The Wedding Crashers

So to finish off my last post about Seattle with my sis, the whole reason we went to Seattle was so Alisa could go to her friend's wedding reception. She was a bridesmaid and so, for some reason, felt this need to be there so we just made a trip out of it. After our great day at Pike Place Market, we drove to the wedding reception. I was planning on dropping Alisa off and looking for a McDonald's play place to distract the kids, but it so happened that the wedding reception was right next to a park. So Alisa stood at the reception in her bridesmaid dress (which was altered with duct tape and safety pins- another story for another time) while I ended up reading a book while the kids had a great time playing.

But unfortunately, all good things must eventually come to an end. After occasionally requesting snacks and burning through the few I had at lightning speed, the kids started all-out pestering for food. Alisa came out to check on us and heard the kids whining for nourishment as though they had never had a square meal in their lives. She went back and talked to her friend who asked us to come in to the wedding reception and have some food. This was truly kind and gracious of her friend to invite in a woman with four children who were not dressed up in the slightest, but slightly awkward-feeling for me in my capris and flip-flops. But the kids were insistent that they would perish without food, we weren't close to fast food and Alisa wasn't done fulfilling her bridesmaid duties yet, so after giving the older kids a hurried pep talk about how to behave themselves I took a deep breath and went inside.

Things started well and the kids were reasonably well-behaved and quiet, yet it is impossible to be at any sort of event with Jackson in tow and not feel like you are walking through a field of land mines. "Pink lemonade... please don't spill that on the table cloth. Camryn, you don't need an entire plate of watermelon. Don't make a huge mess of crumbs all over. Please don't do anything to bug your brother, Jared." We managed to get some food down the kids without any major disasters, but Camryn was about to head back for a second full plate of fruit and Jackson was insisting that he wanted more juice, getting careless about how he was holding his cup and getting louder at his protests when Jared did something he didn't like. I sensed the edge of a land mine aand decided that this would be a good time for us to leave.

Jackson was NOT finished with his watermelon and lemonade and as soon as he realized that mom was really serious about leaving the party he started to loudly protest. This quickly evolved into the tantrum of the century. I did manage to get him out the door before he erupted, but it was an outdoor reception so the party-goers could hear his chorus of wails as I buckled him in the car.

So if you happened to be attending a wedding reception outside of Seattle this last weekend and you saw the mom with the screaming child who kicked over the double stroller in full view of the guests, yes that was me. The mom, not the screaming child.