26 east

double digits

2015-01-19T10:59:00.003-06:00

a few photos from alex's 10th birthday celebration. pinch me. i must be dreaming - 10 years old!

lego my gargoyle

2014-11-03T21:21:00.002-06:00

my husband said that someone asked him about the blog today. they said it had been a while since they saw a new post. i didn't realize anyone was still visiting us here - so i am pretty excited about that! it's the little things in life friends! anyway, posting used to be one of my favorite things to do, i used to have more free time or maybe i was just better at making time for it, but either way, i just don't do it like i used to. but i do miss it and more than anything i miss being able to look back through and document an entire year in blog posts. the last year and a half is somewhat incomplete in terms of blog archives, but we have had a lot going on even if the photo proof is missing.

but halloween - you know i never miss a halloween. so here are a few photos from the weekend and alex's latest dream-come-true costume: a gargoyle. evan and i were characters from the lego move. these two in case you haven't seen the flick. not nearly as inspired, but fun nonetheless.

if you're still reading this - or even checking in from time to time, leave us a comment, we'd love to know you're out there! hope you had a fun halloween - it really is the best time of year.

ps.... our tiny puppy is now not a tiny puppy and he looks pretty cute dressed up as a UW Badger:

amiright?!?!

our friend FiLip

2014-06-02T11:13:00.001-05:00

last summer we heard about the new FiLIP technology for kids and we were immediately interested. we signed up to be early adopters and get notified when FiLIP was officially released to the market.

what is FiLIP? simply put, it's a smartwatch for kids, but let's be honest, it's really for parents. from FiLIP's website:

Every parent wants their kid to explore, discover and just be a kid. But imagine if we could stay in touch along the way. FiLIP is a world first device which has re-imagined smartphone voice and location technology for children. The colorful wristwatch is a patent-pending marriage of GPS, cell tower location and Wi-Fi triangulation, safely combined into one small device.

conversations were already happening around our house about how soon was "too soon" for a cellphone. for me, the communication aspect of a phone, just made sense. alex visits her dad every other weekend, takes the bus home home from school, attends various extra-curriculars during the week and stays busy with us on the weekends when we travel or go on adventures near home. having a way to communicate with her was a no brainer, but what about all the other options a phone has?

i wasn't ready. and truth be told, neither is she.

sure, the chances that 90% of her time on the phone would be spent playing minecraft or taking silly pictures, were pretty high. but what about everything else? there are far too many variables for a young, impressionable mind and we just weren't ready to take that leap. all that will come in good time; all we really need now is to keep track of her.

FiLIP lets us do that in a way that works for younger kids. with the touch of a button she can call up to five pre-programmed numbers, and in turn, those numbers can call her.

she can receive (but not return) short text messages (16 characters) letting her know we are thinking of her or need her to remember her science book before leaving school. she doesn't have the ability to text back - and quite frankly i am fine with that for now.

in the most severe of scenarios, we can track her location via GPS (provided of course she is wearing the watch). or if she leaves a pre-determined location before she should, FiLIP can notify us. finally, in case of emergency, her phone will auto-dial all 5 numbers it has stored with the press of a single button she or we can activate.

oh yeah...it also tells the time and date in four fun colors kids like.

for us, it just made sense.

right around christmastime, FiLIP went on the market and we snatched one up immediately. the watch itself was $199 --- a definite investment --- but the call/texting plan was just an additional $10 per month through AT&T service i already had.

since we introduced the FiLIP into our lives a few things that maybe we weren't prepared for, and didn't necessarily love, came into play.

some areas it was lacking:

for starters, 16 character text messages are kinda lame. you can say "i love you very " or "don't forget your" which isn't really helpful at all, so at times, you have to get pretty creative.
we didn't love the fragility of the screen - a piece of technology made for kids, should better understand how outrageously destructive they can be. ours shattered after falling from her wrist while swinging.
we didn't love the way it chirped in the middle of the night while charging
or the fact that we couldn't fly under the radar during the school day when sending a text - the phone rings/beeps anywhere, anytime it is called.
we also didn't love the battery life, it seemed to be dead by the time the school day was done.

something we weren't necessarily prepared for was the accessibility, which sounds strange i know. but the fact that you can pinpoint your child's exact GPS location at any time of day, is a little, well...creepy and unnecessarily addicting. i have had to learn that just because this feature is available, doesn't mean i need to obsessively access it. i do like knowing it is there though and i hope i never actually need to use it.

