Saturday's Vows and Sippy Cups

My older sister got married on Saturday to a great guy. I try not to post pictures of other people here for a couple reasons: 1) I don't want to forget to get somebody's permission or for it to cause problems and 2) my family is insanely good looking so they're pretty much all I need anyway.

Rest assured, my sister was gorgeous and the day was wonderful, despite a drizzly start to the ceremony.

Kate and I left the house at 7:30 to get to the town at 9 for manicures with the bridesmaids. Kate tagged along as the only flower girl who was both old enough to come and also interested. My goodness, was she excited. Neither of us had had a manicure so that was fun to do it together. She sat like a prim and proper lady. I started mine after hers and while the lady was massaging lotion onto my arms and hands, Kate turned around in her chair and said excitedly "That happened to me too!"

The other ladies got french tips but Kate wanted us to match with mint colored sparkly nails. So we did.

Ok, so my sister is in the background of this one. Rule #1? Broken

 We went out to lunch and then helped set up for the ceremony and get ready. At one point I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the sink for about 20 seconds with my hands in front of the faucet, waiting for it to turn on. Eventually I realized that it was a manual sink and not an automatic one. It's times like those I console myself with the fact that Princess Buttercup did not recognize her one true love for several scenes simply because he was wearing a black mask over his eyes. Nothing in his build, voice, or face tipped her off. I think about that and then I don't feel so bad.

Matt brought the other three kids an hour before the ceremony and I got the kids dressed. Tali and Kate were both flower girls. Tali's dress had glitter in the skirt so Matt and I were covered by the end of the night. I felt super glamorous, even if it was unintentional.

One of the more interesting events of the day involved Noah and a sippy cup. I moseyed over to the table where Matt and the kids sat. Matt, my long-suffering husband, sat at the table with about 7 kids. He mentioned that he filled Noah's sippy cup with juice. Noah took a drink and pronounced that he didn't like it. Matt took a swig and realized that he had filled the cup with SPIKED PUNCH. Thank goodness he didn't plow ahead drinking it, although it might have helped his dancing - jumping, stomping around to songs, clapping erratically.

Matt knows he owes me one slow dance at a wedding, despite the fact that he really doesn't enjoy dancing. Being the professional financial advisor that he is, he spends his time at receptions in thoughtful reflection.  Kate and I? Will dance the Funky Chicken, do the Macarena, and even make fools of ourselves in a line dance. Matt and Jack? Will sit stoically at a table, sipping drinks and trying not to make eye contact with anyone dancing. The hokey pokey came on and I was trying to engage Jack. "Jack, it's about body parts! You put your left ventricle in, you put your left ventricle out..." He shut his eyes and shook his head, saying "I can't even talk to you."

So when a slow song came on, Matt led me out to the floor. He began changing the lyrics to John Legend's All of Me, softly crooning "I'll be the one to mitigate your risk, to diversify your portfolio..."

We were laughing about it later and Kate said "You guys are so weird."

Which is basically what a successful marriage is all about - being weird together.

Matt took the little kids home around 8 pm. I took Jack, Kate, and my 5 year old niece home around 9. The girls fell asleep almost immediately in the back, drooling on their fancy dresses. Jack settled into the front seat for a very long, one sided discussion on why the Titanic sank. The iceberg reports, the knots, the valves. Oh mylanta, the details. I don't have a smart phone so I had the directions home printed out on a piece of paper. It was dark and I was snaking my way home on country roads. I couldn't find the ceiling lights in Matt's car so I had to flip my mirror down to see my paper.

Jack: "According to my research, Captain Smith should've been traveling at (some number) knots but instead he was going at (some other number) knots. This was despite the fact that several ice bergs have been reported in the area. I know this because I've watched Why Ships Sink on Nova like 52 times."

Me (with white knuckles gripping the steering wheel, trying to make out every road sign): "If you don't just sit quietly for a little bit and let me concentrate, you're going to find out why cars crash."

We made it home and had a whirlwind of a day the next day, Sunday. It was Kate's 7th birthday and we had women's breakfast at church, a tea/swim party with 10 girls in the afternoon, and a dinner with our best friends and Matt's parents. Kate used her birthday money from Matt's parents to buy everyone in the family a present, picking out exactly what we all liked. Oh what a sweet girl is this.

So that was our weekend. Much love to my sister and our new brother for this crazy thing called marriage and wishes of a happy 7th year to our lovely little lady.