Date Weekend

Wozers! James Bond is in our midst! Chris surprised me with his amazingly gorgeous tux. He purchased it for a special date night weekend to Los Angeles. 

We loved getting all dressed up and spent the evening eating amazing food and meeting new and interesting people. A big thank you to Grandma Faiola who took care of our kiddos for a full 3 days and nights by herself. It's not as easy as it sounds! Our little Lily and Jamisen have more energy than any little people that ever have walked the face of the planet. 

Freight elevator selfie! 

Another hairdo for another fun evening. Noted to self: middle parts; meh. 

We are so excited that our Handmade Beauty Box Kickstarter was a huge success, raising 5X the original amount requested. We're almost up to our full goal for December shipments. Last week, we sent out 75 kits to our PR team in NYC to start press efforts in earnest. 

Jamisen loves his kitchen and has taken to building 'forts' around it where Lily is not allowed to tread. It seems silly to get Lily her own kitchen but with Jamisen not sharing (ever), it might be necessary to keep the peace. After all, she deserves her own toys too!

Here Jamisen is making maple syrup cottage cheese. Yum? He loves cooking. He loves helping. He loves mixing. He loves creating. Jamisen is creative and asks to smell almost everything. 

Here Lily is helping me unpack from the Los Angeles trip. She continues to learn words daily - bird, up, down, help, more - and loves to say 'Oh no!' and 'No no'. She has such an adorable inflection that it's impossible not to laugh and smile, even as she says 'no.' Lately, she's been trying to get away with something naught: crawling from one end to the other of the glass table before we can catch her. She sneaks off and generally waits until we're in eyesight, gives us a 'heh heh' look and rip roars on all fours across the glass. It's funny now but really, it's a terrible idea and also unsafe. 

She is definitely a little 'monkey see, monkey do' child, copying everything Chris, I and Jamisen do. Here she is, rolling out her tight tendons right alongside Mama. We love our precious children so much and are so thankful for our couple time away but much happier to be back home. 

We've discovered music and salmon!

Happy Fall! We took a tour of the happy salmon fishing (well, salmon holding vessel) the Hokum. Jamisen was in awe of the giant tank that the hold the fish in and even got a tour of the engine room. Chris was in mortal terror that Lily would get hurt because the ship wasn't exactly child proofed! Captain Dwight even sent us home with smoked salmon caught right off his ship when it was out to see in Alaska!

We did our annual Christmas photo shoot - and I can hardly wait to see the finished product and order Christmas cards. 

Jamisen is a big big helper in the kitchen and loves to cook. He enjoys working with his hands, seeing how materials work and is getting better with his manual dexterity every day. 

Lily remains a cheerful and delightful child. She loves talking now and babbles all day. Her big words are "No, 'nana, more, and good'. It's such a joy watching her communicate and try new words. She consistently tries to mimic what we say; it's adorable. And now that she can say "No", she really is getting clear in her boundaries, especially when she doesn't want to stop playing to change her diaper for example! =)

The weather in the PNW has gotten rainy but it's still beautiful for hiking. It's been about 40-50 degrees and easy to hike in as long as you're bundled up. This is my friend, and banker (!), Dimi. 

We love this little dress. I am pretty sure that Grandma Kelly gave it to us and I'm hoping it's a hand-me-down from Aunty Anamarie. 

Jamisen has discovered music! He loves loves loves listening to an iPod that I have fillllled to the brink with children's, classical and Christmas music. The other day, he actually just listened to music for a good 4 hours. Straight. Given that Chris and I are singers, we wouldn't be surprised if he's naturally musical. 

Though Chris has introduced Jamisen to cartoons on his iPhone, Jamisen still loves reading. Nanny McKenna is a big fan of reading and it's a beautiful thing. She's been with our family almost 4 years and we love having her as a trusted family member. 

Happy Halloween!

It’s been a busy week – between a business trip (more on that later) and Halloween, life has been full. The most important thing for the kids was HHalloween Jamisen asked, “Why do people just give us candy on Halloween?” He was confused, but delighted. Miss Lily went as a pink poodle and I went as a Elphaba-inspired witch. I’m glad I didn’t go for the full green face paint because the little bit I did indulge in took quite some time to wash off. I still have glitters in all the crevices of my wrinkles today!

Baby Alise joined us for the fun as well. We are so happy to have a new baby in the family that when Cheriss and Erik bring her over for a visit, neither of them get to hold her because Jamisen and I have stolen her away. =) Jamisen was a very happy Clifford the Dog – though when people on the street complimented him on being Clifford, he would shout, “No! My name is Jamisen!” He didn’t seem to “get” the whole idea of the costume.

The sweetest baby dino and dog hug ever. Jamisen loves his baby cousin Alise. And, we can tell that she loves him right back. 

Jamisen's got nothin' on his Mama though who can't get enough of baby Alise always. I'm pretty sure hugs from Baby Alise are the only thing saving Chris from having to produce another baby sister in the family.

I went full on Elphaba from Wicked for my witches costume this year. Having seen Wicked 3 times, including on Broadway, it was a no brainer to pay homage to her while also not painting myself entirely green. 

Baby Lily was remarkably patient during the face painting process, showing a gentle curiosity about her surroundings and looking straight at the painter. She got lots of compliments. 

We all walked down to Fairhaven from my friend Sarah's house, to do the trick'or'treating that the merchants put on. 

