An Anniversary and a Party (but not an Anniversary Party)

We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary a week ago Saturday. Unfortunately December 3rd was the only date that worked to host the annual Allegis Christmas party so our 'celebration' consisted of a houseful of employees and their spouses, a fully catered gourmet meal, a fully stocked bar and a bartender...when I put it that way, maybe it wasn't all that unfortunate!  It was a very late night and we did have a few overnighters but all in all, everyone had a great time and we budgeted a house and carpet cleaning just a day later so the mess was handled for the most part.

The past 12 years have flown by.  The speed started feeling twice as fast after Greyson was born and I expect the next 12 will in retrospect feel just as, if not more than, fast.  We aren't a couple to make a huge deal out of an anniversary. We talk about return trips to Lake Tahoe where we tied the knot but an anniversary in early December precedes what is usually a whirlwind celebration of many things anyway so we usually choose something simple, quiet and relaxed.  I'll admit a big party doesn't necessarily fit that criteria but I didn't have to plan it; I didn't even choose the menu.  I provided the venue and the team took care of the rest.  

We leave as a family for Wisconsin in just over a week.  I should feel a little anxious given the experience with Graham on our last flight, the fact that I've done almost zero Christmas shopping, my Christmas cards haven't been mailed yet (though they arrived well over a week ago) and our work schedules are packed until our flight on the 20th.  What I feel instead is peace, gratitude and a sense of calm.  Tonight while Mike and I sat in front of the tree, Graham danced to the musical ornaments and Greyson sang 3 Christmas carols.  There's nothing to be anxious about after that.

Getting ready for the party!

Our cocktail server insisted on taking a picture of the anniversary couple

Greyson's "Christmas party girlfriend" and his Badger fan sidekick

The Badgers are headed to the Rose Bowl!

The party attendees

The Allegis Group Services Seattle team

GRAHAM*isms*

• M: "Graham, what's in your mouth?"
• G:  "Tongue"

It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing

Greyson and Graham got a new nanny this week.  Sara was with our family for 3 years but it was time for a change.  Our new nanny Heather has a 1 year old son and was born and raised in Green Bay. She hasn’t lost her accent and Midwest values and she’s going to be a great fit for our family.  Graham loves the “baby” and so far the 3 boys are getting along great.

• G:  “Daddy has longer nipples than me and Graham”

November was family month for us.  My mom and brother visited me and the boys for an extended weekend (see video below for a snapshot of how we spent our time).  Mike had a blast in Costa Rica but is not recommending it as a future family vacation spot.  I received a few texts from him over the course of his short visit but this one took the cake, “Just got done signing autographs- I’ll explain later”.  Ask him- it’s a great story.

Mike’s parents spent Thanksgiving week with us. We ate, we shopped and we relaxed; not necessarily in that order.  It was a wonderful visit and after seeing both sides of our family for a bit, we’re as excited as ever to get home for Christmas (a white one!)

• G: “I’m going to sleep with Grandma because I only sleep with girls”

Our decorations are up, our first Christmas card arrived (yeah Hirsts!) and our own cards are waiting to be be addressed and stamped.  We’re preparing our house for the 2nd annual Allegis Seattle Christmas party. It’s tomorrow night. Wish us luck.

Halloween 2011- better late than never

What I really want to blog about right now is Thanksgiving preparation, upcoming visits from my family and Mike’s and an amazing “Fakesgiving” meal at a friends house but I still have this Halloween blog drafted from 2 weeks ago and need to publish it before I can move on.  This is not a technical glitch, it’s just the ‘who I am" that contributes to my inability to stop reading a book I hate because I started it which means I must finish it.  So, here’s the Halloween recap:

I cannot take credit for this work of art but I had to share because it’s cute, creative and fun and upped my appreciation for Halloween.  Graham appreciated it too!

We enjoyed dinner with friends the night before Halloween and my friend, a Halloween lover, went all out for the kids as you can see.  She served monkey brains (spaghetti) and eyeballs (meatballs), fangs (fruit wedges) and bones (breadsticks).  The highlight was the witch cupcake.  After the kids finished, the adults had a wonderful meal as well followed by an impromptu performance by the 8 kids hopped up on sugar and decked out in a combination of costumes. They came to the ‘party’ as one character, they morphed into different variations (one Spiderman hand, one Transformer face, a cowboy boot etc.)

Trick or treat was in fact a real treat. Graham was into it and I’m a particularly proud mom this year because Greyson chose to donate his candy to his dentist for cash.  It was coincidence that his dentist appointment happened to fall the week before Halloween so the idea was fresh on his mind.  He followed through and used his cash to buy a   Dr. Thomas sends the candy to troops overseas (sorry about that cavity, soldier!)  We will be purposefully scheduling all future 1/2 year dentist appointments the week before Halloween.

