August 8, 2015

An Aussome birthday for a brother.... June 2015

    Hello peoples! I'm happy that you still read this blog! I really do love sharing pictures and memories with you and trust you gain a smile and perhaps some ideas from them as well!   

Are you ready for another birthday? Our June birthday is Alexandre's....it is always a fun challenge to create birthdays for boys! And of course that challenge only increases as they get older. 
But thankfully in our family birthdays are such a big thing that anybody and everybody enjoys their birthday table! 
And a great thing about our brothers is that they love details, they are interested in a wide amount of topics including nature, they appreciate effort and they also have fun with inside jokes...which really allows us a wide variety of themes to choose from! 
Alexandre's (that's French for Alexander) 15th birthday theme was...
AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK! 

For the inspiration for this birthday as well as the soundtrack, start this clip at 0:55 ! 
                             
A recreation of that amazing portion in the above film clip....Australian rocks (don't expect this humble lump to be Ayers rock and you'll like it much better ;) ) with the field of brilliant blossoms:

     (note: many of the blossoms are paper but equally as many came from some wedding arrangements Jessie and I bravely lugged home after cleaning the wedding venue we work at! We had to go [clean] dumpster-diving for them and they weighed a ton to walk home with but it was worth it.    The children spent like 2 hours re-arranging our loot. I wish I had taken a picture of them it was so sweet. Alex, Laura-Lise and Katia all vying to create the most perfect bouquet out of secondhand flowers! Love my siblings. They're so creative.

Oh! Here's a little video from the birthday morning. We're kind of tame, but we love our birthday mornings anyway. :) Just some of us keep it nicely safe inside. :)

(We used several things we already owned such as a darling dried-up crocodile face.)


Jessie created these tucker bags and billy cans to suit the birthday. Surprisingly, drinking out of ''rusty'' (painted) cans was not everyone's cup of tea! Jessie was delighted by it, but some of us including Sam and I felt wrong about it. It's hard to tell in the above picture but Jessie also enthusiastically bent a whole set of forks (from the thriftstore I assure you) to make it look like they were...umm...well-used. ;) 



It was slightly disturbing to eat while being watched by these creatures





No Australian birthday would be complete without homemade Australian sausage rolls!

Yummy meringue bites :)
Nikola also created this cantaloupe turtle....or turtle cantaloupe (whichever way you prefer). The only problem was that whenever you reached in to grab a handful of cantaloupe balls, the turtle's head tragically fell off....

     Birthday boy- we always go fishing on his special day and I really am impressed by the patience my younger siblings all exhibit as they sit there for hours....waiting on a bite... I prefer to read a couple of books or write in me journal. :) 


                                                                             Jessie :)

Interesting, Elodie ;P

We found this adorable, darling, fuzzy being in a dear little hole on the bank! I can't believe how sweet these critters are. To think: God didn't have to make things this cute but He did!


A snake out for an afternoon stroll



Placing hooks on lines or something

Relaxing in the sunshine....it's summertime! 



AHH....I LOVE God's creation!!!!

 When Elodie mans a camera, all sorts of interesting pictures end up on it. She is incredibly observant. Okay- we all are...but some people even more so than others! I hope you all know the exciting art of.... people watching! It's fascinating. And just think: you may believe you and your family are the centre of the universe, but actually there are thousands more people who feel the same way! Just ponder that a while....
Daddy and daughters out for the afternoon :)

So sweet!

A little lass fishing...

until Uncle Tom comes along and decides he can do better...

Resigned to watching Uncle Tom do better...

while surrounded by flying hooks....

the drama ends happily with Flossie peacefully fishing for herself again

Elsewhere along the shore....big brother and little brother :)

And Sam

Back home....we have (after supper), CAKE! 
'Twas a carrot cake which Nikola decorated with none other than a Kangaroo! Oh- it's meant to be a ''kangaroo crossing'' sign. Don't worry if you didn't get that right away. Half our family didn't either. Perhaps because of the lack of such signs in our neighbourhood?

randomness

Happy Birthday Alexandre!!!
Thanks for being born so we could have a June birthday! ;)







August 5, 2015

The Wedding of Jesse and Meghan! June 2015

   June 20th 2015...the wedding day of two long-time friends of ours: Meghan and Jesse!
It has been amazing to watch their relationship grow over the past couple years...although young, they are both mature and want to glorify God through their marriage.
  There is something extremely special about seeing two young people whom you knew since they were very small (as in about 7 years old!) grow up and get married. For some reason, I missed all the signs that Meghan and Jesse were meant for each other, so you can imagine our surprise when the idea was made known to us... :) I'm still rather in awe of what God does in peoples lives!

