Cake Pops

Cake pops are the new cupcake. Did you know this? So...I ordered these for Luke's birthday party next weekend! I was going to make them myself, but really? For $40, someone else can be a rock star.
Pretty excited!

Friday Feel Good

The following things are making me incredibly happy today!

It may not be as impressive as the colors my friends back east get to see, but fall has definitely come to Stockton!

The red cups are back at Starbucks

My amazing sister-in-law Sommer lent me this super cute dress to wear to our alumni awards banquet tomorrow. (It has sparkles on the bottom and I'll do anything for sparkles.)

I found this totally appropriate orange and black polka dot ornament at Michaels last weekend. It is now on my desk.

They started construction on the alumni house, which means I will have a swanky new office work space by next summer!

Getting to meet some of our amazing distinguished alumni award winners this weekend, including Al Irwin.

(pictured below)

 A graduate from the class of 1942, Al has served Southern California as a water safety trainer and lifeguard since he was 14. I got to interview Al, as well as some of our other awardees, so I could write up his award introduction and presentation. He was humble and gracious and touched my heart. Just one of the many reasons he is receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award for Volunteer Service:  In 2003 he performed an unassisted rescue of a drowning man in Hawaii...when he was 86-years-old! Today he is 92 and is a truly a remarkable individual that we are proud to call a fellow Tiger.

Oh yeah, and this guy. :)

As if we haven't seen the Tiger costume enough...

Justin and I really got our $24.99 out of Luke's tiger costume. More than I could have ever hoped for when we purchased it in August 2009 - 3 months before he was even born!

Last week, we did the Safe Trick or Treat event at Pacific. They estimate that over 5,000 community members turned out for the event! We met up with my friend Gina and her boys, who were a big hit dressed as a hamburger and a hot dog. I will proudly take all the credit for the sick idea of posing them on the barbecue.

On Sunday, Halloween Day, the whole family (minus Jeff) came over to watch Pacific take on Sonoma State. My sister-in-law Sommer and her husband Mike both went there, so it seemed appropriate that we come out and support both of our teams. At half time, the kids were invited onto the court for a costume parade.

Luke's first crack at "parading." He actually had a nice little pageant wave going at first.

After the game we went to Valley Brew to watch Game 4 of the World Series! (Since we don't have a TV hooked up to any kind of signal, we had to get creative on how we watched games. Side note:  This family was VERY excited about the Giants victory!)

Luke is preoccupied with "the claw" (one of those machines that reaches in and grabs the toys) and refusing to pose. It's okay though, Auntie Som represents for the both of them!

On Saturday, we went trick or treating in Downtown Lodi. We stopped at Justin's office and said hello to his co-workers, then walked up and down School Street where local businesses were handing out candy. We totally became those adults who get candy for a child who isn't even old enough to eat candy. It was Justin's idea, so most of the time I made him do it so he would be the one getting judged.

You can't tell, but Luke really did like his costume. He was just preoccupied with his surroundings most of the time he was wearing it. He's really into watching other kids. I only got a couple of good photos of him smiling while he was wearing it. Maybe he was really into his character? I mean, tigers aren't really big on the smiling.

This post is out of order because Blogger has been giving me fits with the photo uploading! Has anyone else been having this problem? It is driving me crazy!

I love this picture with my two favorite tigers!

Rolling Like a Ce-le-brity

What do:
Halle Berry
Heidi Klum
Mark Wahlberg
Usher
Marcia Cross
Christina Aguilera
Gwen Stefani
...and The Perry's have in common?

We all went to Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood this year!

http://www.eonline.com/photos/gallery.jsp?galleryUUID=2538

I have an inexplicable interest in celebrity culture. I don't consider myself particularly "star struck," but I do enjoy celebrity gossip and know an inordinate amount of unnecessary celebrity facts. One of these bits of knowledge is that celebrities are often photographed with their kids at a pumpkin patch in West Hollywood. With Google's help, I uncovered the name of this favorite celebrity haunt and made sure we put that on our itinerary during our recent trip to visit my brother-in-law Jeff in Hollywood. It was a cute little pumpkin patch with lots of child-sized pumpkins and fun activities. They even have a corral for the paparazzi surrounded by hay bales. We didn't actually see any celebrities, but there was a paparazzo hanging out in the corral, so maybe someone was there and we didn't realize it.

