Sugar Baby !

Congratulations to my cousin Abby and her new husband, Dan on their wedding day ! We've added a new family member to our crazy clan !

Abby and Dan's wedding took place at 5:30 this evening and since we live nearly 3 hours away, we had only planned on making it to the reception. Eric, Elaina and Keegan (who is feeling much better !) picked me up from work to begin our travels. Elaina, fresh from the babysitter's house, wasn't in the mood to sleep like her mom had anticipated, but to sing, read books and eat Goldfish crackers ! I couldn't beleive that the girl wasn't even a bit tired !

We made our first stop at my parent's house to drop off Keegan and change our clothes. We were soon underway to the reception hall. Only a short 20 minute drive and Elaina was zonked ! Oh yeah ... don't bother to sleep in the 3 hours that she was confined to her seat - but give her 20 minutes and she was in dreamland !

Abby was a stunning bride and she and her new husband glowed with happiness. The unfortunate part about the entire day was that it rained all day long. If it's true that rain on your wedding day is a sign of good luck, Abby and Dan have had a triple dose of luck today !
I was glad to see my extended family that I generally only see a few times a year, and some cousins that I haven't seen in many years. We were looking forward to seeing cousin Colin and his mom and dad, but it seems as though Colin has been a little under the weather and better off at home. Elaina had to make new friends to play with tonight and she chose mostly to cling to her grandma and grandpa. Grandma took her onto the dance floor to collect candy and do the motions to the chicken dance. Amazingly, by the end of the song, it seemed like Elaina knew when to clap her hands all on her own at the right part ! I was laughing so hard as grandma would spin her around that it was hard to for me to take pictures !







Eric played the role as the "Sugar Daddy" as he fed Elaina and her (2nd) cousin, Kari, Smarties candy. One for Elaina, one for Kari, one for Daddy and the cycle continued. The girls looked like little birds as they waited their turn for their sugary crack ! As if Elaina didn't get enough sugar from her dad, she made her way through a Tootsie roll, part of a lollipop, most of a cookie and some cake ! Mmm ... good thing she was only willing to eat grapes for dinner - she apparently was saving room for everything we don't normally give her. Looks like she did her Trick-or-Treating a little bit early !

Throughout the evening, Elaina was especially well behaved and took her compliments graciously. She did her best to dance by repeatedly kicking her one foot in the air as she stood with her hands loaded with candy. She gave her aunts and cousins kisses and smiled at everyone who looked her way. What a flirt ! We made the decision to leave around 10:00 to put all of us to bed at a decent hour. It's amazing that the affect of Elaina's sugar high didn't exactly expire when we wanted to. The child stayed up until midnight ! She was good, just not sleepy !

In a lesson to all parents, especially Elaina's "Sugar Daddy, " NO SUGAR AFTER 6:00 !! ( Unless it's for the cousins, whose mommy's and daddy's have to deal with at their house !)