two weekends ago we had a big party celebrating mathew’s 40th birthday.
as guests were beginning to arrive, mathew and i were running around trying to finish our decorations. my dad helped me hang my paper lanterns.
our friend alex, my parents, and my brother jason helped mathew by hanging photos in every room, showing the last three years of our remodel. the photos showed what the house looked like before we bought it, how we often made it uglier before we made it pretty, all of our lovely helpers and volunteers, and highlights along our adventure.
it was an extra special day because it was kyle’s 5th birthday that day! he had chosen to have a party on halloween weekend so that left him available to attend mathew’s party on the 23rd. (left to right) trevor, kyle and megan.
also celebrating birthdays: (left) genanne two days earlier and (right) my mom celebrated her birthday the following day.
i became completely overwhelmed by people arriving so i stopped taking photos… luckily alex was snapping away on his camera so this blog post has visuals and not just descriptions!
(left to right) turtle’s karate friends hideaki, christina and marcus talking with turtle’s mom and high school friend, mark, while jim and reirin listen in and enjoy the food.
we were so excited to see our long lost cal poly friend edward! i think it’s been almost a decade since we last saw him. he walked through the rain from the bart station to join us that night and we’re so glad he did. (left to right) edward, alex, mole, turtle.
(left to right) nancy and my mom, my older brother jason talking to mathew’s co-worker bryce.
turtle and his co-worker, joe, a new father and also in the middle of his own remodel.
(left to right) jamie, mae, alex, mole and heather. a mix of high school and college friends. this was the first time jamie and heather had even been to the house. actually, this was the first time most people were seeing the house!
we’ve really been hiding out since we bought this house, all free time and weekends have been spent on the house. but after jamie toured the house he kept saying “i get it!” finally understanding where we’ve been all these years. we’ve still got a long way to go till we’re “done” with the house, but it was so satisfying being able to show it off. all the high praise was great for our egos! and i loved hearing over and over again that my favorite color looked great in my office. 🙂
more reunions! everyone was surprised when jaya appeared. mae, turtle, alex and jaya were all architecture majors together at cal poly.
turtle and some of his parentals: mumsue, reirin and jim.
stef and nancy having fun hanging out with kyle, trevor and megan.
(left to right) mole, trevor, marisa, arthur, kyle and megan showing off her turkey drawing which she gave to turtle. marisa is one of my oldest friends, we’ve known each other for almost 30 years.
after marisa and her family left, people were asking me, “who was that woman with the three kids?? they were the cutest, most well behaved kids!” those three kids wandered around the house, eating crackers and carrots, charming our guests while their parents helped me get food on the table downstairs.
(left to right) the famous gee sisters, stef, mae and nancy, with mole and alex. these sisters are famous because not only are they excellent cooks but on several occasions they cheerfully showed up to help with the house AND brought delicious food and sometimes their own tools!
no, i didn’t take this photo during the party! this was taken in august of 2009. i had to include an actual photo of my dad (where he wasn’t up a ladder hanging lanterns!) without my parents’ help almost EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND for months and months over the last few years, we never would have gotten as far as we did on the house. my dad often has remodel projects of his own, so i think he enjoys the work somewhat, but my mom would rather be watching a ball game than working on a house, but she cheerfully worked and picked up some new skills along the way.
most of our friends opt out because they didn’t think their work standards would live up to mathew’s perfectionism, so we were always so surprised and grateful when anyone would offer to help.
later in the night, the party was smaller but still going! (left to right) dee, a co-worker of turtle’s, turtle, doug and jennifer, a high school friend of ours, and noel, another co-worker. we talked and ate and ate and talked. noel even offered to come and help with the house sometime, we may just take him up on that offer!
we had a total of about 50 guests that day/night. and they all brought delicious, healthy food! i had to stop preparing food because there wasn’t room left on the table! at first i was worried about having all those leftovers but we happily finished them during the following week.
turtle’s parents sue and daniel catching up, in our unit upstairs. sue has been staying with us over the last few weeks, cooking lovely meals for us and tidying up our neglected back yard. last year daniel and mathew refinished the old oak floor in my office and installed new oak floors in the other rooms, which always get rave reviews.
after everyone had gone home. sue had a lively party-for-one in the office!
to all of mathew’s friends, we’re sorry if we left anyone off the guest list! we sent an evite and found out afterwards that some email addresses were old and some emails were caught by spam filters… and to everyone who made it, thank you for celebrating with us! thank you for all your lovely food, gifts and praise. and THANK YOU for being in our lives.
