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the last of the birthday vegetable
So to wrap up the celebrations (well, at least until Connor, Spencer & Katie get here Thursday and we celebrate EVERYONES birthday) we went to El Mariachi for a delish mexican dinner, complete with sombreros and a mariachi band (and of course, a birthday wouldn’t be complete without some embarassment from "papi" Pancho.) And since John worked there way back when for a zillion years, we always get the best treatment.
All taken w the small camera, so cut me a break on picture quality, k?
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just floating
here in the pool (my most favorite line from "the graduate"- where I (mrs. robinson) star)
Timmy has been enjoying floating here in the pool. Even has the crossed leg thing down for full relaxation mode. The big boys continue to scatter like bugs when the camera comes out. So don’t expect too many pictures of them. Timmy, however, often asks "mommy, take a picture of me?!" How can I say no?
Had to pop in and share my most favorite new line as overheard when Sharon and I went out to dinner Thursday night. Sitting a few tables away from some teenage girls (high school) and one said to the other…."I accidently made out with him". Wait. WHAT??? How do you accidently make out with someone?? We had a good laugh over that.
Coming up over the next few days here on the blog…. the "dis" baby, the "sil" babies, the "boi" family, the last part of the birthday vegetable, and the Beyrer family BBQ and softball game. So even though I’m technically "off" this month, not really so much afterall. Plus I have a shoot with my other boys (The Turn) coming up this week, and our good friends are coming in from Michigan this week as well, so lots more pictures to take and post. Stay tuned…
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Jack & Patrick’s 9th birthday party
There is an album on the left side with all the pictures in it, so check it out. Too many to post in the middle (right, Sharon!?) cause if I do, it’ll take an hour to load the page.
On Monday, we had the boys birthday party, and it was a big success! We managed to just squeak by with the weather. It was crazy all day- sunny and lightning all at the same time. We were back and forth all day long as to whether or not we were proceeding. Finally at 4pm, it had been sunny (with no thunder) for a few hours, so we just went ahead. Glad we did. The whole thing was a lot of coordinating between the band, the house, the lifeguard, the guests, the stuff. Can’t imagine having to do it all over again!
Brian and Pat of The Turn volunteered a few months back to play the boys birthday party. The boys were beyond thrilled with that, as you can imagine. Especially pretty much ALL we listen to in the car every day is The Turn. And Uncle Joe and Aunt Gail graciously allowed us to use their house and pool for the party. So it was a rockin pool party. I hired a lifeguard from our pool (hard to watch all the kids, take pictures, listen to the band, and make sure everyone has what they need) so that was a nice saftey net. Elizabeth (our neice) watched Timmy the whole time (mostly so he wouldn’t drown!). She’s like the pied piper of kids, so he was thrilled to have her all to himself. So we had all our bases covered and the party went great.
John telling his nephew that he "invented" something or other.
Rockin out with "my other boys".
It dosen’t seem like Patrick will be standing for long, as Jack makes his entrance from the left!
Pat and his new "pretty" guitar.
Uncle Joe got shoved in by the boys in the above pictures. He was a good sport!
The kids were in the pool pretty much the whole time. The "goose" (which is really a swan) was a huge hit and they spent most of their time jumping on to it and knocking eachother off of it. The pool and air were pretty cold, so there were a lot of purple lips and shivering bodies. But they didn’t seem to care much and were having a ball. Pizza and cake (of course) for everyone. With Turn CD’s in the goody bags. I think the kids really dug the whole band thing. And in the words of Jack & Patrick "the party was a blast!"
Still can’t believe they are NINE!
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the boys 9th birthday “vegetable”- parts 1 & 2
Ok, so here we go with the birthday vegetable for the boys. (*all pictures taken with the point n shoot. So nice not having to lug the big guns everywhere, but the payoff just isn’t the same).
Friday night we went out to dinner with all of us and grandma & grandpa to Inatome (habachi style japanese). While it’s not John or Grandpa’s favorite, it is everyone elses and a very ‘birthdayish’ kinda restaurant. I grew up going there for most of my birthdays. There used to be a little old japanese lady who would come out with the ice cream and candle, shouting "hap — py birthday" in her accented high voice. Miss that, but it’s otherwise exactly the same and just as delicious. We are all lovers of the ginger "dip" and the salad dressing. Yum.
Timmy took this one of grandma:
And the boys all got origami birds at the end.
Saturday after a day at the beach, we headed to the Brooklyn Cyclones game, again with grandma & grandpa. Yes, I went to a baseball game. No, I still don’t like baseball. But it was the boys birthday and so I sucked it up. Had fun with them, but not so much with the baseball. Although the seats are good. Ya know, if you want to actually watch some baseball or something.