Little Clifford held my hand tightly the entire time.

Lily really got into character, licking random posts...

The two babies, safely in loving parental arms. 

Baby Alise was the cutest dinosaur the world has ever seen (except for Jamisen last year of course; she ties with him) and played along admirably considering that it was cold, she can't eat any candy and she was wearing a tail.

Our entire merry group of candy gobblers. 

Jamisen was a little unsure about the crowds. He held very very tight to my hand the entire time and would not let go. If I ever tried to even step away for an instant, he became unsure and upset.  Thankfully, he had the promise of candy to help get him through this difficult time in his life.

Speaking of candy ... the kids ate it on Halloween night and never had any more of it. We still have all of it stashed. OH! And some VERY RUDE teenagers stole ALL of the candy from the porch at our house as I was putting Lily to sleep. I could hear them swearing with triumph as they dumped the ENTIRE BOWL into their little grubby little bags. I was so disheartened and irritated. Rude little buggers, and in this neighborhood! Dar!

Back to our perfect little children who will never dream of stealing an entire bowl of candy set out for others ...  The kids didn’t make it longer than 90 minutes of trick’or’treating and also didn’t want to walk much more. Thank goodness for Daddy’s strong arms, right?

What a fantastic night, and an amazing party. We are so thankful for our friends who hosted and our lovely cousin who also came out with us. Jamisen is especially thankful for the entire experience since he's never been exposed to that much sugar in his entire life. I'm thankful that day only comes once a year. Until next year, it's back to kale and apples for us all. 

First School Photos + Mama Travel

Jamisen got his school photos taken this week. The smile that the photographer got out of him is impressive considering that the smile he’s exhibiting below is his typical smile when you ask him to pose for the camera.

Apparently the awesome grimace smile is totally normal and natural for kids this age so we’re not saying a word about it. According to this crowd sourced blog post, he’ll totally grow out of it (probably right about the time his sister is growing into it).

I spent part of the week in Las Vegas at the Fortune Magazine Growth Conference.  The Fortune Growth Summit brings together many of the top business book authors and speakers to inspire, share and teach entrepreneurs and their teams about business, managing teams, customer service and marketing. One of the speakers was Kevin Harrington, from Shark Tank. He spoke on the importance of brainstorming and innovation with teams – and laid out how to use a Shark Tank ‘like’ process at your company.

Fortune magazine interviewed me. It was fun to talk about Bramble Berry and how the company got started, trials and successes along the way and where we are going as a company. 

Thank goodness for technology. I was able to Facetime with the kids daily. Lily wasn’t so thrilled I was gone. This is an actual screenshot of our ‘conversation.’ She’s getting some good words down now, blurting out things like “diaper” and “hot” and getting her points across well. Jamisen is more used to my travel and seemed to take it in stride. Thank goodness for Chris who keeps it all going while I’m gone.

We launched the Handmade Beauty Box Kickstarter on the last day of the conference. I was in constant communication with the team and when we had met our goal and blew past it in the first 11 hours (You like us! You really really like us!), the Fortune team asked me to talk about how we had priced the Kickstarter and why we had a $1000 option on the Kickstarter menu. The answer? We had the $1000 option because of the Robert Cialdini and Steve Martin research about pricing strategy and the importance of having an ‘anchor’. There’s a great podcast of Robert Cialdini describing this principle here or skim this blog post and pay attention to #2.

Then it was home to my little ones to reconnect, laugh, play on the floor and yes, also have lots of time outs for Jamisen who remains in the throes of the ‘Terrifically Terrifying Threes!’  Also, the photo may look super idyllic and happy but Lily squirmed out of there about 15 seconds later because she still has the attention span of a gnat, or a typical 18 month old.

Next blog post is all about Halloween! 

Fall Sun, Perch 'n' Play and Cousin Alise

Jamisen and Lily play super well together, most of the time. Here Jamisen is teaching Lily how to soak herself on the one sunny day of Fall.

Jamisen LOVES being a big helper with cleaning. He has the mops and brooms out and is happily helping clean the floor on his own. He's going to make someone a good husband one day!

We were so happy and thankful that Grandpa Winston was able to come visit us for a play date. He came bearing chocolate and the kids were thrilled about that. 

Jamisen acting goofy at the Perch 'n' Play owl =)

On rainy Fall days, Perch 'n' Play is the place to be. They have food for the kids and so many great things to play with that keep both Jamisen and Lily fully entertained and engaged. 

 Baby Alise came to visit and we know just who her biggest fan is! Jamisen loves that little girl so much. He's extremely protective of her - which is funny because he doesn't act quite the same towards Lily as he does towards Baby Alise. 

Lily has learned to put on her own hat. She just puts it on and takes it off all the time. It's adorable. 

We were so happy that Allison came to visit us. She came bearing gifts as well and the kids were thrilled with the thoughtful books she brought. 

Jamisen trying out the hair dryer and finding it somewhat confusing. 

We had a table at the annual Blue Skies for Children auction. It was great to get dressed up and hang out with 12 of our closest friends, including Stephanie, Patrice and Lisa above. 

Our latest division has started. Here's a peek at Handmade Beauty Box's temporary warehouse. They're sharing it with the Bramble Berry South Warehouse until we can find them suitable digs. The latest lease negotiations for a new place fell through so the entire team is being super flexible and awesome with figuring out how how to fit the HBB operation into the normal BB warehouse needs.