Graduation

Well, the time has come (and went). I graduated. These past couple of years have been fun, challenging, and never boring. It's a bittersweet end to our time in Chicago, but we're looking forward to our next adventure. Here are some pics from the day.

Samar's first party

We headed over to Payal and Kapil's place on Saturday to hang out with friends and see baby Samar.

Payal, Kapil, Mike and I were reminiscing about the London. We can't believe it was already a year ago. We can't believe how much things have changed--we both have babies!

Andrew was having a rough evening. Every once and a while he gave us this look (it broke my heart!)...

And lastly, here is my favorite picture in the whole world. It has my two most favorite people in the whole world. Aren't they handsome...

While we were making cakes...

While the girls were busy making cakes, Eric watched Andrew.

And yes, he can crawl now! He figured it out this week. Eric put him through vigorous physical training to improve his crawling skills.

He still isn't very spacially aware (he runs into things quite frequently), for example, chair legs:

Here are my favorites.

Let's eat cake!

We had a cake making party at Courtney's place and she showed us how to do fondant. Fun. Here is my finished cake.

I was a little worried that I was biting off more than I could chew with such an elaborate design, but Courtney encouraged me to try it. Thanks to Courtney!

Here is the cake making crew:

Chef and sous chef.

Here are the other cakes we made. Here is Morgan's darling flower cake:

And here is Courtney's bee cake:

Mike and I brought it to dinner with Simbo and Ade. They made fabulous Nigerian food.

Happy Birthday to Katelin

Hi Kateboard, the Boy wanted to wish you a happy 21st birthday! We love and miss you! Hope you had a fun day!

Pics from yesterday

Since I've been working such long hours at work, Courtney and Eric volunteered to watch Andrew last night. Pics included here.

Happy Mothers Day

Dear mom,

Since we are far away from you Chicago, we recorded some Mothers Day messages for you, our dear GrandMare and Cali Grandma Jillair...

To Grandma Marianne:



To Grandma Jillair:



WE love you. Thanks for being such wonderful mothers.

Love M&E

Happy 6-month Birthday to Andrew

We had Andrew's half-birthday party on Saturday.

Can you believe he's already 6 months old?

Thanks to Courtney for the beautiful cake.

I can't believe this was the first time she's done a fondant cake. Even Andrew wanted some.

Andrew also wants to say thanks to Jaime for his half-birthday cake (get it? half a cake). This was his first cake ever. So impressive.

The group.

The first feeding:

We waited for the party to feed Andrew his first real food--rice cereal. We had heard that the first time wouldn't be very successful (he would spit it out, or he wouldn't know how to swallow, etc.) but he loved it. He kept reaching his head out for more.

This is what happened when we stopped feeding him (I told you he liked it)...

Family picture.

Here are two of Andrew's favorite friends (Unkie Sid and Eric).

Lastly, a picture in parting.