They are actually not miserable, just eating. Plus they still won’t show their teeth!
John almost got nailed right in the head with the runaway ball from the outfield that missed him by inches. But he got the ball after it landed under the seat so that was a good birthday souvineer for the boys. Timmy enjoyed meeting Sandy the Seagull and hanging out at the game.
More pictures to follow of the actual rockin birthday party and one more dinner. All part of the big birthday vegetable.
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the boys whirlwind baseball adventure
As dictated by the boys. I’m just typing and plugging in the pictures. A ridiculous amount of pictures follow…
Day One:
At 4:00 in the morning we went in the car to LaGuardia airport with Uncle Nelson, us, Dad, and Grandpa Ken. We took our flight to Washington DC where we had breakfast and Jack had a muffin. Jack held up the muffin showing it Dad and Patrick and started saying "muffinie goodness"! Then we boarded the plane to Kansas City. We arrived at the airport around 9:15. Then, we picked up our rental car and drove to the hotel. Once we got settled in, we went to Aruthur Bryant’s for lunch. They made world famous Kanas City BBQ. We really liked it,(but it could use some personal hygene.) After lunch, we went to the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame. We learned about famous Negro League players like Satchel Page, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and Jackie Robinson. When we were done, we went back to the hotel for a little while and then we went to the game. When we got to the Kauffman Stadium it was the Royals vs. the Chicago White Sox. They had really cool waterfalls at the stadium. The Royals lost 4-2 but we got some good stuff anyway. We headed back to the hotel and got some sleep. (after 20 hrs of being awake).
It wouldn’t be a vacation w Grandpa Ken if there wasn’t a restaurant in a really bad neighborhood with an armed security guard:
Day Two:
We woke up at the Sheraton, had breakfast (including more of Jack’s muffinie goodness), went back to the hotel room, relaxed a little bit and took a quick dip in their indoor pool. After the pool, we went to the ballgame and it was REALLY hot. The Royals won 8-2 this time. We went to Strouds for linner (lunch/dinner). Strouds Chicken is famous for their pan fried chicken and it was like country style. It used to be a house in the country with a log cabin, then in was some kind of manor, and then it was sold to some people that made it into Strouds. The food was really good. We got hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and fried chicken. Patrick went on a walk with Grandpa and got some really cool pictures. After eating at Strouds, we drove halfway to St. Louis and went to sleep in a new hotel. The Econolodge was disgusting and it smelled bad. And there were bugs. Seriously.
Day Three:
We woke up and got breakfast at McDonalds and it was pretty good. After breakfast, we drove 2 hrs. to downtown St. Louis. We went to the Cardinals team store and got merchandise before the game. Then we went to the Gateway Arch. We had to wait on line for a really long time but when we got to the place where we had to get up to the top of the arch, we went in these cool space capsule kind of things and we spiraled up to the top. We got a couple of great pictures from up there. It was a great view. Then we got down and we went to Ted Drewes which makes frozen custard like Carvel. Except it was much better than carvel. When we finished eating, we went to the Anheiser Busch Brewery for a tour. They had clydesdale horses and a lot of cool other stuff. Dad liked it cause it had BEER. It smelled like barley and yeast which we sorta liked but sorta didn’t. At the end of the tour we got free beer and soda. Soda for us, beer for dad and grandpa. For dinner we went to Charlie Gitto’s on the Hill which is an Italian restaurant. We had some fried ravioli there and it was REALLY good. Then we went to the Cardinals vs. Phillies game at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals lost 5-3 but they had cool statues in the front of the stadium and a cool team store. We left in the 8th inning, and went to a new hotel which was much better.
Day Four:
We drove for a while to Chicago. When we got to Chicago, we went sightseeing downtown and saw the Sears tower, lake Michigan which was pretty cool, the watertower that survived the fire, the opera house, and a cool mossy church. We had lunch at Lou Malanatti’s which had Chicago style deep dish pizza which was really good. Then we went to the team store and to Wrigley Field for the Cubs vs. Astros game. The Cubs lost 2-0.There was a huge rain delay with tornado warnings with a 2hr 45 min rain delay. The hotel we made reservations at had a blackout cause of the weather. We heard tornado sirens but dad told us it was the police! So we went to a new hotel (the super 8 motel) and it was okay.
Day Five:
Technically, there was a day five, but not much. We took the plane home and Jack had more muffiny goodness for breakfast.
So there you have it…a jampacked vacation with lots of baseball and lots of good food. A big thank you to Ken for the trip, John for the trip and for taking pictures, charging the camera battery, and not losing/breaking the camera, and to my boys for taking tons of pictures just for me (how awesome are the ones of the arch??!!) of things they knew I would like. I have them so brainwashed.
