Last day of school: Field Day surprise!

After Owen gave me the yes/no business about his end-of-year grade party, I decided to surprise him and just show up at the whole-school field day event. (I had asked if he wanted me to go and he said no again.) He was happy to see me and eagerly let me take pictures of him with his friends. 🙂

The school as I approached.

Mohammed, the kid Owen ran around with the whole time.

Every kid wore one of these. They got a sticker each time they completed an event/game/activity.

I get kind of choked up when I see this. I don’t want to leave.

Racing off to the next thing.

I was surprised when Owen wanted to do cup stacking—I wondered how he knew how to do it because he’d never mentioned it.

And then I watched him do it—ahhhh, he has NO idea how to do it. (I later showed it to him on YouTube and of course he loved it.) You can watch it in the video compilation at the bottom of this post.

We saw our friend Gavin and he wanted to give Katie a hug but she started to be shy.

Miss Christina, Katie’s teacher.

Showing me he can now climb to the top. When we were there for back to school night, he refused because he was scared. We told him he’d be able to do it by the end of the year.

He mastered the rock wall, too!

This is about as high as Katie gets. They don’t play on this playground in her class—the pre-k kids have their own smaller playground.

Waiting for face (or arm) painting.

Finally getting over her shyness with Gavin.

Katie wanted to get her face painted but the lines were pretty long and I wanted to be able to follow Owen around, so I told her not unless the lines went down. I turned around to talk to someone for a minute and when I turned back, she was getting her face painted by Miss Anne (our friend and Katie’s teaching assistant). I asked Mrs. Stuhlman (Owen’s kindergarten assistant who I had been talking to) how that happened and she said she just took her over and sat her down—the privilege of being a teacher! So Katie got to cut ahead of like five kids!! Mrs. Stuhlman asked if she might get Katie in her class next year…and I had to give her the bad news that we were moving. 🙁

Owen getting an alien on his arm.

I let Katie do some of the games that didn’t have big lines. She was waiting to throw baskets (video below).

Katie with AJ, a neighbor girl who is in first grade. She’s a tiny thing.

I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten my face painted (that wasn’t a thing back in the day) so when the grades were switching areas and there wasn’t a line, I sat down to get a quick flower to match Katie’s. Gorgeous work as usual by Anne and her daughter!

Lining up getting ready to switch to the fields for flag games and kickball.

I may have to redo this photo, but you can see three tiny black dots in the sky. They were dragonflies! The field was swarming with hundreds of them! It was the strangest thing!!

After flag games were done, Katie and I left. It was HOT and we hadn’t planned for it (I was in jeans and a black tee shirt and we hadn’t brought water—and we hadn’t thought it was going to be so hot and humid). Thankfully our neighbors stayed and got a few pics and videos (see below).

Owen waiting for kickball.

Having a BLAST in the water!

Me and Katie back at home…

I am SO glad I went and was able to take lots of pictures. We are going to miss this school so very much…

Owen’s second grade party

So, Owen’s second grade party was today and I had asked if he wanted me to go and at first he said yes—which I was excited about because he never wants us to come to anything (when did he turn 14 by the way?)—but then the night before he changed his mind and said no. 🙁 I should have just showed up anyway because I really wanted to get some pictures, but I thought I would do as he wanted. But, I saw some friends walking in as I was walking out (I was there picking up Owen’s end-of-year book signed by his teacher) and asked them to take pics if they could. These are what she sent:

I’m going to miss running into friends at the playground!

We hadn’t been to the library playground in forever so we went today. We were the only ones there for quite some time and then two ladies showed up with two small kids. I didn’t pay much attention to them but Katie was playing with them and then I heard the boy call her Katie. In a tone like he knew her. And it turns out he did! It was the kids of an old neighbor (who is also a first grade teacher) who were there with their sitter (their aunt) and a friend. 

This is the stuff I am really going to miss.

They wanted to run so off they went!

