Birthday Week '08!!!!!

For 51 weeks we prepare. Tiffany and I have been through this before, it just doesn't get any easier. Although this year it was fun for all!!


This year we celebrated Birthday Week '08 in the suburbs of Chicago. If you recall from our last post, 'Happy To See March', Gabe's Show Choir group from Central was scheduled to participate at Mundelein HS in the northern burbs, but more importantly about 15 minutes from the Libertyville estate of my cousins, Rich and Germaine. What a weekend it was!!!


With Central extending it's stay at the boys basketball State Tournament in Des Moines (congrats Devils....runners-up!!!) school let out at 11am on Friday for Gabe, so we took the girls out and headed for Chicago in the afternoon. Germaine cooked a wonderful dish of spaghetti and meatballs and Rich kept uncorking my one of our favorites....red wine! We ate and talked about American Idol, the kids played ping pong before getting an early bed time. Saturday would be busy.


Gabe needed to be at the competition at 10am, Rich and Germaine made a breakfast of rolls, eggs and bacon. Gabe performed at 1pm, we all attended. I tried to describe what show choir is all about to Rich and Germaine, but you have to see it to believe it. I think they were blown away after the performance, it was the best I had seen the Blue Vibes all season, although the judges didn't agree.


We headed back to the house, I was preparing to go with Rich and Germaine to a 50th birthday party for another cousin of ours, Celeste, a surprise party. Tiff stayed behind to take care of our birthday girl Abbi (9 years....I can't believe it!!!) and Elli, and to wait for a pick up call from the Gaber. After the call she took the kids to a Mexican restaurant for a birthday feast.


The party I attended had some other cousins of mine, like Walter, Char and Frank, Suzanne and Adam, Anthony and Maria. The food spread was very impressive and the bar was open. Yep....open. Suzanne sat next to me, 'to pick my brain', as she called it. I discovered a large contingent of people were headed to San Diego in the middle of August for aunt Rachel's wedding. Celeste was quite surprised to see me, she is one of the nicest people I know.


After the party we headed back to the house, my cousins David and Kris (Rich's kids) stayed the night. David works downtown at the Ritz Carlton, and Kris flew in from Miami for the party. We stayed up late and drank a little more, Elli had on some colorful stripped sleeping pants, much to Germaine's delight, she had a very similar pair she put on. It was a riot.


Sunday we woke, it was a big day for the girls, they knew we were heading to visit the American Girl Store downtown Chicago. But Rich and Germaine bought a birthday cake for the kids (including Davey who turned 25 last week) and we ate birthday cake for breakfast! The cake was as good as it looked. Roll the Video, Please:

After the cake we packed up (except for the overnight bathroom case I left behind) and headed to Michigan Aveune......shopping.....rich people style.

We found the store and parked in a garage nearby, I noticed around the corner was a Giordano's...Chicago's world famous stuffed pizza. More on that later.

We headed for the American Girl Store, even before noon on a cold and windy day in Chicago it was bristling with shoppers of all ages, young girls with dolls in hand, excited moms reliving a past once forgotten and astonished dads (and brothers) trying to figure the whole scene out. The first floor wasn't much, we headed for the second floor. Around a few corners, weaving amongst the shoppers was all the outfits, accessories and of course...the dolls themselves. The girls quickly picked out what they wanted, it didn't take long. We then headed down to the basement where some of the more famous dolls had their own display case with the doll in different outfits depicting the era the doll was born. It was like a museum, kinda neat.

After a couple of hours it was time to check out, needless to say we spent a lot......I mean a lot! Like ....think of a number and multiply it by 3! We'd been saving....it was their Birthdays! Then we took a walk to the Water Tower Place, a seven story mall around the corner of the American Girl Store. We spent a couple hours walking around, Gabe got some clothes from the Hollister store on the sixth floor and we bought some stuff at the Cubs store on the seventh floor. It was after 3 in the afternoon the only thing we had eaten was the cake for breakfast. We were hungry........where do you go for good food in Chicago? Ummmmm...........

So we got some Chicago style pizza at a true Chicago landmark, Giordano's. We ordered a large cheese and pepperoni, I pushed for some mushrooms, sausage, peppers but we thought that might be a bit too much for the kids. After about 40 minutes our pie came out, the server cut each of us a cheesy gooey piece and we ate. Tiff and Gabe had seconds! It was funny because Tiff earlier in the week had stated she was in the mood for a little Chicago style pizza, she got her wish.

Our bellies full, we loaded in the van. Gabe and Abbi fell asleep before we left town, Tiff also caught a little shut eye. Elli stayed awake the whole trip home. We unpacked and went to bed.

Monday was Elli's 7th birthday, we made cupcakes for her class. I took the day off and cleaned my car out. Gabe's show choir season completed as all 3 Davenport Community Schools held a 'Show Off' for the community to see their talents at the Adler Theater. It was interesting to see all 6 groups perform, one right after the next. Today Gabe had his first soccer practice and Abbi went swimming at the Y with a friend.

One more birthday to go...Gabe on Friday, he'll be 15. It'll be hard to top Birthday Week '08.

Happy To See March

Hello all........been a long time, nearly a month since any written words have appeared. February was an extremely difficult month for the Ivanlam clan, sickness was so rabid that that we fell behind in doing any updates.

If you recall from the last post Abbi was sick over Super Bowl weekend and that continued into the week when everyone came down with the flu. Abbi missed an entire week of school (with some snow days), Elli missed a few days here and there. I missed two days of work and Gabe did a little complaining, but only missed a day.

