Our 10th Anniversary Party ~ The Rest

So, let's talk about our venue for a minute. We were graciously hosted by Rob & Lois Friesen at their family farm and it was so amazing! Rob & Lois are no strangers to hosting events and ours was a small one in comparison to events like Farm Fest and their daughter's weddings. The outdoor stage was such a picturesque backdrop for our ceremony and the barn provided a shady getaway. The landscaping is gorgeous and so lovely, it suited us and our needs beautifully! Thank you, Rob & Lois!

After the official ceremony, we had time for people to just play, visit and explore. We had music playing in the background and the children took the opportunity to turn the stage into a dance floor. David had fun putting together a playlist and I thought I'd share it in case you were interested.

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Supper was simply a hotdog bar with potluck salads and desserts. My friend makes the most amazing London Fog Cupcakes, you should definitely order some!!! We considered a traditional cake, but decided that cotton candy was a bit more our style. David spun the sugary goodness and let me tell you, fresh cotton candy has me spoiled for anything less.

Instead of a guest book, we decided to have a wine bottle time capsule that people could leave messages for us to open in one and five years. Our Abby spent a long time at the table, so it will be fun to see what treasures she's put in there for us.

THE DRESS! Thanks to your support, I was able to find a dress that I LOVE. Thank you!

We didn't actually pose for any pictures, so I have an action shot here for you.

Finally, the Gingras family tradition quiz and First In Bed ~ Official Rules. We wanted to end our party with laughter and fun. David and I love quirky traditions and we thought it would be a good time to share some. I made a little quiz and we shared the details. If you'd like to play along, feel free to answer the quiz in the comments and I'll share the answers later.

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The final tradition we shared was a game that David and I have been playing almost every night for 10 years. It's ridiculous and funny and we love it.

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And just because, here's a few more great pictures....

Oh my! He's so handsome!!!

My favourite picture of the two of us

Our 10th Anniversary Party ~ the Ceremony

A friend of ours was kind enough to take pictures for us, so the following pictures credit goes to Greg Gerbrandt ~ thanks!

Just like our wedding, we wanted our party to be fun, celebrate what God has done and to reflect our unique personalities. I think we managed to accomplish that. The ceremony began with us dancing in and inviting everyone to join a mini dance party. Song here.

My parents (left) dancing while David dances with his sister, Tabitha

Huge participation points go out to all the children - Aisha shows her super high kick!

It was super fun to see everyone participating!

Norm, our friend, who officiated, shared about marriage and why we were there to renew our vows. During our marriage ceremony David and I read the following bible verse:

"Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
 If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.
 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Over the last 10 years our three stranded cord (represented by God, David and I) has grown into a large knot thanks to our friends and family. We showed a visual representation of what that looks like in a monkey's fist knot. We thanked everyone for being a part of that knot that keeps our marriage together. We've been so blessed by community and support!

David explains the monkey's fist knot of our marriage

Something that we wanted to share was our vow renewal. We figured that one of the hang-ups of doing vow renewals is the pressure to throw a big event or party, and since we had the party and the officiant already, we figured we would invite the married couples to join us in renewing their vows. We told our parents ahead of time so that we'd have someone participating, but we were pleasantly surprised to see most (if not all) the couples stand and join in. We handed our ring pops to exchange and I pre-made certificates to hand out to each participating couple. 

We exchanged ring pops and vows - Abigail is standing by to "steal" one of our rings

David and I shared communion with each other and used Dr. Pepper (a throw back to our wedding ceremony) and Mum Mums (baby crackers for the stage of life we are in).

Communion with my love

We ended the official ceremony with confetti rockets.

We had a great time and it was great to renew my commitment to David. I am so thankful for 10 years with my best friend and co-founder of our Gingras family.

I still have more party to share, stay tuned.

Checkin' In

It's the end of February and we are now getting winter. Honestly, I'm thoroughly enjoying the days upon days of beautiful falling snow. I think it's been almost all week where we've had snowfall. The view out my living room window is just getting prettier and prettier. Let's get into what's new:

(my view - lovely winter snow, my dolly looking for her friend to visit, a warm cup of tea... barefoot and pregnant)

• Our lives got suddenly insanely busy this week. This is unusual for us. We typically like time margin in our lives to make room for the unexpected and often those times are the sweetest. I also tend to not handle constant busyness very well. Having said all that, we felt like we needed to add a five week commitment to our schedule. David and I are facilitating the Love & Respect DVD conference again at our church. We feel so strongly about this marriage course that when we were invited to participate, we didn't want to say no. We're very blessed that one of David's co-workers and his girlfriend are attending along with half a dozen couples from church and even a young single lady. We are expecting God to do great things again!
• I hosted a tea tasting this week. I am not a tea expert, by any stretch, but I have a fairly large tea collection that often intimidates people and thought I'd share my love of tea. We steeped four types of teas for the "official" tasting then each lady was invited to select any tea from my collection to try. It was a late night, as I felt I needed to put the children to bed first and start a little later to let other mothers do the same, but I enjoyed the company immensely! Two ladies brought me lovely gifts, which was incredibly thoughtful, unexpected and thoroughly enjoyed. Patty~Jean brought me a lovely fruit and chocolate basket and included some of her amazing home-made deodorant.... love, love, love! Kelly brought me a stunning glass tea infuser thermos with a sample of her current favourite tea. I'll have to get that name for you, because I have forgotten it's name. I do know that she got it from the local David's Tea shop, which she has highly recommended. Jenni, graciously came early to help me set-up, she even took out my garbage... now that's true friendship! Love you, ladies and all the ladies who came!

