PARTY!!!
November 14th wasn’t just the “Nina tells a story” day… although she can spin quite a yarn, can’t she?
As the final leg of my month-long birthday extravaganza, Melissa and I hosted all of our work-buddies together for a party with all the kids, and then out to eat — it was awesome! We had a number of things to celebrate – our little gang has had a lot of grown-up stuff to deal with, literally each family dealing with at least one conflict of some kind. And we’re all keeping our chins up and fighting the good fight. I love all of these people.
But before we start those pictures, here’s one of Ian…
Hangover. See this image larger.
Ok, now on to the party!
Mr. Brandon gives Nina a little hug. He held her for probably a half hour before I remembered to take over… See this image larger.
Brandon’s son Max was present and he and Ian played together a lot as other people started to show. See this image larger.
Scott and Elena’s daughter Rowen plays with Nina’s baby-fine hair and said “It’s so soft!!” See this image larger.
I like this shot because of the stairs and where Max is looking. I probably didn’t need to include it here, but whatever. See this image larger.
These two look like a couple of teenagers sitting there don’t they? See this image larger.
Hilarious! See this image larger.
Nina goes into all wheel drive. See this image larger.
This is Elena and the Carmichael twins, Natalie and Vivian! I’m sorry I didn’t get more shots of everybody, but eventually we had eight kids running all over our house, so I was all over the place! See this image larger.
Here’s the whole gang! Grant was not here because he was sick, but everybody else is pretty much in this shot except for me and Nina, who is right out of frame below the crop. See this image larger.
Other side of the table… still can’t see me or Nina, sorry! The whole night was awesome and it was fantastic seeing everybody again. See this image larger.
BONUS VIDEO!!! – In this video, I do a quick 360° view of the gang at Cinqo De Mayo. What is hilarious to watch is Ian shoveling food in his face. What makes that even more amusing is that he’d already finished HIS food… the food you see him eating here is Elena’s!!! Click here to watch the video.
Ian’s food shoveling was humorous, but Nina was also none-too-shy about stuffing her face… Mommy was talking to another person when Daddy cried out “Is she supposed to be eating a nacho?!?” Sure enough, little girl had ninja’d a nacho chip off of a plate and was silently trying to nibble away. And while Nina has been moving up the solid-food-chain, she’s not up to nacho yet.
Another highlight of the evening was having (pretty much) everybody follow me in their cars… so a line of four cars… driving up to the restaurant and having there be four empty parallel parking spots. It must have looked like a presidential convoy the way we all pulled up at the same time!