Zionsville Visit

We enjoyed the most wonderful visit to Grammy and Grampy's house in Indiana last week. 

The girls have been talking about meeting their new cousin, Baby Evelyn, since she was born in December, and we were all thrilled to finally have the chance to see her. 

She is every bit as beautiful as we thought she would be. 

We were especially happy that Great Grandma and Grandpa Denny planned their visit to coordinate with ours, and that the Rodgers from Ohio and the Wistroms from Illinois stopped through as well.

As you can imagine, the children did not want for loving attention.

The weather took a turn for the warmer after what we're told had been frigid temperatures, so we were able to get to the park a few times. 

You can't beat the view from the back porch at sunset.

S'mores on the fire out back: pretty much the most perfect dessert ever for the girls (and me).

Grammy had carefully preserved so many beloved toys from Matt's childhood.  The girls enjoyed playing Guess Who and were absolutely enchanted by Aunt Erin's old Quints dolls.

When they tired of scattering what seemed like hundreds of sets of five identical minuscule accessories (think five mini hair brushes each the size of a vitamin and five teeny baby bottles with removable tops the size of lentils) all over the floor, and when they weren't dining at Grammy's 24 Hour Diner and Snack Bar, they passed many, many hours chasing/feeding/terrorizing/hugging/discussing the dogs, Zac and Zoey. 

Of course, we adults had fun too. In addition to enjoying much help in the diapering, feeding, entertaining, boo-boo healing and soothing to sleep of the day-to-day, the four parents (that's Erin, J.P., Matt, and me) left the four children with the two grandparents and two great grandparents to enjoy a dinner out.  And when our car got stuck in the mud in a field on the way home, Grampy came right to our rescue.  So, yeah, pretty full service situation we had over there. 

What a fantastic week!

Boring Baby

I know, I know.  Enough with the baby photos, Mary.

Trust me, I'm just as bored as you are of that potbelly and those squishy thighs.  It's no fun at all for me to behold his silky hair and bright eyes, and downright tiresome to gaze upon those formidable upper arms.



What if I made things slightly more interesting this time? I could showcase a glorious, emergent tooth bud, if that's the kind of thing you're into.

Or capture some shots of the speediest, most cheerful crawl you ever did see.



Still not interested?

Yeah, me neither.

Family Wedding

What would you say if your four-year-old daughter told you she was getting married?  The very next day. To her brudder. 

We had a lot of questions for our child bride: What time? What will you wear? Do we sit on the bride's side or the groom's side? Are you sure you're ready to make such a serious commitment? Is Sam? Shouldn't we wait at least until he has a few teeth? 

We really shouldn't have worried: she had it all figured out. We were just along for the ride.

She took such joy in planning all the little details.

She de-petaled many flowers for the flower girl.

For her own bouquet, she filled an empty tomato paste can with all the blooms she could find along the side of the house.

She decorated the fence that would serve as the backdrop for the ceremony and decided what everyone in attendance would be wearing.  (She denied my request to keep my jeans on under my mandated "crinkly red dress" and also my request to wear my casual flats. She did, however, grant my petition to expand my role beyond mere bridesmaid to bridesmaid/photographer, which I felt was generous.)

The flower girl was darling and, happily, managed to overcome a brutal imaginary injury she had sustained earlier in the afternoon to participate fully in the festivities. 

You didn't know that "full participation" as flower girl includes flashing the ring bearer? Huh, maybe that's a California thing.

The ring bearer performed his duties efficiently and exactly as instructed. He's a good sport.



The moment the groom beheld his bride was, of course, magical. He was speechless. He was also quite hungry, so we kept feeding him baby crackers throughout the ceremony. But then the flower girl insisted "I'm a baby too! I eat crackers toooooo!" And then the bride felt it was unfair that everybody else got to have crackers and she didn't. And the bridesmaid/photographer just wanted to get her preschool-aged daughter married off to her infant son so everybody could just eat dinner already because dinner is just the first of many stops on the lights-out-for-the-night train.  But, anyways, yes, all very magical.

Alice was positively radiant. 

The ceremony was beautiful and brief.  It consisted of everyone walking down the aisle (except the groom, for obvious reasons), the bride putting a ring on her pointer finger, and then a kiss to seal the deal. 

Afterwards, Alice rolled her eyes skyward and fake-dreamily proclaimed that this was "the happiest day of her life."

It was a happy day indeed.

A Morning in the Life