happy birthday, paige

my niece, paige, turns 6 today. happy birthday!

perceptions

i'm curious: which do you think is more likely to be accurate? your perception of yourself or other people's perceptions of you?

prayer stop

i was on my way to tj maxx this morning after dropping the kids off at summer camp when i passed this on the side of the road in a random town called spencerville:


(click to see it larger)


i almost ran off the side of the road trying to do a u-turn. isn't it the most random thing you've ever seen? it's just sitting there, on the side of the road, in a little blink-and-you'll-miss-it town. i wanted so badly to knock on the door to see if anyone was in there. i wonder if people actually stop there? is someone in there all day? what made them put it up? how long has it been there?

i've got to go back.

is it just me?

believe it or not i've been thinking a lot about birthday parties this past week. i had a major (may-hay-hay-HAY-jor) blow out with a family member over her child's birthday party and the fact that we may not be able to attend due to a prior commitment. then i was talking to one of my neighbors who went with her family to NJ for a birthday party for the son of a good friend of hers. she said it was a total blow out and there were tons of people. the kid turned one. ONE.

jeff and i had parties for the kids' first birthdays. i get it. but we just had people over to the house and had food and cake and ice cream. that's it. nothing major. certainly no out of town guests (except for my parents who i couldn't have kept away even if i had wanted to - which i didn't). but after the first year? eh. birthday parties aren't a big deal to me and jeff. AT. ALL. we didn't even have a party for jack's 2nd birthday because we were at the beach and he was TWO, for chrissakes. what did he know about birthday parties?

this year, for jack's 3rd birthday we requested no gifts. instead, we asked people to bring a new book to donate to a children's charity. i realize that's not going to fly in another year or two when jack really gets the concept of birthdays and presents, but for now? it's fine. and the last thing this kid needs is more plastic toys that he will break apart two days after he gets it. i thought this was a great compromise.

and yet, a few people still brought gifts. it was weird to me. i mean, the kid turned 3. he had a birthday party. he gets new toys ALL the friggin time. he doesn't need more. and still, people brought gifts.

are jeff and i completely out of touch with kids' birthday parties? are we seriously the only parents (except for mine) who don't think the world revolves around their kids? who don't make their kids' birthday a national holiday? who honestly don't care whether you can come or not? who don't think that someone missing our kids' party is a personal attack and a low-down, dirty, selfish thing?

geez, people. it's a birthday party.

it's.

just.

a.

birthday.

party.

my new nephew

my older brother and his wife had their third child this week!

seth gavin laciano

beach

we're in new jersey this week; i have a photography conference and jeff just wanted to be near casinos. we brought a babysitter with us (wendy's oldest son) and jeff and the kids are having a blast while i sit in a freezing cold conference room. jeff just sent me this photo:

maple lawn days

our neighborhood threw a big party today for all the residents. there were pony rides and face painters and a moon bounce and barbeque. it was a fantastic event and is just one of the thousands of reasons we love living here.

a few photos from today (taken with my phone camera):

i rock at euchre

i just played my first round of euchre and i kicked dan and jeff's ass (are you reading that, wenner? i kicked his ASS! ). emily and i were partners and i had incredible cards - dan said i could have gone alone several times.

i just want all the northwestern guys to know that jeff lost to his rookie wife.

ha ha ha ha ha ha

(two vodka tonics later...)

so tired

jeff, dan, emily and i are all playing euchre. it was bedtime for the kids so jeff put jack to bed and told kate she could play in her room; this was about an hour ago.

jeff just went upstairs to tell kate to go to bed and he came downstairs laughing. he said he went into her room to tell her to go to bed and she let out a sigh of relief and said, 'good, i'm SO tired.'

apparently she didn't know she was allowed to go to sleep and thought she had to stay awake until jeff told her to go to bed.

lol.

dan's new woman

my little brother is in town with his new girlfriend, emily. dan got divorced about a year ago and he has really grown up and grown into himself. he's been with emily for the past 6 months and now that i've met her i understand why he's crazy about her. she's down to earth, drinks beer, checks the cub scores and puts up with dan's hoopdy truck that has no air conditioning. plus, she's a math teacher and she quilts. the girl is well rounded. and best of all? she accepts my brother as he is and lets him be himself. maybe i sound like a mom, but any woman who treats my brother well is ok by me.

(hi liz! emily said you read my blog sometimes. can't wait to meet you!)

slideshow

i've been looking at buying a new program to show my photography clients their slideshows. i found one i'm interested in and they have a demo mode you can preview for 30 days. i threw together a quick and dirty slideshow of jack's new bike (he got it for his birthday on sunday):

jack's new bike

mexico?

anyone out there been to mexico? i'm looking at booking a vacation, just me and my mom, and i know next to nothing about it. don't even know where to start looking. i think we'd like to stay at a nice (very nice) hotel but also have access to some less touristy areas.


leave a comment or email me at kristin at havitad dot com.

gracias!

chocolate

jack's 3rd birthday was yesterday. we had his party on saturday so yesterday i took him to a birthday party for some friends of his. he had pizza and cake and two juice boxes which is a lot of sugar at once for him.

we came home and i put him down for a nap. a half an hour later i heard him screaming; it wasn't an 'i hurt myself scream' or a 'i don't want to take a nap scream'. it was really something different.

so i sprinted upstairs to his room and he was sitting in his bed, hysterical, and when i asked him what was wrong he sobbed, 'i have chocolate all over me!'

i looked at the bed and thought, 'how'd he get chocolate all over his legs? did he take some from the party and it melted? that little punk! i can't believe he did that!'

and then i got a whiff and realized it was most definitely not chocolate.

chocolate. ha. i wish he could crap chocolate.