Family Photos at the Wedding

The big day has come and gone, and Brooks is now a married man!  

The wedding was at our church in Faunsdale, with the pictures taken on the grounds of the church.

I tried to take a few photos of the kids and get a nice family shot while we were there, but children are not always cooperative, and seven-month-pregnant-moms-in-heels can only do so much.  So while I am anticipating some much nicer shots from the professional photographer (especially because Clara was really hamming it up for him the whole time), here are a few shots of my kiddos in their wedding attire.

With Clara and Paul as the flower girl and ring bearer, I really wanted to make Clara a special dress.  This was by far my most advanced sewing project I've tackled so far, but I had a wonderful time making it!  I actually took a beginner's heirloom sewing course to show me how to do the lace work (which I had never tried before).  I'm happy to report that working with lace is not very challenging!

Paul's suit was purchased.  I wasn't feeling ambitious enough to sew a little man's suit.  All I did was hem the pants.

 

The weather was absolutely perfect despite being early November.  We had planned for Clara to be barefoot walking down the aisle, and she was.  She did such a wonderful job throwing the petals.  Paul decided to pass on being ring bearer that day, but Clara performed like a pro.  Thank goodness!

  

As you can see from Paul's expression, he wasn't so sure about this whole wedding thing, and he wasn't so sure about smiling either.  This is the best shot we got as a family.

We came back to the church a few days later, dressed in our wedding attire, and we tried some photos again.  I didn't get any shots of the kids together (that would be asking too much).  But I did get a few good ones.

 Of course by that time we were all trying to get over stuffy noses, so our coloring and our attitude was still questionable.  But picking berries off the bushes seemed to be perk the kids up.

I love this shot.  It's not actually a great picture of Paul, but it looks like he's modeling menswear for a catalog.  If I hadn't cropped the photo some, you'd see he has one hand in his pocket.  (I did not pose him that way... like I could if I wanted to!)

And let's be honest... a little bribery helps every photo shoot!

Sewing: Super huge Lumberjack Bib

Paul's super huge lumberjack bib was a fun little project to make.  I had really wanted to make part of his party clothes, but I couldn't justify making jeans or even a button down shirt when I could buy them so easily.  However, I did make his bib, which was super helpful for cake-time.

There's this birthday tradition called a "smash cake."   If you decide to do it, you need this bib for your little one.  It has sleeves.  It's the ultimate in coverage.

Read more about how I made it on my other blog here.

An Indoor Picnic in the Three Hundred Acre Wood

Clara turned two at the end of January, and we I had to throw her a party, of course.  So, given her recent interest in Winnie the Pooh, my love for the original A.A. Milne story with the E.H. Shepard sketches, and the similarity in Clara's haircut and Christopher Robin's, it was practically mandatory to have an "Indoor Picnic in the Three Hundred Acre Wood."

Warning: I'm having some fun using the instagram app on my iphone - hence the filtered pictures.  Carry on. 

I started by making a "Clara Bee Robin" outfit.  Christopher Robin wears a blousy white shirt and red shorts in a lot of the original drawings, so that was my starting point. 

 

I turned hers into a dress (so you really couldn't see her shorts too much).

And of course Winnie the Paul needed something for the party, too.  You can see this link for more of his clothing details.

Then came the difficulty of transforming our living room into a forest...

 

Large swatches of Cedar and Privet provided the majority of the greenery.  Their size combined with the natural style of the party made the decorations go quickly.  The mantle was flanked by two arrangements of Cedar (from my mother in law's yard) and Privet with little blue berries (from down near the hay barn).  Pine cone garland was hung under the mantle. 

I hung two large swags of the cedar and privet on the front double windows; a little burlap helped hold things together.

 

The table centerpiece was more of the same, plus a few red berries for fun.  Oh, and a gingham red table cloth - it is a picnic, you know!

 

A close up of the pine and pine cone garland - the pine swags were saved from my Christmas garland - including the wire - sweet!  The pine cones came from Wal-mart's after Christmas super sale.  Pine trees don't grow close by.  It feels silly to buy pine cones, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

And we had to have an extra large blue balloon so Pooh could get honey from the honey tree!

Then it was time to eat!  Everyone grabbed a picnic basket and loaded their food inside.

 
The meal included cuban sandwiches, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, Eeyore's blue "thistle" chips (aka Blue Terra Chips), stuffed eggs (thanks Ann!), Tigger's "spring" water, and Rabbit's broccoli salad.
 

The "Sumthing Sweet" table included a honey tasting, "haycorn" cookies c/o Piglet, and honeycomb cupcakes.  Pat had some fun cutting wood slices that I used for a cakestand and platters with his dad's new chainsaw.

No cake at this party - I opted for cupcakes made from my mom's honeybun cake recipe.  The bees were made from pipecleaners - super fast and easy!  A yellow iced hexagon cookie on top of the cupcake made the arrangement into a honey comb.

 

The honey tasting had 4 different types: raw local honey, blueberry honey, cotton honey, and tangerine honey.

The tangerine was the overall favorite.

A "haycorn" cookie (Piglet's way of saying 'acorn') is just a hershey kiss, nilla wafer, and butterscotch chip held together with a little frosting.

I enjoyed putting this party together so much, and it really came together just about as well as I had imagined.  The best part was Clara's wide-eyed amazement as she woke up from her nap and saw the Hundred Acre Wood.  I think she really enjoyed it.

Reading with Aunt Ann under the picnic table was pretty fun, too.

Patrick and Brooks were sports to sit on the picnic blankets with Clara.  It was a really wonderful family get together (plus the adopted Mrs. Pino and Lee Jack).

Happy Birthday, Clara Bee Robin!