Only a little over 6 months late but…. ENJOY… sometimes reflecting back is a warm fuzzy all its own!

FIRST obligatory adorable kitty pics! 

The 10th of October marked the beginning of what I believe is already an AMAZING marriage. My oldest friend marrying the absolute love of her life! And Ken and I got to be a major part of it!! I was the MAID (see she knows how to make a girl feel young) of honour to stand next to her Man of honour. Ken got to be the driver of the bride and so much more.

Sitting in the fancy ride (the GMC thanks to the loan of the inlaws) having a pre wedding sip.

The wedding was definitely not a classic church wedding and it suited them to a T. Hand fasting, an actual KNOT was tied (I kid you not… cords representing different parts of their marriage knotted in an infinity knot). The location was amazing – a state park between two major rivers, the day PERFECT! After months and months of work, organizing and positive thinking the day just came together marvelously.

I had the added task of welcoming Shandai’s mother (Wilma) into the circle during the ceremony. She passed away nearly 11 years ago from MS. I remember her… it was so amazing to do this task and honestly FEEL her THERE. I know she was smiling and dancing along with us. (of course I cried… actually I cried MULTIPLE times during the day… no one who knows me is surprised I am sure) I don’t think I can explain how… pure and special the entire experience felt.

our gift to them… that is Shandai’s mom (her favourite picture of her), paper made by the kids, my welcome hand written by myself and arranged by Ken.

The crochet’ed top hats I made over the year (like 100) went over marvelously too… they even had a table at the reception to decorate them so people all over the place were WEARING MY HATS!

Sheep tested!

Tiny beings and tiny hats!

But enough about that… let’s see, the pertinent information – THEME! Steampunk with a touch of Firefly… there was people dressed up impeccably as characters from the show. My outift, Shandai’s absolutely PERFECT gown and the Best Woman Dara’s outfits were all made by the most talented seamstress Amy Sue. I do believe I linked her before but repeat is a good thing… HERE.

Dressing at the house

Can you see the Firefly inspiration here???

My hair and make up were all in the capable hands of Kristi… She was AMAZING… the gears were all her… the hair completely her brain. The hair piece (and the ring bearer the gorgeous and pregnant Raina’s) were all Ken! My artistic man.

The day was perfect… sunshine and wee bit of breeze. No overheating but not shivering in the cold either. I swear it was a day made for this wedding.

The wedding was outside and the day was PERFECT! Lots of great pictures from the ceremony and the location.

Andy (Man of Honour) placing a Serenity charm on Shandai’s shoe

With Raina (pregnant with TWIN BOYS!) the bearer of the rings

Chatting, I love how our faces look like it is something completely different

Bride, Groom, Brother of the Groom (Bill… he had the best long tails EVER) and the seamstress… the AMAZING Amy Sue

Let’s see… I met a variety of new people… had an amazing experience… tasted some absolutely amazing mead. There was Irish dancing at the reception as well. With a large percentage of the guests being dancers or Renaissance Festival employees and enthusiasts it was quite the party.

One of Amy’s fun selfies (on left) with Trish

Thanks Amy, we look cute in this one!

We stopped at a pub they dance at before we got to the reception. Pictures were taken of course.

With bridal attendant Trish

There was a photo booth area manned by the photographer’s niece and nephew… and I must say, the photographer was AMAZING… so energized and he was awesome at brainstorming and then getting fun and unique ideas across. His site is HERE. I am planning on framing these three images below (edited by the gorgeous bride herself) for display on our wall. A nice series of images from a day to remember.

Now to blow you over with amazing images… and one more time !!! CONGRATS YOU TWO!

Just the girls in the wedding party… Emily (bridesmaid), Trish (bridal attendant), Raina (bearer of rings), Shandai (bride), Dara (best woman), Me (maid of honour… yup MAID hehe)

Bridal Party

The guests at the wedding itself

Dress repair! Amy Sue you rock!

Of course, too many pictures to share in one post. The zoo always results in images that are too numerous for a single post… so enjoy!

New hair

There is so much lovely green at the Como Zoo.

Penguins are Emanuel’s favourite

With Aunty Shandai

She does love presents

Birthday party

So many tiny hats

Story and Tea Time

Well done Emanuel and Scouts!

November 23-27

In preparation for Thanksgiving the next week, we spent a portion of Saturday cleaning. The twins have become rather pro at cleaning the bathroom!

We had homemade poutine for supper as well! One of the main foods I miss living down here. How can you go wrong with fries, gravy and cheese??

We had our usual Sunday School on Sunday… with the added excitement of have the twins take on SPEAKING parts in the Christmas pageant! So we have songs to learn AND some dialogue. Quite the ambitious addition to our homeschooling days.

The week of Thanksgiving started with the usual day of school. Heavy on the Thanksgiving theme. After all, Trinity REALLY loves a good themed worksheet!

Thanks to Activity Village

With a cornucopia craft as well. This is included in the reference blog post I will post with our completion. Just a two page print out where we coloured the horn and then the fruits and veg. The added suggestion was to have something we are thankful for on each piece of food but with how many activities we have done with the same idea we chose to just colour and glue.

We had time for tv together time…

AND making little decorative hats with Nana. yarn and rings of toilet paper rolls! Adorable!!

The first time…

And then another day… we actually made these over the span of a week!

We continued our Thanksgiving theme with storytime. A Louisa May Alcott story that has included an interesting apple based recipe we may need to try one day.

Trinity and Emanuel STARTED a craft with Daddy that uses coffee filters to make the tail of a turkey. You draw on it with markers and then wet them down to spread the ink.

Daddy also assisted in the assembly of our long awaited Grocery Unit. So much gluing and pasting and a little singing of the song we learned. You can see our resources and links on our companion blog entry HERE.

Of course we had to continue our Minnesota learning… the state bird is the common loon!!

There was another Thanksgiving book… though this one was more of a Halloween/Thanksgiving idea. It was in the Thanksgiving section at the library though and the kids really enjoyed it!

I think my days rather jumbled together here… but those were  the high points of our Thanksgiving week up to… well… the day! With a completed lapbook under our belt we ended our learning before Thanksgiving on a high note, that is for sure!