recently FiLIP sent out a survey to their customers requesting suggestions. we mentioned all of the above and were shocked and pleasantly surprised to see that just a month or so later, all of the suggestions are in the process of being remedied or already have been. new updates include:

Increased Battery Life and Charging Improvements (no more annoying chirps when FiLIP is charging at night)
Simplification of Emergency Mode Function
Text Message Length Increased from 16 Characters to 24
Ability to Silence FiLIP Ringer from App (great for when kids are at school)
Last Received Text Message Stored in Memory
Improvements to Location Accuracy and SafeZone Notifications
Hybrid and Satellite Views Added to Map
Improvements to Audio Quality

That kind of timely response to your customers' feedback is HUGE! we are even more satisfied with the technology and the company than we were before.

Overall, FiLIP makes sense for our family. we are in that in-between phase where we know imminent doom (aka the teenage years) is coming, but we plan to hold off on it as long as we can. FiLIP has given us a way to do that. an actual cellphone will infiltrate our lives soon enough. at nine years old, i just want her to remember her homework, or be able to reach me anytime, anywhere for anything.

plus, if you weren't previously approved to can call her, you can't. sorry boys. but really, i'm not sorry - check back in several years. like 20.

for now, we are focused on everyday life and some adventures in-between. thanks to FiLIP we can do everything we did before, but with greater peace of mind.

last day of third grade

2014-05-30T11:23:00.000-05:00

insert the same cliche thing i say on this day every year. they really do grow up so fast.

we got a puppy

2014-05-18T11:30:00.000-05:00

this is finn. finn pickle to be exact. i wanted to name him boo radley, but apparently i don't call ALL the shots. i'm dealing with that. more pics to come for sure + updates on how our resident felines are dealing, but for now, here he is in all his golden doodle glory…

and call it forshadowing maybe, but the newest mobile campaign for K9 Advantix II came out recently with a familiar face. one that just so happened to be wearing the same thing on the day we got finn as the day this campaign was shot. it's like it was fate or something.

so it turns out, we are dog people now. stay tuned for ridiculous outfits on pets. you know how we do.

kitties have birthdays too

2014-05-06T10:52:00.000-05:00

these little kitties turned 4 and 9 yesterday as we celebrated everybody's favorite holiday in may, cinco de meatball & andre. we don't actually know when their birthdays are, but because we got them both in late -june, and they were about 6 weeks old, we figured they were born sometime around the end of april/beginning of may. and who doesn't need another excuse to celebrate on may 5^th? It just makes sense.

to each his own

2014-04-06T21:43:00.000-05:00

there is absolutely no reason in the world for cats to have baby bertoia-like chairs. unless you find a pair for super cheap on craigslist. then, you just don't have time for reasoning...

party everyday

2014-04-03T22:11:00.000-05:00

i haven't blogged in a really long time. this past year has been one of the busiest in recent memory. i started a new job exactly a year ago and my time/energy for leisurely blogging just kind of disappeared.

sadsies.

since i blog and manage social media for my job now, keeping up with both as a hobby just hasn't been that easy, but i am attending a blogging and social media conference tomorrow and i thought at the very least i should do a catch up post.

so what's been going on lately? i celebrated a birthday a few weeks ago and it was one of my very favorite ones, not as far as the number is concerned (that is just getting depressing), but the people i surrounded myself with, really made it pretty freakin' fab.

evan and i had dinner at gram & dun, on my favorite patio in the city. yes, we are wearing this place out and hitting it up on super repeat, but when it's your b-day, you don't wanna take chances on the food. i got the same thing i always get (the jackson) and we sipped on cocktails while enjoying one of the first warm-enough nights of the season.

the following day, my actual birthday, we planned a small get-together at one of our other favorite local spots, bier station. we had intended to just meet a couple of friends, but thankfully it snowballed and soon enough the room was full of some of my most favorite people in town and in the world if i'm being honest.

i want to say that i laughed hysterically for 2 solid hours. it was the best.

alex was on spring break and away for her first ski trip during this time, and although we missed her terribly, she had an absolute blast. i'd share some of pics of her being a rockstar on the slopes, but i don't have any. womp womp. so instead, here is a pic of her at a recent birthday party for one of her friends.

and this is a chinchilla, because she asked me to blog about one.

annnnnyway......

we spent last weekend at our favorite old-people-prom style event, evening in paris. if you follow me on the socials, then you already know i got super geeked out about it being a mad men theme this year. you probably also already know that i found an exact dress from the show and proceeded to further freak out. if you missed out on all that however, here is the dress from the show:

and here is me in all my vintage megan draper glory:

totally. freaked. out.

so the spring has basically been a nonstop party so far, you know how we do. and basically, you're all caught up. :)

painting & peacocks: alex's 9th birthday party

2014-01-13T22:32:00.001-06:00

a photo recap of alex's peacock painting birthday party at the thirsty pallette. oh what fun!

nine.

