There are days where you keep on schedule and days when you don’t. Those days that you don’t can be due to a positive addition or a negative… today we DIDN’T keep to schedule and the reason was a VERY fun and welcome one. An afternoon visit from one of my mother’s brothers… Great Uncle Wayne. Not only did he visit but he brought a large box of Legos AND t-shirts… I have the 5 cutest McLean clan members EVER! 

In their matching shirts

So our afternoon of Inuit lapbook assembling was vetoed in favour of a visit with a favourite uncle. Not a loss in my mind! There was lots of Lego creating, adult company for Mommy and a chance for Echo to show off her new found ability to walk. It really doesn’t get old! And the kids were so busy they never even THOUGHT of going down to bother their Daddy (who was swamped with work!). 

We did get in some workbook time in the morning AND the boys started their St. Patrick’s Day decorations. A good standby for our family – paperchains! This time in green of course. The boys are VERY good with the staplers. 

Paperchains!

Oh and Gavin read this to me pretty much all by himself!

I have been prepping worksheets (I will share what links I have later) and finding green craft supplies. We will be making shamrocks tomorrow with green cardstock, glitter and all things green and crafty… Ken picked up some library books for me as well, I managed to find a few on why St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated (beyond the green and the beer). 

I realized that I had not shared the amazing 5.00 boots! So here is a picture! I am still getting used to them and have worn them only twice BUT it is so nice to have something a little more fashionable! 

The boots

And while visiting took the place of organized learning I DID manage to get my owls done tonight. 4 St. Patrick’s Day themed owls. I am going to put two up on my Facebook page right away and am toying with Kijiji as a medium to get some sales. I have a shelf of the little owls and would love to free up space for the Easter socks I have in mind to buy!! As always I am keeping them at 10.00 plus shipping. 

All 4 owls... you can find the two for sale on the Facebook site I have listed on the right.

There has been no word on the part for the van. Apparently it did not only come from out of province but also out of country! Just across the border into the US so they are thinking… customs (seriously… a 15.00 USED part…). We are hoping it will get here SOON as little Izaac’s birthday party is on the 3rd and we would rather go in our own vehicle (though I have a back up plan). 

So owls are completed, plans have been made for tomorrow AND the weekend looks like some stuff WILL be going on (we will see what we manage to make it to!)… keep checking back! 

The littlest MacLean baby (so far! cousin is due shortly)... I think my grandparents would have been proud

So where did I leave off?? Hmm getting to the “church” on time… well we did one better – an hour early! With all the kids involved and He Chris’ stepdad having had a couple heart attacks the day before and only out on a 2 hour pass we figured it was best to be SUPER early and prepared. Sadly that is where the organization and MacLean time ends… but the fun continued.

The bride's arrival in style

The decorated car in the sunlight

We found a little corner to hide the bride in while we waited for the time and then we… waited. The groom’s mother ended up WAY behind schedule (she was in charge of the wedding cake/cupcakes as well!) but his stepfather made it! I got a lovely picture of She Chris with him before the ceremony.

I think his name is George

The kids were a wee bit bored… ok VERY bored but we managed to keep them occupied with our multitude of baby wranglers and some colouring books I picked up at Dollarama on Thursday.

Waiting a bit

With the bride

The JP (Justice of the Peace) was lovely, but she had another wedding at 3pm so she waited as long as she could for the mother of the groom but the show had to go on. Things went rather well though mom had to steal Emanuel’s shirt cord for the handfasting as the mother of the groom was also going to do that. All in all it was a lovely ceremony.

So sweet

The signing... Sean was making me laugh about the first dance so hard I thought I would cry

After the ceremony it was onto pictures. Luckily the missing parent was collected and there to be a part of that.

Captain Morgan anyone?

A close up of Petite Sheepette for those interested. That is Mae's arm

Echo and Daddy

Ken and I took some time and with Karyn’s help as well I got some special pictures of my dress while waiting for the rest of the people to arrive. It was hot and the kids fussy.

