A Birthday

Our little Harper has turned one. Can you believe it! I can’t. I can’t believe it has been over a year since our newest addition joined our clan. She has grown quite a bit and has acquired many skills. She started walking at ten months, shame on us for never blogging about that and has started to say a couple of words. Well, sounds that remind me of words. The cutest is that she says “Hi Dad.” Notice that it isn’t “Hi Mom.” Why do children punish us mothers by learning how to say Dad first? hehe. Harper says: hi, girl (“gir”), frog (“fra”), dad (“da”) and mom (“ma”). She also says “tika tika tika,” which is her cute little way of saying tickle tickle tickle. The "tika tika tika" is even cuter since it is accompanied by an outreached hand and wriggling fingers trying to get you.

A couple of weeks ago we had a party for Harper. Marc and I decided she would like an ocean themed birthday. We had a lot of fun making ocean invites, decorations, and food. The best part of the birthday was getting to share the day with a great group of family and friends.


At her party the kids played in the pool, decorated cookies, and went fishing. The cookie decorating was a big hit, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a decent group activity. The kids couldn't have been more excited to spray different colored frostings on their cookies and then finish them off with various sprinkled toppings. Our little fishing game - which consisted of Marc hiding behind a fish scene and "hooking" assorted toys on the end of the fishing line - seemed to be fun for the kids as well. Despite the fact that Harper kept trying to pull back the fish scene to reveal Dad, the kids were all willing to suspend disbelief for a chance to fish for toys. Before Harper revealed the proverbial man behind the curtain, I think we even had a parent or two wondering how this fishing operation was working.



To top things off, we performed a Korean tradition aimed at predicting what sort of successes will come Harper's way in life. We did the same with Ellie. The basic idea is that you lay out several objects on a table - each symbolizing a different sort of accomplishment/success - and you let your child reach out for the object of their choosing. Harper reached for the pencil. I will have to follow up with the meanings for each item. As you can see from the photos, Harper is wearing a Hanbok, or traditional Korean dress. She wasn't particularly thrilled about putting it on, but she soon got used to it and even managed to smile while in it. It's funny to think back to how big Marielle's Hanbok fit her. She didn't really grow into it until this year. My, how different our daughters are.


Thanks again to all of our family and friends for making the such a memorable occasion.

A Wedding

So ... something like two months has passed since our last post. We really have no excuse, so let's get to it.


Back at the beginning of August my sister Jenn got married at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Denver. We had all been very excited all summer for this big day. Her new husband Jason is a great guy whom we all have gotten to know and love over the years. Together with his son Anthony, they make a great family. Everyone was very excited to welcome Jason and Anthony to the family and had a blast celebrating their marriage.

We started the day in LoDo at the hair salon where we had our hair (obviously) and makeup done. Marc tagged along to capture some photos and did our every bidding. All told, he made something like four trips across downtown doing everything from getting coffees, to getting veils, to getting, and dropping off, Mom. He didn't seem to mind as he was constantly trying to best his previous run up 17th Street and back down 18th. Later, we had a quick sushi lunch and then it was off to the hotel to get dressed.


It was a simple and elegant ceremony. Marielle and Anthony tackled the duties of flower girl and ring bearer although I don't think that even one petal made it out of Marielle's basket. She was much too busy being shy and the center of attention (for her brief pass down the aisle) at the same time to even remember her flower girl duties. The ceremony was set in front of this great candle-lit wishing pool and fountain. Marc thought that keeping Marielle interested in the ceremony instead of the fountain would be a challenge, but she did really well. Harper, under the expert care of Marc's parents, did well throughout most of the ceremony as well.

We followed the ceremony with a great party. The food was good as was the dancing. Marielle would tell you that the dancing was the best part of the night. I think she got on the dance floor at 6:00 p.m and didn’t leave until we did at 10:00 p.m. She even ate her piece of cake while dancing on the dance floor. She just couldn’t get enough.


In addition to the photos we took, you can view a handful of photos taken by the Wedding Photographers if you click here. I'd like to say that the delay in posting this blog is their fault as we waited for them to post photos, but that just wouldn't be true.

Congratulations again to Jenn and Jason!!!