In the 2 weeks since Halloween ended I:

• Composted the pumpkins
• Pulled out some additional harvest-themed deco
• Took a quick trip to Paris and Copenhagen for work
• Hosted a dinner party
• Attended 2 dinner parties
• Started the menu planning for Thanksgiving
• Started a weekend with my mom and brother (Uncle Nate)
• Said ‘so long’ to Mike who is leaving for Costa Rica to see PEARL JAM

No Additional Words Necessary For This Post

~Mrs. Deneall Owens, Greyson’s Teacher, October 2011

Party Fit for a 2 Year-Old!

We could have had a party with kids of all ages, a bouncy house or trampoline, Halloween costumes and other fun themes.  An end of October birthday provides a canvas of opportunities to celebrate Graham’s special day.

We chose to keep it simple…

On Saturday morning, cars of all shapes, sizes and sounds awaited Graham along with car-shaped chocolate chip pancakes. 

We kept our PJ’s on all morning while Graham had fun with his vehicle-centric gifts (thank you family!!).

After homemade pizza for lunch, more chocolate in the form of a (nut-free) chocolate layer cake from Rae’s Bakery.

After naps, the boys watched, what else? Cars.  Mike and I cleaned up the “party”, made stuffed peppers* for dinner and let our new 2 year old stay up until 8:00pm!  He deserved it- he’s not a baby anymore (sniff). 

No party is complete without the requisite party hat.  Greyson rocked it well.

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby Graham. We are madly in love with you and every new day is another chance to watch you grow, learn, love and best of all, laugh.

*Stuffed peppers = healthy, yummy and Greyson’s new “favorite” food. Who woulda thought? 

Halloween Fan? Nah.

GREY*isms*

• G: “Mom, what is that?”
• Me: “It’s a cap gun”
• G: “You can shoot cats with it?”

October is my favorite month.  The mornings are starting to get cold (~45F) but the afternoons are sunny and fall-warm (~60F).  It’s primetime pumpkin patch weather but we haven’t scheduled it yet.  Here’s to hoping the sun/no-rain holds off for one more weekend.

If you know me well, you know I’m not a huge fan of Halloween so it begs the question, why would October be my favorite?  On the one hand, it’s 31 days of spiders, bats, witches and zombies; black and orange (just a hot water rinse-cycle away from Chicago Bears colors), creepy lawn decorations and Styrofoam headstones.  On the other, it’s fall colors, cinnamon candles, sweaters and puffy-vests, Harvest-themed decorations, family time* and football (Ok, baseball too, when the Brewers are in the post-season- alas, not the World Series).

Now I feel I need to clarify because most of my friends, family and readers are massive fans of this “holiday”.  I do not dislike Halloween.  I do not dislike kids in costumes, trick or treating, jack-o-lanterns and scarecrows.  I do dislike ME in costume.  I do not enjoy handing out candy to 17+ year old trick or treaters without costumes holding a pillow case (I prefer not to provoke this set by turning them away so I smile and let them choose what they want- my fear of “crazy” is a blog post for another day).  I recently listened to Rob Lowe’s audio book** Stories I Only Tell My Friends and he recounted a trick or treating night in his neighborhood when Martin Sheen dressed up in camo, painted his face and hid in the bushes. Even Martin Sheen wouldn’t alleviate my lack of appreciation for unexpected scares jumping out of the trees.  ‘Party Pooper’, ‘Boring’, ‘Annoying’- call me what you want.  I LOVE my kids’ excitement over costumes and candy, pumpkin carving and toasting seeds, hot apple cider and a late bedtime.  I embrace Halloween on behalf of my kids and will stimulate the economy with purchases on their behalf (that is, once they’re old enough to choose their own costumes- until then, hand-me-downs it is).

Greyson has chosen the Bumblebee Transformer.  Graham has not chosen, but will be, a soft and cuddly bumblebee.  I will post more pictures and you will ooh and aah.  Just don’t scream from behind the bushes.

3 Reasons to love October

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*As opposed to family time in the summer which typically includes more people, more trips and more organization. Aside from a weekend business trip for Mike, we are home together until November 6th when I depart for business in Europe and Mike goes to Costa Rica shortly after I get back.

**I highly recommend “listening” to his autobiography. He could read the dictionary and make it pleasurable

Orca are family just like us

Carmen, Brian and the kids paid us a visit a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to post some pictures ever since.  Jake, Bria, Greyson and Graham got some great bonding time and I’ll warn you now, you’re going to wish you lived here when you see the beauty that is a whale in its natural habitat.  But first things first…

Mike took the gang to Seattle for a day.  First stop, Space Needle.  I laughed out loud and for a very long time when I saw what at first looked to be a very nice family photo until your eyes pan to the right. I laugh still.

Bria and Greyson got their fill of Kinect- Dance Central, Boxing and Soccer were big hits and I have enough video of them jabbing the air, kicking imaginary goals and ‘getting down’ to Lady Gaga to make a movie.  They were two peas in a pod all weekend.

