Ahhh weddings. A beautiful occasion filled with love and fun. We’ve had our fair-share of weddings recently. First, my sister got married back in April. Then in back-to-back weeks, we had weddings for friends and then family. The one common theme that tied them all together? They were all kid-friendly. And our kids were with us!

I’m gonna be honest with you, attending weddings with a 3- and 1-year old is such an insanely different experience than going to one without your kids.

http://instagram.com/p/s5Wxy6lKIh/?modal=true

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that taking your kids to weddings isn’t fun, because it can be. Although having them sit through a long ceremony can be a bit rough, and not totally enjoyable for those sitting around you either. It can also be funny for those around you, like when Sophia blurted out mid-ceremony “I need to go poooooopy!” They all got a nice little chuckle out of that, as did we.

http://instagram.com/p/s5j6enpsmy/?modal=true

There is a stark difference between how we act at a reception with and without our kids. Normally, I’m well on my way to having a fun, drink-filled evening by the end of cocktail hour. Some may say I do some pretty stupid things at weddings when I drink too much. Ok, maybe all would say that, but that’s not the point. Instead of loading up on drinks, I watched Sophia and Maddie run around and dance and act like they owned the dance floor.

http://instagram.com/p/tIw8zKpspf/?modal=true

Not only did they own the dance floor, but so many other people just wanted to take them out to dance with, or joke with, or hold, or whatever. And they ate it up. At our friends’ wedding, Maddie was all over the dance floor. At that point, she had only been walking for about three weeks, and she was EVERYWHERE. Sophia was also everywhere, making friends with kids she had never met before and just ran rampant. She did promise to dance with me at the weddings, and I managed to squeeze one dance in at the second one–at the very end. Watching them dance and jump around, and just have a ball really did make having them with us a lot of fun. Just a different kind of wedding fun than we had been used to.

http://instagram.com/p/s6CLpTFKI_/?modal=true

Wedding after party? How about no. We couldn’t even make it to the end of the receptions! We’ve got two little girls, who by the time 8:30 or 9pm rolled around, were spent. Time to load up the car and let these two little ladies pass out on the drive home.

We’ve got one more wedding on the horizon–in May–when Sarah’s sister gets married in Jamaica. Are we bringing the girls to that one? Yes. You can’t not bring the flower girls to a wedding… even if it is in a different country! It looks like my days of making a fool of myself at weddings is over… for now. Once these girls grow up, though, I’ll be back–just don’t tell Sarah.