Friday, April 29, 2011

Ever After...



Deep down I think we all love a Royal Wedding.   I remember watching with wide eyes and anticipation as Charles and Diana were married.   Diana's pouffy dress with the longest train that I had ever seen.  Prince Charming waiting at the end of  the aisle waiting to sweep her from her life as a preschool teacher into a Royal Fairytale of  ever after.   We couldn't get enough pictures of them and how we longed for them to be the happily ever after that we all wanted them to be.   We all know how that story ended.  
  To celebrate the Royal Wedding of Kate and William Nate and Paige's school is celebrating the nuptials by dressing up and wearing suits and fascinators.  We went out last night and found Nathan a suit and I made Paige a fascinator to wear with her fancy shmancy dress got at Frenchy's.  Nathan and I hit the suit rack at our favorite French boutique at supper time and found him a suit and a shirt and tie.  We stopped at the dollarama and found all of the fixings to make Paige her hat.   Nathan rarely likes to dress up but the thought that he wanted to wear a suit and celebrate the royal nuptials in this way encouraged no hesitation on my part to open the pocketbook to invest thirty dollars on wedding attire for a 10 year old.  I may have to wait til his wedding for him to wear another one.   Paige always wants to wear fancy dresses and mostly she wants to wear them places and at times that are not appropriate but after four children and realizing that the clothes they wear and where they wear it is not an issue of eternity I tend to just let it ride.   
     We realize that their excitement of this marriage is the excitement of the "ever after" fairytale that is now real life for them.  All the Disney movies of princes and princesses that told a story of everlasting love and happily ever after is now real with a future King and his future Queen.  
 
     This is probably the 10th time we have headed for the second hand store to find costumes for the kids for different events for school.   Anti bullying, Halloween, breast cancer awareness, school spirit day, Christmas, St. Paddy's day, and so on and I don't want to even add up what it has cost us.    Those are all great celebrations and causes but there is something about a wedding.  TRUE LOVE for EVER AFTER.   What can be a better celebration than that?   Unfortunately for so many (Statistically over 50%)  love is not ever after and forever.  For Charles and Diana it ended before it even began.  Affairs, betrayal and hurt were a part of their life together before it even began.   Our children's classes are full of families who are broken and some try to put the pieces back together but there are few that have the Happily Ever After.   Some Have the Ever After minus the happily, others happily don't have the ever after.   Let's Celebrate True Love and Ever After.  We need help our children know they can have their Prince Charming and True Love and they can have it forever.   The Prince may be an IT professional and the castle may be a hundred year old farm house but true love still exits for ever after.  Today is not just a celebration of Royalty and Pomp and Circumstance, it is one of hope for a future.  There is no better celebration!  Today I celebrate that I found my Prince Charming and he found his Princess.  Our Children celebrate the hope to find their TRUE LOVE 

2 comments:

Leanne Haines said...

Wow, those pictures are so familiar they seem like yesterday! Hard to believe it's been 18 years. Faces I haven't seen in soooo long! I'm so glad you and Jason got your "Happily Ever After"! I was picturing it on the bus from Houlton that day so many years ago I don't like to count! The weddings are lovely, but the anniversaries are really more worthy of celebration, I think. My Prince and I are headed to Mexico next week to celebrate 15 years of "Happily Ever After". This morning really got me in the mood to celebrate!

Love Paige's Fascinator -- she's just adorable! And Nathan looks like such a gentleman! Great post as usual, Jen. Thanks for the peek into your life, and the inspiration for my own post of the day!

The Bickford Family said...

Thanks Leanne, I feel as though I am bursting at the seams to write about out life and it's celebrations and stumbles. So excited for you to get away to Mexico with your Prince. It will be a time of rest and renewal for your marriage. Yes, I remember many years ago on a bus hoping he would notice me. He did. I made it kind of hard for him not to I think :) Cherish your love hold it tight and be extravagant with your love for each other in front of your sweet kids. That is what they need. Love ya and miss ya! xoxo