Katie was ahead the whole time but then stopped for some reason so he passed her and “won.” 🙂

 

Dual Birthday Pool Party

After watching the forecasts and worrying about the weather all week (the forecast varied from thunderstorms to 60% chance of rain to light rain all day)…we decided to go ahead with the party and it ended up absolutely perfect!! It was overcast at the start and gradually got sunnier and warmer throughout the party—enough so that I had Tom grab my suit when he went back to get the cake!

We had 60 guests (kids and adults!!) and the pool was probably the busiest it will be all season (aside from the days they have cookouts with free food or night swims with free ice cream). But it all went smoothly, everyone had a blast, and there was plenty of pizza and cake for multiple helpings (once I started cutting the serves 48 cake and realized my small pieces were still not small enough to get me close to 60 pieces, I started halving those…and then ended up having half the cake left so kids got seconds and thirds).

The gaggle of dads. They didn’t move from this spot the whole time. 😂

Us moms:

;

The kids were fairly patient about opening gifts once we got home…and they LOVED everything. They got Bop It (thank heavens I found the volume control!) and Owen picked up on it right away, Katie dug right into the glitter glue and construction paper, Owen picked out his favorite baseball cards from a new pack, Katie put together her Disney Lego, we’ve been shot multiple times by Owen’s new nerf gun, and both kids were OVER THE MOON about all the gift cards and getting to go shopping once we move! They both said it was a great birthday!

The final 2017 Angels baseball game!

Father and son before Owen’s last at-bat (where he got a slamming base hit—watch in the video below)!! We joked that we should have taken him to a big league game earlier because it obviously affected his game play!

Sidenote: just look at his face! OMG, I didn’t even see it when I took it because their faces were in shadow. I finally saw it when I edited the photo! He is such a hoot!

During the game, the kids signed frames for all four coaches:

The coach got each player a holder for their game ball:

 

Swarming the food table like ants!

Tom getting his thank you:

And we got the team and player photos:

Of course we had to pick a position early in the season…had it been later, we would definitely have picked first base. 

Katie’s special night with mom

Since Owen was getting to go on a special trip to a baseball game, I had to make Katie’s night spent at home fun, too—of course she was a bit bummed that she didn’t get to go on the trip, but I assured her she wouldn’t love the baseball game.

Part 1: The playground with friends and a treat from the ice cream truck!

Part 2: Night swim with ice cream… And staying up past her bedtime!!

Adulting with Jami.

Since we planned on drinking, we took a Lyft to the restaurant, and since it was a chocolate restaurant (The Chocolate Sanctuary), I obviously had to start with the German Chocolate Cake martini…Vodka, Amaretto, cream of coconut, chocolate, caramel, and toasted coconut. 

Then Jami took over on the pictures.

  • Chicken and Goat Cheese Wrapped in Cocoa-Candied Bacon with Cocoa-cranberry sauce. 
  • Cocoa Pan-Seared Scallops with Zucchini chips, truffle mash potatoes, miso beurre blanc
  • The Sanctuary Chopped Salad: Romaine, field greens, sweet corn, avocado, cocoa-candied bacon, tomatoes, hearts of palm, cheddar cheese, herb-parmesan croutons, chocolate vinaigrette

Elderflower Aperitif: Sparkling Moscato D’Asti, St. Germain, and fresh raspberry

Beignets! Light and airy chocolate filled doughnuts served with mixed berry compote and crème anglaise

We will definitely visit again and bring out of town guests…

Our last bingo night—and we won two baskets!

Headed off to our last PTO Bingo Night! 🙁

We actually donated a big snack basket this year (I’ve been wanting to donate one for awhile now) and I debated buying raffle tickets because we don’t need anything… But it was to benefit the school so why not?! I bought 20 and gave each of the kids five tickets to put in whatever they wanted. Katie put all hers in the Emoji Basket and Owen put his in an Art Basket. I spread the rest out between some Chocolate Baskets and the Art Basket.

Owen wanted to sit with his friends…

So the first bingo game starts and Katie literally had every single number called and we were sure she was going to win…but she didn’t. But imagine our surprise when they brought up the first basket—one of the chocolate baskets—and we won!! Woohoo!!

