Teenagers

My oldest two DC are now old enough to attend the church's Youth Group. Unfortunately, the Youth Group at our church really is no longer the "happenin" group that it was and my DC do not enjoy attending anything there. Our church is also a 30 minute drive from home, which hasn't been a big deal, but it does put the church in a different school district which adds twists of school rivalry to any teenage gathering.

So, we attended a more local church early this winter, trying to find a Youth Group that the DC would enjoy and actually want to attend. We found an all-nighter advertised, and tried talking them into it - no go. Oldest DD figured we would force her to attend, so she invited a friend, not wanting to endure the torture alone. She was happily relieved to find that we had no intention of forcing her. Her friend talked her into going. (Of course her friend was going simply to check out the guys - God works in mysterious ways, doesn't he?) And because DD was going, we did force DS to go. (DS says no to absolutely everything, so sometimes he does need to be forced). I dropped them off about 9 o'clock at night and picked them up about 8 the next morning. The three of them were quite chatty in the car and told me all about their night. We dropped off the friend and headed home.

Ds sat down on the couch and didn't move for several hours.


DD went upstairs and showered, then she came down and passed out on the couch as well. Aww! She hasn't napped since she was two!

And the Youth Group? Well, they haven't gone back yet, but we're still hoping!

The Wedding

My cousin got married in late January. It's been many years since a close family member got married (in the local vacinity) - so we decided to take the DC to the ceremony so they could experience a wedding before their own cousins start a new generation of ceremonies. The children were all dressed up (I'd show you a pic, but Dad never e-mailed it to me - HINT, HINT). We tried to prepare them for the ceremony. Of course, as you know, every wedding has it's own special touches - but who could possibly prepare them for live bagpipes? Anyway, they behaved fairly well. The ceremony was lovely. Yes, I teared up. DH and I later got to enjoy the reception without the DC (it's sooo nice to have a teenager!)

Youngest DD later wrote about the wedding in class. They write something every week, and many of her stories have been memorable. So, in her own words (and spelling), youngest DD's wedding experience:

Once I went to a wedding. It was fun. I went to my uncle's weddining. I had a outstanding tremendous terrific magnificent wonderful fabulous super excellent enjoyable time! I love the bridmaid. She is so pretty. I whated to be the flower girl but I was not the flower girl. There was no flowergirl. I was shoked. I whated to be her so bad that I was not lisen to my mom. That is the wedding day!