The Big Birthday Bash

We had a super fun double birthday for Vince and Zoë this year, and we were able to pull it off as a swim party again! I was holding my breath for the days leading up to the party, even the morning of, hoping that the clouds would roll away and sunshine would prevail. Well, it did, and we had a great day outside in the sun and in the pool.

Last year when we had our party, I think I shot all of two or three photos of the whole event (Our family is pretty bad with getting photos on celebrations). But... this year was different. First of all, my friend Jocelyn is starting a little side business of taking photos of kids, so she was there and took so many awesome photos of almost everyone! Jocelyn's photos are great, you can check out all the photos from our party on her blog: Candid Kids
Second of all, I gave my camera to friends so they could log the day, and wow! I have a lot of great photos!

Vince's birthday was actually a day before the party, so we had a little cake ahead of time for just us. Of course, whenever Vince sees a cake with a candle, he gets pretty excited.


Highlights of this year's party:

Highlight #1) My totally amazing, wonderful, awesome, creative, talented, and dear friend Danielle slaved in her kitchen all day making both Vince and Zoë each their own cakes! (AND.. she was able to keep Max away from the cakes, don't know how)

Brobee From Yo Gabba Gabba, chocolate cake with raspberry filling, yum! All the kids wanted this one of course, little people running around with green faces... priceless

Zoë got her own carrot cake with cream cheese frosting... so delicious, all the adults wanted this one

Highlight #2) The piñata - some serious entertainment for the adults, and fun for the kids! I bought one that had strings on the bottom that would pull open a trap door... so the little kids could still get the thing open even if they couldn't hit the candy out. the Lady at the i Party store offered some advice to let the little kids still take some whacks first before you let them pull the strings. That was a great idea, it was so cute watching them try and hit the piñata!

Vince found the piñata ahead of time and was pulling candy out, caught him in the act

finally they all pull the strings and out comes the candy

I put WAAY too much candy in there, but the kids didn't complain

Highlight #3) Having everyone over to enjoy our backyard and pool!







Highlight #4) Umm... I feel bad but I have to mention my friends girl getting her hair stuck in the bubble machine... yes, I think that goes on my highlight list! She was apparently "experimenting" with the fan in the back, noticing how it sucked in the air... so she tried her hair.... and... well.. it sucked in her hair. It got so completely knotted up that I had to go in and get scissors and cut a big gnarled ball of her hair or she would have been destined to have a bubble machine hanging from her head!! It was soo funny! I felt bad for Eloise, I think she was embarrassed. I begged her to let me take some photos but she wouldn't let me do it.

Mother's Day 2011

Aside from life being routinely busy as usual this time of year, we are also getting ready for Vince's 3rd birthday this Friday! We decided to have a joint birthday party for Vince and Zoë this year. Zoë will be one on July 7th (wow so quick!), so their birthdays are pretty close together. They talked it over..... and both agreed that it would be ok to share birthday parties together, but we'll see how long we can do this before one of them realizes what's going on here.

I'm PRAYING for good sunny swimming weather, as we are planning for a large group of friends to come over and hang out in the back yard to swim all day. It's looking very iffy right now, so I'll keep hoping.

Ok, now for continuing to get more up to date on the blog....really, am I still this far behind with blogging?

Wanted to give a quick chronicle of our wonderful Mother's Day brunch at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Having brunch here on Mother's Day has become a tradition for us. Joining along with my Godparents, I always remember how we would sit ourselves down for what seamed like hours and enjoy the buffet and champagne with orange juice.... finding it hard to get up and leave when it was time to go! After wards we'd walk around the hotel, enjoying the beautiful grand ballrooms and other party rooms where they have hosted past Oscar and Tony Awards, as well as other big name social functions. The halls are covered with pictures of "old timers" (as my mom would say) like Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable enjoying dinner and dancing to Big Band music. Then we'd also hear the inevitable, "things just aren't the way they used to be".