The next time we visit Uncle Jeff, I think my celebrity destination of choice will be Millions of Milkshakes. A favorite visit of my girl Miley Cyrus before she started all of her naughty posing.*

*Disclaimer:  I promise, I'm really not a Miley fan...I just happen to like a couple of her songs.

Faces

I can't believe how fast Luke's first birthday is approaching! We still have another month until my baby is a year, so I'm trying not to rush it, which is hard to do when you have to plan ahead for a party. Sigh.

Last weekend, I took some photos for the invitations. I had a concept in my head and I was able to pretty much achieve what I was going for. I always forget that the baby is the variable in these situations. Justin and I had to tag team it, but in the end he gave us some usable material.  (Sadly, some of the best stuff was marred by our inability to focus the camera correctly.) Blogger has been giving me a headache for a week trying to post these pics, but I finally think I outsmarted it!

 

The finished product

Pumpkins

I was waiting on this post until after what was supposed to be our second trip to a pumpkin patch this fall. The weather put a damper on this past weekend's plans, so we've only had one pumpkin-y trip so far.

Two weeks ago we took Luke to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland. I've been going there since I was itty bitty, so it was only fitting that we take Luke there during his first fall season. It was a very warm day, which didn't really lend itself well to fallish activities like hay riding and pumpkin picking. We met my dear friend Stacy and her family there and had a great time in spite of the heat.

We took the hayride out to the fields where Justin found the perfect Luke-sized pumpkin

Playing in the dirt and loving every minute

He was such a drool monster that I had to cover his cute Linus shirt with a bib most of the day.

Bib-less photo op

Bibbed - covering up the puddle on his shirt

"Every year the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch he thinks is the most sincere."

 Yup, sincerity as far as the eye can see Linus!

On a train ride around the farm

Bishop's has expanded a ton in the last 25 years, but this metal pumpkin has outlasted all the changes.

It was a lot easier to crawl into when I was four.

This past weekend we were supposed to go to Dell'Osso Farms in Lathrop with our friends Ryan and Freida. They drove all the way over from Vacaville only to have our plans thwarted by rain. We opted for a fun day indoors and some frozen yogurt instead.

Bella and Luke take advantage of the "indoor ball pit." Just like Chuck E. Cheese, but without the germs. :)

Hair Update

After the post about my hair issues a few weeks ago, I did what any modern girl would do and asked for help on facebook. The best, most viable option came via email from a fellow Pacific alumna. She seemed to understand my plight perfectly and gave a glowing recommendation for her stylist, Ashlee. (Side note:  Hair stylists at fancy salons make me nervous. They intimidate me with their trendy outfits, their cute hair, and their youthfulness.) Ashlee, though young and probably way cooler than me, was actually very down to earth and made me feel quite at ease. She did keep repeating, "yeah, I can see it's been a long time..." as she surveyed my lifeless locks, but she did it in a fairly good-natured way. Leading up the appointment, I'd had an internal struggle for several days over what kind of style I wanted; and as I sat in the chair I had to confess that I hadn't been able to decide if I wanted a bob with no bangs, a bob with side bangs, long layered look no bangs, short layered look with side bangs...fortunately Ashlee was quite willing to give me her professional opinion. (Another side note:  I just realized why I agonize over haircuts so much. I guess I feel that if I am going to spend $45 or more on a haircut, it better be something drastic/noticeable/worth it, i.e. not a trim.)

