Wordless Wednesday

 

 

~AKO

Marshall's 1st Birthday Party

Now that we're sort of caught up from Hurricane Sandy, we decided to still try and throw together a birthday party for Marsh's 2nd birthday this Saturday.  Before we get to that, since I never got around to posting pictures from his 1st birthday party last year I figured I would get a few... ok a lot... up to get us in the birthday party spirit!

Since Marshall was born on October 30th, the theme of the party was "Our Little Pumpkin is Turning One!".  Everything was pumpkin themed.

 

 We had an awesome magician perform for the kids.  Even the adults enjoyed the show.

 

And... of course... the ceremonious smashng of the cake.  It took him awhile to really get started but in the end Marsh even had frosting on his forehead!  He looked like he had just survived a zombie attack.
 

 

The night went by pretty fast but everyone had a good time.  My mom, brother, and sister were even able to come out for the weekend to attend the party.

 

Stay tuned for more "flashback" posts!

 

~AKO



The Aftermath...

When we woke up on 10/30, we had no power but most of the remnants of Hurricane Sandy had finished with our area.  I couldn't believe some of the damage I was hearing on the news.  We had no heat and no power and it was cold.

I checked outside and luckily we didn't really sustain any property damage.  My passenger mirror on my care was shattered but that was it.

 

Oh, and by the way... it was Marshall's 2nd birthday!!  So we tried to make the most of it.  It was still rainy and cold so we obviously couldn't go outside to play.  We hadn't fully unpacked Marshall's toys so I quickly brought that box upstairs from the basement and we started unpacking.

 

We played a lot of cars...

 



 

And colored a lot...

 



 

And since it would get dark around 4:00pm, we would sit by our battery powered lantern and read books for most of the evening.  We had a lot of Marshall and Mom time.  We were very lucky and our power came back on around 8:45pm Wednesday evening. 

 

Our cable and Internet were still out but that was finally restored on Sunday so, after a week of working off my blackberry, I can actually work this week.  Unfortunately we all have to work from home until they give the all clear for us to get back into our office, which was in Zone A in Manhattan.  We just heard it could be 6 - 8 weeks before we can get back in.  I HATE working from home :(

 

We were supposed to have Marshall's birthday party this weekend, but we'll be pushing that back since we have no idea whe Freddy will be home.

 

~AKO



Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy pretty much wrecked havoc on the New York/New Jersey area.  Many coastal neighborhoods are pretty much gone.  The Jersey Shore, a popular summer vacation spot for many, will never be the same.  Part of the Boardwalk in Atlantic City is gone.  Many people still do not have power.  It is insane.

Well, we weathered the storm about as good as could be expected.  Freddy was activated about 2 hours after he got home from reserve duty last Sunday and has been gone ever since.  They are saying it will be another week and a half before they can even talk about releasing people.  He's been running various missions out on Long Island.

The storm rolled in full force late Monday afternoon.  My office had already made it a mandatory work from home day and I opted to not take Marshall into day care since I didn't really know when it was going to start getting bad.  People started to report flickering lights early afternoon.  Ours flickered a bit around 5:00pm.  I logged off work around 6:00pm so that I wasn't online should we lose power.  This is a shot Monday afternoon when the first banch fell in the street.



 

We went through our normal routine, just me and the Marsh.  As I was finishing up his bath, our lights went out for about 30 seconds and came back on.  Around 8:45pm, I was just getting Marsh dried off and dress and the lights went out for good.  Naturally Marshall started whimpering a bit so my first mission was to keep him calm.  So we lit the lantern to figure out what we needed to do.  I also had flashlights and as soon as I handed one to Marsh, he was fine.  His red flashlight served as a security blanket for him throughout the week.  He wouldn't go anywhere without it.

 

 

 

Since it was almost bedtime anyway, we set up our hurricane disaster recovery campsite on the floor of our bedroom.  My main goal was to try and keep Marshall occupied so he didn't get too stressed out sice the winds were pretty loud and strong by then.  If you stopped and listen it actually did sound like a freight train going through!

 

Every time I tried to take a picture of the both of us, I would say "Say Cheese!" and he would yell "Cheese!" and close his eyes for the flash.  This was the best I could do :)



 

Bruiser wasn't to sure about joining our party.  In the end all 4 cats ended up on the bed with us to wait out the storm.



 

By 10:00pm, we were falling asleep.  Once we had pillows on the floor, he was out like a light.  And before you say anything, I did move him to the bed!

 



 

Over the next couple of days I will update how our week went with no power, no cable, no Internet, and seasonal fall temperatures.

 

~AKO