Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Bachelorette


Autumn's friend, Amy, planned a fabulous bachelorette soiree at the Queen Mary. We had dinner at the Chelsea Restaurant, got to check out the sweet suite Amy booked for the night for Autumn and her friends, and laso walk around a bit on the ship. It was a lot of fun. Autumn has a tremendous gift for making good friends - and lots of them.

The girls stayed in the Windsor Suite. If you see Amy at the party, ask her to tell you about the Windsors - she has all the story for you (B knows it, too). I am not a good story teller, but I can tell you that the couple loved the Queen Mary (and each other) and were on the boat for many passages across the Atlantic. Therefore they got a suite named after them.


This is the foyer when you walk in:

This is the first room on the left when you walk in - it was the maid's quarters. This is where Autumn slept that night because she had been sick and she kept herself isolated in an effort to not get her friends sick in their sleep.


There are two bathrooms in the suite. Please note the four faucet handles:


Hot Fresh



Hot Salt (and of course, Cold Fresh, and Cold Salt). I was fascinated by the concept. When I came home all excited about it, Mike pretty much said, "That's gross." And his first question was, "Does it pump in the harbor water? Because if so, eww."


The living room area (the Windsors are pictured above the couch). B, talking on the phone.



Desk, tables, chairs, portholes... All part of the living room area.



An original (and now not working) fan:


And the bedroom - complete with bookshelves, bed, desk, table, chairs... There was a surprising amount of room in this place. And a lot of the drawers on the desks and things have the original plastic handles, before plastic was what it is today - don't ask me, ask Amy!





After we checked out the suite we went down to a bar off the lobby to meet the rest of the party. Us, waiting, patiently and cutely...


Bread! (And it was delicious because we were all starving.)


Cheers!


Blurry. Camera = having issues in low light.


Alisa ordered steak


I ordered the chicken (go figure). It was a seafood restaurant and I am not a big seafood person...

...but the chicken wasn't that great at all, and I ended up tasting and really liking B's blackened ahi with mango salsa - delicious! She nicely shared a lot of it with me.
B ordered the creme brulee for dessert.

Alisa had the cheesecake. I love the plating on both of them. It's so cute.

After our dinner we walked back to the suite to have Autumn open her presents. On our way I made Autumn pose for several pictures. There were many more I would have liked to do, but didn't have the time.

Autumn, holding hands with the Windsors.

Laurel, Hardy and Autumn


What?

Oh, and B's hott shoes for her girls' night out on the town. Woowoo.

Autumn opening the present from her sisters...

What could it be??

Wait for it...wait...for...it...

Oooohhh no

Oh, yes. So naughty.



Awwwwwwwwwyeah.

Sisters (I am including both - the one without the flash and the one with, because Autumn is smiling much nicer in the dark one)


The blurry lights on the water

Ta-da. That was our evening. Lots of fun!
Our baby sister is getting married on Saturday - hard to believe, but we are excited for her and love her and Drew both!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

My Baby Sister Is Getting MARWIED!

Dear Friends & Family-

Our baby sister is getting hitched next weekend. IN LESS THAN A WEEK. Married. For reals. And though I know she's old enough to make that commitment, in my head, Autumn will always look like this (this is back when Mom used to do her hair every morning):

I took that picture with me to colledge and since then have kept it on my dresser. You know, cause I love my sister or whatever.

Then Autumn grew up a little bit. Here's what she looked like when I got married, in the loving embrace of her brother (Autumn, you're rockin' that pensive side-hug-stare-off-into-space look)


And now, she's found her True Love. Oh Drew, we love you too. Not just because you own a sword:


Or because you'll dress up as a zombie with Autumn to walk down Hollywood Blvd (you know, for fun...)


But because you're everything we could hope for in a brother-in-law. You're pretty great. YAY!!! We love Drew!!!

Other Reasons Drew & Autumn Are Perfect For Each other:
-They like lots of the same things (If Autumn were to write a singles ad, it could say, "Hi! I was a Professional Pirate and worked on a tall ship. I know how to batten down the hatches. I broke my toe when I dropped a cannon on it. I camped on the street for three months to see the Star Wars movie. I am in a folk band. I like to obsess over awesome shows (Battlestar Gallactica, Legend of the Seeker, etc.) I am really cool. " Then Drew would read it and think, "What the frak, I gotta meet this lady." Then they'd fall in love & get married. OH WAIT. THEY DID. YAY!)

