The Commissioned Artwork...

Michele's cousin Mary is a very talented artist.  We thought it would be nice if we would ask her to make a piece of artwork to hang on Sammy's wall.  Michele figured something with a cowboy theme (since Sammy likes cowboys so much...though right now Batman is the thing).  So Paul got the notion that maybe if we had Sammy as the cowboy....now Mary will be making a set of two pieces of artwork.  The works are, still in progress, but here is where things are now (we're very excited):

Mary's original concept...

Sammy's 3rd-year birthday portrait...

Paul's idea he sent to Mary..."Sammy with that kind of look
where he's both a boy, yet seems older than he is (and then again
doesn't). -- I figure Sammy will not always like
cowboys, but Michele and I will always like Sammy)." 

And the concept Paul made from the original photo:

Mary sent us a progress photo...

Sammy's first year pics...

A few months ago we had portraits taken of Sammy for his first birthday. The photography shop is part of a chain, and for a small extra fee you can buy the digital images...you just have to wait a few months to get them. We picked up the CD today and here are a few of the pics of our little boy...

PS-Paul's parents have not received their prints that we ordered yet because they are sitting on his desk still un-mailed.

Sammy's Cousins...

Last year, Michele's sister Sharon came with her two children (Ana & Noah) to stay with us while her husband Antoine was overseas in the Marines protecting Americans from bad guys. While they were here we had some photos taken of the three cousins together, though we had to wait six months to get the digital images from the photographer (a reasonable compromise so they could make money off of prints we ordered at the time). So now, in all legally correct ways, here's some photos of Sammy & his cousins taken back on July 1, 2006...

Is that a tsunami coming this way?

Sammy thinks outside the box even when he's in it...

Even at 6 months old Sammy's personality shows through...

The Tapioca Pudding Heiress

This past weekend, we went shopping in the Twin Cities. More precisely, we went shopping on France Ave in Edina. As an analogy: France Ave is to Edina as Rodeo Drive is to Beverly Hills. Granted, the chances of seeing a Bently or (*gasp*) Bugatti are extremley lower in Edina than Beverly Hills. Still, Edina is a hot spot where the rich and famous of Minnesota go to spend money. We occasionally go there to marvel in the good and services that are available there...such as a personal favorite of ours, "Restoration Hardware."

While we were in Edina, Michele decided to have her hair cut (as her favorite hairstylist in Rochester is not available for some weeks to come). So she went to Rocco Altobelli's at the Galeria. While she was having her hair styled, she overheard next to her one of Minnesota's rich & famous women telling a hairstylist about herself. What follows is practically verbatim, no exaggerations:

"One of our good friends' son is going marry the tapioca pudding heiress [company name redacted]. The wedding is going to be in the Hamptons. Normally we go to Florida that time of year, but this year we will be going to New York...because this is one wedding we are NOT going to miss!"

There was also some discussion about drinking vanilla vodka rootbeer floats. The hairstylist asked how is just adding vanilla to a rootbeer float any different. The woman replied, "Doing it that way diminishes the fun factor."

In any event, we learned two important lessons from our brief encounter with the rich & famous of Edina:

1. No more bedtime stories of unattainable fairy princesses whom Sammy might one day save from a dragon and marry. Instead we're going to follow the social pages and find a tapioca pudding heiress daughter-in-law of our own.
   
2. Before drinking a vanilla rootbeer float, always make sure you know what is in it
   

But honestly, we hope Sammy finds happiness in life as we have found in each other. But if he marries into wealth which can secure for Paul his Bugatti, that is all the better.

We later shifted gears to got to the Mall of America (more in our budget) where we bought Sammy a rugby shirt. Later on during the weekend we took Sammy to Silver Lake in Rochester where we took some pics.

Sammy in his new Rugby shirt from Old Navy....

Michele and Sammy at Silver Lake...