2014-01-06T11:46:00.000-06:00

nine. the last of the single digits and the beginning of....what? i am genuinely asking. the past nine years have been a ride, a roller coaster with ups, downs, some stomach churning flips coupled with equal parts exhilaration and fear. nine, you are attitude mixed with awesome. you are defiance sprinkled with dreams. you are a challenge, a triumph, an adventure, a joy. i don't know what the next nine years look like, but i know that i want to try my very best to hold onto to this one as long as i possibly can. the ones that have come before nine have gone by way too fast.

nine, you are my everest. officially considered a "tween".

happy ninth to my alex. we're on this ride together. please tell me when i can open my eyes and exhale.

Happy New Year!

2014-01-05T12:19:00.000-06:00

i know, what happened to the entire month of december? well.... it came and went. we had a lovely thanksgiving and wonderful christmas and i may still do a photo highlight of those events, but i didn't want to miss an opp to say happy new year in a sort of timely way. let's try to start fresh in 2014, and maybe, just maybe, i can get back to semi-regular posting. kisses to all. but no promises. xoxo

halloween backtrack

2013-11-26T23:05:00.001-06:00

well... thanksgiving is in two days, so i guess now would be a good time to post some pictures from halloween. they are incredibly overdue, but technically it is still fall, so this counts. we did all the halloween things you would expect - carved pumpkins and hosted our annual halloweenie ice SCREAM bash, although we did not make it to a pumpkin patch this year and i am still pretty torn up about that.

all in all - it was a great halloween, another warm one and alex was a huge help in the construction of her costume. she usually decides what she wants to be somewhere around august/september, but true to form we didn't really get to work on her costume until the night before the all school halloween party and costume contest. luckily i have become a skilled glue gunner and pulling something together in a relatively short time frame is getting easier every year.

this year she was a frost dragon. oh... you mean you've never heard of a dragon that breathes ice instead of fire???? well now you have.

she's had some pretty unique ideas in years past, but i gotta say, this year was probably my favorite. how was your halloween? i'm not sure if i'll take any thanksgiving photos, but if i do, i'll be sure to post them by christmas!

streetcar

2013-11-14T21:14:00.001-06:00

today, i got to get all up in the new kansas city streetcar's grill. i'm not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome. check out a few pics of the first (new) streetcar lines being laid today. the first tracks since 1947. i love this city and i can't wait until this line is right outside our front door.

happy birthday to the ground.

frosty the dragon

2013-10-28T21:42:00.001-05:00

what have you been up to? we've been dragon making over here. as excited for halloween as ever, but seriously lacking in the anticipation building blogging. many of you have probably already seen the end result, but you can pretend this is a super sneak peek...

good day

2013-10-07T13:13:00.000-05:00

this weekend we didn't have a lot going on, which was actually a pretty nice change of pace. we had plenty of time to be at home and be together and just hang out. there was a touch of chill in the air - not enough to warrant turning on the heat - but just enough to open the windows and doors and let the awesome breeze blow through and circulate all the dust and cat hair it could find.

sunday just felt like a really good day. alex had a friend sleep over on saturday night, and i loved sipping my coffee on sunday morning to the sounds of their ornery giggles in the next room. i really cherish those moments when we can just be in our home. it was relatively clean, dinner was mostly planned and we had nowhere in the world to go. i didn't think it could get any better, but then, out of nowhere, my friend emily dropped by with two insane floral arrangements for us to enjoy. and you know how i feel about flowers; i completely freaked out and proceeded to do a leg kick that hasn't seen the light of day in a good 12-13 years. but for the rest of the day i was annoyingly giddy anytime i walked into that room.

