…Now with Curie and Elia
Erin said it might not be clear, but the pictures in black and white on either side of us are pictures one year apart to see how much they have changed. The pictures on the front of the card correspond to each month of the year, but I guess that was pretty obvious. OH, and Curie’s signature this year is her actual signature. 🙂
The best part of my day, Thanksgiving at Curie’s class. I had never been, Erin had always gone. This is a wake up call that being a part of what your kids do is so important to them, and even more rewarding for you.I mean, just look at Curie’s face – just look at my face! 🙂
A quick picture before we post Elia’s collage. Curie had her picture on my shoulder, Elia is on my head.
Some of you may remember or have been a part of a photo project with me at different times where we pick a topic and everyone submits their interpretation of that topic. In the early days, we would literally go out with cameras together and take pictures, have the film developed and compare what we took. This got easier with digital of course. Most recently at Albert’s last place of work, he did this to fill a space which came to be known as Gallery Hall where two topics were displayed, orange, and water. where there were up to thirty entries in water.
Recently Canon did a little experiment by having a man photographed by 6 photographers but before they took pictures of him they told them that he was a different background which resulted in very different pictures by the intent and interpretation.
Albert shared this on Facebook and asked if anyone would be interested in participating in a topical photography project/social experiment. So he made a group, The Photographer’s Eye, and invited a handful of people who volunteered or liked the idea.
In the first day we simply asked nuts and bolts questions like should the group be by invite only, who can see it, and what should the first topic be. Interestingly enough there were more votes that did not care who could see it or participate, and two suggestions for topics, Fall Leaves and Coffee drinks. Eager to start, we chose Fall Leaves, and in the first couple of hours we got 10 entries from 6 participants with images ranging from the architectural to a beautiful picture of a boy and a dog. Also, tellingly, of the 57 people invited to the project we had thirty people “accept” by looking at the group and reading posts in the first day. Members were asked to invite anyone they wanted and a few people have already done so, and a couple of people have posted that they were honored to be invited to the project. We think that the fact that the group says “secret group” has something to do with people feeling like they are a part of something.
In any case, please do check it out or ask us for an invitation on Facebook.
We were in California on a business trip for Erin recently and had the chance to visit Albert’s family. While staying with Bernard and Agnes, we were telling them how Curie has taken to the bow and arrow and that Albert has had a bow for her since before she was born (Albert had one for Erin before he ever met her too). This caused them to tell us a funny story about one of their friend’s impressions of Albert when they were kids. Bear in mind that Albert and this friend haven’t seen each other in 20 years so it is even more funny (Bernard and Agnes thought the friend wouldn’t mind if we posted this).
Background: so Albert was a meaner and more annoying big brother in high school than he remembers, exemplified by the time that Albert apparently made Bernard and his friends climb the community tennis court fence to get out (to be fair, they often did not have the key and would climb the fence as a matter of course, but according to Bernard, Albert had the key that day and forced them to climb the fence instead of letting them out).
Anyway, so Bernard and Agnes were talking to this friend (who was one of the friends who had to climb out of the tennis court)about parenting. This friend also has two daughters. They were talking about tiger moms and somehow Albert came up in conversation. The friend claimed that Albert would be a “tiger dad,” When Bernard and Agnes said “really?” He replied, “oh no, Albert is definitely a tiger dad, only he is training his kids to be be Batman.
When you don’t think you make a difference in the world, it turns out you do. And all of us are driven by our ups and downs and our personal insecurities whether it is what compels us to be mean as older brothers when we are young or just getting through the day to day, but even when we do, we are making an impression, and apparently Albert left a big one. Oh and so you know, hearing this story made Albert’s day.
Somehow we have not recaptured the dynamics of the movie.
If you have come to this page by way of QR code at the party, go to this link to go directly to the Hoagland Party album. Pictures of children and families start on page 3 or 4. You are also welcome to read the history of our elaborate costumes below or peruse our site.
We’ve been going to the Hoagland Halloween Party ever since we moved down to the DC area in 2007. It is Bella’s birthday party and the first one she had turned four, the same age Curie is this year. This collage is a little history of our costumes over the years, plus the marketing material for this year’s costume.
The first few years we just dressed in what was available, black Matrix in 2007, a cheap prom dress for the Princess and the Paparazzi in 2008, and Vampire Hunters in 2009, which was basically just black clothes again with swords.
In 2010, the Hoaglands told us they were dressing up as 50s people, Bella as Marilyn Monroe, Quin as Elvis and Candace and David as preppies. In our first year of themed costumes, we surprised them as greasers with switch-blade combs and leather jackets. In 2011, Curie had just been born and while Albert wanted to dress her up as a maggot (white hat and blanket- he has a picture) Erin was not as sanguine about the idea. So we found this great chili pepper outfit and decided to come as the Red Hot Chili Peppers with band shirts and red pepper hats. Something easy to move around in so we could take care of Curie.
