Happy Birthday Joshua!!!

So unfortunately, the weather this week (snow, snow, and even more snow...) pretty much derailed all of our birthday plans - and then all of our alternate plans as well... but in the end, I think things worked out OK.

Josh's preschool usually does a whole birthday thing, including a special crown and song, and earlier this week we made pink race car chocolates for the other kids, but because of the weather, school was canceled all week. I think Josh was more disappointed about the crown than anything else; he knew it was going to involve pink & mermaids... Luckily, because his teacher is the amazing & thoughtful person that she is, she set up a time for the kids to come by & pick up the various holiday projects they had made, and used that as an opportunity to surprise Josh with his crown after all. I think his face says it all...








At first I felt bad for him, since it was only a few kids, but in retrospect, I think that might have been for the best. His friend Thea was there, with her little brother Jasper, and Sam got to be there as well. Much more informal, and I think that smaller group was probably much more comfortable for him. He never hesitated at all, and was just so pleased and excited to have his crown after all. Thanks Kris!!!

Birthday hugs from the super sweet Thea!



Josh & Aiden were suppose to have a party on Saturday afternoon at the Everett Children's Musuem - but because of the weather, they were actually closed on Thursday - for the first time in their history! That, combined with the possibility of really terrible driving conditions for folks coming from Olympia, convinced us to reschedule the party for January instead. Unfortunately, Josh's friend Cleo will be out of town then. So we decided to chance the weather, and did a mini-party on Saturday afternoon for just the two of them. Cleo is alot like Josh, and I think was as happy as he was to have something less crowded. They had a blast, and it gave us a chance to get to know her parents better as well - outside the usual chaos of preschool...







For Josh's actual birthday, we mostly stayed home & cozied up while snow, snow, and more snow came down. More photos to come...


Overall, maybe not the birthday weekend we had planned, but when Josh was falling asleep tonight, he did say it was "the best birthday ever."

Happy Birthday Sam Sam!

More to follow; it's just been a VERY long day...

Happy Birthday Aunt Jenny!

You can come home now...

Welcome to the World, Anders Paul

Congrats Aunt Britta!!!



October 27, 2008
6 lbs 6 ounces
19 1/2 inches

Born more or less the day the Phillies won the World Series... My dad had a good week. :)

Birtthdays, Birthdays...

We spent my birthday weekend in Olympia. I took Friday off from work, and Josh skipped school, so we could take the ferry from West Seattle to Port Orchard & drive down the scenic route. It was beautiful in that grey Seattle way...

Friday night we met Marney & Gage and Brent, Michelle & Sarah for dinner at Anthony's - turned out to be a somewhat disappointing choice food-wise, but it was great to see everyone. (Well, everyone but Dan, who was exploring the possibility of life in Wisconsin... sigh.) After dinner, we braved the rain for an hour or so to check out Arts Walk.

Since it was also Noah's birthday weekend, we spent Saturday morning celebrating his 1st birthday. It's hard to believe it's already been a year! It was great to spend some quality time with Ryan, Izzy & Noah, and to watch Sam & Noah getting to know each other. Part of the reason I wanted to spend the weekend in Oly was to see what it would like to live there again, and seeing them made it very tempting! It's been far too long...

Ryan, you can NEVER tease me about my invitations again!

On the pro side, the amazing Wagner's Bakery...

Finally, some shots of Noah!



Introducing Noah (and Izzy) to some classic Fisher Price...

Josh makes his own birthday hat.
Sam charms some new folks... or simply begs to be taken home by them instead?

We spent Saturday afternoon looking at some houses - nothing great... and then had a MUCH more successful dinner at the fantastic Lemongrass... followed by a less than impressful Sunday morning brunch at a new crepe place.

Sunday afternoon, we met up with my old friend Keli - who has had 2 kids in the time we've been gone! Her daughter is just 2 weeks younger than Josh, and they really hit it off... It was *really* good to reconnect after so long.

Mia - looking so much like her mother!

Max!


Josh keeps asking me when he can see "his friend Mia" again.

Recovering from the cold & mud with some hot chocolate at the Urban Onion.

As always, we didn't get to see everyone & everything I had hoped, but overall, it was a really good weekend - and a good reminder of the pros & cons of living in Olympia!

Kai's 1st Birthday

(Sorry this was weeks ago! We've just been busy with all sorts of house projects & various trips out of town, etc. Not a lot of Internet time...)

Kai turned one on September 28th, and invited us to a Sesame Street party to celebrate. Sam had a great time with the other ~1 year olds, while Josh got silly with Lauren...

(A very svelte looking Amy!)

I love this - it totally looks like they're having a conversation...

Josh tolerates a party hat - for 20 seconds or so...

And then moves on to scoping out poor Kai's cake...

... while Sam discovers he doesn't actually LIKE cake.

He does however like balloons... he spent the afternoon fascinated by them.

Kai saying, "No, really, it's MY birthday party."

And then some obligatory Sam is smiley photos...

Dinner with Lauren & Kai (& Amy & Thom!)

So I'm shamelessly borrowing Amy's photos from our great dinner with them last Thursday:

These two were hysterical together.


Lauren reading Josh a story.

Sam drumming away - he really loves music!

I realized the other day that Kai really is Sam's first friend -the first person he's played with who is "his size", and who is "his" friend, not Josh's. It's great watching them get more mobile & interactive.

Thanks for the photos, and thanks for the tasty food! It was really great to see everyone!