A few months ago my brother asked me if I would alter the dresses that his daughters were going to wear at his upcoming wedding. I said I would, especially since he thought that the dresses would just need hemming. When they brought everything over I discovered that the dresses did fit pretty well, the straps needed shortening and the bottoms needed hemming, the coats that went over the dresses were entirely a different matter! They were HUGE! I am fairly certain that the manufacturer shipped woman’s sizes instead of girl’s! So the coats basically had to be remade. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last month.
The wedding was yesterday, and I bet no one knew that an amateur seamstress with a most basic sewing machine was responsible for a major reconstruction job! I never even had time to try the coats on the girls after I finished the final sections. But they fit beautifully! PHEW!
The wedding was held in the rain forest exhibit at our local zoo. It made for an interesting time all around! The problem was that it was 40 degrees outside, but the exhibit is maintained at 85 degrees! And I don’t know what the humidity is, but I’m going to guess it was about 80% We were there between the ceremony and pictures for 2 1/2 hours. I chose a sleeveless dress with a sweater over it and a fleece coat for outside. All in all I was never too cold or too hot. My boys wore summer weight dress shirts and sport coats.
The exhibit has a rope bridge in front of a waterfall that makes a beautiful picture spot. I like this picture because everyone is so relaxed. I am not a fan of staged photos. So if any of my family is wondering why you don’t get new pictures of the boys more often, that’s probably why. Pictured here is my brother (bald), my 3 boys Mic, Ed, and Ger (left to right) and my 2 nieces. The kids are really close, much more like siblings. In fact there is less than 6 months between Ed and my youngest niece and they have been referred to as “the twins” because they acted very much like twins when they were little… well… most days they still do!
One neat thing about the rain forest exhibit is that the birds all fly free! There was a group of scarlet ibises that flew overhead during the ceremony. My husband missed the birds, but got a really nice shot of the ceremony. It is nice that he is so tall, he was able to just hold the camera over his head and snap pictures of the ceremony. I love the look on my new sister-in-law’s face! My poor brother was just hoping the birds wouldn’t cause him to lose the deposit on the tux.
My oldest niece, who is way more beautiful than she thinks. She reminds me way too much of me at that age. Terribly shy and self-conscious, clumsy and tender-hearted. I try like crazy to help her see that it is OK to be all of those things. And most importantly I try to help her to learn to laugh at herself, something I didn’t learn until after I graduated. We are going shopping this week for her birthday, I take each of my nieces out for a day as a birthday gift. We have lunch and shop. And I think this year I may take her for a manicure too.
I think I’m going to cry! Ger is dancing with his grandma! Who told him he could grow up?! I never realized how much taller he is than she is. Growing up all the kids in the family can’t wait until they are taller than Grandma. Not that my mother is tall, it’s the opposite. She is just a bit over 5 foot tall.
A little after 10:30, and while the grown ups were ready to drop, these 3 were still going strong. I think if they had stopped dancing, they would have been asleep on their feet.
cauliflower plants I put in.
Every year I make about 30 pints. This year I had some strawberry left from last year, but I made blueberry and blackberry from berries I had in the freezer. I also will probably make some grape jelly from the concord grapes that grow wild on our property.
I made strawberry syrup, blueberry syrup and blueberry/raspberry syrup. The boys love them. Next year I’ll have to make more!
We bought everything the recipe said we would need, including the hot peppers, and Ger set about making the hot sauce. I know in many families the canning is always done be the women. But in my family the men do their share of the canning too. My great grandfather made an awesome peach jam, unfortunately he took the recipe to the grave with him and I’ve heard stories about his horseradish (apparently he was the only one who would stay in the house while it was cooking!) My grandfather helped my grandmother with all her canning, including his chili sauce. Now that Grandpa has gone home, Dad has taken over the chili sauce tradition. Dad even tried his hand at horseradish once, and yes, we all left the house!
a terrible storm before I could get over there to buy some. So I bought some from the farmers’ market for $18 a half bushel. I was able to can 24 quarts of peaches, but I didn’t make any jam. I did find a recipe to make “peach honey” from the peels which seemed like it would have been similar to peach jelly, but I ended up burning it. Next year I think I will use a recipe for plum jelly any try to make peach jelly.
Like I said, he is rarely in his pen. He seems to prefer to be with people, at least he follows us into whatever room we are in. He also loves to go outside, and Mic takes him out as the weather allows. But it has been cool and rainy recently, so Max has had to be satisfied with wandering around the house. It actually reminds me of the days when we had a crawling baby, we need to remember to shut the door to the basement and every once in awhile we look up and realize that we don’t know where Max is! Unlike a crawling baby though, a 4 inch tortoise is difficult to find. He can fit into small places (like behind the guitar stand) and if you are not looking carefully he blends in with things. I decided to circle him in this picture rather than have you play “Find the Tortoise” and it is still not easy.
