A year of growth

I am way behind on writing my blog.  No excuses or reasons why I haven't been writing, it just hasn't been happening.  I guess its good that I don't feel obligated or burdened to keep it going.  It is what it is.

However, I do love that this has become a diary of sorts for me. I enjoy documenting the small and big things that happen in our lives.  Because its all of these moments that make up our years.  I have experienced that as the years fly by (time really does go fast), most of the day-to-day becomes a blur.  When you leave one stage and enter another, your whole world becomes that stage at that very moment.  It's so easy to forget what came before.  My family and I love being able to look back and remember the craziness, the happiness, and how far we've come from the more challenging times.

In an attempt to catch up on the last several weeks, here goes:

Ian's Bar Mitzvah project had a phenomenal ending.  He wanted to participate in a walk and raise money for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) in honor of his grandmother (my mother) who has Type 1 diabetes.  We formed a team and walked on June 3rd in Washington DC.  Through many generous donations, Ian raised $1,700 dollars!  One of the cooler things to have happened was when we somehow won a contest we didn't know we had even entered for raising the most money during a particular week.  The winner and the rest of their team gets to hold the American Flag during the National Anthem at the kick-off ceremony.  How cool is that?     

As you can see from the photos, it was raining, even pouring at times and we got soaked.  We didn't turn down our opportunity to hold the flag.  It was such a cool thing and really made our whole experience.

For 11 months prior to Ian's Bar Mitzvah, he participated in weekly tutoring sessions to prepare for the big day.  At 6 weeks out, Ian's sessions with his tutor became 2x a week. It's a lot of work.  The woman who was assigned to be Ian's tutor was wonderful with him. I took a picture of the two of them together on the first session Ian had and the last one, 11 months later.  Look at how much Ian grew in the year!

June 2017

May 2018

And that is my final thoughts having to do with Ian's Bar Mitzvah.   ;)   Stay tuned for more updates on many other things in the coming weeks.  

Simcha, part 3

Once services at the synagogue ended, it was time to celebrate!  We planned a party for Saturday night at the Maggiano's in Tyson's Galleria.  They have a set of banquet rooms that can open up for as big of a space as you need it.   We used 5 rooms and was pretty much at max capacity with our 127 guests.  Our theme for the evening was "Casino and Games".  We had 2 black jack tables, 2 poker tables, 1 roulette wheel, a 4 person Pac-man game, a Foosball table and double shot (which is a 2 person basket ball throwing game).

Every guest got $25,000 in fake money to gamble with.  At the end of a 3 hour time span, the casino and games would shut down and you would get a raffle ticket for every $10,000 you had remaining.  Even if you blew through all your money, you still got one raffle ticket. We had five baskets in various themes that you could put a raffle ticket in and try to win.  At the end of the evening, Ian picked a winner from each fishbowl and gave the basket to them. 

The five baskets' themes were: 
-Lazy Sunday Morning (specialty teas, scone mix, starbucks gift car, starbucks hot/cold travel mug, and hot chocolate flavored spoons),
-Game On! (Dave and Buster's gift card, Huge Puzzle book, mini Pac-man machine, and Uno cards),
-With a Cherry on Top (Cold Stone gift card, 4 ice cream cone shaped ceramic bowls with spoons, ice cream scooper and a container of sprinkles),
-Chillaxin on a Saturday Night (Regal cinema gift card, microwave popcorn maker, popcorn kernels, and popcorn seasoning salts)
-All About George (filled with an undisclosed amount of $1 bills - there was $75 of them)

Jeff, Ian and I didn't really want go the DJ route.  Every party Ian has attended has done a DJ and we really wanted to do something that was a bit more unique.  Additionally, the DJ is usually loud (very loud in some instances) and the adults can't really have a conversation without talking very loudly.  Most DJs are geared to focusing on keeping the kids entertained and that is completely fine,  as this is a party for the Bar Mitzvah kid.  However, this tends to leave the adults off the dance floor while games are being played and orchestrated by the DJ and his crew.

As we were coming up with ideas on what we wanted Ian's party to be, it was like a light bulb went off at the same time for all of us.  The casino and games theme was just the unique thing we were looking for that would be entertaining for both the adults and kids.

We had fun carrying the theme throughout the evening.  We had custom decks of playing cards made and used the back of the box as a place card for our guests. 

 


The cake had a casino theme with fondant dice, chips, and playing cards.

The centerpieces were a work of art (if I do say so myself) with a martini glass filled with either dice or poker chips set on a mirror base.  There was confetti that had the heart, spade, diamond, clubs, "IAN", and "13" decorating the base.  Additionally, there were 3 balloons attached to each martini glass with a string of lights so it looked like the balloons were floating on the lights.

 It was a Mazer team effort getting the room set-up and ready in time.  Everyone played an important part and together we got it done (without a moment to spare!).  Here is a great picture of my dad and stepdad holding all the balloons until we could grab a few to put in place and come back for some more.

And along the perimeter of the room were big 22'' mylar balloon in the shape/design of queen of hearts, king of spades, and all the suits of cards.  These balloons were anchored with the string of lights too.

In addition to the casino and games, we also had a green screen photo booth.  This was a special request by Ian.  The photographer put together an album for Ian with a copy of every picture taken.  When looking thru the album, I hardly saw any pictures of Ian and his friends.  I asked him why this was and replied with, "They didn't want to leave the casino tables."    That is a sign of a successful event!

