Last night, Tom and I attended an 80s party hosted by my friends Mary and Bonnie. The tickets for the party were part of our PTA's silent auction fundraiser. We've hosted similar parties like the Halloween Crawl and the Pub Crawl.
I don't have any clothes left over from the 80s, so I hit the Goodwill in search of some items. I went in with an open mind and figured whatever I found (acid-wash jeans, neon tank top) would dictate my look. When I came across this tulle skirt with the leather belt, it screamed Madonna and I went with it.
Tom went a different, equally awesome direction for his costume. He recreated his summer look from his boyhood days in New York.
Needless to say, he was the absolute hit of the party. I was so proud!
The decorations were awesome. Here's Ricky with their faux boombox.
The usual crew all dressed up: Aida, me, Kristi, Lizzy and Mary. Kristi's outfit is her actual clothes from the 80s.
We ate 80s foods, like CornNuts and Cool Ranch Doritos, we sang karaoke, we danced a ton and we had a group sing-a-long to "We Are the World". Mary's husband had his photo studio set up in the garage and we took tons of pictures. It was a totally radical time!
Friday night, Leo's school had a family potluck. I brought chocolate chip cookies, of course. There was tons of food and we got to eat in his classroom chatting with other parents.
After everyone ate, we were treated to a performance by the middle and elementary school kids.
Leo recited a Robert Frost poem as part of the show.
And then the whole group sang a final song.
It was a nice time. Serafina attended her school's Snowball Dance. My friend Kristi took her since Tom took her daughter last year.
It was raining outside and Tom and Grandpa Skip were settling in for an afternoon of football, so the kids and I invited some friends to the roller rink.
Sunny was fresh off an indoor soccer game, but she still wanted to do some skating.
Leo had never been on roller skates and it's been a long time since he ice skated, but he was excited to give it a go.
First he started off with this strange toe push technique.
Then he tried what could best be described as "skate walking".
It didn't take long for him to get the hang of it and figure out how to flow a little smoother.
Don't get me wrong, he was still herky-jerky and flailing about, and he fell more times than I could count, but he loved it. He had a huge smile on his face and never got upset when he bit the dust. When I would roll by him he would shout "I'm having so much fun" or "I love this".
Sunny wasn't having too much fun in the beginning. In fact, she was doing a fair share of crying because she felt so unsteady.
Her mom tried to help her but she was still frustrated.
I was worried she would give up completely, but Serafina stayed with her in the little learning area beside the main rink and she started to get more comfortable.
I was really proud of Serafina for sticking with her friend. Eventually, Sunny felt more comfortable and they made it to the main rink.
Of course, the main rink has it hazards. Mainly, the adults...
Leo was totally fine despite this huge guy knocking him down. The guy was very apologetic and Leo went on to skate a ton more completely unfazed.
Here are the girls taking a break.
The whole skating crew. We had a really good time.
Grandpa Skip arrived Friday evening and we are so happy to have him visit. It is over-due since he was supposed to visit in summer but he got too sick to come up. Yesterday we drove to Stanford and checked out the Anderson Collection and the Cantor Arts Center. The kids and I visited both for my birthday but it was fun to see it again with Skip, Nana and Tom.
Nana, Serafina, Grandpa Skip and Leo posing in front of the Jackson Pollack. This piece hung over the Anderson's daughter's bed when she was a kid.
The had a chance to make their own modern art and hang it on the wall.
At the Cantor, there was another hands-on activity.
There was also this interesting piece that looked like wallpaper with little dots but when you used the accompanying magnifying glasses you could see the dots were little faces.
They have a large Rodin sculpture garden including this Gates of Hell.
A couple of Serafina's friends got shorter haircuts and it inspired her go shorter with her haircut. The result is super cute and of course, more manageable hair.
Serafina brought sisters Emma and Lane to her Lyrical dance class. They were all excited to do the class together. Emma and Serafina were in a ballet class together back in the day.
