And now we return to the norm… well what the Reinsch-Johnson family perceives as such! Welcome back to homeschooling, crafting, family fun and of course… random ramblings; BUT best of all they are all being said/done/typed/experienced AT HOME for a while. We have all pretty much willingly grounded ourselves to our house, or in the adults’ case – the immediate city for the rest of the week…

Wednesday was a rather unique day for our family – a day completely OFF from schooling! The activity of choice – Minecraft! Which worked well as the weather was rather crummy. So we let them take turns and play to their hearts’ delight.

Gaming with remnants of lunch... or was it brunch?

Still rather cranky children but with a fridge full of wedding leftovers (and flowers… really need to decide something about my bouquet – what is left of it – and Trinity’s basket) we were perfectly content to STAY HOME. And in the evening I had plenty of time to watch Top Gear (UK version OF COURSE) and work on blog entries… 

Naked baby popcorn time

Thursday was not a much more action packed day BUT we started with bubbles – wedding bubbles – which is always a good place to start. I ended up with a bunch of the bubble containers in various places. Everywhere from the van to my purse to various pieces of luggage in fact! So out the 4 bigger kids went and blew bubbles in the backyard. A bit chilly in the morning though so it didn’t last long. 

Wedding bubbles

Now back to homeschooling, and the activity for today – catching up on our Summer Adventure file… there is lots to go through and each of the twins had 3 pages to do for the day. 

Two of Zander's

Gavin's two

The glacier toe

Emanuel even did his own page with some carefully chosen words about the wedding – Wedding, bubbles and gold (the colour of his sash). He has been working hard on his letters and knows pretty much all of them by memory. Though he alternates capitals and lower-case depending on the letter and his mood at the time! 

Emanuel's page

I got spoiled with some more cousin time as well. Veronika had a dental appointment in town here and so came over after for a visit with a large bag of clothes she no longer wanted. It seems like we are about the same size in shirts for the most part! Bonus! And then we ducked out to do a wee bit of shopping. I have a plan (don’t worry it is a relatively simple one)… when fall comes I want to dress BACK up in my medieval dress, do up my hair and make-up and head down to a local park area for pictures. So… I needed stupid proof eye shadow and who better to ask for help from than my most amazing make-up artist of a cousin. This is one step up from the truly idiot proof stuff (that stuff  you take the sponge, sweep it across the palette and then across your eye – done!) and very pretty. 

Eyeshadow

And then there was the ribbon on sale – 5 spools for 2.00 so we HAD TO stop by and get some.

Pretty thin ribbon!

Oh and Cousin Veronika is also firmly lost in the Trinity Hello Kitty vortex… look what our little miss got from her cousin!

KITTY!

The van was driven on Thursday with less than stellar results… not a major overheat but a hissing sound would accompany an increase in heat on the engine then stop and it go back down. So no trip to the city on Saturday for Alexander’s birthday… I am hoping that once we fix the vehicle we can make a special trip. I do hate missing a birthday party! But better we stayed at home than got stranded on the road somewhere!

Friday was an overcast day here, perfect for diving into math… Gavin is nearing the end of his grade 1 level math book right on schedule (his schedule really as he is VERY adamant that he needs to move onto the next).

He is up to adding 3 different numbers at once... larger numbers at that

We decided to take our adventure to the Maligne Canyon into a poster. I had one piece of poster paper left from when we did our VBS poster and 2 postcards I picked up at the gift shop at the canyon. Since we learned about the Lichen and saw a squirrel it seemed like there was more than enough exciting information and memories of this place to make a nice poster. 

Poster in pieces

I finished a few scrapbooking pages over Thursday and Friday. I have so many pictures already printed out it is a shame to have them sitting there and not do anything. 

For Trinity

I did sneak out with the 3 kids that at the time were behaving (well Echo was a given) and we walked to the convenience store… Ken wanted chocolate and I wanted out of the house. Not the nicest day for a walk but we enjoyed it anyway!

Ready to walk

So we are back to normal… well normal for the Reinsch-Johnson household. The kids are still a BIT cranky and the baby clingy BUT we are home and that is wonderful. Our program for the year is in the works to be completed over the long weekend, next week Ken and Echo will get the last of her medical testing taken care of and call the cardiologist to check in for that surgery date. It was so wonderful to just enjoy our family and NOT be thinking about Echo’s health concerns (real or imagined) or the kids’ year of schooling, just how to have fun and learn about the world around us!

I am rather disappointed that we are grounded to home for the weekend but that is nothing new for the family… after all we still have lots we can do – there are toys to discover in the basement, a playset to finish building (FINALLY), a shed to tidy and of course bubbles to blow. As it is a long weekend we will just have to see if anyone is free and comes by, but either way it will be a GET THINGS DONE sort of weekend, which is  great timing as Tuesday we start to feel the grade 2 vibe… or at least the twins have decided they start grade 2 that day! 

