The weekend at the beach.

We're home after spending the weekend at the beach. Some good friends of ours agreed to put up with all our noise and messes for two days so we could enjoy the salty air and sandy bottoms. We are greatly appreciative of their hospitality!

Here are a few photos of the weekend. We were staying in Scituate, MA. The house was right on the harbor. Here's a view from the porch:

There were some beautiful sailboats docked in the harbor for the weekend.

Lila

Violet


And Jasmine was camera shy so how about a picture of the sunset?

While Darryl was exploring the rocks near the lighthouse, he found a message in a bottle! I was pretty excited because I'd never found one of those before. It took me a pretty long time to get it out of the bottle. The inside was a little wet and the paper kept sticking to the sides. But I finally managed to pry it out in one piece. Wanna know what it said?














Yup. I *heart* Vagina.

It wasn't a romantic message from a heartbroken man whose wife, his only source of light and joy, died in his arms and he just wanted to send her one last thought.

Not even a cute scribbling from an adventurous grade schooler looking for fascinating "What I Did This Summer" story for school.

And it wasn't even a hopeful wish for the future of our planet.

What are the chances that I'm ever going to find a message in a bottle again? Did my one and only chance really have to be I *heart* Vagina???

Feel free to call the number. I'd like to, but I have the feeling the writer and I don't share similar interests

Because I'm crazy like that

Here is a short clip of JG singing!





And here he is talking on the phone to me!




Ok. Teenage-girl syndrome is over. We now return to your regular scheduled blogger.

Squeel!

Guess what I did this evening!

For those of you who don't watch American Idol, you won't care. But for those of you who do-

I just talked to Justin Guarini on the phone !!!!!

He was at a corporate event that my husband attended this evening. I acted like such a girl, I told him he was my one of my favorite Idols ever.

And I may have squeeled a little.

*Sigh*

That was fun.

Then I cleaned the toilet.

My life is a non-stop par-tay people!

The Wedding!

The wedding day came and we were all prepared. I had made the lists of all the things we needed: curling iron, make up, jewlery, the shoes. Everything was packed and in the car. Our friends Mary and Jeremy followed behind us with the dresses and the steamer. When we got to the venue we dressed the girls and did one last rehearsal and then it was time. I left the little ones with the bridesmaids and took a seat. I was fairly sure that all would be well. Violet was very excited to be there and she just loved her dress. But still, you just never know with a three year old. The music started to play and the bridesmaids started walking. Everyone was beautiful. And then came my two little ones. I held my breath.....





They did it! I was so happy. The service was lovely and sweet. The bride was crying as she walked down the aisle and it made us all tear up. The girls stood still and silent during the vows and walked politely back down the aisle after the service.

Then the ripped off their shoes and daisy rings and begged for food! We all had a great time. The reception was fun. It's been a long weekend. I'm going to fight my way through some laundry and dishes so while I do that, have a look through a sampling of the photos we took that day.

I'm so glad they made it down the aisle!



Violet and Lila as Flower girls


Jasmine, my niece Kelsey, Violet & Lila


My mom, and my nephew Zac who is also the groom! I was freaking out because the service was starting and I couldn't see my mother anywhere. I was just about to get up to look for her and then I saw Zac escorting her to her seat and then taking his place at the alter. I didn't know he was going to do that and I thought it was very sweet.


The bride, Lindsey, and the groom, Zac. Poor Lindsey was just doing all she could not to sob. Zac looked so nervous!


The mother of the groom and my sister Cindy with dad of the groom and my BIL Jim. Ha! She's going to shoot me for putting this picture up!!


I'll make my ammends by posting this pic. That's me in the striped shirt with the mother of the bride. We were discussing the fact that a large bug flew up the brides veil during the service and what was the best way to see if it was still there w/o freaking her out. I ended up just faking that I was really into veils and needed a closer look. No bugs were found!

So we've got a wedding here in a few days. My nephew is getting married on Saturday and all three of my girls are in the wedding. Jasmine will be a junior bridesmaid and Lila and Violet will be flower girls. This has been quite the process. It was a challenge to find matching flower girl dresses that were flattering to both a 6 year old and a 3 year old. But, all the dresses are in, the alterations will be finished tomorrow (thanks Mare!) and it should all go off with out a hitch.

If I can convince Violet to go down the aisle.

Now, I hate to even bring this up because my sister is a reader of this blog and it's her son that is getting married. To say that this wedding has turned her into a raging stress-ball would be an understatement, right Cindy? The fact remains that Violet is 3 and that's still pretty close to unpredictable babyhood. She may march down the aisle and beam with pride that everyone is staring at her, she may also yell "NO! I hate the wedding!" and refuse to budge. It's a crap shoot. We do have bribes waiting for her. My mom purchased some ridiculously priced stuffed animals that will be waiting for her at the end of the walk and I plan to have lollipops waiting to keep her interested. But even with all that, she still might get stage fright and not do it.

And in the end, if she doesn't do it or if I have to walk down the aisle with her to get her to go, it's not the end of the world, right? This ceremony symbolizes a commitment to future. That no matter what happens, these two people will be together to weather the storms and bask in the sunshine, hand in hand.

And a 3 year old in a lilac gown ain't got nothing on that.