  Meghan and Jesse's wedding was near the end of June and after a week of consistent rain, it was a miracle to see the sun shining bright!
   Our own Jessica was in the bridal party and our sister Elodie also went along for the rehearsal and preparations so we have plenty of photographs to share! Since I was unable to attend the reception, I got my amazing brother to bring me to the wedding an hour early so I could watch the girls prepare themselves as well! :)
As for blogging, we're starting with the wedding day, rather than the rehearsal evening as I know some people are eager to see pictures of the ceremony! Enjoy :)
The preparation pictures were taken by Elodie and me; ceremony pictures mostly taken by Sam.
So pretty!

A multi-colored assortment of bridesmaid dresses! Meghan has many dear friends and it was fun to see how she incorporated them in to her wedding! It was definitely a wise plan to have each girl wear a different color and style! They were each allowed to choose a color to wear, and picked out or made their own dress. 

Sara :)

Lindsey and Sara; they both made their dresses!

Have you ever seen a cuter bridesmaid? :)
That hair! Lindsey continues to amaze us with her talent....

Leah helping Ellie get ready. Although the bride let her young sister be both flower girl and maid of honor (so sweet!), Leah was also maid of honor.....and as an important side note, Leah's own wedding is coming up soon! :)  :) :)

Handing out the bouquets :)
It was so fun to be a spectator; surprisingly these girls were all so calm and fun together! It helps that they are all close friends!

Beautiful!!!
The bride's little sister and maid of honor attaches her train


Watching a slideshow before the ceremony

Grant Beckmann played all the music for the wedding; he always does an amazing job! 
I was delighted when he began playing my favorite piece from the Beyond the Mask movie soundtrack! So beautiful: 


The processional: 

Amelia (friend of the couple) and Jacob (brother of the groom)

Alle (cousin of the bride) and Joel (brother of the groom)

A sister of the groom and Michael (friend)
Jessica (as in my sister Jessie!- friend of the couple) and Mike (brother of the bride)

Elizabeth (friend of the bride) and Luke (brother of the bride)

Lindsey (friend) and Benjamin (brother of the bride)


...and the lovely bride enters on her father's arm: 

 (a little video with footage from the wedding!)







The sermon for this wedding was especially good; full of Biblical truth and wisdom! 

Look at that train! So lovely!





Lindsey

Sara

Jonathan

Amelia


Pouring sand together



The bride's parents watching :)



                                                                    Exchanging the rings:
                                                 (I so love this picture! It's so classic)


                                                                     And....the kiss!


The new Mr. and Mrs! I love the joy on their faces!

So cute....ready for life together forever!

yay!

celebrating in the foyer

I had to snap a picture with two of my favorite bridesmaids: Jessica and Sara!
And because my brother and I hang around together and we have cameras....there are more pictures of me. ;P Such as this one which I like 'cause it looks like I'm in the city and like some paparazzi caught my famous self on film and it's going to end up on the front page of the newspaper the next day....

(with another favorite person! :) )

and thanks to Andrew, I got a picture with my favorite Sam brother! It's like the first since...
okay...maybe not. 
I just remembered another picture of us at another amazing wedding in 2011...

(Chad and Angie's wedding 2011) 
...but it certainly doesn't compare to these ones...

        I love these pictures! When you are gone off to war my dear brother, I shall keep and treasure this picture forever...


And thus concludes this particular post concerning the special wedding of two dear friends! To follow will be a post filled with fun reception pictures....as well as a rehearsal post...oh! And Elodie took many professional-ish photos during the wedding portrait session! So....stay tuned. 

:) 

With a smile, 
Your very own Mazzou