That brings me to something has always made me giggle – so many parents who have their kids in the school system talk about how life has gone back to “normal” once school starts up again… so for those of us who homeschool (especially year round) does that mean that life is NEVER “normal”? If so… I think that is GREAT! 

I just love their hair in this one!

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

And so like sand through an hourglass…. oh wait… wasn’t that soap cancelled ages ago? Oh dear off topic and the blog entry has barely started!!!

Friday… what is there to say about Friday… well TONS! First off there was the getting up in the morning to small children running wild, Grandma cooking waffles (which were DELICIOUS), little boys cutting strawberries and the knowledge that at this point it would be GO GO GO. After a yummy breaky, dragging Ken out of bed to have a bite or two himself and a good bath in one of my favourite bathtubs it was time to face the reality – there were things to do and I needed to be organized enough to get them done! 

Breakfast at Grandma's

Ready for the day

The kids were content to run wild at Grandma’s and enjoy the sunshine, tv and other things… mom and I had to run to Walmart for various reasons and by the time we got back we had 2 guests… (he) Chris’ dad Dave AND a fellow gamer Jocelyn who is also American! She played on the same textual game (back in the 90’s) that Ken and I originally met on!! Though she hung out with different people. Now trust me – she is a TOTAL gem! Not afraid to step up and pitch in, and full of great ideas.  I don’t know what we would have done without her and a few other special people’s help. 

Friday morning was a lot of hurry up and wait. Chris and Chris were running behind schedule so they had dropped off Dave and Jocelyn before one was at the massage place and the other off to pick up Mae. In the meantime I had Cousin Veronika show up AND Karyn (two more people who went above and beyond to help with this event… I love you 2 so much!!!). Remember, Cousin Veronika was to do our make up – and trust me she is AMAZING!!! 

So we busied ourselves with making coffee and settling in our newcomers. Jocelyn spent the rest of the wedding time sleeping in a tent in the backyard (not the same one as the boys…), Karyn took the twins’ usual room at Grandma’s and Veronika shared with Emanuel (she got the single bed and he bedded down on the floor in the office room… which worked just fine for both of them thank goodness!). Full house with more to come that evening!! 

There was a new list to be made (did I mention Jocelyn likes lists? It IS the MacLean way to do things so Veronika and mom were right on board with that), well multiple really as there was a dinner that night for all involved in the decorating and general wedding chaos and then the last minute decorating needs… so we managed to get that pretty much done before (she) Chris even arrived with Mae.

As soon as (she) Chris and Mae arrived and (he) Chris and Dave were sent off with one list to get food for the evening bbq it was DRESS TIME! This included much groping off boobage to ensure a best fit (the brides boob shapers that were built into the dress needed to be removed), some sleeve discussion (Mae’s were a little too long so mom was there ready with pins, scissors and her machine to make pretty) and of course oohing and ahhing over the actual dresses themselves. There was some minor changes made to the back of the bride’s gown as well which were rather creative – the back is a lace up corset style but was using little metal bra hook style eyes and a thin cord for look which we simply did not trust with the amount of time she was going to be in it. So we took the cord the seamstress used as a tie and mom made that in to the loops and then raided her stash for a thicker but matching cord that even had TASSELS! Of course this meant mom was out of the running for the majority of the decorating and tied to her sewing machine for the afternoon.

Trying on the dress

We left Ken on his computer, mom on her machine and all the kids but Echo playing in the house to head over to the hall at this point – Echo was a lucky tag along. When we go to the hall there was much to do… sadly certain items did NOT make it there at the same time as us (for example my 62 bows were forgotten at mom’s and had to be gone back for) and the tableclothes were MIA until He Chris got there (which seemed  to take a long time but was dealt with in the end). We made a run to mom’s work to rent some lights and use Kristen’s lovely idea – totally try this at home – a string of lights of some sort (we used ones that were like a rope) with TULLE put over top of them – I am totally doing that for Christmas!!!

Once all the bits were collected for the centrepieces and Mae spent a massive amount of time gluing the bows onto the wine glasses and later helped with the filling of them – jelly stuff you get at Michaels with some red and clear gems She Chris got off of eBay and some black heart shaped confetti I found in a box at home (the Legion has a no confetti on the table policy) topped with a tea light I was VERY pleased!!! There were brandy glasses done the same way on the head table along with a lovely burgundy tablecloth and matching napkins to set the table even further apart.