at one point in the day, alex was working with evan on a project and she started typing with her fingers on home row. we were kind of flabbergasted by this and it made me realize all the things that kids learn and do in those minutes and hours when we are away from them. even when there are a million other things going on, these little amazing things are happening whether i have the time to notice them or not. it wasn't a huge thing, but it was this skill that she has now and it really struck a chord with me. sometimes all you need is a little break in the madness to stop moving and take in everything that is going on around you.

in the words of ice cube, i gotta say, today was a good day.
i may or may not have pulled a hamstring, but that's neither here nor there.

how was your weekend? i hope it was as relaxing and refreshing as ours.

more babies & more things

2013-10-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

the weekend before last, i hosted two special baby showers for two very special gals. and while baby showers tend to be about the babies, i wanted each to be as distinctly different as the moms-to-be, because really, that is who we were celebrating. if you missed natalie's shower, you can see it here. but today, we're all about kate and the whimsical little forest friends who helped create her woodland themed shower.

kate is awesome. we met through a mutual friend and it took me two minutes and two sips of a martini to know that this was gonna be good. she is ever so whimsical and suuuuper nice. and i have to be honest, finding really genuine people is sort of a rarity these days. you could try to find something about her that you didn't like, but it would be pointless. i don't think that something exists. actually i know it doesn't.

so naturally, when kate and tim told us they were expecting, i jumped at the chance to shower her with love and whimsy. and when i asked her if she had a preferred theme and she sent me paint chips, my little heart jumped for joy. this is a girl who knows what she wants and knows i love a good mood board/color pallet for inspiration.

what kind of person hosts two baby showers in one weekend is the question you might be asking yourself, but i assure you, there is method to the madness. all of our friends are pregnant right now. pretty much all of them. plus, weekends in the fall, fill up fast. so what's a girl to do when you have two lovely people to celebrate and limited time - you select one weekend and just go for it!

i wondered somewhere in the process if it was insane, but once they were both underway, i also realized it was a pretty great way to see a whole lot of friends in a very limited amount of time. in addition, i can't be expected to clean my house twice in a single month, so really this was about efficiency.

if you know of anyone who is having a girl right now, just tell them to give me a call in 25 years. with just about everyone we know having boys, there is bound to be a surplus of suitable suitors roaming around. at any rate, i am super excited for my friends and the new adventures they are about to take on!

congrats to kate & tim - we can't wait to meet little simon soon!

let's get to garage-ing!

2013-09-27T13:39:00.000-05:00

back on one of the hottest weekends of the summer, a group of friends and a couple of family members (evan's dad and uncle dennis) decided to build a garage. and build they did. in the span of about 2.5 days, we had a newly poured garage slab, a few pallets of wood, and then seemingly out of nowhere - a garage began to take shape.

dream-garage-a-poo-looza/we-now-have-a-back-yard is still underway, but the end is in sight and boy - does she look goooood. we're experiencing some pretty incredible fall weather right now, but we know that first snow is just waiting to debut. and when she does, we'll be ready. or so i am told. :)

i know it is only september, but it's never too early to starting thinking about a "men of 26 east" calendar for all your holiday gift giving needs.

#justsayin'

babies 'n things

2013-09-22T21:20:00.001-05:00

over the weekend i had the awesome honor of throwing a baby shower for one of my very best friends in this whole wide world.

natalie and i met on the first day college, in our dorm. she was in the 3rd floor bathroom of millikan hall and i was only on her floor to meet up with a girl i had fallen down the stairs with earlier that day. there's a story there, but only the ending matters. on my way to see this other new friend, i made a quick stop in the bathroom and that's where i found natalie.

so, it was fate basically. i was meant to run into that girl on the stairs which is the only reason i then ran into my natalie. there are so few truly genuine, naturally funny and effortlessly drama-free chicks in the world. she is one of them and i feel incredibly lucky to have found her. the world should feel equally lucky that she and her adorable husband are reproducing.

there were four of us that were inseparable all through college. you name it, we did it together and i have boxes of photos from the days of developing film to prove it. and to this day, we all remain the best of of friends. sure, we get older, busier and meet new friends, but these girls have and always will be some of the people who know me best and who some of my favorite memories were made alongside. the three of them hosted my baby shower almost 10 years ago, and so to get to do this together again was pretty amazing.

i love these girls. and i love that we could be together for this.

now that we all have kids of our own, i just wonder if any of them will ever believe us when we tell them how flippin' cool we ~~were~~ are.

ps - can you believe that cake?!