The whales, though, always steal the show…

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The dreaded gum wall (click here for context) received a few more donations and Brian went crazy at the fish market so we feasted like kings on fresh salmon, halibut and Dungeness crab.  We miss you already and are looking forward to the holidays at home this year. Thank you for visiting…come back soon!

Back to…Preschool

My friends (i.e. Tina & David) think our 5 year old is THE wittiest, THE funniest kid they’ve ever met but this is only because they are not exposed to very many 5 year olds who look and sound like a kid* from Lord of the Flies.

G:  (watching a commercial for a ‘Dance with me Baby’ doll)  “I DEFINITELY don’t want one of those!”

His preschool 5’s program started this week.  He had, in his words, “watery eyes” Monday morning but since then he’s gone in without looking back.  He talked about a Caroline (that’s CARO-line, not CARO-lynn) for quite a while last night and no, she’s not his teacher but he made a point of stopping by Mrs. Sharon’s classroom just to say hello and make sure her hair was down.

Most of Greyson’s friends are starting Kindergarten this year but it doesn’t seem to faze him so once again, I sweated a decision that meant more to me than it did to him.  So he’s the oldest kid in his class? I’d rather him be driving first than riding with the likes of a teenage driver like me.

It’s a quiet blog these days but the soon-to-be cooler temperatures will keep us off the boat and in the house with a little more time to draft…maybe. For now, we’re looking forward to a weekend visit from Carmen, Brian and the kids which includes a return visit to the Sound (whale watching), the Space Needle and Pike Place Market’s fresh fish. 

*know-it-all, argumentative, savvy, resourceful and independent (not murderous)

Surfer Boys

GREY*isms*

Greyson has a fondness for adjectives:

1. G: (running through the sprinkler) "MOM! Look at this magnificent rainbow!!"
2. G:  (coming across a pile of glass while riding his bike) "MOM! This glass is extensive!!"

• G:  "Mom, when are we gonna go on a rocket ship?"
• Me: "Maybe you should be an astronaut, but you would need to study really hard"
• G:  "I am!"
• Me: "You haven't even started school yet"
• G:  "Oh yeah..."

• Mike: “Grey, what’re you doing?”
• G: “I’m hiding from the maniac*!”

*i.e. Graham

August has been a pretty good month of sunshine and warmth. I remember our first 2 summers out here wondering how in heck the majority of homes, even new ones, don't include air conditioning.  Our house does have it and in the early days, we turned it on often.  We must be getting used to the Seattle climate because although there have certainly been days that warrant the air, we prefer open windows and doors.

A quiet blog usually means long days and nights of family time. Between afternoons on Lake Washington, a short trip to the Michigan side of Lake Michigan and backyard barbecues we actually have sun tans.  Yesterday, Mike got up at 5am (again) for some early morning wake boarding.  Despite the slow start to summer (and it was really slow), it’s the best one yet. We are a family invigorated, happy and content despite our busy schedules and work commitments which have included business trips for both of us this month.

Graham’s vocabulary is a work in progress. Everything with wheels is a car. He’s got a few words, like airplane, bubbles and vitamin that are easily discernable by us but good luck figuring it out if you don’t spend every day with him.  He’s eager to point out anything in the house, from shoes to sunglasses, that belong to me or Mike.  He points to my shoes and says “Mama”.  He points to Mike’s sunglasses “Dada”.  He’s brilliant.  I wish you could see him like we do. You would fall in love.

MADLIBS! and other fun

 

I’ve never been more huge.  My baseball team, the Orange Motorcycles was about to play the championship game. But Coach Vincenzo announced that the official rules had changed!  First, every player would puke 24 times before going to bat.  We also had to wear our gloves on our brains like jerseys and run like a Meer cat. Before Coach could explain more the umpire shouted Jump ball! The umpire tossed me our new official bat, a helmet. When the school goer threw the new official ball, a grapefruit, it zoomed past me and swam all over the catcher.  After 25 tries, I finally hit the grapefruit all the way to India. I started running as fast as I could until I slid into home base. This new game isn’t so slimy after all.

                              ~Greyson, Aug 8, 2011, National Geographic Kids

I planned to tell you about my garage/yard/rummage/shoot-me-now-I-hate-this sale and how stressed out I was preparing for it in between late night conference calls with India and tired after it was over and about all the crazy people who stopped by to haggle (“you marked this for $3, will you take a buck?”…um, “sure”).  I could regale you for a good long while but I changed my mind.  I made a profit and I’m over it.

The Blue Angels @ Seafair were the highlight of our weekend, not the damn garage sale. I played hooky from work on Friday afternoon so that Greyson and I could meet up with our friends.  Seeing the show from the middle of the lake was an awesome experience although our friend Cooper obviously wasn’t all that impressed:

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