Flickr, blog traffic and being a terrible bachelor

I've updated my Fun Ephemera photoset with some fun and colorful illustrations from a couple of maps and brochures that are a part of my collection. I've also added a new photoset called Fun Vinyl, which is, of course, lp's and 45's that offer some whimsical cover artwork. It's a modest set right now, but I plan on adding more later.

Side note: I've been getting some nice traffic my way the past couple of days thanks to a couple of different sources. First of all, big thanks to Amid at Cartoon Brew for posting about Lou's passing and linking my tribute to him. Oh, and hey -- many thanks guys, for the comments regarding Lou. Even if you didn't know the guy, it was very cool to read your thoughts and words. It was also nice to see a couple of friends: Robert Pope, Dan O'Connor and good ol' Dave Strandquest. Dave has that fun animation site, Strangetoons, which hosts a gallery of my work, including one of my two animated short films, Noir. Whadda guy.

Big ups to Allan L. for posting my how-to on my Black & White entry I did for Illustration Friday last week up on the famous GigPosters Forum. You can check out the post HERE. Thanks, Al. Got lots of cool hip kids coming by and checking out the blog now. Looks like I'll have to go and get a tattoo. Gotta keep up with these crazy kids these days.

Speaking of kids, I'm missing the heck out of mine. The same goes for my wife, who refuses to think that I'm not having the time of my life without her and the little ones here. Reality check: I'm bored outta my skull. Nothing to do. I did go see two interesting movies last night, but that's been pretty much it. Plus, It's weird to wake up and not have to worry about where the kids are and who needs breakfast, what are they going to wear for the day, diapers to be changed, etc. I thought that since no wife and no kids that I'd be able to get up earlier and get to work on time (for once), but no. Instead, complacency has set in and I roll out of bed about the time I'm supposed to be at work. I totally relied on Ezra to be my human alarm clock, but now that he and the crew are up north visiting family, I'm left to my own devices. Which isn't saying much.

Without all the hustle and bustle of little beings in the house, you begin to realize how much they are the heart and soul of our home. And I begin to see how much I desperately need that commotion in the morning to get me through the day. Before, I was my own purpose. It was all about me. But now, others depend on me and they become my purpose in life. I live for them, my loved ones. Right now, I've temporarily lost my purpose. And it's a bit jarring.

Jeez, I should go to bed now. What am I doing still up? No wonder I'm getting up late.

I'm a big boring slob without my family. I'm a poor excuse for a bachelor.

Oh, and yes, Jan, I'm with you -- I miss hulaseventy, too.

Ava Thursday: First Rainbow

Click on painting for a closer look.

Ava painted this at The High Museum of Art at their 'Toddler Thursday' program, on March 20, 2003. She was 2 and a half. Andrea would take her to the weekly program which used to be free, but then the museum got greedy and started charging parents 10 bucks each. Why would they do that? Anyway, it was 'shapes and colors' day. This painting is special to us as it was Ava's first rainbow she ever painted. It's the large pinkish arc at the top of the page there.

Rainbows are remarkable things, aren't they?

(By the way, I've now changed the titles for the selections in the pull-down menu for Ava Thursday over in the right column. Instead of dates, you can now choose based on the actual titles, so as to know exactly which piece of artwork you're choosing. Hope it's easier for you all now.)

Louie

I first met Lou Hertz in the fall of 1995, in the lobby of DesignEFX, a (now defunct) animation/design house here in Atlanta (part of Crawford Communications), as I was in the midst of networking and desperately trying to find a job in the local animation scene. I had heard about DesignEFX through word-of-mouth and by seeing their work while working as a tape op at a film production/editing company, Majick Lantern. I was very impressed with the quality of work, and thus, I knew that I had to get my foot in that animation door, somehow. I began to ask around about who to talk to in getting an internship at DesignEFX, but I soon realized that I didn't have to ask too many people, as everyone knew Lou. "Talk to Lou," was the usual mantra I heard.

And so I called him. Getting his answering machine, I left a message. No reply. I called again the next day: answering machine. I decided not to leave a message this time for fear of coming across as TOO desperate. Still no response. So I waited for two days and called again: answering machine. At this point, I began to think, "He's so busy, he probably doesn't have the time to talk to a silly, young & naïve animator, fresh from graduation," but actually Lou was a very, very busy guy. I left a message and went about my business. Finally! he called me back and told me to come on in to show him my stuff. I was elated.