the lighter side of syria

2013-08-31T08:55:00.000-05:00

several weeks ago, we headed up to omaha for a little family reunion type of affair. my grandpa, on my mom's side, was born in the US, but his parents (my great grandparents if you are following along) were from syria. every summer, and usually on easter, there is a pretty massive syrian dinner that commences. in light of recent events, i thought a few uplifting photographs representing a little taste of syria, were in order. so put on your stretchy pants and see who can fill their plate the tallest, this is the 2013 syrian family picnic.

see entire album HERE.

a garage razing

2013-08-30T08:38:00.000-05:00

we're going to pretend that the garage is already pretty much done, because what fun would a final shot be if we didn't get to detail the process? i have held off on posting about it because evan really wanted to walk you through the build (inch by inch...) but since he has devoted every moment of free time to getting this thing up, with the help of some of our bestest friends and fam, we've been pretty scarce in the play-by-play.

so here are a few pictures of the first few days and the first few steps...

stay tuned. lots of shirtless boys on top of buildings coming up....

third grade

2013-08-14T10:31:00.001-05:00

when this day rolls around each year, i view it the same way. 1. i can't believe it is happening. 2. where did the time go? and 3. i am not at all prepared for this so soon. same story different year. today is alex's first day of the 3rd grade. she is an inch and a half taller. two shoe sizes bigger. and can see 100% better than last year.

i on the other hand am exactly as i have been in each of the previous years: completely overwhelmed, excited, a little bit sad and very, very hopeful.

the good news is, even though she started at the big campus this year, she wasn't completely humiliated by having her parents walk her inside and take pictures of her - a thought that kept me awake for much of last night.

this is my baby. my dreamer. my animal lover. my butterfly catcher. my artist and my world. and now, she is my third grader as well. sigh.

two years

2013-07-03T09:26:00.002-05:00

i never thought i would get married. it's not that i didn't want to, or didn't love the idea of it, it's just that it was never something i could wrap my head fully around.

i was stubborn about it. i knew exactly what it would take to be happy, and frankly i didn't think the type of person i had in mind existed. i wanted to be picky - no, not picky - precise! it would have to be someone who understood that life is short, love is important and a marriage is a choice you make every time you wake up.

i never knew anyone like that or knew where or how to find them. i was convinced my expectations were too high. too unreasonable. too much.

i didn't just want a husband, i wanted a partner, a soulmate, a friend. he would be someone to navigate life with, to laugh with, to cry with and grow old with.

he would have to love dancing at weddings. to the slow songs. the fast songs and the last song.
he would have to hold hands. hold a conversation. hold my heart and hold our family together.
he would like to take walks after dinner and drink coffee with the paper on sundays.
he would believe in love. in marriage. in parenting and in me.
he would love his mom and treat everyone with respect.
he would like to go places. eat things. travel the world and stay close to home.
he would never meet a person he didn't like.
he would be fair. honest. responsible and hilarious.
he would have some life experiences and be appreciative of mine.
he would have to know what it's like to get it wrong, and then understand what it takes to get it right.
he would understand what i had been through and we would go through everything else together.
he would know how to build things - like a bookshelf. like character. and a home.
he would love my daughter - not just accept her - but love her dearly, help her grow, engage in her life, her school, her interests and teach her things i had never even thought to do.
he would call her every night if he was on the road. tell her he loved her. was proud of her and couldn't wait to see her soon.
he would miss us.
appreciate us.
love us.
and complete us.
he would make me thankful. a believer. and a better person through and through.

i never thought i would get married because i never imagined i would find someone like him.

until one day, i did.

happy second anniversary to the man who is everything i never knew was possible and continues to exceed my expectations each and every day.

groundbreaking

2013-07-01T09:41:00.003-05:00

it is finally here! we are breaking ground on the new garage/backyard construction today!

more play-by-plays to come, to be sure.

farewell june.

2013-06-30T09:23:00.000-05:00

and hello summer nights in the yard.

summer nights

2013-06-22T11:20:00.001-05:00

well, summer is here and there is no denying it. we're not super huge fans of super hot weather, but on a warm evening, a bike ride to our favorite ice cream spot is a welcome adventure. surely you've been to glacé - the uber scrumptious ice cream venture from the one and only christopher elbow - kansas city's finest chocolatier...? grab one of their new malted waffle cones, beg them to bring back the sweet basil ice cream, sit on the patio and let the little one take some silly pics.

this is as good as ice cream and summertime gets.