Beer Pong Anyone?

I would categorize this weekend as one of too much socializing for Bobby and I and not enough sleeping. On Friday, we ventured over the hill to visit Eric and Courtney who were down for the weekend from SLO. Chris and Camilla joined us. We ordered in upscale Chinese and hung out. It was so great having the 6 of us together. Such a rarely since Eric and Courtney made the big move up North. They have decided to stay for good. They listed their Studio City house and will be looking for a new house up there once theirs sells. They are also in the process of selling their Jonathan Club membership (fortunately to our friends Tyson & Yvonne) and joined a country club up there. Booo hooo for us, but we are happy for them.

Which brings me to our next big news. Bobby and I have our final interview with the Membership Committee of LA Country Club on 5/17. Assuming we don't do anything stupid, we should be official once we write that astronomical check! All jokes aside, I am happy for him since this is something he has wanted his whole life. He deserves it.

Back to Friday night, we were so caught up in great conversation, that we lost track of the time. We didn't get home until 1 am. Of course Cael wouldn't cut us a break and woke and the ripe hour of 5:40 am.

Saturday was the typical running Caoilin to French class and doing errands, just at a much slower pace since we were dragging tail. The day flew and before we knew it, we were headed to Brooke & Jimmy's to celebrate Teri & Jimmy's birthdays. The weather was great. The kids had a blast! Bob then kicked everyone out at 8 pm sharp! Somehow during the night, Bobby had decided to invite people over to our house to play beer pong. Say what!?! For those of you not familiar with Beer Pong, it is a drinking game. I somehow got coaxed into playing 1 game while we waited for Chad and Cara to arrive, but on the contingency that I didn't have to drink. Bobby had to drink all of mine for me. And I, being wise, turned in at 11:30.

I was awoken at 2 am to find 3 blind mice (I mean Bobby, Patrick and Chad) searching the house for Cara. Apparently, she had snuck out and disappeared. Fortunately, everyone had cabbed to the house and didn't drive. Danny slept on the couch. I am sure he loved being woken at 6:45 to 2 amped and ready kids! I let Bobby sleep in and nap, because he had to be hurting. He managed to buck up and join us for breakfast before I took Caoilin to swim class.

That evening, we biked to our favorite place, Pitfire Pizza, for dinner with Rodger, Dena & Cael's BFF (for you old folk, that means "best friend forever"), Clay. Dinner went pretty smoothly given the fact that we had 2 ever restless almost one-year-olds and a jabber jaws 4-year-old. Not a lot of meaningful adult conversation transpired there. Fortunately, we are catching a Dodger/Tigers game with them on 5/22 . Of course we will all be routing for the Tigers!

Cael, having skipped his 2nd nap, went to bed a little early and we snuggled in to watch "Princess & the Frog" with Caoilin. A first time for me and Bobby. Cute movie.

Another nice weekend and another sad Monday. Although, next weekend is going to be another exhausting one with Cael's birthday (and 2 other birthday parties in addition). I am trying to figure out how I am going to make it through without gaining 20 lbs from all the eating!

Swimathon Fundraiser Update

Thanks to some last minute donations, Caoilin has now raised over $800!! We're so proud of her and grateful to our friends and family for their contributions. We are planning to do this event every year and hope that the amount she raises increases year over year.

Swim with Mike Fundraiser (26 photos), by Aubrey Thomason

Click here to view photos

What an exhausting but great weekend we had.

We kicked off Friday with dinner at our favorite local haunt, Pitfire Pizza. Chad & Cara (Bobby's sister and husband) joined us. After that we retreated to our place for way too much YouTube videos through Apple TV. At midnight, we realized that Cael would be up in 6 hours, so we hit the sack. To our surprise, he woke up at 4:40 am!! Talk about painful. I took the first shift, then Bobby, then I got up again to get everything ready for Caoilin's swim event. Pics above. I think you all saw my email about this already, but Caoilin swam 7 laps and has now (with some recent contributions that came in after the event) raised over $700!! That's $100 a lap. Kudos to her. After the event, we dropped her off at French Class, which is now 3 hours. She complained about having to leave class early and not staying to have lunch with the kids. Without a hesitation, Bobby and I agreed, that we will support her if she wants to spend more time learning. Works for us!

The kids both took a good afternoon nap, then we headed back to Pitfire again for dinner. This time we met up with Caoilin's best friend, Sadie, and her family. They live in Mar Vista too (fairly close to us) and are fun people. We lucked out because we really them a lot. Good choice Caoilin! I should have known better than to wear white jeans. Just as we were packing up, Cael, that little stinker, spilled melted chocolate ice cream all down the front of me. And we rode our bikes there to top it off! It took me 3 soaks/washes and finally resorting to putting straight bleach on the stain before I got it out. But I managed to salvage them, thank goodness.

We feel asleep rather early on Saturday night, and all woke pretty early as a result. Bobby and Caoilin went to 7:30 Mass while Cael and I took in a 4-mile walk followed by a visit to our neighbor's awesome swing! We go every Sunday. It's in a big tree so the chains are super long. He gets some major air. So cute. Bobby and Caoilin drove by on their way home from church, which was our cue to head back home. I made breakfast and then took Caoilin to swim class.

That afternoon we had a play date/lunch with our architects/friends (their son is at Caoilin's school) who also live in Mar Vista. We ate outdoors and enjoyed some gourmet sandwiches from our friends, Yvonne & Dean's, soon to open Sandwich Shop. I managed to get in 2 more miles of walking doing all the errands/prep for our play date. We will be serving them at Cael's birthday party since they are so yummie and convenient.