We thought we got rid of everything when Elli got sick again which led to Abbi and Gabe not feeling well. Soon after I got it again, for 3 days straight I went into work thinking I was fine, but after a couple hours I was back at home sleeping the afternoon away. Tiffany also spent a couple days in bed. Coughing, running noses, achy pains all over, you name it, we had it.

The worst was the coughing. You get the other symptoms taken care of but the coughing persists. I worked one basketball game for Mediacom on the 21rst, luckily I have a 'cough switch' on my microphone box, without it I would not have been able to continue.

Happy Birthdays go out to Uncles Jamie and Josh, we planned to take Jamie out, but he was laid up sick in bed, not a good way to celebrate a birthday!

Some highlights from February you might have missed: Gabe seems to be doing better in school, his last few report card were not all A's, but he is taking some difficult courses, still....no excuses boy!! The one we hear the most is when we get his report card is......."that's not what I'm getting now", referring to the report card being 2 or 3 weeks old by the time we see it. Still...no excuses boy!

Gabe had a terrific weekend when Central and West hosted the Great River Show Choir at the Adler Theater on Feb 15th and 16th. The Blue Vibes performed on Friday, did pretty good, Ally, David and Riley were able to attend. I emceed Saturday morning's groups for 5 hours, introducing each show choir group and reading a little info about them and what they were performing. The best part was the dressing room they gave me, my own shower, bathroom, chair with mirror with lights around the mirror......I kind of liked that! Each parent was required to work an 8 hour shift volunteering time to make the weekend run smooth. Tiffany split her time Friday and Saturday, Abbi and Elli spent a lot of time Saturday at the event, I was in Geneseo for a TV basketball game that night.

The next weekend Tiffany accompanied Gabe to SE Polk HS in Runnels, outside Des Moines, for a competition. Bus left at 7am (that's early for Tiff) and got home around 3am. Gabe was hungry, the food was not very good there, so Tiff took Gabe for his first Village Inn 3am meal experience (we've all been there!!!). That day was the final basketball games for Abbi and Elli, since we were alone I treated the girls to a meal at one of our favorite places, Outback Steakhouse. Elli will now prepare for coach pitch Little League, while Abbi informed us she didn't want to do softball again, instead she wants us to look into a swimming program for her, she loves the water.

In between the snow and ice in February, which we reached record levels, I'm sure Old Man River will flood come May, we patiently awaited the delivery of Girl Scout cookies. The cookies were picked up Tuesday night and yesterday Tiff arranged for a 'Cookie Shop' at Sams. That's where you get more cookies and sell them to people coming in and out of Sams. The troop keeps the profit, at some stores they match the profit, to do something or buy something special. Today she is at the Wal Mart on W Kimberly, Abbi has a shift there from 3-4pm. For the extra cookies, Tiff borrowed the Girl Scouts Cookie Trailer for the weekend.


Elli and Abbi with the cookies they sold.


Tiffany has been very busy over the last month, with the Show Choir and Girl Scouts stuff, she borrowed a Canon Digital Rebel camera from a friend to take some shots of the Show Choirs and to get some pictures of kids in Abbi and Elli's grade. Tiff has a project in mind for a raffle prize at Garfield's fun night. She doesn't want to give the camera back, looks like I'll start a 'camera fund'. You can see the difference in the post below of Gabe dancing in his purple shirt, the colors are brighter and images are sharper. Or...here's some more examples:












The camera is very easy to use, couple with the printer I bought her for Xmas, she has been going nuts printing shots, which do look remarkably good! For Valentine's, her loving cupid bought her a new Bernina sewing machine, a giant step up from the Sears model she has been learning on for the last couple years. With her limited time she hasn't gotten to familiar with it......but she will!!!

Last Tuesday we taped the Central -- Bettendorf basketball game, Gabe was there with his Marshall Maniacs shirt. Happy to report, the Blue Devils won, although they nearly blew a 20 point lead, and advanced to the State Tournament in Des Moines, Central's first trip since 2000, and only second trip since 1980. The team plays the late game Wednesday, 8:15 against Waukee, Gabe bought his ticket in a package deal to take a bus with other students, he won't be back until late. I was going to go and call the game for radio, but the start time is bad and we have someone in Des Moines who formerly worked in our building that can do it, so I changed my mind. Not like to days I used to shack up with Josh and Anne and spend the week in Des Moines for the State Tournament, I miss those times, we had a lot of fun (and wine, our new vice)!!!! I will go tomorrow to Des Moines, Assumption qualified as well, they play Monday at 6:30, it will be my only chance to go, I haven't been to State in 2 years, it'll be my first look at the new Wells Fargo Arena, built next to the Vet. Should Central win, they will play Friday afternoon and then Saturday.

I have Friday off coming up this week, we will head to Mundelein, IL, outside Chicago to visit my cousins, Rich and Germaine. Gabe is performing this weekend at....yep...you guessed it...Mundelein HS! Which is about 5 minutes from where they live. Rich and Germaine have a big beautiful estate, the same place that hosted our family reunion back on Labor Day. We'll see Gabe perform, visit some other relatives Saturday night and then Sunday the plan is to head to Chicago for some shopping, the American Girl Store is the target!

Don't forget it's almost birthday week. Abbi is 9 on Saturday (the 8th), Elli is 7 on Monday (the 10th) and Gabe is 15 on Friday (the 14th). Send your cards now....they love getting mail. I'll update a birthday wish list on the right.