It was all set: I would come in, show Lou my resumé, we'd go over my portfolio, and have him take a look at my (meager) demo tape, and then I would be on my way. I was psyched.

As I was waiting in the lobby, I happened to thumb through some of the trade magazines they had on the coffee table in front of me. Soon I realized that all these mags had some article about DesignEFX, or mentioned some award that they had won recently: Clio, BDA, etc. I started to get a little nervous. Man, these guys are top-notch, I thought to myself. In came Lou.

"Hey there! I'm sorry I'm late, I just had a heck of day already!" he said with a thick Alabamian accent. I had not expected an older, graying man in his 60's. When I talked to him on the phone, he had this bold and youthful voice, so I figured that he was maybe in his 40's or possibly early 50's. But not some old dude! I was a little taken aback, but when he shook my hand and showed me around the place, he had this youthful energy about him. He was young at heart, and it was infectious. As we walked, I handed him my resumé, which had taken me quite a while to finesse and print out. He took one look at it, suddenly folded it -- TWICE -- and put it in his back pocket. I was a bit appalled by that action, but I figured, oh, what do I know, maybe that's the way they do it in The Biz.

The 2D animation department was located back in the warehouse of a former store, part of a small strip-mall of sorts. It was located off-campus, so to speak, far far away from all the busy-bee activities of the broadcast production world that consumed the main building. That was a blessing, I was told later. After walking past a couple of impromptu offices, filled with programmers, we finally entered the slight hole-in-the-wall corner that housed the animation department. I was so excited to meet actual animators, as such a creature was a rare find. And there they were, busily working, flipping, and drawing on animation discs, which I had only seen in Frank & Ollie's The Illusion of Life. I started to get more nervous. These guys were professionals! They do work that wins awards! Better yet, they do work that is seen on TV! My mind was racing.

Lou then introduced me to the group, "Hey guys, guys -- this here's Ward. He's gonna show us his portfolio!"

My heart sank. Us??? I thought to myself. I thought it was only going to be me and Lou! In his office! That's it! I can't possibly show these award-winning professional animators my feeble portfolio, filled with asinine scratchy gesture drawings and ignorant character designs! Sheesh.... I reluctantly opened my portfolio and turned the pages. As I did, I felt sweat stream from my armpit, down my side. Literally. I was doomed.

The guys were very nice in their comments about my work, but I wasn't ready for what was next.

"Okay, now. Let's take a look at your demo tape!" Oh dear Lord, help me.... Again, the guys were gracious in what they said about my work on screen, considering that it was a simple, one-minute animated short, shot on 8mm film, videotaped while being projected up on a wall at school (apparently I fooled them all), but I was dripping with sweat by the end of it.

Even though I had expected to show my work to Lou in a private manner, I did see Lou's intentions after looking back on it all. Animation is a communal art-form, employing many to complete one job. There is a common bond that we all possess, bringing us all together like a team. And so, Lou was basically introducing me to the team. If I was to be a part of this team some day, I should meet them now, and they should see what I can offer.

------

Lou Hertz had a great sense of humor, always the butt of his own jokes. He loved animation -- all forms of it -- even after being in it for so many years. It was as if he was always fascinated by the business, always in a state of wonder by it all. Eager to please, and never one to complain about the smallest of concerns, Lou was a great father-figure to many in this town, including me. With his aforementioned jovial voice, and his down-home sense of humor, Lou made you feel like you were family. Whether it was some odd story about growing up in Alabama, outhouse ethics, working at UPA, washing cels -- you just knew that you were in for an interesting conversation with Lou. I loved the way he addressed you as a friend, with his signature, "boobie."

"No problem, boobie!"

Lou gave me my very first job as an animator. I am forever indebted to him.


Lou, you will be sorely missed. Thanks for everything.

------
UPDATE: The Atlanta Journal & Constitution did a nice write-up on Lou. You can read it HERE.

Louis O. Hertz: 1931-2005

I've received some bad news this morning. Lou Hertz, lifeline of the animation scene here in Atlanta, has passed away. He died yesterday at home with his family by his side. I'm at a loss of words here, so just go here for his obituary in the paper. I want to write more, but I need to gather my thoughts.

Lou, we'll miss you, boobie.

Heads up

So, I'm finding myself bachelor-ing it this coming week, and I'm torn. I'll be missing the heck outta my family and be seriously bored to tears when they're gone, but on the other hand, I'll have some time to finally get to posts that I've been putting off for a very long time. See, when I come home from work, I just wanna hang with the kids and Andrea. That's it. That's my refuge. The only time I actually feel up to posting anything is late late at night, when everybody's asleep. And quite often, I fall asleep while trying to write something out. A sign of getting old, I'm told.