We had a play date dinner that night as well at our friends, Yvonne & Tyson. It was a nice time, except that Cael was on his last leg. We raced home to put the overly tired little monkey to bed. Caoilin followed soon thereafter, and I followed immediately thereafter (at 9 pm). I was sooo exhausted! I got a little over 8 hours of sleep, but was still tired the next day. I think I am finally back to normal again. Just in time for another work week followed by a slightly less busy weekend to come.

Love to you all!

Aubrey

Calm before the Storm

This weekend was much more relaxing than last weeks, in part due to the fact that I was recovering from a cold. Stayed home from work on Friday, but rallied to make dinner with Bobby at one of my favorite restaurants part-owned by Mario Batali called "Osteria Mozza". Despite my sinus infection, I was still able to taste my food and wine, thank God! The food and wine were fantastic, as usual. I was asleep by 10 pm that night. Thankfully, since Cael woke at an wonderful 5:45 a.m.!!

Saturday was a little busy with errands and Caoilin's French class, but I managed to get all my stuff done while she was in class and Cael napped. We are gearing up for Cael's 1st birthday which is now 3 weeks away! We met our Westside group of friends at our new favorite restaurant, Pitfire Pizza, for an early dinner with kids. That proved to be a bit more chaotic than expected and our table was even reprimanded for having too rambunctious of kids. Ooops! I guess I thought that going to dinner at 5 pm was the "kids/family" hour and that sort of chaos was expected. Apparently not. Fortunately, the owners didn't hold any hard feelings against the group and will continue to let us come back at the present time. That's good b/c we are going twice this upcoming weekend! I opted to turn in at the early hour of 9pm that night and Bobby went to his sister's beer pong tournament solo, which turned out to be the smartest thing I did this weekend!

Sunday was quiet. The weather was cool and gray. After breakfast at The Curious Palate, I took Caoilin to swim class while Cael napped. Then Caoilin and I cleaned up the trash around the Fire Station while Cael finished his 2 1/2 hour nap! She had to do some extra chores (including cleaning up the litter) to earn that new Sleeping Beauty Baby Doll we got her to go with her new princess baby play set one of her schoolmates got her for her birthday. She had an impromptu play date with her friends down the street, while Bobby and I voted at the Mar Vista elections for our neighborhood representatives. Cael took another great late afternoon nap, which actually permitted Caoilin, Bobby and I to have a relaxing dinner of Filet Mignon with sauteed mushrooms and onions with a side of cheesy zucchini and a nice bottle of wine. We managed to get the kids both to bed by 8pm and settled in to watch a movie. Can't remember the last time that happened.

I woke this morning, still recovering from my cold, but feeling much more well-rested than the week before! Aah. Back to work. :(

Hope you all had as enjoyable a weekend as we did!

Until next weekend!

Easter Weekend

What a blur this weekend was! Thank God I had a 1/2 day on Friday, so I could get everything prepped and ready for Saturday. Fortunately, Bobby and I were still able to squeeze in our date night. We opted for the Chart House in the Marina. While the decor is a bit dated and cheesy (typical for a seafood restaurant), we had a nice table overlooking the Marina and the food was great! We started with raw oysters and crab stuffed mushrooms, followed by salad and fish entrees, of course (Good Friday). My blackened salmon was superb, as was Bobby's spicy tuna. The overpriced Silver Oak was a great accompaniment. We were tempted to stay and have another glass of wine by the fire in the bar area, but our better judgment chimed in with a little "Are you crazy! Don't you know you have 2 parties to hose tomorrow?" I pretty much zonked when my head his the pillow at 10 pm.



We celebrated Caoilin's 4th on Saturday, since her birthday fell on Easter this year. I believe you were all copied on the Snapfish photos I sent out Monday, but below are a couple of my favorites.









The all-girl princess party was a sugar-loaded pinkalicious success! The family dinner that followed was also quite regal! Some of the Thomason's got in the spirit and dressed up in their most royal attire. We even had a dragon (Scott)! Thank God Caoilin opted for pizza, which we ordered, as I was a bit burnt out from the butterfly-shaped PB&J sandwiches, homemade Cinderella cupcakes and sushi/salad/fruit/fat free brownies spread for the moms.



After an early mass Sunday morning (kudos to Bobby for that idea - only took 50 minutes!), we came home for Cael's nap before heading to Bill & Mary's for a fantastic brunch. Mary outdid herself with Tahoe Bake (eggs, potatoes, sausages and cheese), lox, bagels, asparagus & fruit. The kids then were able to engage in their Easter Egg Hunt. Cael and Shay were the fastest to find their special big eggs. Then we headed home for afternoon naps.



When Caoilin woke, Bobby and I gave her our birthday present to her, below. Thanks to her push bike, she hopped right on and started riding without, as she puts it "the little wheels (i.e., training wheels)". She was so proud of herself. She's loving it. She still needs a little push to get started, but she'll have that down soon enough I am sure.





Later that day, we headed over to Bill and Mary's for round 2: deviled eggs (courtesy of Teri), cheese puffs, salad, ham, carrots, cheesy potatoes & buttermilk biscuits. De-lish! Cara & Chad
treated us to a homemade strawberry shortcake, which was fantastic. Yes a LOT of eating this weekend.



We have spent the better part of the work week getting the house back together, taking down the Easter decor, putting together Caoilin's new toys, etc. Brian Owen paid us a visit last night (Tuesday), which we always enjoy, but is off to Vegas today. See ya next time!



I am sooooo looking forward to this weekend! Should be a good one. Will keep you posted (no pun intended)



XOXO



Aubrey