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Category Archives: Friends & Family

Dual Birthday Pool Party

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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!

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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. 

Owen’s first big league baseball game!!

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Lisa and Lori are huge baseball fans and Tom has wanted to take Owen to a professional baseball game since we’ve been here, so it seemed fitting that they all go together while Katie and I stayed home. I wouldn’t have minded going, but I know Katie would have gotten bored (she’s used to being able to run around and play with her friends during Owen’s SHORT games, so I couldn’t imagine her sitting for a three-hour game) so I kept her home and took her to the Friday Night Swim instead.

Owen even had the right cap to wear as one of his previous baseball teams was the Nationals! (He thought her had a shirt, too, except we determined that was the season they only got plain red shirts with logo caps.)

They got home about 11:30 (there was an hour metro ride home after the game) and Owen was STILL excited when he walked in the door. I’m so glad they got to go and he got to see everything!

Katie’s special night with mom

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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!!

10# of lobster

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As a thank you to the grandparents for watching the kids, we bought four lobster—two insanely huge ones (probably 3.5# each) and two regular-sized ones.

  

We don’t have official lobster implements…but these worked fine.

   
   

Katie’s attempts at getting a picture of our huge lobster tails. 

The lobsters were so huge that one claw was the size of a regular lobster’s tail! Neither of us could finish the whole thing.

Throwback to 2003: 

  

Adulting with Jami.

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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…