Walk A Mile In Her Shoes

Oh the things I make my poor husband do! But always for a good cause, I promise. This past weekend we had an event called Walk A Mile In Her Shoes, which like most things my board does, is to raise awareness about violence towards women and girls. This was a great event despite the rainy weather, and not just because I got to see Mike wearing heels. Although seeing these pictures and the newspaper article in the Providence Journal, in which Mike's picture is featured, never really gets old. [Click here to see the article. The picture above is from the article.]

Mike trying on his shoes for the first time.

Shawn was a good sport and joined Mike in the walk. What a pair! The two of them, not the shoes.

Owen and Asher playing in the background. They knew better than to get too close or I would have had heels on them too. I actually bought a pair of dress up heels for Owen to wear just for a photo op, but sadly he refused.

The boys walking around as more people began to show up before the walk started. Notice how naturally Mike looks walking in the heels.

The registration table. We had shoes up to a woman's size 17, and yes, they do make them even larger than that. Some men also brought their own heels.

This is Bradford. He won the award for the craziest heels. It's hard to see in this picture, but they were leopard print.

Getting ready for the walk to begin. We started on the State House lawn, which you can see in the background.

I roped Amanda into volunteering. Poor thing had no idea what she was signing up for when she decided to become our nanny. Teagan is playing with the heels I bought for Owen, which will now obviously go in her dress up box.

Some of my V-Day friends.

This is Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, our keynote speaker for the event, and his son. Dr. Rodriguez is currently the Associate Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women and Infants Hospital, Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of RI, and is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. His list of accomplishments in the community and his work in Washington is very impressive.

This is a District Attourney who brought his own special slippers he got for the event.

We had the Red Cross there just in case we had some high heeled casualties. Thankfully we didn't. Although I couldn't get them to join in the walk with the heels on, I was able to get the younger cadets to pose for some pics.

Gathering for the walk to begin.

Nancy asked Mike and I to lead everyone to start the walk. I'm so glad we did so the Providence Journal could get their picture of Mike for the paper!

Doesn't he look great in heels!?!

Mike's poor feet after the walk.

I love my husband! Thank you to everyone who participated and donated to this event. And thank you Mike for raising the money you did by promising to give people a picture of you in heels. You are definetly "Man Enough to Walk In Her Shoes"!

Daddy's Birthday

It is extremely difficult for me to surprise Mike with anything. Partly because I am really bad with surprises, get too excited and end up telling, and partly because Mike always guesses everything. This year however, I succeeded! I gave Bruce some plans to make a cornhole set, I ordered the special Celtics bean bags, and then painted the set. All without Mike knowing anything. All this and I even took the kids up to his parents' house without him to paint the set, and Owen didn't even spoil the surprise. He was also very proud of himself for not telling Daddy the secret. Mike was very excited, although a little disappointed because he had planned on making the set himself. It was funny actually because a week or so after I gave Bruce the plans, Mike told his dad about them and how he wanted him to help make it. Oops!
We met Bruce at Mike's school on his birthday to give him his birthday present.
These are the special regulation bean bags that I had custom made with Celtics fabric. {You gotta love Etsy!}

One of the boards that I painted with a picture of Lucky. Thanks again for all of your help Bruce! As usual, I couldn't do my projects without you.

Mike's birthday happened to fall on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, so we used it as an excuse to have a "Birthday/Back to School/Labor Day party". I sent out an evite titled, "Every Good BBQ Ends With Smores". The party was a lot of fun and it was nice to have some of our friends, family, and coworkers all come together.
Here are some pics from the party... don't mind the blury/faded pics, my camera is slowly quitting on me.

This is AJ and Cassidy, who is a few weeks younger than Teagan. They are already good friends babbling together and sticking their fingers in eachothers faces. Good times!

Isn't she adorable?! She already stands all by herself without holding on to anything and has eight teeth.

Breaking in the cornhole set.

Here you can see the other board that I painted with the Celtics logo.

Shawn, Laura, and Asher Rubin
[If you haven't already, don't forget to check out their organization Longitude and make a donation before September 30th!]

Some of our new friends since we have moved to RI, Danny and Keri. They both have sons around Owen's age and we all belong to the YMCA together.

I found Owen, Aidan, and Riley hanging out down by the water. Up to no good, I'm sure. We are going to have our hands full with these three amigos!

Surprisingly they weren't doing anything except eating some cookies they had snatched before eating dinner. It was a party after all.




We had a late night, kids included (except mine who both passed out at about 9 o'clock), and around 11:30 we decided to give Mike his birthday cake that his mom had bought for him even though we had already started eating it earlier in the evening and the only candle I could find was a zero. Oh well, happy birthday Daddy!

It was a fun party and reminded us just how lucky we are to have such a great group of people surrounding us here. Thanks everyone.

Teagan's Birthday Donation

As you have probably read in previous posts, when Owen was born Mike and I decided that for each birthday and Christmas, we would make a donation in his name and give him one special present. Then when he is old enough to decide for himself, he will choose where the donation will go to. Well, believe it or not, we are approaching Teagan's first birthday and although it is still a couple of months away I am making her birthday donation now. {No, I have not decided on her first birthday present yet. And yes, we have actually stuck to giving only one present to Owen so far.}

The reason I am making the donation ahead of time and writing about it now on the blog, is because I want to encourage anyone else interested to consider donating too. We are huge fans of our friend Shawn Rubin's organization Longitude. Owen's 2nd birthday donation was to Longitude actually. They have an amazing story of how their organization came to be, and an even more incredible realization of their efforts and work. They are currently having a campaign called UnCaste India, and donations made by September 30th will be matched up to $10,000 if they make their deadline. This is a great opportunity for their organization. So donate now for it to qualify.
Below are some pictures of their efforts:


Building homes with Dalit villagers above and the finished product below, which you can see is quite different from their old home next door in the picture.

One of the healthcare programs that Longitude helps support.

Children eating eggs at the ARV Children's Feeding Center.

These are just some of the amazing things this organization does. Please take the time to check out their website at http://www.golongitude.org/.

I also encourage you to watch the following videos, which for some reason I can't load to the blog, but here are the links.

This is a video about the UnCaste program in India:

http://www.golongitude.org/www/video_clip_UnCaste_India.html
This is a video that shows how Longitude helps to build houses in India:

http://www.golongitude.org/www/video_clip_UC_House_Building.html

Teagan's Teeth

I keep forgetting to post that Teagan now has her lower two front teeth. They actually popped through the night before we went to Block Island for the day. As you can imagine it is extremely difficult to get pics of them. Last night we went out for dinner for Mike's birthday and Teagan kept giving me huge teethy smiles while eating. I attempted to get a picture of them with little luck however. But if you try hard enough, you can see them. She is getting to be such a big girl now wanting to eat whatever we have on our plates. Seriously, do you know any other nine month old that has had Duck l'orange?