The back of one of the table's centrepieces (taken on the day)

Again taken on the day - one of the brandy glasses

There were bells for ringing for kisses to be placed as well as the chocolates that the bride and groom made (though those were not QUITE completed for Friday… and had to be finished up that night around mom’s table). All in all the tables were lovely, even though the table number cards She Chris bought had two 3’s and no 2! (ACK thank goodness we had markers, masking tape and Mae).

Bell with Karyn's My Little Pony

The balloons we pre-ordered from the local party store were lovely and put to be at the front of the aisle for the ceremony. All the wedding colours were there – the red, black, gold and silver. (white and yellow in balloons) Very pretty!

And then for the stage where the DJ was – Veronika, Karyn and Jocelyn were very crafty and used some left over ribbons and cloth and made beautiful bows and swags. So many talented fingers and minds were involved!

Of course in the middle of all this we had to run off to stores – Walmart for some incidentals of a bridal nature, which meant SNACK TIME for a patient Echo…

FRIES

The dollar store for things for the evening BBQ… and then She Chris and Jocelyn stopped at the florist. We had a minor bridal meltdown when she was told she couldn’t see the flowers yet but that they would be burning the midnight oil to get them done. It took some calming her down but SERIOUSLY this is THE BEST flower place in  town. It is where basically everyone I know locally got their grad flowers (yourself included), my and my mom’s wedding flowers were done there… if they say they will be done and gorgeous – well they will be! At least then it came to light that She Chris thought that SHE would be picking up the flowers the next day — UH NO! So we made note (lists for the win) of where every flower was going and then made that an Usher job (thank you so much Ted and Sean!!!).

OH I forgot to mention that I have one of the best cousins EVER! There was a mix up with a bra pick up in the city that had me scurrying for a replacement and Veronika was the one who saved the day. I swear I got one of the LAST size mediums of my favourite Bravado brand nursing bra that was NOT white/ivory in the province!!! There is one store in the town she lives in that opened up before she was heading to mom’s. They had ONE left and it was a pretty pastel pink and now it is mine!! So if you notice in pictures a lovely pink bra under various shirts… well that is the new lovely Cousin delivered bra! Thank you sooooo much again Veronika!!

It was around 4:30/5 pm when we finally collected all the people (and children) needed for the rehearsal. The JP was not there (she was not paid to be or requested) so we were on our own. Thankfully mom and Veronika kicked everyone into a semblance of order and we were able to give it a good couple run throughs leaving the bride and groom happy with it all. This was my first time seeing He Chris’ brother in over 10 years actually and before that was only in passing anyway! (Sean… confused yet with TWO Seans – we called Sean the Usher OUR Sean for distinction purposes) The kids were rather well behaved though bored out of their minds and more than ready to head out to the promised Splash Park!!

Practice and you can see the balloons here

Sadly yours truly was not able to make it out there with way too much yet to be done at the hall and people to wrangle and a bride to keep relatively calm and in some semblance of organization (have I mentioned the anti list sentiments? Cuz until Friday there was tons but the lists prevailed thanks to myself and the other strong willed women in the group). BUT Ken and mom took the kids and the plural Chris’ dog Duke out to the local splash park (one of the best in the province) where all 5 of my kiddos got a chance to enjoy the water fun!

So glad I left some buckets in the van!

All 4 of the big ones

With Duke

Echo and the water

The hall was pretty much 80% done by the time we left and headed back to the house. At that point the kids were already back from the park and supper was under way (thanks to Ken on the bbq and mom manning the stove). We had more than enough for everyone and were joined by the MC Cam as well as the ushers (Ted and OUR Sean… they drove in after work and crashed in the basement for the night). Fat Sheep was ALSO in attendance… she came with Karyn and brought her party accessory as well – a lovely mob cap made by my mom.

The car was washed and cleaned up (mom’s summer convertible) and ready for decorating so we conscripted Ted, Sean and Jocelyn to finish fluffing the flowers to go on it.

Fluffers

There was a lovely sign mom made up to be tied on the back of the car which Ken took care of. Though I doubt we used up a third of the flowers that were bought. Thank goodness masking tape does not take the paint off cars (Mike contacted the dealership to be absolutely sure – smart man!). Oh and Mike’s bike cleaned to a shine as it was requested that the bride and groom take some pictures with it as well.

Sign on and ready to go

Flowers going on the car

After food was eaten and the table cleared the last push to wrap up the favour chocolates began… thankfully they were done around midnight and those who had to leave for bed went on their way. What a day! But the bride and groom seemed VERY satisfied.

Eating dinner before chocolates

With Jocelyn in the big tent, the twins in the little one, and everyone else bedded down where they either had a bed (Karyn and Veronika) or could find a comfy space (Sean, Ted and Emanuel) it was time to rest up for the busiest day of all.

Fat Sheep in her wedding splendour... early so as to be ready for the next day with minimum fuss