Crunching

When we last left you, some crazy people had seen our photos online and commented on our athleticism.  If you know us, you are likely laughing at the irony.  Since then, we haven't done much in the field of athletics, but our current marathon of wedding planning and third floor remodeling continues to haunt us --- I mean, occupy us---- on the daily.

If you're keeping track, we've entered crunch time as the finer details come into focus and we put the finishing touches on DIY projects both at home and for the Big Day.

This may help to explain our absence of late. 

The truth is, we have a lot of exciting things to share with you.  Things that have occurred in the past several weeks that we just haven't had a chance to update!  Things like bumble bees, stripes, steps and sinks.  Sound exciting?  It is.  And we'll have some pictures of it all to share soon. 

Thanks for sticking with us!  We'll be back soon.


 

We're Amazing. And Apparently, Athletic!

At least that's what is being said about us on We Are The Bloggers, the official blog of our friends and photogs:  We Are The Parsons.  We can confirm only one half of that statement to be true. :)   The real truth? We think they are the amazing ones.  And the funniest thing ever being printed anywhere in the history of the world  is the athletic reference one commenter made.  Because if you know us, you know that is 100% false. I mean we have been known to do things like dance, walk, lift objects ---  but that is pretty much the extent of our athletic prowess.

Either way, the point is we got our pics back from our photo shoot last week and they rule.  To check them out, click here.  And be sure to leave a comment!  (a true one!).

Something Very Significant Happened Today

Yep.  We now have a Runza in town.  And my life is forever changed.

So This Happened.....

That's right.  We had the absolute pleasure of being photographed by one half of the husband/wife duo, The Parsons, yesterday morning.  That's Jeremy. And that was a super big hill.

Can we just tell you....the anticipation is killing us!  We highlighted them several weeks back after they shot  an engagement session in NYC, with our friends Nick & Mandy.  And yesterday, it was finally our turn!  A little late some might say, but that's okay.  It was the perfect morning for a photo shoot and we are so excited to see how the shots came out.

Stay Tuned!

Can You Handle The Cuteness!?!?

I am in the wrong line of work.

Add being a school photog/owning a school portrait studio to the ever growing list of things I apparently could have made millions on!  Seriously, a second round of school pictures for the spring????  Did I not spend enough on the fall round?  You know, the round I assumed would be the only kindergarten round? Do these people have the market cornered on sucker-ing parents or what?  I mean obviously they know, as much as you try, you cannot avoid ordering more pictures of your adorable kiddos.  And yet, here they are again reminding you just how much you can't resist something so cute!  This is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen and therefore I have been suckered into more school pictures.

But how can you deny something so presh!?

Evening In Paris II

Over the weekend we attended our second Evening in Paris fundraiser at Alex's school.  We love this event.  Some of the very best restaurants in Kansas City are a part of it and so its a great opportunity to try several different (and amazing!!!) dishes for a small and totally worth it pricetag that doubles as a donation to the school.  Plus all you can eat desserts and all you can drink cocktails make this event worth. every. penny.

It's also a great opportunity to wear fancy dresses and fascinators and let's face it, there are never enough of those opportunities....even if said fascinator looks like deer antlers in photographs. 

Seriously, it's a great time.

We managed to get out of there this year with a few wins on a couple of silent auction items.  My favorite?  These two super cool prints from one of our favorite local letterpress printers, Hammerpress.

No word yet on where these things will eventually end up.  For now they are just chilin' in the entryway covering up some artwork already in progress.

We also hand a hand in helping to put together the class basket, basically lots of cool items from the neighborhood including gift certificates totaling over $300.  We bid on this, but didn't win it, but it did manage to go for a great price --- so we're really happy about that.

One of the coolest things about this event is aside from it benefiting the school --- a place we feel SUPER grateful to have gotten into---- is it really is a lot of fun.  Last year we went before we knew if Alex had been accepted and before we knew anyone there.  So going back this year as a part of the school and actually having friends to hang out with, was awesome.

Below are a few pics from an Evening In Paris 2011.

Menu From Michael Smith - a local favorite and the place we ate last July to celebrate our engagement.

Alex's Class Project, one of the many silent auction items available to bid on.  Again, we bid, but didn't win. 

Harry & Rochelle (aka: the hosts of my b-day surprise party).

Rochelle & Carla, fellow moms and new bffs. 

These two you know.

