One Wedding to Rule Them All

We spent last weekend in Westport for wedding #4 of 6 this year for my cousin Shannon's wedding.  Honestly, it was worth the trip just for the drive through Vermont peak foliage on Friday afternoon.

This was a Lord of the Rings themed wedding, which sounds like it could have been a kind of cheesy, but they did such a nice job with it that it didn't feel that way at all.  It was set in the spectacular backyard of our family friends the Sherman's.  Alasdair's officiated the wedding, and his Gandalf costume was the most dramatic.  Shannon's gorgeous dress was made by her grandmother-in-law.  Adara, Emily, Rosalie & Izzy were hobbit-style flower girls, and Daniel as the ring-bearer carried a sword. :)  My girls surprised me by refusing to walk down the aisle, so I had to escort them.  They both dumped their baskets upside down to drop the petals.  Oh well, at least they looked cute.  Mike also walked Daniel down the aisle, so it ended up being a whole family affair.  During the reception, there was archery and pumpkin painting, and the meal was catered by the same local farm who'd done Rob & Katy's rehearsal dinner. Yum.  At the end of the night, the guests released these really cool fire-powered lanterns into the sky.

 keeping an eye on baby Evie

The dinner the night before the wedding and breakfast the day after were both hosted at Stonysides, which I thought was a really fun way to experience a part of the family property we rarely see.  One of my favorite parts of the weekend was seeing Daniel & Adara play really well together (she's finally old enough to keep up with him) and also to see the girls play with their second cousins Izzy & Maggie.

We also celebrated Adara's birthday throughout the weekend, with candles in her Ernie's chocolate chip muffin (who needs cake?!), Mimi's fabulous homemade play-do, and a new doll from Daniel & Rosalie.

Happiness is a table full of cousins.

Daniel was so excited to give Adara the gift he'd helped wrap.