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bye, Graeme.
So sad around here on Saturday afternoon. Graeme left us and flew back home to England. We had such a great time while he was here with us. So great. Some of the highlights from the trip: I took Graeme into NYC on Wednesday and brought him to his first Broadway show- he chose Phantom of the Opera. Thankfully, he (said at least) really liked it. Well, he didn’t fall asleep, so that’s something. Went out to dinner after the show, did some walking around Times Square and headed home. Luckily for Graeme, his friends were in town with NOGA while he was here so he had some people to pal around with (read: go out drinking with) at night.
My favorite…we went to the mall during the week and of course stopped in at Abercrombie and Fitch, and not surprisingly, they asked Graeme if he wanted a job there…again. Even though he has a great job he is starting really soon at Microsoft in England, I still think he should just blow it off, move here, and work at the mall. Don’t think that’s happening though.
On the way to the beach on Saturday, we stopped in front of Trainland to get a picture of Graeme in front of the store and also in front of the Bobby Bacala sign they have in the window. For those of you unfamiliar, Trainland is the store in which Bobby Bacala from the Sopranos was whacked in the last few episodes. Graeme is a big Sopranos fan and was so excited about seeing the store. He also made me play the Journey song "Don’t Stop Believing" from the season finale a bunch of times in the car.
I also asked Graeme if he would record our outgoing answering machine message with his awesome accent, which he did. So if you call my house and get a voice you don’t recognize, now you know who it is! I also MADE Graeme let me take a few pictures of him. They came out super- but what can you expect from a subject like that. I couldn’t really do a bad job.
We will really miss him a lot. The big boys were hysterically crying at the beach when they had to say goodbye. Thankfully, John had tickets to the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets minor league baseball team) on Saturday night, so they went straight from the beach to the game which helped them keep their minds off Graeme leaving (I know Graeme…sell outs!) and they didn’t have to do the traumatic airport run with me. Even I got a little teary at the airport. And then Timmy started in with "see coach graeme again?" and I had to drive away fast before I really lost it. I hate goodbyes. But the good news is that for work Graeme might be travelling to the USA for work a few times a year so there is a little hope that we might see him again.
Yeah, you’d be sad too. Admit it. -
A photoshoot gone bad…
it wasn’t all bad. But this is my favorite from the shoot- both kids in tears. They were ALL. DONE. The little girl was just grumpy at this point and had had quite enough, and the little boy had some sticks that his mom took away from him, and he wasn’t real happy about that.
They were great kids- just those difficult ages to get them both at once, both looking, both smiling. The little girl would cry everytime her big brother touched her so it was quite interesting getting them close enough to both be in the frame, but far enough so no one was touching anyone else.
I had a great time though, that little boy is FULL of personality and excitement and I hope I did a good job capturing that. Here are a few more favorites (real favorites this time) from the shoot today. Hope you like them, too.
The whole album is on the left side under the S family. Click any image to 
see it bigger. -
Wii play, do you?
Another victim of the Wii. When the boys actually let Graeme get in a moment of gametime, he got sucked in just like them. With the shouts and whoops coming up the stairs from the basement, you wouldv’e thought there was a real game going on down there. Then before dinner tonight, we caught Graeme sneaking in a little Wii time on his own. We took Graeme out to Nick’s for Italian tonight with my parents and the boys, which he really enjoyed. So even if we are on the boring side for him, at least we are feeding him well. Patrick started in with the tears tonight (only 4 more days until Graeme leaves) about being sad over Graeme’s departure. The hard part is that we don’t know when we will see him next this time as he starts his "big boy" job with Microsoft in London next month so he won’t be doing the crazy travelling like he did this year. I guess we will just have to travel to the UK to visit him next time. Yeah, right after we go to Australia to see Nate and Colleen!
Spent the day Monday at the beach with Sharon and Olivia which was great. Hot as hell, but great. Timmy’s newest thing is now jumping directly into the pool off the side (instead of jumping into my arms) and going all the way underwater. He loves it and did it a thousand times. He also went in the ocean a little bit which is a big deal cause he has been scared of the ocean for the last year or so. Then spent the day today at the pool with Graeme and the boys. Tommorrow night Graeme and I are going to see Phantom of the Opera on B’way. He said he wanted to catch a show while he was here and that’s what he picked. John is not going- his theory on Broadway is that he "can nap at home for free". So I’m back to being Mrs. Robinson apparently. Eh, it could be worse…
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a 95th birthday party
Yesterday I did a photoshoot at a 95th birthday party for a friend of a friend’s grand-mother-in-law. It was such a pleasure to meet the "birthday girl". Let me tell you, this woman still had it all together. She was sweet as anything and didn’t look 95 at all. Maybe 75. Maybe. She was so kind and easy going. Unfortunately, she leads a very limited existence due to being almost blind and very hard of hearing. But she is still quite chipper and happy. She knew exactly what kind of picture she wanted of herself- a "mona lisa smile, certainly not a laughing smile". Her one remaining sibling surprised her by flying up from Florida for the party and she was so happy to see him.
The daughter of the "birthday girl" who arranged the party had everyone dress in white and khaki. It looked really cute with everyone dressed the same. There were a zillion kids (great-grandkids) so the pictures were crazy-getting everyone together at the same time. But I got some good ones I think.
I am still in the middle of post-processing all 450+ pictures I took for the day, but here are a few to start
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Jack & Patrick turn 8 and celebrate BIG
Instead of the usual HUGE party (we are talking a minimum of 60 kids invited every year) that we do at the Rec Ctr. for the boys birthday, this year we went a different route. John got 10 tickets to the Mets game on the boys birthday and they invited 6 friends to go to the game. John and Graeme chaperoned and drove and the kids were divided up into two teams (red and blue, surprisingly!). Everyone arrived here at our house at 10:30am, gave me their food order for the game, played a little backyard baseball, and left for the game at 11am. They arrived just in time for the start.
Let me break here and go back to the night before where I stayed up until 2am finishing the favors, making the food chart, and decorating. John and the boys previously picked out Mets hats as favors for the party, we picked up wiffle balls, baseball cards, and fan pulls with baseballs on them to use as a link for all the stuff. I also made a "thank you" card to attach to the group of stuff. Then I wrote each guest’s name on the table including either a baseball or a baseball diamond in each of their names. So I was coloring at 1:45am. And then hanging the favors from the chandellier in the dining room at 2am. But I got it done and it looked really cute!
I didn’t go to the game (thankfully. I don’t like baseball). But I pleaded with Graeme to take a lot of pictures, and being the good boy he is, he did. A lot. Got some really cute ones of all the kids at the game and even the special birthday surprise of getting the boys name up on the jumbo screen. I was so happy he got that one!
Unfortunately, the Mets lost, but it was apparently a very exciting game. 
After they all got home (around 4pm), they continued with the baseball game in the backyard, stopped for some goofy pictures in the banner I got, and had some cake. I had run out in the afternoon with Timmy to pick up a few little gifts for the boys (backpacks, webkinz, and books) and the Carvel cake. Yum. I think everyone left around 6pm. It was a long, great day. We picked up sushi for dinner- boys’ choice and following with our b’day tradition in this house, we put a candle in the sushi (a candle goes in every meal you have at home on your birthday).
Grandma and Grandpa got the boys a Wii which they were so super excited about. We set that up today (thanks Uncle Joe for your help with that!) and they must have been playing in the basement for a good 4hrs. I tried it out and it is a lot of fun. Could be dangerous.
Happy Birthday Jack & Patrick!!! I just cannot believe they are 8. When did that happen, exactly??