Us with Mme. Israel - Alex's Teacher

 Me & Annie--- one half of a cool couple we met and sat with last year at this event. Also part of a group of people we went in with to score a Private Boulevard Beer tasting event.  But we lost that too.

All in all, there really are no losses for an event like this.  Food, fun and fundraising = a win win win!

26 Easter

See how I did that there?

The Easter Bunny brought Alex a hula hoop. Combine that with it being Friday, add in a little
sunshine, and voila! You've got a party!

TGIF!

Here we come springtime!!!

Round one:  Team 26 East = ONE, terrible landscaping = ZERO!!  :)

After a year and a half of waiting for our baby spruce trees on the porch to come out of "dormancy"...we declared them dead on the scene last week and upgraded to some fuller, more alive-looking guys.  These boys came from CostCo's garden section and were a real bargain!

After we installed the beefy new dwarf spruces, we thought the end of the porch was awful bare so we picked up three 5' tall Arborvitaes...again from CostCo.  These guys were full and a deep green...and again, a bargain at less than $20/each!!!

Shot of the new/improved corner...notice the front flowerbed currently covered by weed barrier...ready and waiting...almost begging for some new shrubs or flowers.  Your turn is next!!

And finally a shot of the triumphant Queen Cherry Blossom!!!  Using our neighbor's yard cart, an old patio chair, a cherry tree limb downed by high winds (luckily the day before the city's springtime yard waste pickup!!), and a scrap of lumber (a.k.a. "wand") Queen C.B. assembled her chariot before being paraded around her kingdom (our house) by her humble servant (yours truly).  She was pretty darn pleased with herself.  :)  

Royalty or not...we think she's pretty dang cute!  ;)

April Showers

The gals in my family threw me a really incredible bridal shower last weekend.  The food was amazing, including some of the most delectable desserts I think I have ever had the pleasure of devouring.   The cake pops --- OMG.

Check out this beautiful party that I feel incredibly blessed to have been the guest of honor for....

D-lish!!!!

okay, these desserts were ridic! 

Mom and her babies.

Me and mine.

The Lynch Ladies.

Jill, Me & Stacey

Iris & Natalie

Alex and her cousins; Avery & Christian

Shannon, Cindy, Debbie, Me, Janelle, Ali & Marlene

Mom & Char

Ali, Deb & Marlene

Avery :) 

Mom, Me & Aunt Martha

Noah. :)

Just wanted to give a shout out to the lovely ladies who made it all possible and share a few shots from this fantastic day!

Back Up the Party Bus

Before we blink and it's the month of May, we wanted to back up a bit and talk about March.  I had a big birthday this year.  You may have caught that in a previous post; and while I was dramatic about the milestone, I have to say it was one of the better birthdays I have had the privilege of celebrating.

You know what we like: Good food. Good friends.  And when those two things come together, we really, honestly couldn't be happier.

This story has a happy ending, but as dramatic as I was feeling, there was additional drama for the evening in store, or so I thought.

As we prepared to leave the house to eat, we got a frantic call from our friend Rochelle.  Rochelle is the mom of a little guy in Alex's class and we met her and her family this past summer before school began.  Meeting and making new friends is always pretty rad, and Rochelle and her fam totally fit the bill.  So when she called to let us know that her basement was flooding and she couldn't get the water turned off we didn't think twice about postponing dinner to race to the rescue.

Evan --- what a guy.  He raced around the house looking for the proper tools and with those in hand we raced out the door.   When we got to Rochelle's and there was no water to be found, I was completely moved to tears.  Walking into their home, I was greeted by master plan that had been unfolding for days--- a surprise birthday party dinner, for little ol' dramatic and now, very emotional me.

Having never had a surprise party, I can now officially say it has to be one of the most amazing things.  Somewhere, over the course of  several days, people I love were scheming and planning and sneaking around to make this happen, taking extra time to fine tune the details. It was beyond words.  I was truly moved and incredibly impressed with everyone involved.

Suddenly turning 30 didn't seem so bad.  If this is what the year has in store (and it looks to be) then I have to say, nothing could make me happier!  Really good food.  Really good friends.  And my amazing family.  It was a happy birthday, to me.  I mean, how can you argue with a day that involves all that?  Add in some red velvet cake and snapping this next photo at the end of the evening, and it was the perfect day to celebrate being alive and all the little wonderful gifts that come along with it.

So beautiful, these two, if I do say so myself.  

We continued the celebration into the weekend when a few friends joined us to do a little more celebrating.