So, who knows what's in store for you guys this week? Hmmm? Curious?

Ava Thursday: Spaceships and Mommy

Click on image for a closer look at the alien onslaught!

And now, another edition of Ava Thursday, wherein I showcase a drawing by my 4 1/2 year-old daugher, Ava, every Thursday. She's a talented little girl, and I'm a very proud father.

This week's drawing is from November of last year, when Ava's cousins, Naomi and Matt, came into town to visit for the holidays. Up until the visit, Ava's drawings were getting a bit more elaborate with the attention to detail increasing slightly. But when she and Matt sat down one day with some paper and crayons, the creativity in her drawings afterwards increased ten-fold. Ava's always been an observant one, often mimicking various shapes and character details from my drawings into her own. So here, she watched Matt draw these fantastical scenes of buildings being attacked by UFOs and aliens in spaceships, which was quite a change from Ava's own usual scenarios of girls in dresses, flowers, and sparkly shoes. I can only imagine what was going on in that bright little head of hers upon seeing the barrage of action and landscapes that cousin Matthew presented to her on that day.

Afterwards, Ava created some of her own spaceship scenes, with this particular one featuring mommy, obviously distraught over these unwanted, flying visitors destroying our house with their laser beams. That's a car to the left of the house, by the way.

Abundant Linkage 3

Figured I'd pass on some more links I've unearthed throughout my cyber-travels of recent. Bonus points for those who might've noticed a couple of new changes along with some new links over on the right column there. I've been meaning to clean up some of the links, with easier catagories to sort through, but in the meantime, I decided to add a new catagory that is a bit close to my heart: All about me. Since this is my own blog, I realized I did not have a particular area for those who are unfamiliar with who I am and what I do. So, you can now check out a couple of links that showcase my work, my photos, my wife's blog, and my workplace. Nothing like a good ol' fashioned big, fat ego, eh?

Onto the new links:

In Animationblogs, there are a couple of blogs that I check out from time-to-time, as some of these guys have some good things to say about the industry. Keith Lango is an animator from Dallas, Texas, who updates his blog very regularly. He even offers some tutorials on a subscriber basis, and better yet, some of the tutorials are available in several different languages. Great job, Keith!

Notorious Newsquirt is the moniker of Jason Newkirk, a 3D animator from Seattle, Washington. He's been in the gaming industry for 8 years. Give him a pound, y'all.

And now, with the advent of blogs, it was only a matter of time before the people behind the production of animation for TV would pick up on the phenomenon and start their own production blogs, or "plogs." The first, of course, is Lili and Eddie's Fwak! Blog, which pretty much was there from the beginning, before everybody got on the bloggity-blogging bandwagon (including me). Now, we have The Wubblog, and The Teenage Roblog. All are fascinating in checking out the inspirations, the progress, the people involved in the making of a particular show.

In the Artblogs section, be sure to check out Snyde Remarks, the blog to artist/illustrator Csnyde (not sure how to list that name). Also, how can I not mention my good internet-pal, Steve Mack? Steve has a great blog, showcasing his latest work (most notably, his Illustration Friday submissions) at Spot Illustration. Go there, NOW.

I just recently posted on Drawn!, a fantastic artist who's the artistic director and background designer for such shows as Samurai Jack and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Dan Krall. Wonderful paintings with great style and flair. I especially love his drawings and caricatures, as he definitely has a Ronald Searle feel to them. And I love Searle with his scathingly funny drawings. (Another site about Searle HERE.) Krall's caricatures of celebrities are stretched and pulled, with no holds barred: the way any good caricaturist should be with their subjects. No holding back. Al Hirschfeld, considered one of the best caricaturists that ever lived, didn't hold back and he did his thing for about 80 years.

I've added a new link catagory: Art Minded -- of, or having to do with sites that are anything art-related, such as artists, illustrators, and animators who do the art-thing on the side. I've had the great luxury of interacting with some of these wonderful artists, such as Jen Lerew, Steve Mack, Nathan Mazur (Scared of Bees), and Paige Pooler, through my blog. Some wonderfully gifted people with fabulous personalities. I'm honored to know them. (You gotta love the internet.) Anyway, I know that there's a lot of leeway here in trying to figure out where do I draw the line between artist and animator, but like I said, I might have to do some more organizing in this matter. In the meantime, please check out some great work by these fantastic artists I've featured here. I'll definitely be updating this section periodically, so be sure to check back often.

