prutopia

more belated tales. this one of a family walking in the oak park 4th of july parade. i have a long-standing dislike of parades (as well as festivals, street fairs, etc), but as a father, one must make sacrifices. so, now that i have sufficiently established my martyrdom, i will say (begrudgingly) that we had a good time.

we were invited to walk in the parade by the proprietors of a toy store in oak park, geppetto’s toy box. i’m going to pretend that our invitation had nothing to do with the fact that my lovely bride buys every single birthday present from the store. coincidence that they just expanded? i kid. truly, the store is fantastic. it’s what a toy store should be.

anyway, we walked the entire 1.5 mile parade route, and the girls didn’t tire. daddy carried both for a portion of the parade, but mostly to keep us from falling behind. fortunately for us, there was a tap dance group following us. they stopped periodically to dance, so we didn’t hold up the parade.

olivia and eve took turns riding on daddy’s shoulders, pushing a baby stroller, and riding in the wagon. eve was a big hit as she walked along carrying her flag waving to the crowd wishing everyone a “happy 4th of july”. good times.

so, yes… i had a good time at a parade. well, until i realized that daddy had to walk the 1.5 miles back to get the car. did i mention that i’m old and fat?

anywho… here are some pictures. i hope everyone else had a wonderful 4th.

ok… bad daddy. these are long overdue. by “these”, i mean pictures from eve’s 2nd 2nd birthday. not a typo, eve had 2 parties. this one was 8 days after her birthday. we had it at My Gym in river forest, just down the road from our house. i think all the kids had a good time. i know eve did.

check out the pictures.

yup… it happened. my baby turned two.

two.

wow.

she still seems like such a little baby, much more than olivia did at age two… maybe because we want her to be. unfortunately, she’s not going to stay that way much longer. i swear she grew a couple inches and matured a couple years in the week i was gone.

anyway, we celebrated her birthday in fine style in indy. gigi and papa had a bouncy thing for all the kids, a huge fancy cake and lots of family came to share in the festivities. eve opened her presents late in the day saying “oh my gosh, oh my gosh”. what a cutie!

here’s a link to the pictures from the day. enjoy!

well, my brain is still functioning, albeit at about 65%. i still can’t tell if it was the alcohol or the sun stroke that’s causing my slurred speech and my newfound narcolepsy. either way, i’m sure it will clear up just fine.

i hope everybody made it home okay. after a brief redirection to Columbus, GA (d’oh!), i made it just in time for my baby’s birthday party. i will be sharing those pictures in a subsequent blog entry, but my purpose for this entry is to share with you the results of my (sometimes annoying) camera work down in key west.

the pictures in the albums have been unaltered and unedited, and there is some partial nudity. so, you’ll see some blurry pictures, some poorly lit pictures, and possibly some unflattering pictures. most of all (hopefully), you’ll see some great shots of great friends and family having an incredible time. oh, and remember, you all signed waivers. no, really. you did. i swear.

have fun with these pictures. all the thumbnails have been scaled down (as far as file size goes), but you can download the higher resolution version by clicking – ready for this – the “download file” link on each individual picture’s page. there is also a link (click on the printer icon) that will upload each picture to shutterfly.com (4X6 at best, though) in case you want to order prints easily. feel free to use the pictures when and wherever you would like. just mail me a check for $3,000,000 for each picture used.

anyway, thanks to everybody (especially sean and katie) for a wonderful time. i hope to see you all again soon! here are the links:

wednesday
thursday
friday

please leave comments to let me know what you think or if you have any questions. enjoy!!!