Sunday, September 24, 2006

Art, Weddings, and Other Things

My friends Tania and Mike got married this weekend. It was a beautiful ceremony at her sister's lovely home, and although it had started out drizzily, by evening it was pleasant. The bride was beautiful (of course), and the groom looked handsome. They wrote their own vows, and it was a very lovely, emotional ceremony. They could not have asked for a more beautiful setting or a more beautiful autumn evening. We wish Aunt Tania and Uncle Mike (as we call them to the kids) the very best.

Adam got the kids some Halloween magazines to entertain them on the way to the wedding (three and a half hour drive, and we decided not to spend the night at a hotel, so it was three and a half hours back as well.) I also got the kids some Halloween activity books, but I got them too far in advance and forgot about them until I opened up the bag while I was doing some house-cleaning. Anyway, Gwen used the magazine to plan for our upcoming Halloween party, but lost interest an hour or so into the trip. Xav, on the other hand, seems to be using the magazine to plan his life ("Can we make this? And this? And this?") and not only carried the magazine around with him at the wedding, but is still carrying it around with him today, showing me -- whenever he gets me cornered -- various desserts he wants to try. Maybe he has a future in catering as well as in candy-making. He was showing some interest today in making houses and airplanes, and I commented, "Gee, Xav -- I can't tell if you are really going to be a chocolatier, or an architect, or an engineer. So many choices!"

He laughed and said, "Mommy -- of course I am going to be a chocolatier!" Probably just as well, given that his building material of choice is dominoes.

Along these lines, Tania, Xavier thought the food at your wedding was "the best." Of course, about all we could get him to eat was soda and cake, so his opinion might be a bit biased.

On planet Gwen, she has been showing us some artwork she had done at school. Evidently they had been talking about Pablo Picasso, and we went online so she could show me some of the works of art he had done that she especially liked ("Three Musicians" -- which she actually knew by name -- was a big favorite, although the piece they were simulating in class was "Hands With Flowers" -- which she also knew by name.) The funniest part, though, was when she was telling us about some of his other work: "Yeah, he painted a picture of a friend of his, and it looked like a regular guy ... but then he painted a picture of his friend later, and his eyes were in a funny place on the side of his head, and his ears weren't where they were supposed to be either ... Pablo Picasso was pretty good when he was young, but his work got uglier as he got older."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I wish I knew you had a blog sooner but thanks for the nice sentiments, glad everyone had fun and thought the food was "the best." Everyone enjoyed the kids, too. They were very cute and well-behaved! I am also glad the bride's appearance did not lead to the Picasso segueway.