Robinson Family Reunion

The last time all four of my sisters and I were in the same place at the same time was fifteen years ago. FIFTEEN years!!! Obviously this was a big occasion. So big that I had it commemorated with these cool keychains because who knows how long it will be till it happens again? This was also the first time my dad and stepmom met Declan, and my first time meeting all of my sisters' boyfriends, so a pretty momentous occasion all around.

The wedding was not a good time for in depth socializing for me, because they had Joe and I on a pretty strict schedule, so we made sure to cram in as many family get togethers as possible before and after the wedding. There was the rehearsal dinner, followed by a sleepover, an after wedding brunch, a Robinson family barbecue, and a sisters (+ Timm & Eric) wine tasting trip to Sonoma.

All that family time was good for my soul and I'm so happy Ez and Declan got a chance to spend some quality time with their long distance aunties and grandparents. Lifelong memories were made, many (many, many) photos were taken, lots of wine and champagne was drank, and it all went by much too fast, as good times tend to do. I'm so happy to see that all my sisters are in a good place in all areas of their lives. We've seen each other through highs and lows but I think this is the first time we've all been in a good place at the same time. Maybe that's a sign we're getting old? 

I'm already counting down the days till our next reunion. Perhaps for another wedding?? ;)

SF Zoo with Auntie

We were lucky enough to have my sister as a guest for the past week. The boys and I got lots of quality bonding time and auntie got to change her first poopie diaper. Win/win for everyone ;)

We decided to spend a gloomy day at the zoo and it wound up being perfect because all the animals were out and about. The hippo put on quite a show for us, playing outside of the water for a bit before splashing back in and showing off his giant teeth. All the flamingos had eggs, which was really cool to see. Declan got super excited about the ostrich and kept yelling and pointing excitedly as the ostrich came right up to the fence, apparently equally curious about this screaming little being. Ez seemed to like the gorillas best, even calling his brother over and saying, "Look Deckles! It's gorillas!" 

After we visited all the animals we stopped by the playground and stayed until closing time. We had to drag Ez away and he and Declan immediately fell asleep for the entire car ride home. 

Between the two of us we got tons of photos, but the really amazing close up shots are all my sister's. I can't get over the quality of that bald eagle photo. Such a majestic bird.

MIA: We Got Married!

Joe and I are married!!! It was a beautiful day and I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful wedding. 

I'm still eagerly awaiting our wedding photos so I'm not going to go into too much detail about the actual day but I thought I'd recap a little about the lead up to our wedding. Fun fact: event planning really stresses me out. Like way more than I even realized. For about a week before the wedding the entire left side of my jaw was killing me. I went to the dentist and he couldn't pinpoint what was wrong, and even suggested maybe I need braces. In the meantime I was instructed to take ibuprofen. I was really fearing the worst and assuming I'd be in major pain on my wedding day. But a miraculous thing happened and after the rehearsal the pain completely dissipated. That's when it dawned on me that I'd been clenching my jaw due to stress and I just needed to relax. Once I handed over everything to the wedding coordinator, handed the kids over to my parents, and ran through the wedding rehearsal I felt much, much calmer. 

Our rehearsal was the Friday before the wedding and our coordinator is so amazing. There are so many tiny things I never would've thought of, like how to not look awkward while being escorted down the aisle, to hold the first kiss for ten seconds (for the perfect photo op), and she even made me practice hugging my dads several times because apparently we're awkward huggers? She was ruthless, but in a good way, and it completely calmed my nerves to know that we'd gone over even the tiniest of details.

Afterward it was time to party!! We had a huge group dinner with lots of family that I hadn't seen in years. Afterward my sisters and I had a low key sleepover where we drank some champagne, caught up on each other's lives, and they did an amazing job calming my nerves.

On wedding day morning we grabbed Starbucks and a ton of red roses to decorate the room. I'm going to save getting ready for another post, once I have more pictures. For now I'll just say the morning was a combo of jitters, excitement, champagne, caffeine, laughter, and a few tears - basically everything your wedding morning should be ;)

Wedding Wednesday: 9 DIY Projects

Three days! THREE!!! I'm not sure if this is normal or not but I had a nightmare that everything that could go wrong did. We're talking lost rings, lost license, super duper late getting ready, sicknesses, and on and on. And as beautiful as our venue is, I'm questioning the wisdom of getting married on a cliffside when a certain one year old ring bearer likes to break free and take off running every chance he gets. So there's a little glimpse into the neurotic landscape of my mind lately.

That being said my to do list has actually dwindled significantly and aside from packing (a bajillion things) we're pretty much set for the big day. I'm just constantly reminding myself that we'll be surrounded by loved ones and if things go a little crazy no one will mind (I hope).

When it comes to DIY projects I kept things to a minimum. The florist is taking care of centerpieces, the self serve candy buffet will take care of favors, and that just left a few personal touches to add to the guest sign in table. Here's what I came up with:

1. Wooden initials decoration. This was just me grabbing a bunch of clearance stuff at Michaels, getting home, and saying what the heck am I gonna do with this??? Solution: superglue it all together and call it a day.

2. Love collage frame. I already had this frame (also from Michaels) so I picked up those metal love letters (magnets) and printed out some new photos to tell mine and Joe's love story. Every time I see it hanging on the wall I smile.

3. Ring box. I saw something similar on Pinterest and immediately wanted my own personalized version. Plus I think a box is a better idea for toddlers than a pillow. I got the box and wooden heart at (where else?) Michaels. I painted the heart white, wrote our names on it using a metallic gold marker, and super glued it to the box. I couldn't find the right size pillow so I put my novice sewing skills to use and we'll just call the results rustic and leave it at that ;)

4. Cards box. Wooden box from Michaels, ribbon, clothes pins, card stock, and white letter stickers = a super simple card box. Thankfully rustic is in right now.

5. Seating chart. I saw lots of beautiful printable seating charts on Etsy, but that would've required having everything planned out weeks ago, and we didn't, so this was a mandatory DIY. Instead of table numbers we used the street names of all the places we've lived together (6 in 5 years) as well as the streets each of us were living at when we were born. I used a frame we already own and hand wrote everything on gold-framed card stock.

6. Here comes the bride sign. This plain white heart already had string attached for hanging on a wall, so I cut that and tied on longer white ribbon instead and painted Daddy here comes our girl. This was a 5 minute $5 project and Declan will look adorable carrying this down the aisle. If he doesn't rip it off and throw it at our guests instead. That's a big if. And if you happen to be the guest that gets pelted with a wooden heart, sorry! We love you!

7. Guest sign in book. I already mentioned that I made our book on Shutterfly using our engagement photos. Here's a little sneak preview:

8. Advice cards & chalkboard. I mentioned that I really loved these advice cards but couldn't find them anywhere so I made my own. I also ordered these mini envelopes and made a little chalkboard sign so people would know where to return them after filling them out.

9. Candy bags with tags. These aren't really DIY per say, but I did tie all these super cute tags to our personalized bags, which was surprisingly time consuming, so we'll call it pseudo-DIY. 

Other than a few last minute projects (that may or may not get done) that's pretty much it in the DIY department for me. What kind of DIY projects did you do for your wedding? I always love hearing what kind of favors people give out. There's so many creative options out there, but we're sticking with the tried and true candy.