Seated with flowers

Standing

A little ethereal

With Ken's cloak

OH the anachronistic ladies! Here they are!! Beauties all 3!

So lovely

But we got some lovely shots. And when the bride and groom were done with us we headed off for much needed and earned slurppees at 7-11. Where, of course, I got out of the car in front of someone I recognized from high school (name escapes me)… but at least I got my pepsi slurpee!

Slurpees

There was another hour before the dinner was scheduled to start so we hung out in the hall again waiting on the bride and groom. Ken had a nap of course!

Napping on the floor

Dinner actually ended up starting a little late BUT it did get under-way eventually. A bit unconventional… the speeches (the few there were) were BEFORE dinner… mine as well. But then finally food! The kids seemed pleased though the table of cupcakes was screaming for them to touch quite loudly I am told! 

Fat Sheep enjoyed the event from the headtable as well with her date Mae. There was much hilarity and boisterousness from that corner of the table! She was amazing, Mae… with a dress malfunction we were able to head off at the pass she was able to deal with it all with great humour. Though she says the Chrises now owe her BIG TIME as she is not a dress kinda girl and pretty much burnt herself to a socket through out the evening. Fat Sheep REALLY enjoyed her time with her lovely date! 

Fat Sheep and her lovely date

I love love LOVE this picture of Mae!

After dinner was some random visiting… then after much urging the cutting of the cake… we had to do some more waiting before the dance but the kids decided to get the party started on their own. Trinity especially was quite the little dancer! 

Dancing

Just a picture I thought was cute

After the bride and groom dance we had the bridal party and then we were free!!! I changed into a different dress as mine weighed a ton… there is ONE picture that I have of it… the polka dot one. I swear I felt almost naked!

You can just see the other dress on the right

After dancing and sending Echo home with mom, taking the rest of the kids home in the  van and cars where their seats were those of us staying at mom’s headed out to the liquor store for some supplies and then stayed up late into the evening hanging out, drinking and generally enjoying the evening. No pictures of that, but trust me fun was had though we all trickled off to bed in the end… some of us earlier than others (the latest being up until past 4 am!!). I actually drank a bottle of Boones (less a glass Ken spilled before any of us were even buzzed!) and a jello shooter my cousin bought me (a new thing for me). So when Echo woke up in the middle of the night it was her sippy of water and back to bed for her! No nursing until later the next day. But it was fun. I especially enjoyed getting to know Jocelyn better and looking through everyone’s pictures!!! I am sure once I get other people’s images I will have some to share of things I talked about here that I did not have a picture for! But that was THE day! And what a day it was! 

Esther and her adopted brood...

Had to share this picture of one of the little guests!

I can only remember bits and pieces of my wedding day which is now over 10 years past. But I do remember the excitement… getting my hair done by a favourite hairdresser… the dress… the family and friends and of course Ken… oh the list goes on and on. Today was Chris and Chris’ day and we set out to make it grand!

Veronika and I were up early to get to the hairdresser… the appointments STARTED at 8:30 but with 5 people in total needing hair done at the salon and 3 of those needing their make-up done by the amazing Veronika we decided to head out of the house by 8am (we also had to swing by a machine to get the cash for my hair style anyway). We beat EVERYONE there in true family style (after all MacLeans are not on time unless they are AT LEAST 15 min early, right?) and after the hairdresser cleaned up after her earlier appointment (for another wedding) and had a smoke (ummm yeah)… it was my turn. She Chris, Mae and She Chris’ daughter Amanda made it to the salon a couple minutes before 8:30 thankfully WITH the circlets. Mine was a bit too big for my head so there was some creative bobby pinning done to make sure it would stay put. She basically did a bunch of curls in the back with a few tendrils in the front, though those went flat after a while anyway… thankfully they still looked good.

