Just too Cute!

So I wanted to tell you about my adorable twin nieces Natalie and Jacklyn who will be my future flower girls.



Not sure who I am holding!

 When I left Canada for Japan in Sept 2009 they looked like this. they were just little babies, just about to turn 7 months old.

When I went home in September for Jen's wedding I got to see them some more and they had definitely grown a lot. Went from just figuring out the crawling to walking and sort making talking noises.



Pics from Easter



Now I talk to them on skype occasionally, and I think they believe I love in a computer screen, since that is the most interaction I have with the. However I can't wait to get home and see and play with them! They are just over 2 now, so I hope they can be my flower girls.

I miss all of my family, especially when I think about planning the wedding and inviting everyone. It's a real family affair with all the wedding party being family of both Mike's and mine. Plus we are having it at my sister's Heather's house, so she and her entire family are absolutely wonderful in that they are planting flowers and everything for us! Even my 9 and 7 year old nephews Darren and Kevin have agreed to clean up their (amazingly awesome!) 2 story tree house for me so I can take some pictures in it! (There is also a running joke that i will live in it before the wedding, garden hose shower and all! lol).

But this is about my flower girls, so I digress.

I picked up super cheap a pattern for children's Yukata Dress. What is this you might ask? And right so if you are not living in Japan and going to summer festivals where small children run around looking so cute it hurts.


A Yukata Dress (minus the belt)



A Regular Kids Yukata



So a Yukata Dress is essentially a kimono style outfit for little girls where the top has the big square sleeves of a kimono (or Yukata which is the summer Kimono) but the bottom is a separate skirt. This is great because a real yukata is one piece and a little restrictive on the legs, so the skirt lets kids run around and be kids. Also the yukata dress has a big obi belt, but usually it is a fluffy scarf like material instead of thick stiff material usually used for an obi.

So now that I have the pattern for this adorable little outfits I need to do three things;

1.  Find some great fabric that is either purple or orange to match the wedding colours. (I'm banking more on purple, I think that more likely).
2. Send the fabric and pattern home to my Mom who has a sewing machine, and some friends who can help. (Let be honest, if I hand sew 2 veils before I leave Japan I will be doing well, 2 more dresses just ain't in the cards!)
3. Hope that my Mom, in her infinite experience and wisdom, along with the aid of friends, can decipher and assemble these dress with the aid of the pattern pictures.... since the instructions are all in Japanese! (Lol I think it"s not as bad as it sounds... but them again they won't have seen the dresses before...)

Yep so I'm on the hunt for some fabric now, and also the material or the already made obi belts. I think ti shouldn't be too hard, what with summer coming and festivals starting.

You can definitely get a LOT of accessories and things. Shoes, bags, bows, flowers, purses, fans, make-up and lot of other piece that go in, under, or on the yukata. Especially if it is a coming of age ceremony of either 3, 5, or 7 years old. Some of those kids wear outfits that are worth more than my wedding dress. You can even rent these outfits like people rent their tuxes for a wedding! But I'm not going to do that, I don't want them to be uncomfortable, or worry about them getting dirty or anything. I want Jacklyn and Natalie to be happy and adorable!

However there is the issues that come with having kids in a ceremony, and I'll tackle those later, such as how to get them to walk down the isle, and what they should carry or not carry. I can tell you this though, while is was super adorable at Christmas, I think the 'Cindy-loo-who' hair won't be the style I go for the wedding. I think worst case scenario I'll do headbands lol.