Clara and Mike hosted Nicholas' Dol at Yank Sing in the Rincon Center. He chose the calculator, which Mike says means he'll be a VC. Happy birthday, Nicholas!
(did a little post-party shopping in Union Square afterwards).
BMC playgroup birthday season continues. Great times at Joselyn's party!
Great party at Little Scholars in San Mateo. Cookie Monster was a big hit, too.
Lisa and Brian hosted a dinner party to celebrate with the team from 3+ years ago. Time flies when you're having fun. Thanks as always for hosting a wonderful event. Brian's crabcakes prime rib was outstanding (nice job on the gravy, Arthur).
Birthday season for Olivia's playgroup officially has begun. Ethan celebrated at Pump It Up in San Carlos on Sunday, January 3rd. I thought I was working hard going up and down the slide about 30 times, except that Kim Tramel was going up and down, too, and she's carrying twins! I once found all 5 Tramels at the top of the slide!
Happy Birthday, Ethan!
We took advantage of our team of baby sitters and went out with the Michigan crew in Ann Arbor. We all met up at Marty's loft above Grizzly Peak. His place looks great and it looks like he's settled in nicely to Ann Arbor. We're still sad that he (and everyone else) has left SF. The crew consisted of:
Melanie and Nick graciously invited us over for dinner last night. Eve was also gracious in sharing all of her amazing toys (really the best assortment ever). I'm sorry I broke Eve's E string - twice.
Our primary objective was to meet their little guy, Sebastian. Sorry it took us 7 months to see his cute face in person.
Dinner, dessert and company were all awesome. Thanks for having us!
We tried to get all of the Nam families and Paul's family together over the holidays, but sadly failed. Growing up, they were all our family during the holidays and all the kids (except David) were in Michigan. On Sunday, December 27th, Olivia and I met Grace, Jim and their daughter, Esul, at the West Bloomfield Public Library. The library I remember was "new" as I remembered it from 15 years ago, but the new new library that stands in its place is pretty amazing.
Coincidentally, I ran into Jen Haber Fishkind, which was nice as we've reconnected on FB.
Initially, Olivia did request some books to be read to her, but Esul discovered a kitchen. There's nothing Olivia loves more than keeping busy in the kitchen, real or play. They occupied themselves in there for almost 2 hours while Grace, Jim and I were able to catch up.
Olivia and I stopped for a treat before heading home. I still love home.
The cool kids from West Bloomfield High School Class of 1988 met up at Dick O'Dow's in Birmingham on Saturday night. I saw Jen and Jodi recently in SF - they came out with their husbands. Randy, Jeff, Ross and Marty showed up to meet me and Nick. Jerry was in town from Florida and came out, too. Excellent to see everyone. Thanks to Randy for organizing.
On Friday, December 18th, we went to Grace's McK holiday party, which was held again this year at the Menlo Circus Club. It was a pretty standard affair, except for all the new faces. Grace also received her 5 year award (can you believe it's been that long?). Nice to see old friends at this lovely annual event. We didn't expect to stay too long and ended up being one of the last to leave.
We returned to Presidio Bowl for our Holiday Party, except with at least twice as many people than in 2007. Happy Holidays.
(either my eyes are getting worse, or something is wrong with my auto-focus - sorry about that).
On Wednesday, November 11th, Kate took the kids on the Caltrain. I think both kids love the train. Looked like fun!
Anna and Bobby were in town for work and pleasure. They came over on November 9th for dinner.
On Saturday, November 7th, Tam and Ben invited the gang over for a BBQ and to celebrate Mason's 2nd birthday. Happy birthday, Mason!
November 7, 2009
Burlingame, CA
Kate and Matt hosted another incredible halloween party for Grace's playgroup. All of the kids were so cute in their costumes. This past year, Olivia has learned to love candy, so she got right into the halloween spirit. She went trick or treating for the first time. She found it important to inventory all her candy after each stop, which impeded our progress. She also wanted to eat some candy along the way and I found her biting right through the wrapper of a Crunch bar.
Right after last year's party, Grace went into labor with Lucas, so we celebrated his birthday with the playgroup before trick or treating. What's a little cupcake to go with a basket full of candy?
As a parent, I now realize that Halloween isn't just a day, it's an entire season. Both Olivia and Lucas got a lot of mileage out of their costumes this year. I wonder what they'll be next year???
On Friday, October 30th, Grace's office hosted a Halloween party down in Palo Alto, complete with a magic show, a petting zoo and pony rides. Olivia know what to make of Daffy Dave. She didn't crack a smile and then requested to leave. However, when it was all done, she went back into the room and sat there by herself, captivated by him. Then, she wouldn't stop asking about him.
It was good to see all the familiar faces and their kids. Happy Halloween!
More farewells...
Euni and Eric recently announced they were moving to San Diego. Euni got a great offer down there and they wanted to be closer to family, which is understandable. Michelle, Allison, Jon, the Huangs and us all met up with them in their soon-to-be-old-hood at Goat Cheese Pizza in Potrero Hill. We're going to miss Euni, Eric, Donovan and Beckett, but I'm sure we'll still get to see them from time to time in SF and/or SD. Take care!
Someone decided that we (Burnetts, Idemas, Patches, RT & Beth) should all get together for a Stanford football game. So Posse got the tickets (with important input from me), the sitters were dispatched, and Grady and Amy got all the food and beverages . We all met up for a real tailgate, and by tailgate, I mean white wine, hommus and Enya playing out the rear of someone's 7-passenger German crossover. Okay, so I'm exaggerating about the Enya, but there was also a store-bought bean bag toss game (I was pretty sure those are meant to be home-made only). All joking aside, the food and company were great, and no one could escape the 2 bags of iced circus cookies.
Regarding the game, I showed up and didn't know for whom to root. Ironically, out of the 10 of us, Grace was the only one to have actually attended Stanford, but she doesn't have a lick of gear. Perhaps her 7 years was enough for all of us?
I found the new stadium to be a bit sterile for my taste. I also didn't find the Stanford half-time show very sporting or gracious towards the ASU fans (especially as we were sitting next to all of them). We left shortly afterwards to resume the buffoonery (eating circus cookies) at the tailgate.
Thanks again to the Burnetts for hosting. When's the next game?
On Saturday, October 17th, I took Olivia downtown to the Halloween Parade, which appears to be a pretty big deal because it seemed like every kid in town was down there. We ran into Joselyn and Ethan, who were both very cute in their costumes. Olivia wasn't quite feeling her butterfly costume. We'll see if she warms up to it before actual Halloween.
As is the trend, most of our friends in SF eventually return from whence they came. Marty is the latest (and most surprising) to follow. On Saturday, October 17th, Simone organized one last get-together at La Barca in the city. We couldn't find a sitter, so I represented the family. What I didn't know was that I was representing the entire 650 of the Man's Meal crew. Don (the instigator) brought some props, some of which I had to edit out from the photos. Somehow, the mask and cape were a big hit. I did sense special powers from it.
Marty left for Michigan on Monday. Man's Meal won't be the same without him. He's been wearing the same shirt at every Man's Meal for the last decade. Word is, he never washed it. Talk about special powers...
We're going to miss you, buddy.
While Kate and Ben graciously took Olivia and Lucas to the zoo, Grace and I enjoyed a rare day of golf together at Half Moon Bay with Beth and Ryan. It was nice to be outdoors despite the overcast conditions. We could have been watching the President's Cup at Harding Park, but I'd rather play golf than watch it anytime.
On Sunday, October 11th, Kate and her fiancé, Ben, took the kids to the Oakland Zoo. It looks like Olivia & Lucas had a great time. Thanks for taking so many great pictures!
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