An Eventful Weekend

Whew - this weekend was SO crazy.  We were all over the place.  Friday, Mom came over to stay with the kids (a HUGE thanks to her!) and I dropped Rick off at work, got my eyebrows done, did my Bible study and read my Kindle in Barnes & Noble, and had a delicious lunch at Panera.  I also went shopping.  Please understand, I never do this but I had plenty of time to kill, and when you drop a size it's exciting to shop for new clothes.  So I bought some stuff. A new outfit, earrings, shoes, and a few other small things that were on sale.  Again, I never do this, so it was quite a treat. :)  Here's the shirt I bought:

We then headed for Derby for a wedding rehearsal, which was a three hour drive.  We did some rehearsing on the way down, but for the most part we just talked and enjoyed each other's company.  This doubled as our anniversary trip, and though we didn't really do much that was "anniversary-ee," we had a great time just being together.  We stayed the night in a hotel and then I got up early for yoga.  When I came back, I showered and changed, and then caught my reflection in the mirror.  I made Rick take a picture and then I found a picture of myself from the end of May.  They aren't identical, but I think (hope!) you can still see a difference:

At my cousin's wedding on May 25th

This weekend. I tried to get the pictures right next to each other, but it didn't work :/

The wedding was beautiful, and my husband made me cry with his rendition of "When I Say 'I Do'" (which was incidentally better than Matthew West, if I do say so), but I pulled it together in time to sing "The Prayer" with him.  I love singing this song at weddings because Rick gets to show off his classical skills as the male part is almost entirely in Italian...and I get to belt.  It's beautiful.  It wasn't quite as beautiful as Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's version, but we did our best.  I didn't get a picture of the Sarah and David, but they were adorable, and so very obviously in love with each other.  I have known Sarah for more than ten years now and it was so neat to watch her go from a little sixth-grader to a woman becoming a wife.  And I can't say enough great things about her family.  Her sister Melissa is a BFF of mine (she's the one who made us all the freezer meals while I was on bed rest and right after Lucy was born) and I love her dearly.  Sarah, you are beautiful and we are so happy for you!

When we returned, we picked our kids up from the in-laws, went straight home, and had a family movie night where we all packed into our bed and watched (Charlie's choice) Toy Story.  It was a great way to end a LONG day.

Up early for church Sunday morning!  Lucy wore a new dress from Grandma that I now realize I didn't get a picture of.  I'll have to do it the next time she wears it because it was adorable.  Then I took my niece, whose birthday we missed because of the wedding, to lunch and to Paint Therapy.  We had a ball!

This is the picture she chose to paint - appropriate for a birthday, isn't it?

I helped her some, but she did 80% of it on her own!

The finished products!

Since I first did this, I have wanted to paint something for my kids' rooms.  I think I will do this same one for Charlie, only in boy colors.

We ended the weekend with a family trip to the pool, where Charlie showed us what he's been learning in swim lessons, and Little Miss showed us what she's best at - being adorable and SUPER low-maintenance, even at the pool.

It was an exhausting weekend, but it was fun!