Since I've lived in MA, I haven't been able to get back to LA for Mother's Day, but this year we were able to make it happen. And it was so special because it was my first time being a mom myself. Being able to bring Vince and Zoë to the Biltmore for Mother's Day made it the most special Mother's Day ever! (as well as the most hectic... but that's ok)

View of the buffet area from above

Some nice ice sculptures around the buffet

good looking desserts!

Here's our best attempt at getting everyone in a picture at once

Vince spent most of his time under the table, playing with trains

Luckily my mom never noticed that we had Zoë sitting on the floor playing for most of the time
(hey, whatever works.. she was on a blanket at least)

Vince is excited for this week and his birthday Friday. We'll be picking up my mom at the airport on Wednesday so we'll be busy!

Zoë's time in the Hospital

Umm... I've been meaning to finish up this post for about a month now. Time is just flying by and I'm sooo behind on blogging! Rest assured Zoë is much better and we've been out enjoying the nice weather and our pool.

So briefly: Zoë had some sort of viral infection that her dear brother gave her, maybe parainfluenza or something of the sort. Basically, she wasn't handling it very well and ended up with bronchiolitis. Here is a copy and paste definition: Bronchiolitis is swelling and mucus buildup in the smallest air passages in the lungs (bronchioles), usually due to a viral infection. It's apparently pretty common in children under 2, and it doesn't necessarily mean she is at increased risk of developing asthma or other reactive airway disease later in life. She needed supplemental oxygen and some respiratory therapy to help her get the mucus out. During her time in the hospital, they would thump on her chest and back once in a while to help loosen that junk and then they would suction her nose to get it out. If any of you have a nasal aspirator for your little ones, this was the mother of all snot sucking devices. totally satisfying to get all the boogers out of her nose and anything in her lungs.

Here she is the first night in the hospital, tired and feeling crappy but still so cute...

Reuniting with Daddy after a few days separation

Feeling better and playing with her formula bottles

The nice nurse gave her a balloon!

Trip to LA: a photojournal

Vince literally fell asleep as we were landing into LAX.... otherwise he was awake the whole 5 1/2hrs.... seriously little guy?! Here's a tired momma with some tired babies.

A happy Grandma, finally with both her grandchildren (post 4 day hospitalization of Zoë)

We were excited to show Vince Point Vicente when we went to visit friends in Palos Verdes. He was very proud to share the name of the lighthouse point.

Exploring Santa Monica and the Pier

Marshall got to hear Zoë's babbling while we were out to lunch one day, boy did she have a lot to say!

enjoying the sunny warm weather at the playground, which we went to almost daily

Uncle Eric and Uncle Michael get cuddles too!

I'm sorry, but I had to get a pic of this... it reminded me of MA... and my patients haha!!

Vince and Zoë LOVED this giant teddy bear!

Vince and Kathryn have fun feeding the lorakeets at the Long Beach Aquarium (a random part of what was mostly marine creatures.... I promise!)

Where Did I Leave Off?... oh yes, Easter

Whew! It's been a long couple of weeks. We've been to California and back, and Zoë's been in the hospital twice! She's doing well now, thank you for all your prayers and good wishes.

Before I get to our trip to visit my mom, I have to finish up our Easter! Here's a few more good pictures from the photo shoot the day before Easter....

Put on your Easter Bonnet!

Don't you just want to squeeze those little faces! Where did Zoë's eyes go?

Then there was Easter morning, packed full of searching for Easter baskets, opening (and eating) presents, dying Easter eggs, making pancakes, and getting ready to go to church by 10am.

Vince found his basket in the sun room!

then he helped Zoë find hers in the dining room

time to eat Aunt Donna's present!

Vince finished his ring pop before 9am...

I was so excited to make these cinnamon roll pancakes, a recipe I found on one of my friend's facebook posts (thanks Angela!). These things are sooo decadent and delicious. Certainly only need to be consumed once a year if that.

We went to our friends house for the Easter Egg hunt, Vince ate his weight in candy

While Zoë was taken care of by all the girls

It isn't Easter without the Easter Lamb cake, I bit off the ear