• Here's the little rating card I made for the tasting. Nothing complicated or formal, just a fun little thing to rate the teas.

• I am continually blessed by the community of people we've been blessed with here in Winnipeg. I love seeing God's love in action! Our Ladies Morning Out group hosted a mini shower/blessing for the newest baby in our group. Our Housegroup (Bible study group) went bowling together last week and we had a blast. I can hardly wait for church on Sunday mornings and ladies retreat next month... these beautiful people have become very dear to me.
• And speaking of Winnipeg.... have you seen this video? Love it!

• Slowly getting settled into our new home. Here's some pictures of Abigail's room which is finally set up, though not completely decorated. I want to make her some matching curtains and bedding and possibly even a canopy for her bed. She's very proud of her new room, though.

(it seemed a shame to use the balloons for a party then get rid of them, so we moved them into her bedroom)

• Malachi is still surrounded by boxes in his room, but we're getting there.
• 25 weeks pregnant and I've already gained half of the recommended weight gain. Yikes! I need to be careful with my sugars again. Feeling pretty good, aside from tired (though that's a very familiar feeling).
• All of my creative efforts are currently going into the fundraiser for ladies retreat. I'm not sure I'll get to any sewing today as I have a mountain of laundry to get to, but we'll see how it goes. Thankful that David and I have tonight to spend together. It's been a busy and long week. Hope you have a great weekend plans and enjoy them!
• I'll leave you with a snapshot into my days....

Checkin' In

September is half way through already! I can hardly believe it. The days have only now become cool and I am relishing every moment of it. It was an incredible summer, but I am never sad to see fall's return. The air conditioners come out of the windows and the fall breeze is invited in while I enjoy yummy fall drinks.

Let's get started, here's a few things I wanted to share with you.

• This is our "Ebenezer stone". You can read about the original stone in 1 Samuel 7. We wanted to mark our seventh anniversary with something that could be a reminder for us of God's grace in our marriage. David found this rock and it's perfect.

• our last in-house date night we played Killer Bunnies. We haven't played in quite some time and it was a fun time. I call this Killer Bunnies by candlelight:

(the green tape is our snack barriers - don't want to get those cards gummed up!)

(one of David's favourite bunny weapons)

• I am loving our double stroller, but as with any umbrella stroller it lacks a cup holder, so I made my own. Now I can have my water or tea or latte to go. It works great. Inspired by this post.

• David's made some great progress on the littles' play kitchen. I am so excited to get to the painting and decorating part. I am so impressed with what David's done with that cabinet.

• Thanks to Pinterest, I found this great pumpkin syrup recipe for lattes. YUM! It's easy and and WAY cheaper than Starbucks.

• Our branch got it's fall makeover again and this year we added this lovely little friend for our fall scene.

P.S. I am appreciating this point form blog style. It means that I can blog about a lot of little things without taking a whole bunch of time and boring you with extra words. Any thoughts?

7th Anniversary Art

David started a little tradition a few years ago. He purchased some artwork for our home in celebration of our anniversary. We had a low key anniversary this year in regards to gifts etc, but I decided that I could carry on the tradition of anniversary art in my gift to David. Now, it's been said that most gifts that are sentimental in nature end of being feminine. I have made it a personal goal to give masculine gifts that can still show sentiment. David's family necklace was one such attempt. Anyway, with a little computer design, some blank canvases, some Mod Podge and a little black paint here's what I came up with:

This first one was inspired by this on Pinterest. I liked the design when I first saw it and decided to do my own version. I had them printed on 11x14 photo paper from Wal Mart and I mod podged them onto canvas. This tutorial was my inspiration for this technique.

This one just kinda came to me. The picture of the birch trees was in my Print Shop program. I googled carved hearts images and found the heart image and then went searching for a font that looked like carved letters. Layer all together and there you have it. Sentimental yet not feminine. (At least I hope that's how it comes across).

(disclaimer: no actual trees were harmed in the making of this picture)

David's gift to me was sentimental and beautiful. In our first year together, he wrote me a fairytale about a flower and knight. The story was an allegory of our lives. This year he wrote me a new instalment of the story. It's beautifully written and I feel quite special having my own story.

Hooray for thoughtful, sentimental, creative gift giving!