-Drew is wicked smart, and Autumn is pretty clever herself. They'll procreate smart babies.

-They both OWN Renaissance Costumes. Ready to go, in their closet. You know, just in case.

-There are more reasons, you can add them to the comments section when you think of them...


Ok, now that we've made our feeling clear about our love for Drew, the perfect match that they are, I will tell you what we've been up to lately.

Posing (hey kid, clean your room!)...


Decorating the tree...


Snow days (Gretchen insisted on wearing the Goofy Hat)...


Snow Angels with Dad...


Sledding down the street!!!!


And Ella got a hold of the camera again. Pensive Self Portrait...


Stunning depiction of Grandpa (I'm pretty sure he just finished shoveling the walk)...


Super flattering picture of me...


And Dad (who thinks he got all A's last semester. GO COLBY!!!)...


And me again. Even more flattering this time (we were playing "house" while Gretchen was napping, and she put me to bed, and I may or may not have actually FALLEN ASLEEP. Hence her finding the camera & being all photographic with it...)


Her ceiling & lanterns...


And her bear.


Ok, I'm finally done talking now. We hope you've had a wonderful week & if you live in SoCal, we'll see you on FRIDAY!!!

xo

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Our Favorite Things

Hello Dear Family & Friends-

Our Thanksgiving was loud, fun, happy, crazy and loud.
Number of People Sleeping At The House: 14
People Eating Thanksgiving Dinner: 19
Chunks Of Matia's Hair Pulled Out By Gretchen: 3
Time Outs: 5,000
Trips To The Emergency Room: 1 (Baby had a UTI and 104.6 temperature. :( All better now...)
Heard During Ella's Prayer: "Thank you that our family can all leave now." (Not really. But maybe a little bit.)

Tis the Season for Oprah's list of favorite things. But since we don't leave the house (except to mess up other people's houses during playdates), I can't tell you what's in the stores. So our list of Favorite Things is completely random and mostly free.
Ella's Favorites
Favorite Song: Santa's Coming To Town. Because it's my favorite.
Favorite Color: All of them. Green is the best. Because it's my favorite.
Favorite Food: Strawberries. Because they taste good.
Favorite Thing To Do: Play Barbies with Mom. Cause it makes me happy.
Favorite Playdate: Going out to lunch. (But going out to lunch requires spending $ AND leaving the house. So that's an every-other-week kind of playdate...)
Favorite Youtube Video: HORRIBLE QUALITY! They still can't get enough...


Gretchen's Favorites:
Favorite Song: Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Wants Me for a SUNBEAM
Favorite Food: CANDY CANDY CANDY. Candy? Candy? CAAAAAAN-DEEEE! Candy? Candy? Candy? Candy? ........ Candy?
Favorite Thing To Do: Get into things. Assert herself agressively. Throw dramatic temper tantrums. Laugh. Copy Ella. Make Ella Crazy. Read stories. Say, "Momma!" over & over again. Crawl onto my laugh and jump on me. Dance. Laugh again. Make faces. Laugh. Repeat.
Favorite Thing To Wear: "Gabba Shirt!"

Apryl's Favorites:
Favorite Food: Candy. Sigh.
Old Favorite But Still Favorite Blog: Awkward Family Photos. The best kind of voyeurism.
Favorite New Website: imeem.com (Thanks Meghan!) You can listen to almost any music out there FOR FREE. It's even legal. Whole albums. That's right, you can hear the Jingle Cat's album for free. You're welcome. (Pandora kicked me off when I reached my 40 hour monthly limit. Apparently I listen to a lot of music.)
Favorite New Thing To Waste My Time Doing Online: Watch youtube videos of my favorite musicians. Clips from concerts, etc. It's almost like having a real life, except that you don't. Oh Andrew Bird, do you feel the special connection we share? So what if I'm married with two small children.... Watch what he does with the looping violin. I know. I KNOW!!!!


And I'm pretty much ready to move into an Artist Loft in the city now and learn to play the trumpet. Do you think they're zoned for good schools?:


So share with us now, what are YOUR new favorite things?