Soon the Emoji Basket came up and I happened to record it just in case…

All night Katie kept saying “I can’t believe we won TWO baskets!” 🙂 This makes up for three years of winning nothing!

This was the kindergarten chocolate basket. We really really lucked out—everything from M&Ms to s’more fixins to brownie mix to sandwich cookies to truffles to camel milk chocolates!!!

And enough emoji stuff to choke a horse!!

Ice cream truck!

The kids have been bugging us and bugging us and bugging us about getting ice cream from the ice cream man ever since he started coming around this spring. We promised them we’d do it once before we moved—but the timing would have to be right since he usually comes to the playground after school and that is right before dinner. So today we were at Julie’s and she was going to get something for Kayleigh and offered to get something for Katie… Well I couldn’t very well have Katie telling Owen she got something so I texted Tom and had him send Owen out. They were thrilled. 

   
       

My launch party was a success!

So, I just had my first in-home party (my business launch!)…and while I thought it was a total hot mess, they told me everything was fine and they had fun. (There were only six ladies and they are all good friends so I could be honest with them and ask for their honest opinions.) I dislike selling and feel like I stink at it so really just felt like I was pretty much out of control the whole time and consequently I felt totally off my game and I felt like I looked like an idiot (I know we are always hardest on ourselves). But they all seemed happy and bought stuff so it’s all good. And I know it will get easier with practice…

We didn’t take any official selfies but I did snap a few quick shots so I could remember who bought what (I was still figuring out how to use my credit card system!)

 

Why do I have to leave these people? Stupid military.

Another awesome Friday night gathering where all the kids get along (tonight there were 15!), the adults get along and have an amazingly fun time (tonight included shots of fireball whiskey, cigars, and stories about tattoos and piercings), and reluctantly leaving just before 11pm. I can cry just thinking about leaving…

 

My shirt said so.

A bunch of baseball parents went out tonight for Cinco de Mayo. This is our obligatory date night selfie:

And my obligatory lipstick photo (these are how I post them in my Facebook group):

And the obligatory margarita photo with my Mommy needs a margarita shirt in the background. (This was the most appropriately-themed piece of clothing I had for the holiday.)

 

What was funny is that as we were sitting down, all the girls gravitated towards one end so the table was split into boys and girls.

Partisan Pig Feast + More!

A Tivo-peep/Michigan friend, Therese, was in town for a conference, so we threw together a last-minute dinner downtown at The Partisan (I was thrilled to go there because that’s a dinner we recently missed when Tom had to be in Chicago for work).

The menu changes daily (and I forgot to take a picture of it—I’m slacking in my old age) so I checked their website hoping for tonight’s selection…but it wasn’t meant to be. That said, most of the items were still listed. I’m fairly sure you will be able to tell which descriptions are from the actual menu I found. (I also didn’t take pictures of the dishes like I normally would—so all the food pictures below (minus one) are all from TCF peep friend Jonathon.) As is usual practice, we all ordered a bunch of stuff then shared everything.

Three of us ordered this (which means everyone got to try it all). Unfortunately, none of the courses were listed so I’m going by memory:

– Lamb Koobideh Kebab, Doner Spice, Sumac Onions, Coriander Yogurt, Mint

– Beef Fat Fries, Roasted Garlic, Rosemary, Ranch Aioli
– “Head shoulders knees and toes” taquitos (Pig Feast course #1)

– Seared Scallops, & Morcilla [blood] Sausage, Adobo Cream, Lardo, Agave (ordered off menu but it was also Pig Feast course #3 so we had double portions!)
– Dan Dan Noodles with Beef Cheek

– Prosciutto and asparagus (Pig Feast course #2)

– Pasta with pig face ragout (Pig Feast course #4)

– Pork tenderloin with fava beans, polenta, and arugula (Pig Feast course #5)

It was at this point that Tom said “Well, I think that’s it!” And then the waiter brought out two more dishes! 🙂

– Rotissi-fried Chicken, Honey Hot Sauce

– Chocolate Cake Donut Holes, Chocolate Pudding, Chocolate Crunch Pearls

And the only food pic I took myself—my share of the dessert plate:

Goodbye selfie: