memorial weekend

Our weekend festivities began with Alyssa's 2nd birthday party Saturday afternoon. We drove out to Chino Hills and met up with all the little people at a My Gym. The kids all had a blast running to and fro jumping around on all the mats and trying out all the various contraptions found across the room. We spent a good two hours there before heading back to the birthday girl's house for a bbq and cake!


Later that night we met Angele, who graciously agreed to watch the boys for us so we could keep a date with a group of friends in Culver City. Although stuffed to our gills we were looking forward to meeting everyone at Ford's Filling Station (yes, that Ford... ok well that Ford's son). This outing was arranged by Belinda who had the brilliant idea to host a little 'to do' in honor of Edwin who was in town for a bachelor party. Our list of players included Belinda, Edwin, Gus, Velvet, Nellie, Breda and her husband and little cutie pie. It was a fun evening that flew by way too quickly.


Yesterday Kenny took the boys to see Indiana Jones while I stayed home to rest and go through all the pictures I took on Saturday. I had an enjoyable morning on the computer and holding my own Gilmore Girls marathon. Later that afternoon I took the boys up to my Aunt Alison and Uncle Willie's for another bbq! It's been a long food filled weekend! Yum.

The Wonder of Facebook

Yours truly at age 2 scampering after my dad on the streets of Hong Kong.

Wednesday I went to Nellie's office to drop off the stash of custom baby shower invitations she ordered from me for an upcoming party she's hosting. It was just afterschool and I had both boys with me as I had just picked Henry up. We were there in no time as we had no problem finding the building from Nellie's directions.

Once there we were greeted by Nellie and her brother Derek, who I haven't seen in ages! He has sure grown up! The boys explored a bit before settling in front of a dry erase board and markers. As I pulled the invitations out we discovered a typo on the zip code! My only excuse is that I've been so tired and spaced out recently.

Nellie stopped by yesterday to pick up the corrected portion of the invites. We started chatting about this and that, and before leaving she urged me to open up a Facebook account. Taking her up on that offer I had one by the end of the afternoon. Lo and behold by the end of the evening I had 11 friends and reconnected with an old classmate I hadn't heard from in ages. Gloria! And discovered that Joy has a blog dougjoynhayden.blogspot.com which I will add to my ever expanding Essential Viewing Sites. I'm still trying to get the hang of it but already I'm liking the layout better than myspace!

Monday Monday

This morning as usual after dropping Henry off we made our way over to Rhys' school. As soon as I parked the car Rhys got out of his carseat, promptly jumping to the space next to me, he breathlessly asked, "Mommy, can I drive?"

The Big Day

Yesterday Nellie and I were back over at Caroline's to help everyone get ready for the Big Day, Monique's wedding. Well, what I mean is Nellie went over to help get everyone ready, while I again tagged along and took random pictures. After everyone was dressed and on their way Nellie and I celebrated by grabbing a leisurely lunch at Truxtons. Between the air conditioning and the food we were in absolute heaven!

I apologize for not posting much last week but my energy was zapped! Other than having a wonderful Mother's Day weekend last week my mind is a complete blur. I do know that I was in absolute insurance hell by the end of the week. We are directly affected by the inability of Blue Shield and UCLA to come to terms for a new contract. Oh, and I found this out on the news! As of today I am muddling through the very real posibility of having to change pediatricians and I am not happy. We are very content with our current doctor! Sigh.

Introducing Jodeface

See David Horvitz I can take a picture of the sky too! so there. (A very rare beautiful clear blue sunny L.A. sky taken March 2008)

Guess who I found out there in the world wide web? Jody! And you can find her too at jodeface.com I can't even begin to tell you how awesome it is to find so many friends and family out there with their own blog.

Personally I've always had a romantic view of penpals growing up. Oh, to read about the day to day lives of people living miles away. What is their day like? What did they eat for dinner? What did they do over the weekend? What inspires them? What makes them happy? What are their goals? I am so happy to be able to visit with these friends on a regular basis despite the miles that separate us. They are featured on my Essential Viewing Sites section. This ever growing list includes (in alphabetical order):

Ariane's Blog (Ariane)
Created by Hilary (Hilary)
Everyone Needs Dim Sum (Ann)
Never a Dull Moment (Jamie)
Rouge & Gloss (Nellie)
Stories from a California Kitchen (Heather)
What's... Aahh... Happening??? (Ben)
and now --drumroll please-- Jodeface (Jody)

Now only if ALL my friends and family would start one! Yes, I am referring to you Caroline. You would do us the best favor of all by making us giggle til our tummies ache with your crazy antics!

argh! have you seen this? i am completely

enchanted.

I got this link in my email today. It's a link to david horvitz's site also called davidhorvitz.com. Sure I'll take an old friend out to dinner or lunch if YOU give me $68.33. And I have no problem documenting it for you, mailing you a photo with a description of what we ate and a brief history of our history as friends. I am half enchanted by the whimsy of the concept and half angry that I didn't think of it first.

oops!

I can't believe I completely forgot to mention in my previous post that my friend Nellie is a makeup artist (okay, I did mention that) and failed to point you in the direction of her site rouge & gloss which can be found by clicking rougeandgloss.blogspot.com If you are in need of help in the maquillage area in any shape or form, Nellie is your obvious choice!

PS I'd like to add that yours truly designed her new logo and helped with the layout on the site.

o happy news

Yesterday we got the great news that Mike & Esther presented Christopher with a brand spanking new baby brother! Baby Aidan was born in the early hours of May 6, weighing in at 8 lbs. 6 oz. Congratulations and can't wait to meet the little one!

another fun filled weekend

We celebrated Henry's First Communion on Saturday. I have to comment on how seriously and committed he has taken this whole process. He was very excited to be taking this big step and looked so handsome in his suit! The ceremony was slated to begin at 10:00am at the church but we were on school premises at 8:30am for pictures. Grammie, Auntie and Uncle John arrived well before that meeting us at home and helping with last minute preparations.



Once we got to the school we waited around for the photographer to arrive all the while Henry hung out with his friends and Rhys ran around the grounds. When he finally slowed down enough from making laps to realize there were pretty girls in pretty dresses milling around he began to go up to a few tapping them on their shoulders before saying "HELLO!" to them.


At one point he got a little out of hand and the incident almost escalated into major disaster when he eluded Grammie's grasp, she lost her balance and bumped into the photographer who collided with his tripod, but luckily for all involved (namely us) he had the forethought to immediately steady the camera with his hands preventing the impending crash of his state of the art camera onto the hard ground.



The service was very touching with each celebrant seated near the center of the aisle along with their family and friends. Our pew was filled so filled to capacity that my Aunt Sharon, Aunt Louise and cousins Phillip, Brian and Victoria spilled onto the following pew. The banners were strung up along the sides of the church's interior, and they were all gorgeous and full of creativity.

There was another small gaffe. This occured when Rhys and I went up for our blessing. Rhys noticed everyone receiving the Eucharist and decided that he must have one too, so he reached into the bowl and took one! Only before he was able to remove his hand it was caught at the wrist and he was firmly and calmly instructed to "put it back."

Here's a couple of shots of Kenny's new book in action!




On Sunday boys had a birthday party to go to and this was their mode of transportation.


Nellie and I went to Caroline's house.


Nellie will be doing makeup for Caroline, her mom and her sister Michele for their sister Monique's wedding in a couple of weeks, so this was a first run to make sure everyone is on the same page.


I tagged along just for the fun of it and to snap pictures of the day's events. I'm so glad I did because as you can tell by these photos we had a tremendous time and were all giggling like schoolgirls. The day ended with a delicious bbq at Caroline's parents house!

Have You Heard?

