Ministerial Services.

Another hectic summer week has come and gone!

Brian, Becca and Benjy flew into town on Saturday for our friend Lauren's wedding, which was this following Monday. Adam and Ellie were so thrilled to have baby Benjy at our house, and loved playing with him and snuggling with him. Sometimes with their gentle hands, sometimes not so gentle. This time, when we had Adam sleep in Ellie's room, he actually SLEPT so that was a relief. Now that we no longer have house guests, he has decided that he no longer wants a baby bed, and changing his "crib" (aka, a cage around his mattress on the floor so that he can't crawl out) to a big boy bed made Ellie want a bigger girl bed, so we took down her bed rail. Everyone is drunk on power, and exhilarated about the chance to fall out onto the floor. They're doing well though, which feels like another good milestone. No more worrying about cribs on long trips, since they can both sleep on air mattresses, or in a regular bed. We only have to take diapers for overnight, and soon, we'll be down to only one full sized car seat. Traveling so light! (which is funny because friends ask me about getting TSA precheck or trusted traveler, and traveling with small children makes it feel so not worth it.)

My friend Lauren is one of the sweetest loves of all time, and has been such a supportive auntie to my kids. However, when she talked about her wedding, I immediately said "please don't ask me to have Ellie be the flower girl." I had zero interest in having the kids at the wedding with us, especially after she asked Tim and I to perform the ceremony. But, we were able to take the kids up for the rehearsal on Sunday morning and the brunch following, and they had a good time with all of the wedding party (and everyone was so sweet to them, even when brunch ran really long and they got squirrely.) Our waiter was named Adam, which upset Ellie because she said "everything is about Adam!" and then I said "well, raise your hand if you have Elizabeth in your name" and both Lauren and Joy raised their hand (it's their middle name.) That made her feel much better. What made me feel the best was when Ellie asked if Lauren, Joy and I were cousins (which is one step slightly below sisters) and I said "we're sister friends!" I adore those girls. And Becca. Here is a good before and after for you.

I mean, have you ever seen a group of women age so beautifully? The first picture was almost ten years ago, when we were all together for the first time (after meeting on an internet blogging site, which was a super creepy thing to do back in the day.) And now they are some of my very, very dearest sister-friends.

Monday, the day of the wedding, was a little tense, because as you may know, my mom took a tumble off a ladder on Saturday afternoon, She was stable over the weekend, and it wasn't so grotesque that they had to take the ER. But dad wasn't sure what the doctor visit schedule would be like, and surprise, he didn't want to take Adam along with his wife, old Peg Leg. The good news is that Ellie was at camp all day and out of everyone's hair, and our friend Kristen saved the day by letting us leave Adam with Judd and his nanny during the day. He was THRILLED to spend the day was Juddy, and was apparently a good boy who took a nice nap and didn't have any potty accidents. Dad spent the day driving mom around and then going to pick up kids and Sara and drop Sara off at club, but everyone received good child care during the day, mom got the doctors appointments that she needed, and then the kids were well behaved through our arrival home on Tuesday afternoon. Adam even got to watch a new butterfly hatch!

Oh, and the wedding was great! Tim and I performed well both under the chuppah and on the dance floor, and we had an amazing time with our friends.

Benjy was also an exceptional wedding guest - he's wearing the tuxedo that Adam wore when Brian and Becca got married. The only downside was when he tried to overserve himself at the hotel bar before the nuptials. 

It was also in the hotel bar where I did some really good wolf whistling at the mother of the groom. I'm friendly!

Ellie is continuing to enjoy camp, but she's so tired at the end of the day. 

I pick her up well before 6 every day, we usually stop by and check on Gigi and Grizz (who most days have been hanging out with Adam so that I don't have to drag him along) and then we're home by 6:30 and she's a zombie on the couch until she flops, exhausted, into bed at 8. Today they're taking the kids on a whale watching field trip in Dana Point, and when we walked into camp, I said "oh, you get to wear your special camp shirt today!" Cue explosive tears. I ended up taking the shirt, borrowing a sharpie and scribbling some hearts on it to make it "pretty" but I bet she will rip it off the second she gets back to the gym facility, and will never ever wear it again. She likes to make very specific fashion noises, and I can't blame her. I did however, tell her she'd have to leave it she couldn't get it together. She and Lexi have had two really fun weeks, but I'm glad we didn't sign them up for any other sessions. Also - I love that on Monday, they gave my dad a huge ration of crap because they'd misplaced the form where I'd authorized him to pick up Ellie that morning, and yesterday, schedules worked out so that I could grab both girls and meet Kristen and Judd for ice cream (Adam was napping with Grizz) and even though I wasn't on the official form, they just wrote down my name and allowed Lexi to leave with me. I wonder if they would have allowed it if I had a mustache. No one trusts a guy with 1970s facial hair, Grizz!