My hair was not without hiccups – while she was barking at one of the other hairdressers she singed the back of my hair which then had a bobby pin jabbing that spot until well into the evening. And she was rather light on the hairspray (my hair drinks the stuff up like it is water) but both were easily remedied. Veronika had some spray that we liberally applied and eventually I DID move the pin… thankfully it did NOT cost me the 60+ dollars I was originally quoted.

As first one back I was able to get my make-up done in good time. As always an enjoyable experience. Seriously I may be horrible at putting it on myself but having someone else that I TRUST do it – awesome! And she even helped me pick up a lipstain so I have that to use and am confident looks good! Thankfully there were plenty of people on hand to wrangle kids and by 11am Sean and Ted left to pick up flowers.

My amazing make-up

In the meantime mom and I worked together to get our Trinity all prettied up. Mom braided multiple braids into her hair and then combined them into one in the back that was wrapped with a matching ribbon and topped with the ribbon clip I made months ago. 

Braids

She was so stoic that Mike had to step in and make her smile for a bit. In fact, as soon as it was all done she burst into tears and needed some hugs but then it was dress time and she was all for that!

Smiles for Grandpa Mike

I am VERY proud of how she looked all done up! In her Grandma Dress with her pretty hair and then Fat Sheep to hang out with we HAD TO take pictures… PHOTO OP! 

All done

From the back

With Fat Sheep all purty

And the rings!!

She Chris and Amanda were the next ones back after mom with their hair all prettied up. So time for bridal make-up! That left just Mae at the hairdressers to be picked up.

Note the pinned up circlet! Be sure to TELL your make-up artist about such things! We forgot to tell Veronika!

Mae’s make-up was the final thing to be completed before dressing but first it was lunch time. I thought ahead and made sure to send bread, meat and cheese with the menfolk when they headed over to dress with Chris and Sean. After all can’t have them all go hungry. 

Some of our menfolk

By the time the bulk of the ladies had eaten the ushers arrived with the flowers – gorgeous as promised. We quickly sorted them out and then made sure the ushers ate something before they started delivering. 

The bride's bouquet

Dressing the ladies was quite the adventure as most outfits (if not all) were put on over the head with ties and arrangement of layers to be dealt with. There was one final alteration to be made to the bridal gown – a loop on the train so that She Chris was not dragging her dress everywhere. Simple and quick but very important. 

Lacing up

Sewing on the loop

After breastfeeding Echo and getting into my own gown it was time to dress the littlest of us all. She was NOT impressed as we woke her up from a nap and everything. BUT the end result was an absolutely adorable little Echo! 

Lacing me up

Me and my baby!

Since the bride always looks her best right when she has her dress first on and the photographer was not there I grabbed all the cameras and had those of us there line up and take pictures… mom and Mike do have a lovely yard for photos all green and fresh and the day was sunny… and warm, did I mention that yet? VERY warm! 

Bride and her flower girl

Mother and daughter

The girls

With Echo, mom and Fat Sheep

Of course Victoria and Esther managed to get here well in time to enjoy the dressing up and photo taking. They both looked fabulous, Esther in an outfit made out of cloth she brought back from Kenya and Victoria in one of her first sewing projects – a Roman outfit. Add to that our lovely Karyn in her poodle skirt and the ladies were ready to party! BUT you have to wait for that picture until later… they were the anachronistic ladies… and their picture was taken AFTER the ceremony but you CAN see Cousin Veronika looking hot!

MY cousin!

There were also flowers to distribute… I love this one of Amanda and She Chris.

Flowers for the daughter of the bride

And Mike and She Chris… someone even got a cute one of Mom and Mike together.

My mom and her man... or is it Mike and his love?

Then we were off to the Legion, an hour early no less! With Ken as the ride for some of our ladies… Mike taking the bride, daughter of and bridesmaid. I opted to NOT go in the convertible and go with Karyn and my two little ones.

And the rest… well you will have to WAIT for that! So many images already and only half way through our day!!!

Echo and Grandma in their matching outfits

A romantic kiss?

Ken and his girls