Preschool and Party Time

I feel like I should have a better title for this post since it includes Riley's first day of school and a friend's 10 year anniversary, but since there really isn't a single theme it's more of a this and that sort of post.

~ Riley started a new year of preschool and is now in the YBK (year before kindergarten) room. She has new teachers and some new classmates, but a handful of her friends from her last class moved with her so I think that helps. She mentioned the other day that she misses her old class and she shared that she saw her former favorite teacher, Debbie, on the playground and relayed "Debbie, loves me".

Hey mom, take a picture of me over here.

Her new class has already been preparing the kid's for moving into kindergarten by doing things like having them eat lunch in the cafeteria. She's adjusting to the change well and several days in she already received two birthday party invites.

At times this doesn't feel like such a big deal since she's still technically in pre-school, but then she says or does something and I can't help but think that this time next year she will be getting on a bus by herself. She'll have so much more responsibility and she seems impossibly young for that. I trust that she can do it - even in the last few months it seems that she had matured in leaps and bounds, but you know, she's my little girl. Anyhoo, I'm jumping ahead as we still have an entire year before kindergarten starts. 

~ My friend, Josie, and her family have been in a lot of my posts lately which is sort of weird since she and I can never get our schedules aligned to hang out, but we just had another opportunity to get together to celebrate her 10 year wedding anniversary on Saturday.

Josie and I met about 25 years ago and were really close for quite awhile. We even lived together for 9 years (strange to think that this is longer than Jesse and I have lived together). We bought our first houses within a week of each other and had our first child within 6 months of each other (which was also noteworthy since we were both in our late 30's). We hadn't been hanging out all that much when she reached out to me 10 years ago to be her maid of honor, but our friendship picked up right where it always was. Love friendships that can do that.

Josie and Rob decided to renew their vows and had a small gathering next to Nicollet Island Pavilion (where they were married), and then had a luau themed party later in the day at The Lodge (they honeymooned in Hawaii). Another one of our former roommates, Tracy, (who was her matron of honor) was also able to attend.

Tracy, Josie, me

Josie had a friend photographing the day, but so was Jesse and everyone else because... phones, you know. I felt bad for the photographer friend since I knew we were likely all looking at different cameras.

Only picture I found where it appears we were all looking in the same direction.

There were a lot of little girls there so Riley was fully entertained and surprisingly kept her white outfit clean even though they were running around in the dirt and grass.

Josie's wedding was 1920's themed and was pretty huge. I always wanted to have a small intimate wedding for myself (which I did and loved), but I did get the experience of helping to organize a big wedding. It was fun, but so glad I didn't have to do that for mine. Anyhoo, about a week before the vow renewals Josie asked that we try to find red dresses in the 1920's style, if possible. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. The morning of the renewal I was digging in my closet and found this old red and black dress, and you can't really see it here, but it totally had a 1920's style to it. Sweet. Not sure why I even still have this dress, but glad I hung on to it. 

I can't seem to find any pictures from the wedding ceremony 10 years ago, but I did find some from the after reception party at Nye's so you can see our wedding attire. Here Jennie and I are wearing the guy's hats. Fun fact: almost a year later I cropped this picture and used it as a profile picture on Match.com. Match wouldn't let me use it as my main picture since it violated some rule they had (hat, maybe?) and through that Match.com profile I met my husband.

Ok, back to the vow renewal. Josie and Rob gathered some of their friends and family and basically said a few words about each other and marriage. Josie was making a funny face in so many of the pictures we took, but it was just her trying to keep it together when Rob was talking about their relationship and when they met. It was very sweet.

These two were three or something when they were in the wedding.

Later that evening Riley and I headed to the party while Jesse stayed at home. We arrived just before food was served - shredded pork, fruit, beans, baked mac and cheese... Riley got to see her first pig's head which was pretty amazing to her. Riley and Olivia stopped to eat, but were mostly chasing each other around playing. At one point I gave Riley my point and shoot camera and she and Olivia took pictures of the party.

Important to get that food shot. (Also, she thought I was drinking lemon juice. Apparently, I don't drink around her much.)

Also, must show some of the decorations since it was luau themed.

Can't forget to get a picture of the crowd.

And babies... who doesn't love babies?

Better get a picture of mom since she takes so many of me.

And can't forget Ellie...

or Olivia... lol.

Olivia, take my picture. (Oh geez. I'm locking her away from the boys until she's 35.)

And finally, I have to get a picture of our feet like mom and dad always make me do.

I'll spare you the gazillion blurry photos. Eventually, there was some fighting over the camera so that was the end of that. Riley and Olivia went on to play something else before we ate some of the most delicious cake ever (and I'm not really a cake person). Surprisingly, we left without any issues. It was way past Riley's bedtime and she wanted more cake, but instead she asked Olivia to have a sleep over some time, told me how good she was that day, and we headed home.