My cousin Jessica and her main squeeze Jeff tied the knot in early December with a gorgeous and fun event. Kristin and PJ came into town for it, yay!, and we had a whole day and half with them before heading up to WI for the wedding. We used it to take a Mommy/kiddo trip to the Shedd Aquarium, which turned out to be sooo fun! I typically have low expectations going into outings like these, because my kids are wild banshees most of the time, but it was so great! Maybe they are maturing?! All three kids had a wonderful time looking at all of the exhibits, which meant Kristin and I had a great time too.
With Cory home with Sebastian, and PJ making the trip with Kristin, we decided that we would just bring Luke to the wedding and leave Claire with Donna and Emil. He is so much easier to bring to things than Claire is now that he is getting a little older, and he can stay up later too so we all could stay at the reception longer. We also thought that Claire could have a special sleepover - just her - with Grandpa & Grandma B. All sounded good on paper, but after 2 days of playing with Luke & PJ we didn't account for Claire's vehement insistence that she didn't want to go to Grandma & Grandpa's, she wanted to stay with the us (read: Luke & PJ). Poor Claire and poor Donna, who had to handle the aftermath when we basically forced her into her carseat and waved goodbye to her while she was yelling and crying "No!!! I want to stay with you guys!!!" Donna said she cried for a long time after she got to their house and told her sadly over the weekend, "They left without me." My heart aches that she feels that we abandoned her. I'm praying there isn't some long term emotional damage done here that she'll talk about with her therapist as an adult. Even a couple months later (since I'm so far behind in doing the blog) she still won't do a sleepover at Donna & Emil's, so it hasn't become a distant memory yet:( Poor little girl. Donna & Emil said she eventually came around that same day, and had fun decorating their house and tree for Christmas and went to a party for their church Sat night where she was a big hit. But it still makes me really sad when I think about her being so sad because of something I could have prevented. Live and learn with this parenting stuff!
In any case, by the time we went to the wedding later that day we had touched base with Donna & Emil and learned that Claire seemed to be having fun, so we allowed ourselves to enjoy the wedding. It was a beautiful winter themed wedding at Potawatomi Hotel in Milwaukee. I loved all the details they thought of to make their theme come alive in an elegant way. Congrats to Jessica & Jeff!
 |
| three bugs in a rug |
 |
| These kids were inseparable and Claire just tried to keep up! |
 |
| whale show at Shedd |
 |
| Luke took this one:) |
 |
| Seeing the Christmas lights on Michigan Avenue |
 |
| Matt had the foresight to pick up some coloring books before the reception |
 |
| Brother of the bride and gf Sara:) |
 |
| Brother of the bride (aka Jesus hair) |
 |
| Beautiful cousin Melissa: bridesmaid and friend of the bride:) |
 |
| rock climber:) |
 |
| double fisted outside the casino:) we start 'em young |
 |
| homemade barrel tables |
 |
| Screen door bought from the Gurnee Antique Market for this awesome DIY project! |
 |
| Katie had little Elijah all snuggled up! |
 |
| time for bed when the kid hangs out under the table |
No comments:
Post a Comment