These are all the photos I can share until the photographer sends me the photos she took.  I didn't take any pictures all day!  I think everyone had a good time.  Honestly, the day went by so incredibly fast and I felt like in the span of a finger snap the 4 hour party was all of 30 seconds long.  It probably didn't help much that I had 3 cosmopolitans and 1 white Russian to drink.  But after a long, long day, it felt good to have a few.  ;)

A part of me wishes we could go back in time and I could attend the day's events as a guest.

Simcha, part 2

Once I officially finished working for The Crazy Man in early January, I was able to transition into Bar Mitzvah planning mode with my free afternoons.  It became my part-time job and I soon ate, slept, breathed all things Bar Mitzvah.  My mindset quickly became something of "Before Bar Mitzvah" and "After Bar Mitzvah".   Life for me didn't exist after May 12 and I knew if I could just make it to the magical day, I'd be able to resume my regular routine and start making all my crazy plans again. Kids wanted to know when they were going to Orlando in the Summer?  Sorry, ask me that again on May 13th.  Jeff wanted to plan our road trip to take the kids to camp at the end of July?  Nope!  We can figure it out after May 12th.  Get my car in for an oil change?  No way, José.  I'll wait until the week after May 12th.  I needed to make plans to see some girlfriends for a birthday dinner?  Sure, I'm available - NOTHING had been scheduled after May 12th. I knew my calendar was open.  Ask me where they decided to go eat?  No clue.  I'll find out after May 12th.  Every spare moment was spent strategizing and figuring out the best way to execute my vision.  Whether it was realistic to pull off or completely crazy for me to think this would work, I was determined to see it thru.  And let me tell you Amazon was around for all of it.  I knew I had a hard stop two days before Saturday, May 12th.  That's when you can no longer get things in their famously known 2 day shipping policy for prime members. 

I rediscovered something about myself that I knew and hadn't experienced in some time.  As I get closer and closer to a really important day, my mind goes into overdrive while I'm sleeping and I get some crazy nightmares.  In no particular order here are some of the crazier ones I remembered.

1. I get glaucoma and can't see a thing on May 12th.  I am running around town trying to find someone to do emergency glaucoma surgery hours before services are scheduled to start. 

2.  I had booked my photographer back in October.  There was no reason to keep in contact with her until early May when we'd touch base again.  In my nightmare, the photographer had died and no one told me.  I didn't find out until May 11th when the family was at the synagogue ready to take pictures.

3. There was a little person convention in the hotel family and friends were staying at.  The lobby was packed solid with midgets and the family couldn't get thru the crowd to exit the hotel and make it to services.

Now, you have to understand, while I know during waking hours, these are absolutely absurd to think it would occur, in my sleep I am actually panicking and freaking out. Ah, how wonderful is our subconscious?

I think the reason I had much anxiety imagining everything that could go wrong is because you only get one chance to get it right.  Ian is never having another bar mitzvah.  And there is so much that is out of your control that you have to hope all the planning and preparation is enough to see you thru to a successful event.

I can't keep a plant alive, but I now have a son who can read from the Torah. That's pretty cool!   At the end of the day, that's all that matters.  While the party was fun and its a great thing to celebrate with all your friends and family, you can't lose sight on why you are there in the first place.

Simcha

"Simcha" is a Hebrew word that means gladness or joy.  It's also used to describe a Jewish private party or celebration.

Ian's Hebrew name is Simcha.  How fortuitous of us to have given Ian this as his Hebrew name.  One week ago, we experienced the greatest of simchas when Ian became a bar mitzvah.  It is pretty spectacular as a parent to see your baby grow and 13 years later be standing on the Bimah in front of a congregation of over 300 people. 

There is so much preparation that proceeds this day.  Since Kindergarten, Ian has attended religious school during the school year (3 hours every Sunday and 2 hours every Tuesday afternoon).  In addition, the 10 months leading up to his Bar Mitzvah date, he attended a weekly tutoring session to specifically work on the readings of the Torah and the various prayers he will be in charge of reciting.  And let's not forget, 6 weeks out, those tutoring sessions are expanded to 2 times a week; bringing the days we are at the synagogue to 5 different visits each week.  The amount of time and work put into making the big day goes as smooth and polished as possible is nothing short of mind-blowing.  Then when you throw in starting middle school, keeping up with school and it's demands, any extracurricular activities kids are partaking in, it becomes a stressful and taxing year.  I'm not going to lie, we had our moments where Ian's attitude was less than stellar and he couldn't take much more.  But somehow he persevered and did us all proud.  So proud.   Ian was poised, confident, articulate, and simply outstanding.  There have been many times over the years that I've been proud of Ian.  But May 12, 2018 is now topping my list.

What they don't tell the parents is that when your child is in front of the congregation, you are watching your child while holding your breath.  You know they know the prayers and readings and practiced their speech many times, but you just don't know how they will hold it together in front of so many people and having all their eyes on you.  There is no practice session for that.  Ian presented himself as if he had been in this position dozens of times. If he was nervous, he didn't show it.  If wanted to fidget or get antsy, he didn't let it happen.  

I absolutely loved looking out into the congregation and seeing so many family and friends sitting among the regular congregants.  It was so nice to feel the love and be surrounded with all this wonderful support.

No matter what life throws Ian's way over the years, he will always be able to look back and take pride on how he rose to the occasion and hit it out of the ballpark.  He can draw upon his experience and take whatever confidence or work is needed and know that he is capable.  More than capable.  Because if you can do it once (at age 13 no less!), you know its in you to do it again.

What a special day for us all to witness.

We gave Ian the choice to continue his religious education or take a long, long, long (as long as he wants to) break.  Ian has opted to continue.  Jeff and I are delighted.  This exceeds our expectations.   He has a great group of friends through the religious school and its so cool to see him want to continue.