out this link with a whole list of first day of school picture ideas and printables!

Awhile back someone told me about the idea of videoing your children as they climb into the car after their first day of school.  So I set a reminder in my phone, because I was SURE to get distracted with how excited I was just to see her, that I'd forget.  It was so fun to ask her how her day went and questions about what she did.  She loved that she was getting videoed, and these will be so fun to look back at!  As long as I always remember to do them!  (although I'm wondering how this will actually work with multiple kids wanting to talk at the same time.  Oh well, I may just have to go with it).

(I'm not really posting the video (it's too long I think), just a screen shot)

When I picked her up we headed out for a mommy-daughter date to Applebees.  It was so fun sitting there and having lunch with my little girl who seemed so big!  We even bought desert.  Now that's a big deal.  I don't think we've ever bought desert before.

We ended the night roasting marshmallows with our friends. 

The day was perfect.  Our girl is a school girl now.

Monday I'll put her on the bus (and supposedly not follow the bus to the school). I'm definitely a bit nervous about that. 

As I processed everything this weekend, I realized I approached this day with such anxiety, and now it's over in a flash.  She's off.  I thought about all the time she's had here at home.  The time I've had to mold her and teach her, and help her to grow up.  And I know my job is far from over. As sad as it was to watch her go today, it was also exciting.  It's hard watching our babies grow up, but it's so amazing to see who God is making them to be. I'm thankful for all the time I had with her at home.  And now it's time to cover her in prayer more than ever.  Letting go, and trusting God with every aspect of her life.  It's so hard.  But it's so worth it.  He created her and he has big plans for her life.  I can't wait to see them. 

Here are 3 of the verses I am using to pray for Taylor in this new season of life.

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left,

your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying,

“This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 3:3

Taylor's first day of Kindergarten

Well, we made it through with no meltdowns from anyone.

We started the morning off with Daddy at home with us, a special treat.

And a pancake breakfast.  Something I'm sure we will make a tradition of.

Because heaven knows I'm not with it enough in the mornings to do pancakes other mornings.

First day of school, I can handle that.

Looking at this picture makes me teary eyed all over again.  She was definitely nervous. Last night she said her tummy hurt and we explained it was probably just nerves.  But it was hard to see her stand there like this.  Luckily, they were off to the classroom pretty quickly and she did completely fine.

 Her teacher gave them all a heart sticker to come put on their mommies.  Taylor put it on my palm just like we do with the heart stickers that came with our "Kissing Hand" book.  Do you know that book?  It's the best.  I teared up several times reading to her in the days before Kindergarten.  Both kids love it and wanted me to read it a hundred million times.  Taylor came home so excited that Mrs. Burkhart read it to them the first day!  I think that definitely won her heart over.

 I'm glad that neither Dave or I actually cried.  But there were moments our eyes both got teary.

 After we left to go have coffee cake and drinks with the other parents, a few of us snuck back down the hallway to peak.  Her daddy was having a harder time leaving than I was.

I started this picture idea last year for Pre-K and almost completely forgot about it. It's definitely something that takes planning, since I have to set my picture up the right way to be able to fit the words on.  I'm glad something sparked my memory.  We'll see how I do all the next years.





And just one year ago...

Despite the chaos and mommy-meltdowns without Dave around lately, we did find lots of ways to celebrate this little milestone in her life.  I'll share some more of those pictures soon.

wasn't it just yesterday...

I know a lot of life has happened in the almost 6 years that this sweet little lady was born.

But it really doesn't feel like it should be time for her to go off to school.

Wasn't it just yesterday we were holding you for the first time and taking you home from the hospital?

Now we're taking you to buy new clothes for school and school supplies.

Wasn't it just yesterday I was rocking you to sleep?

Now you just do your own routine and climb up into the top bunk.

Wasn't it just yesterday you were beginning to call us Mama and Dada for the first time?

Now you grab the phone and call your dad anytime you want.

Wasn't it just yesterday you were raising your hands up and saying you were "SO BIG!"?

Now you're grabbing my hand and doing the "Kissing Hand" and telling me I'll be okay without you.



Wasn't it just yesterday you were taking your first steps?

Now you're doing gymnastics and dance all over the living room.



Wasn't it just yesterday you were the only one running around this house?

Now you're the big sister, mothering your brothers every chance you get.

Wasn't it just yesterday I was dressing you in cute little girl outfits and matching bows?

Now you pick out your own outfits and do your own ponytails.

Wasn't it just yesterday you were trying to figure out how to peddle that tricycle?

Now you take off on two wheels like you've been doing it since birth.

Wasn't it just yesterday we dropped you off at daycare for the first time and both cried our eyes out?

Now you're laughing at me and making fun of me because I cried at Kindergarten enrollment.

Wasn't it just yesterday you wanted to walk by my side every where I was, even to the next room?

Now you walk off and say "bye mom" without looking back.



Wasn't it just yesterday I thought that Kindergarten seemed so long away?

And now it's here.