In 2012, we had taken Curie to London and Paris and had arrived back the day before the party. We had no idea what to be. We were in Home Depot the day of the party and decided to buy hard hats and high-visibility vests, caution tape, and clip boards to be safety inspectors. This was right after Hurricane Irene, and Sandy, so it was appropriate. We ran around to toy stores to find a hat for Curie, and Albert made Curie a high-visibility vest out of yellow duct tape on the way to the party. Curie’s hat was yellow so we made her the boss. Erin said she had never had a hat that fit so well. This was also the first time that Steve and Julie were around for the party having just moved down. This was our first meta costume and as we arrived, David had the presence of mind to say “oh no! the haunted house safety inspectors are here, we’ll have to shut down the haunted house!” All the kids bought it and began to be upset. Curie had a great time handing out our tickets for infractions. We wrote tickets for inappropriate weapon storage, Julie wrote one for inappropriate time travel on a broken clock. We had a great time, it was such a great costume for such short notice.
The next year in 2013, we decided to do another themed costume and wanted to be meta again, so we arrived in security shirts for the event. People actually commented that the party had gotten so big that they had to hire security. The funniest part was that Erin was 8 months pregnant and Curie was dressed in the same outfit. People asked what company we worked for. Albert made us badges and 30-50 VIP “back stage badges.” We also bought a velvet rope to work the door. This is all without letting the Hoaglands know what we were doing, so a velvet rope showed up in front of their haunted house, and Curie was passing out VIP badges. Soon people were saying that you needed a badge to enter the haunted house, and older kids were giving theirs to younger kids. It was really funny.
For 2014 we didn’t know what we could do to top the Security theme. It had to be meta, and we all had to be in the same costume. Ironically it would be better than anything we could hope for. We arrived at the Hoaglands as their caterers (though we did not make the food, we just took credit for it). Concept Catering, a mediocre catering company with slogans like “trying our best not to ruin your party,” and “when you can’t afford the best.” Having been to the party every year, we knew the menu so we made place cards for all the food like: “Vegetarian meatballs made with the best meat,” or “fingernail cookies, one of them is real.” That one was funny because at the end of the party there was one left over. We made flyers with bad Yelp reviews that highlighted chosen words to look like we had good reviews. People really thought we were the caterers. Albert stayed in character passing food for an hour. Steve was eating the last piece of pie and a person asked when new pie would come out. Steve just shrugged and irritated the person. It was Elia’s first party, and she was dressed up as the head chef. Curie LOVED her costume and really passed out food, where Candace remarked that she normally doesn’t get to eat but Curie was feeding her. We passed out business cards with a Russian web address and put up flyers that referenced the “Hoagland Holiday Party, it is even bigger,” there is no such party, but people kept asking Bella about it and a woman even showed up on the date we put on the flyer a few months later. We also learned that caterers are not treated very well by guests.
This year we really felt like we couldn’t top the catering and have put together a meta costume as entertainment for the party. We were going to be an acapella group or show choir as entertainment that would not actually perform. We were going to have set lists, a raffle to raise money for our costumes for national and so on. We needed to make marketing materials, and because Julie was sick and all the costume parts were not available yet, Albert made an intentionally bad-Photoshop group picture for our poster and handbill/postcards. While we were planning Erin came up with an idea that made it funny enough for us to feel like it was worthy of a follow up to Concept Catering. We would be the nation’s first and only mime acapella group. As of this writing we have not actually been to the party yet, but we are going in tuxedo t-shirts, white gloves, and berets. We plan to poster and flyer their party with our marketing materials passing out the postcards. Read our poster for our gags, after the party we will update this post for how it went.
Many of you know that Albert still takes one one picture a day of the kids, but you may not know that he also tries to take at least one family picture a week. He has not been as religious about this and has missed a week or two, but he has been able to have a family picture for each of the kids’ blogs, which means at least two a month. In any case, on Monday, September 21st, he said that the picture he had was blurry and we needed to take the picture again. While we were getting ready though, Curie had Elia’s doodlePRO and drew a picture of our family that was better than what we took. If you look carefully, Curie is on the side of the picture with her arms out making crazy faces, Daddy is looking in Curie’s words “a bit strange” on the right. Erin is in the middle smiling and holding Elia, which pretty much summarizes our family. Afterward, Albert drew his version, Erin drew hers of us making moose ears, and Elia drew hers.
Okay, so we just posted Elia’s collage, but it’s Fancy Day at school today, part of Spirit Week, and they both dressed up today (yes, our stance on Disney princesses is eroding a bit, to our defense Elsa is a queen – which Curie is still quick to correct people when they call her princess). On Curie’s birthday party, Elia didn’t get to wear her dress because she was at the pediatrician, so today was the first time she got to wear it. She swished her hips back and forth and pointed at the Elsa on her chest. Albert’s Mom asked that he take a picture of the two of them when they were both in their dresses (note they are both wearing t-shirts beneath to have play clothes in case they paint or play – Curie is learning that fancy dresses are not conducive to play).
Curie has been fighting peer pressure at school where some girls had the rule that only the girl with the longest dress could be Elsa, we recently got her to convince the girls that they could all be Elsa if they wanted. We said earlier that Elia also thinks she is Elsa even if Curie thinks she is Anna, and when Curie said “Elia can be Anna,” Albert said, “no, you can both be Elsa.” When Erin came down, Curie said “look Mommy, we’re both Elsa!” Makes you proud. On a separate note, isn’t Anna the heroine of the film? Is it just because she doesn’t have magic powers, a pretty dress, and her catchy song isn’t an anthem?