*

With Ashlee's expertise, we went with a layered look...no bangs and some subtle natural-looking highlights (Read:  I'm still a brunette). Nothing too drastic, but enough to give my look a bit more life. This was my first experience at an Aveda salon (a term that meant absolutely nothing to me until last Wednesday), and I kind of dig that all of their products are made with natural ingredients and that they help support indigenous peoples. I'm strongly considering springing for some of their shampoo. It makes you smell like you washed your hair in nature..what could be better? Wait, I know! Calling Ashlee tomorrow to schedule my next appointment, so the cycle of scruffyness doesn't begin again!

*Justin doesn't take me seriously when I ask him to do stuff like this, so I had to take the pic myself in the mirror like myspace circa 2006.

10/10/10 - A Walk with Daddy

10/10/10 was a banner day for the Perry's.

With his new shoes on, Luke decided he was ready to make some "strides" in the walking department by  pushing his shopping cart all by himself. Justin took these videos with his phone. They make me laugh for three reasons:

1) Justin is a total sports dad saying, "Get up Luke. Get up." A future filled with sporting events and a husband yelling from the sidelines just flashed before my eyes.
2) The random assortment of junk in the shopping cart. Fun fish book, monkey book, laughing hippo stuffed animal, a camel-colored sling back. This thing has kind of been a catchall in Luke's room for awhile.
3) The excitement on Luke's face because he knows he is doing something that is making his daddy excited.



In case you were concerned and think we're abusive parents...here's the follow up entitled "Survived."

Fun with Balloons

Amazing how much fun a balloon can be.

San Diego Weekend

I'm about a week behind in activities, so bear with me.

Last weekend we took a whirlwind trip to San Diego for the wedding of our friends Matt and Lisa. (Matt was Justin's roommate in college.) It was a beautiful wedding next to the marina in SD. While there we got to see some of our favorite friends, Todd & Shawna and their kids.

Shawna and I try to pose with our wee ones

Luke and his daddy at the wedding

This trip marked Luke's first plane ride, which was fun. He already appears to like adventure, although sometimes his whole body shakes when he gets nervous or excited. I don't know if that's a normal baby thing or if he's just weirdly excitable. I'll have to google it and find out.

Waiting for our turn to board

Luke didn't understand that the tray table needs to be an upright position during take off.

Since we were already in San Diego, we decided to go all out and take a trip to the zoo. We met up with our friends Amanda and Karl and their adorable little girl Harper.

Watching the weird bird that wandered into our group

The most random thing about the trip was our decision to take only public transportation. I suggested this for two reasons:  1) I wanted to save money and 2) Basically I didn't want to lug the carseat for a one-day trip that involved only carry-on items.

By not having a car we:

• Walked nearly 5 miles round trip to find a place for lunch before the wedding thanks to Justin's "smart phone." Bonus:  We got to enjoy quality time together and had plenty of time to look at the boats in the San Diego harbor. I also got some much-needed exercise.

• Experienced the "real" San Diego as we bus hopped from the airport to the zoo. The worst part of this experience was a toss-up between lugging our duffle bags, baby, and fold up stroller on and off buses and the weird homeless/psychologically damaged individuals you meet on public transportation. We did, however, meet a very nice couple visiting from Colorado and randomly ended up on the bus with them again as they traveled from their hotel to the airport.

the mooning gorilla

In non-bus-related news, Luke loved the zoo and we got pretty up close and personal with several animals. Including the orangatan Luke "high-fived" through the window (would have gotten an action shot if a rotten little kid hadn't stepped in front of me), the polar bear who wanted to make friends, and the mooning gorilla. (I also saw a baby gorilla nursing on his mama, which was way cooler than I would have thought a year ago.)

(See see Luke's hand next to the orangatan's hand. Grrrr little kid in the green shirt.)

Our flight home was uneventful, but we were all exhausted. Luke fell asleep before we even boarded the plane and didn't stir until we loaded him into the car in Sacramento. All that walking, bus hopping, and animal watching will do that to you I guess.

We really enjoyed our fabulous 36 hour getaway. Hopefully we can do it again soon!