So why do I keep drawing the books featuring weddings? Yes, we draw titles out of a bowl to snark,
although everyone gets to pick one favorite.
You were burning with curiosity on that one, weren’t you? "How do they pick which books to snark? I have a burning desire to know!"
Beef one I have with this cover is that Kristy looks like
she’s in her first year at NYU, not 12 going on 13. What is it with Hodges over aging these
girls? Beef two: Since when do
four-year-old boys tie their own ties?
It appears Andrew is tying his and without the aid of a mirror. My husband can’t even do that and he’s worn a
tie almost every day since he was 25.
The description’s a little corny too.
“Kristy’s a baby-sitter – and a bridesmaid too!” I’m not going to touch that with a 10 foot
pole.
The book starts with a Brewer/Thomas dinner party. The ghost of Ben Brewer is discussed by
Karen. A September wedding date is
announced by Watson and Elizabeth.
Kristy is excited to be a bridesmaid but Andrew declines to be in the
wedding. The stage is set for the rest
of the book.
Just four days later, the plans fall through for a two
reasons. Reason one: Elizabeth’s
job has her in Europe on the date of the
wedding. Reason two: The Thomas house
has sold for the asking price and the buyer wants to move in in mid July. So Watson and Elizabeth are now getting
married in two weeks and they will be moving to the Brewer mansion the end of
June. Elizabeth is rightly panicked and the kids
are rightly stunned. DM and Kristy start
whining, but Elizabeth
gives them the MOM look. DM shuts up but
Kristy keeps pushing, finally stomping off to her room. But she’s sad, as she has every right to
be. The move was already going to be a
big adjustment for her and now she has very little time to adjust.
Elizabeth starts listing what needs to be done for the
wedding in TWO WEEKS and I wonder why they don’t just hop down to the Justice
of the Peace to quick get married and then have a big, fancy celebration later
on when they’ve had time to plan. This
seems like some rather unnecessary stress.
Kristy comes to help and then is late for a meeting of the BSC. This is in the days before it was a
punishable offense to be less than 5 minutes early for a meeting. We get all of the chapter two stuff in
chapter three, and there’s actually a plot and story, not just as many facts
and character traits (ew, diabetes!) as can be listed in eight pages. Kristy explains the wedding situation, they
assign some jobs and talk about the final fling dance.
After the last day of school, Kristy comes home and finds Elizabeth at the kitchen
table again looking hysterical.
Apparently “Shelia” and “Kendall” (who later are Lisa and Seth) are
going to England
the following week and are leaving Karen and Andrew with Watson. Ok, how many people just randomly go to England for
“most of a week”? This seems like
something that would be planned ahead of time, unless it’s through work. I have
no idea what “Shelia” does, but I know from the Little Sister books that “Kendall” is a carpenter. Is it a carpentry
emergency? Why do both of them need to
go? I like to think they got wind of the
whirlwind wedding and decided to be real asshats and leave the kids with Watson
on a moment’s notice. Anyway, some of Elizabeth’s siblings and
one of Watson’s friends are coming early to help with wedding prep and are
bringing their children. This means
there will be 14 children getting in the way as they work on wedding prep. Again, just go to the JoP and party
later! Kristy offers the services of the
BSC, Elizabeth
offers $600 to the girls and Kristy decides she’ll have an emergency BSC
meeting to discuss it.
The next part is kind of unsnarkable because it’s really
real, with the insecurities and worries that the kids have about having a
stepfamily, moving away, how things will work with Watson. For once Ann actually thought about what a
kid might be feeling.
The next day is the emergency meeting and the girls decide
they will take on the 14 children. They
divvy the kids into groups by age and make name tags and such. Mimi pops in with sodas (POP!) for everyone
and offers to help should they have problems next week. I think Mimi was the universally loved
character of the BSC, so of course Ann had to kill her off. :(
On Sunday, Kristy is rousted out of bed early and she and
the sibs clean the house in preparation for the arrival of all the family. Nannie (Elizabeth’s
mom) comes over in the afternoon to help as well and Kristy pesters about her
dress, since Nannie’s sewing it. And I
wonder if Ann has ever sewn, because Nannie says the dresses are basted
together, but a long way from done. In
all the sewing I’ve done (and I made my own wedding dress, so I have some
street cred) I’ve never basted an entire dress together before sewing it. It just wouldn’t work. There’s no way that would work.
All the family arrives and Kristy starts to panic when she
sees just how much trouble the kids get into when there are 10 adults
present. Don’t worry Kristy, this is BSC
land. They’re only naughty for their
parents (although there is some truth to that…my kids were always better for
the sitter).
The sitters prepare the next morning for the day and then
the kids arrive. No one thought about
allergies, medications, nap times, and crying children. There are 7 kids crying when the adults
leave, but the girls get the situation under control and soon things are going
along swimmingly.
Five days of kids and the girls do pretty well, with only a
few incidents. Dawn’s group, which
includes the “precocious” Karen, goes to the playground and Karen terrifies all
the kids with stores of Martians coming to abduct them. The counselors ask them
not to return. Stacy takes her group to
see a showing of “Mary Poppins” at the theater and one girl (Emma) loses her
money and then drops candy over the balcony railing onto the people below. The usher ushers them out. MA and Kristy take the boys to the barber
where the boys are just out and out nasty rude to the barbers. Now maybe I’m an anomaly, but my boys have
never hated haircuts as badly as these boys seem to. Yikes!
The last day it rains and they decide to play a pretend
wedding, which the kids have a lot of fun with.
We get a mention here of Kristy’s other grandma – is she ever mentioned
again in the series? I’m sure that relationship
is pretty strained. It’s also the day of
the wedding rehearsal and each child has a bag of clothes. Emma decides to be naughty and switches all
the clothes around, creating a huge hassle for the sitters. The girls get things straightened out to the
best of their abilities and the kids are presentable when the parents arrive.
Rehearsal is smooth, except Karen is freaked out by having
white petals, sure it’s going to clash with “Morbidda Destiny” and her black
magic. This child’s obsession with the
supernatural is not normal. Watson, get
her some counseling! I’m surprised there
wasn’t a Little Sister book called “Karen’s Ouija board.” After the rehearsal dinner, the girls get
paid…$120 each plus a $10 tip. They’re
rich!
The next day is the wedding day. MA comes over to help Kristy get dressed,
then the Thomas clan goes to Watson’s to get ready. The wedding is lovely until “Morbidda
Destiny” comes over with a gift. Karen
starts freaking out, Watson claps a hand over her mouth and then she bites
him. That kid. Not cute.
After the wedding everyone leaves for home, a friend of
Watson’s schleps Karen and Andrew back to their mother’s (who is apparently back from England) and Watson and
Elizabeth head to Vermont for a week of passion, leaving the Thomas kids home
alone. Kristy has been wondering what to
get for a wedding present since about the middle of the book and she finally
made up her mind at the wedding. She
makes a family tree showing the joining of the two families, has Claudia help
her decorate it and frames it. Yay!
After the title being Kristy’s Big Day, you’d think there
would be more focus on the wedding portion.
Instead it only gets about two chapters.
Oh well, it’s over, they’re married.
If I draw “Here come the Bridesmaids” I’ll shoot my foot.
No comments:
Post a Comment