This morning Kenny convinced me to wake up a couple of hours early to work out in the garage. As soon as he proposed this idea our youngest monkey began to stir in his room. Sure enough soon the sound of his little feet pounding the floors could be heard as he made his way into our room. We layed there for a bit willing our tired bones to get up, and get going. After a little lifting of this and that, I decided it was time to head inside to prep for breakfast and get Friday started. As I began to head out the door Kenny asked me if I had heard about the piece on Mike? Well I hadn't heard until he asked me, that Mike Mulvihill was written up in a pretty cool piece in Variety last Friday! See for yourself. That Mike... he's so modest!

boo hoo, Left Behind!

Tonight Kenny rushed home to accompany Henry to his First Communion rehearsal. Rhys was in a tizzy since he considers it a personal afront if he is left behind not allowed to hang out with the boys. Oftentimes the three guys would leave together on some crazy adventure instigated by Daddy and as they head out the door giving me hugs and kisses Rhys always says, "You stay here Mommy, we'll be right back!"

Well since he wasn't allowed tonight I had to physically restrain him from running after them. He started bawling big fat juicy tears streaming from his eyes as we sat on the sofa. Eventually he moved away from me to grab a picture of Kenny from the bookshelf, sat back down clutching the picture to him as he willed himself into another torrent of tears and wailing.

An hour or so later when Kenny and Henry emerged through the door he jumped up excitedly running to greet them. He ran towards Henry spanking him on his backside as if reprimanding him for leaving without him, and then just as quickly resumed his seat in front of the computer to watch "Scooby Doo: Pirates Ahoy" (streaming from netflix) for the 20th time.

One Hot Festival of Books

A highlight of the weekend was our trek to the Festival of Books at UCLA. If it wasn't for the hot heat nightmare it would have been a joy to romp around my alma mater. Nothing puts me in a worse mood than excessive heat. It's not an easy stroll walking around like a zombie in an oven with two curious and overactive boys and a husband hell bent on checking in at every booth, but I survived. Honestly I should have stayed home, but I wanted to take some photos, or so I thought.


Trudging down Comic alley we bumped into Lela Lee creator of Angry Little Girls. Kenny even got a picture of me with her! She was so nice and accommodating, unfortunately or rather fortunately her booth was very busy and I didn't have much time to chat with her, or pause to really check out the cool books and merchandise she had available. Oh well... you can still do it online!


When we got to this booth Rhys was so intrigued. His eyes grew big as he wandered up to the booth, it didn't take much to persuade him to take a photo in costume along with the character!


Kenny scoped out every inch of the festival collecting names and numbers for marketing his BOOK! The book which is done, will arrive in a few weeks. All 1000 so copies! We're all extremely excited about it and have plans to place it for sale via the net as well as various shops around town. Will post the info as this work progresses.

We were soo happy to get home! I dunked Rhys immediately in the shower to cool him off. I made a batch of smoothies and we all just plopped ourselves in the garden under the pomello trees with a huge sigh. The heat was so stifling that Kenny devised another use for the garden cart. Rhys was in heaven, but it took some cajoling to get Henry to join in the fun.


If you've noticed that their hair looks a little tamer it's because, they both had haircuts this weekend courtesy of Grammie. After our eye exam on Saturday Angele dropped by to take the kids for haircuts and then lunch at IHOP. They were so happy to go on an adventure with Grammie.

hobos in the backyard

With summer fast approaching and the weather warming up Kenny thought it would be nice to have a weenie roast in the backyard with marshmallows for dessert. At the mention of marshmallows and hot dogs Henry and Rhys became very excited, but Rhys was super duper excited! He was the first to put on a jacket and went in search of his hat. I heard him rummaging in his room and finally a call for help, "Mommy, help me. I can't reach a hat. Power Rangers hat." After it was retrieved I put it on him and he quickly skipped outside, not wanting to miss a second.

Minutes later he came running back inside mumbling something about matches and Daddy. "I getta matches a Daddy." So we looked for the matches and he took them outside. Unbeknownst to me, getting the matches was something he had the forethought to come up with himself. Once we were outside Kenny who was working on gathering all the necessary equipment said he was going to get the matches, only to be presented with them by Rhys.

I was happy to test out some setting on the camera. Look what I captured? A group of hobos in the backyard.