Wedding Bells

     I was pretty slow at getting posts up earlier in the week and have now been completely absent from the blog for a few days. We've been pretty busy preparing for yesterday's festivities.
     At this point I would like to extend a huge CONGRATULATIONS to my sister-in-law Amy and my new brother-in-law Bobby!
     This past week was full of functions. We started out with Zoo Boo and Trail of Treats (which I already posted about) so that we would be able to work more on preparing for the wedding later in the week. Thursday night the girls that were in town already went to a local day spa to have manicures, pedicures and massages. It was a nice experience on Thursday (the massage was REALLY nice) however, by Saturday I think almost everyone had issues with their nails (chipping or being messy, etc.). I'm always leery about leaving the kids simply because I spend so much of my time with them. Most days I'm at least in the same building as they are 24 hours a day but Hubby did a great job keeping tabs on them throughout this week's festivities. 

     Friday was the rehearsal dinner. It was a little jumbled since things were being finalized for Saturday  and the kids were a little loud because of poor planning on our part and had not fed them before we got started. 

Froggie's gift from Aunt Amy

My gift from Amy

     Saturday was wedding day. We headed out in the early afternoon and Froggie and I were dropped off at the chapel. While we began getting ready Hubby and Big Brother went to my In-Law's house to eat lunch and take a nap. The girls hung out, got their hair done and did make-up. After a little bit of checking everything out Froggie nursed and fell asleep.

Froggie hanging out with her 2nd cousin Andrea

I had some company while i got my hair done

The back of my hair

Sleeping while everyone else gets ready

     Hubby and Big Brother returned around 4 with french fries for me and nuggets for Big Brother and when Froggie woke up she got some baby food. We weren't going to make the mistake of not feeding the kids before the ceremony!

The bouquets

A handsome Big Brother

Froggie with my bouquet

Hubby and Froggie

Hubby and both kids

My Father-in-law Bruce and Sister-in-law Amy

     After pictures we lined up and made it through the ceremony without a hitch. After the ceremony Hubby and my mom gathered the kids and our belongings and headed to the reception site while we crowded into the limo and headed off to take some pictures.

The chapel

The cake!

An attempt at a family photo

cutting the cake

The Bride and Groom

Big Brother trying to catch the garter

First dance

Hubby and his sister

Froggie and I

Getting kisses

Froggie fell asleep with my mom 

     From there we got to the reception hall and joined the party. We were announced in, did toasts, ate, first dances and cake. Big Brother was mad that we were packing up to leave at 10 and wanted to stay. Overall, it was a wonderful but busy day and we spent most of today lounging.

Trail of Treats

     Every year for a few nights before Halloween our Mall gets a make over. There are tables set up through every hallway and local organizations tote in enough goodies to hand out to a HUGE turnout of children who's parents wish to have them trick-or-treat in an indoor environment.
     Hubby headed over to get our tickets ahead of time during his lunch break. This didn't save us a ton of money but it did make it a little easier to get in once we were there. After work the kids and I headed to Hubby's office to pick up our tickets and get Big Brother changed.
     We headed over to the mall while Hubby finished up work. We started our walk through the mall and Hubby met up with us and brought dinner! The kids did great and only got a little fussy through out the evening.
     After a snack in the food court we took the kids to Build-a-Bear so that they could each pick out a bear. Big brother made a doggie first and named him Jasper. Then he helped Froggie make a cute little velvet bear we named Nugget (which is what we call Froggie). They were so cute about it and Froggie was so excited about Nugget it was worth it!

Pumpkin Farm Picture - Final Attempt

     So every time we've gone to the pumpkin farm something has come up and one of the kids was distracted, or asleep, or grumpy, etc. Well since it wasn't raining when we got home from work I decided to pack the kids up and head out to the pumpkin farm again and give it one last shot. Just them and I to limit distractions since every time we've tried before there have been other people around.
     Here's what we came up with:

Big Brother driving Froggie around

They had a blast

Big Brother, Froggie and of course we can't forget a race car!

My happy little pumpkin

An animal made a noise and the kids looked a little afraid

Zoo Boo 2013

     Since the weather doesn't look so great for the rest of the week we decided to head to Zoo Boo at our local zoo this evening. I did some running around after work and picked up dinner so we could eat dinner in Hubby's office and get geared up.

     Big Brother was REALLY excited to dress up as Iron Man though the promise of the zoo AND candy to a 2 year old pretty much did it before Iron Man was even involved. We've gone in a the past with Big Brother but I think this year was, by far, our best year. The decision to go tonight was a last minute one after I looked at the forecast. Despite trying to have everything packed up we were missing a few things. We picked up some lighted bracelets and Big Brother picked out a mask for me. 

     We ran through the drive thru on our way to the center and had dinner in Hubby's office while everyone got changed and ready to drive down the street. It was a struggle to find parking and we arrived less than half an hour after Zoo Boo started. I took some pictures of the kids while we waited for Hubby to come over and meet us from the other parking area. 

     Upon entry you're given a bag and tickets which you turn in for treats. Though Froggie wasn't supposed to get anything the nice women at the gate gave her one. We walked around and collected our treats while checking out the animals. We also rode the carousel and train before the wind picked up and the rain started. We got everyone packed up just as the rain began to fall a little harder. 

     Overall it was a great night and my little Iron Man even got up and danced with a bunch of kids and did the Cha Cha Slide! He even did well with the left and right directions. 

Posing before we went into the zoo

Posing before we went into the zoo

Posing before we went into the zoo

In the zoo, ready to go!

Trading tickets for treats

Watching the Polar Bear

Walking with Hubby

Dancing with the other kids

The back of Froggie's costume

IronMan riding the carousel

Sleepy Froggie and I on the carousel

Family picture!

Froggie feeding herself some dinner

The kids and I

Snuggling while we wait for the train

riding the train

The Kids posing before we left

Love this one!