Benefit for the 5p- Society

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to take a little time to plug an event that my good friend, Barb, is organizing the NYC for the 5p- Society. It is for a great cause and was motivated by the fact that her son was born with Cri du Chat Syndrome. It is an extremely rare condition and if you know anything about rare conditions, it's that that foundations that support research for them often have a pretty difficult time as opposed to those where more of the population is inflicted. To learn more about the condition, you can follow the link above.

It should be an awesome event and we are sad that we cannot make it. “An Evening With The English Beat” begins with a buffet at 7 PM. Guitarist and lead singer Dave Wakeling will be on hand for photographs and autographs for a donation (bring your CDs and vinyl!) before the show. After the first set, there will be a guest speaker from the 5p- Society and a live auction. You can also bid to perform with the band when they go back on stage. The event is for adults only, so have a drink and bust your 1980s dance moves.The money being raised is to support research into the disease.

If you are in the NY area, I can't think of a better reason to get out and have an awesome time. If, like us, you can't make it, please show support in any way that you can. Thanks.

-Chris

Someone's ready for the tournament - a tribute to the Marathon Men

Go Orange!

(it just so happens it's also her favorite color)

It doesn't get more Irish than this?

For St. Patrick's Day celebrations this year, we took in the festivities at Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center with friends Kim & Ella. Its an impressive facility in Chicago's Mayfair neighborhood and they hosted a pretty amazing party complete with Irish dancing, music, food and drink. Sophie was particularly captivated by the dancing. Having a few moves of her own, and enjoying Celtic music, she sat through most of the performances without any problem. Here are some of her views of the event: Though we had a lot of fun, all was not perfect. I think that after four hours of this, and a little too much live music, Sophie decided it was time to go. She let us know by throwing one of the most exuberant meltdowns I've seen from her. This is the first time she's done this in front of a HUGE crowd of people, so you can imagine the looks and comments we got. All in all, it was a great weekend though. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed a lot of activities around town.

Meeting Southpaw

We were wondering if the excitement that has built up this week about seeing Southpaw at a local Pottery Barn Kids was going to be a let down. Was Sophie going to enjoy seeing this big green stuffed mascot from her favorite baseball team or was this a disaster waiting to happen?Sophie got all decked out, complete with jersey, hat, Southpaw doll, and even her Obama pin, and we headed to the store. It started off a little shaky but Sophie quickly warmed up, played a baseball throw game with Southpaw, let him autograph her doll, and get this......She even gave him a big hug. I was completely blown away. She was close to speechless at the end of her experience. Her only remark was, "how come Southpaw didn't say anything?"All in all, it was great experience. My hat goes off to the person that was in the Southpaw costume and to the folks at Pottery Barn. They did a fantastic job at coaxing Sophie out of her shell and this was no small feat.

Busy Weekend

It started on Friday morning, when we met Julie, Kevin, Brynn, and Nathan at O'Hare as they were arriving back from China. Sophie went all out, coloring, glittering, and putting stickers on a sign for them. It was a nice reunion, of sorts, as several families that traveled with us to China were also there to greet them.Saturday morning was spent with some students at Northwestern where Sophie learned how to make dumplings. They have a program called China Cares that does work for orphans as well as cultural events here in Chicago. Sophie also did some coloring and a lot of running around.

And taking a lot of photos. At the end of a long day, Sophie and I relaxed with some reading.