Obligatory Pumpkin Patch Post

First off, hats off to our friends Lisa and PC and Geoff and Colette for dragging us out of the house (on separate occasions) several years ago to visit our first pumpkin patches. Growing up, this wasn't a tradition in my family, and I can't speak for Vivian. Since then, it has been something that we really look forward to. We don't really do corn mazes, save the one year we went with colette and Geoff and almost fell victim to randomly thrown corn cob mortars. Yes, teens ruin everything, and I can safely say that since:

a) When I was a teen we never acted like that, and

b) When our kids become teens, they will certainly not act like that.

At least I'm pretty sure that's what we'd all say as former teens and current parents.

Marielle's preschool class went to a local pumpkin patch near my work and I tagged along with Harper and my Mom. They should have called it preschool teacher's day off. It was kind of funny. We arrived and met up with the teachers. We said our hellos and they pointed out the various activities that the pumpkin patch had to offer. Sort of puzzled, I asked, "Oh, are we pretty much on our own?" To which they replied, "yes." No big deal I guess. I was looking forward to hanging out with the girls anyway.

We spent most of our time hunting for pumpkins and then spent the last few minutes in the hay maze (no corn cob mortars here). My Mom was the funniest as she had the hardest time choosing her pumpkins since there were so many good ones. Every few seconds she found another one that was better than the last. By the time we left the patch, we had quite the full wagon, and narrowing down our selections was quite the chore. We ended up with lots of good ones.

A Robot and Her Mechanic

Today we met up with the Pierz Family for our annual Boo at the Zoo outing. As always we met up beforehand for the Petticoat Brunch at Denver's Bump and Grind Cafe where the food and, er... waitresses? never disappoint. This year we took robots to the zoo. We had originally planned to have four robots, but as time went on, we came to two realizations: 1) that neither Lila or Harper were going to tolerate such rigid costumes for long, and 2) all great robots actually need an equally great support crew. Harper and Lila were up for that challenge, and together they sported matching mechanic's coveralls and a full complement of tools. You'll have to head over to the Pierz blog for more photos. Between guiding our wandering robot and tracking down our curious, and fast, 14-month-old, I failed to capture a good photo of Lila, so be sure to check out their post and sorry Lila.

The robot costumes have turned out great. The kids love them and we got tons of complements. Viv and I have been worried that Marielle would be apprehensive about wearing the suit, so we've spent the last week getting her pumped up about the costume. By yesterday, she was really excited to wear it. Between us pumping it up and the complements from passers-by, we had to stop her on more than one occasion from saying out loud, "Everyone thinks my costume is sooooo cool." Alex and Marielle loved the attention, Harper loved chasing after her two robot buddies, and little Lila was more than happy to offer her mechanic support from the comfort of her own support team (Geoff and Colette).

And in case you were wondering. Yes, that is a real light bulb, and no, I wasn't concerned about it breaking, and yes, I should have been. Yes, the light bulb did shatter as my wife had predicted. Ellie's fall and the subsequent destruction of the light bulb led to one of the most impressive co-meltdown of two toddler-robots ever documented. Bye the end, they were each crying because the other was crying. However, after a quick reset, both robots were back online and all systems had returned to normal.

Harper Eating Rice

OK, I haven't figured out the best way to import a comic strip into blogger yet, but, for now, click on the strip below to read it.

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!!!

4th of July Weekend

We had been looking forward to this past weekend since moving to our new neighborhood. Originally, we had heard that our neighborhood organized a parade each year for Independence Day. Later, we saw photos from the previous year's parade. After seeing the photos, we were genuinely excited. As Geoff and Colette stated , they did not disappoint. The Pierz Family came up for the parade in the morning and stayed for the latest lunch in history (sorry guys) before heading home to pack for their trip to New Mexico. They graciously lent us their wagon for the girls to use in the parade while Alex and Lila cruised in their John Deere and Chariot, respectively. We spent the morning pimpin' the kids' rides with patriotic red, white, and blue decorations while munching on Lamar's Donuts.

A local firetruck led the parade as it meandered through our neighborhood. It was a ton of fun. The route was short and sweet, and ended with refreshments and a little neighborhood get-to-together. The socializing was short-lived in the heat of the day, but the bomb-pops helped keep us all cool. Altogether, Viv and I thought the whole event was the coolest thing. The kids seemed to have a great time and, as always, it's great to get together with friends.

Later in the evening, we strolled up the road to the south end of the community and sat in our camp chairs watching the city's fireworks display. I'll tell you what, if you have little ones, watching fireworks from 2+ miles away is the way to go. You get all the visual stimulation without any of the auditory stimulation. Last year we found out the hard way that Marielle does not like said auditory stimulation. From our vantage point both Marielle and Harper were quite enthralled with the show. Marielle was keeping all of the other onlookers entertained with her commentary:

"Oooooohhhh, I PINK one, that's pretty. Woooooo, look at the GREEN ones. Oooooooh, another PINK one."

We had one minor annoyance when the sprinkler system decided that the grassy knoll that we were all perched on was dry and needed watering. We all jumped, grabbed our gear, and ran out into the road which became our new vantage point.