Hey --where are the dance blogs? Anybody? If you're into dance, be sure to check out my wife's blog, hula seventy, as she has a couple of links to dance companies and dancers who've inspired her and who deserve more exposure than they're probably getting. We're talking modern dance and the power of movement here. I've seen some of the dancers she's linked in motion, and they are indeed impressive. Give them some love.

Gotta run.

A How-to on Black & White

As promised, I thought I'd show you guys a little "how-to" on the thought processes for my recent Illustration Friday piece, Black & White. You can add this to your Special Edition Ward-O-Matic files, I guess. Since I did not record my progress when I initially worked on this piece, I tried to replicate the steps here the best I could.

First, the concept. I immediately thought of a film noir scene when I first read of the week's theme, black & white, and so, being that I had recently wrote about Frank Miller's Sin City, I wanted to get real dark and gritty. I wanted to go to both extremes with the tone, from bright whites to jet blacks, from bright lights to sunken shadows. So, what a better setting to convey this type of scene, than in a bar? I sketched this guy out with my red Col-Erase pencil on animation paper on the second try, and then scanned him in at 150 dpi (300 dpi is normal for print and such, but since I knew this would be on the web, I figured there's no need for him to take up too much space in my computer), and tweaked levels to darken the subtle lines. I need as much of the pencil lines as possible before my next stage. (Most of these images are clickable for larger views.)



Next, I want to get rid of all the whites, so I can have freedom in painting and coloring. Where I work, Primal Screen, we have all these Photoshop actions for various cel-oriented jobs, and one of them is a "delete whites" action. I went in and tweaked the action so it would better suit my needs and came up with this: before I do anything, I make a copy of the background layer (the layer your current image is on), and then select the top layer and go under Select=Load Selection... If all goes well, I usually can just click "OK" and all the white is selected in that top layer. I then press "delete," and hopefully all the white in that layer is gone, including half-tone whites. See, getting rid of the half-tone whites is very important as that ugly halo effect will not be present if I just selected the white areas with the wand tool.

UPDATE: I found out that in order for the Select=Load Selection to work properly, the image must still be in "Greyscale" mode. Once you delete the whites, you can then convert the image to RGB or CMYK mode, whichever you prefer.



After deleting the bottom background layer, I add a new layer and place it under my image. I then click on the transparency lock for the top layer, which I now call my line layer. This will allow me to color only the line itself, and nothing else. Nice. Okay, so originally, my idea was to have a big diagonal black shadow run across the entire image, with only half of our friendless barfly visable. But as I am working on it, I realize that I'll lose some of the impact of the light coming in from the door. Anyway, I select my bottom layer and go ahead and fill in the area on the right in black, and fill in the rest with white. This bottom layer is now my color layer.



Next, I select the top line layer and then grab my trusty pastel brush over in the brush tool menu. It's about two-thirds down. I use the eyedropper to select the white for my brush and then start to color in the line that's now in the black area, to white. After this, I start to have some fun. Back on my bottom color layer, I go back and forth between black and white and start to work with the pastel brush to get a good idea of shading and lighting. How much am I willing to go with the shadows? Should I make the entire room black? Should I have a harsh light emit from the one window in the door? How harsh should this light be? All these questions go through my mind, plus more.



As I was working on this piece, I started to realize that the more lines I hid, the stronger the image got. If you'll notice in the final image, the guy's head in shadow has only a few highlights of lines to denote his hair and ear. I figured that the audience will know that his head continues back there, so why should I have to show all the lines? To do this, I did NOT erase the linework, but instead colored it black. That way, if I changed my mind later on, I still had the artwork intact. And by the way, I did not use the airbrush brush at all, only the pastel brush to do all my coloring -- background color and line color. I try my best to stay away from the default airbrush they give you in Photoshop as it tends to look too "computer-y" (except in a few situations where it's called for). It's too perfect. Here, I wanted a human element involved, to make it look like someone got their fingers all smeared with charcoal or pastels.



As I work, I start to get a feel for the setting, the overall ambience of the place, and try to get that feeling across through my brushstrokes. At first, I want to show all the smoke in pure white, but once I darken part of it on the right side, it somehow feels better to me. It looks "right," somehow, and I leave it be. Sometimes initial ideas don't always work out the way you imagined it in your head. (Remember that big idea I had earllier, with that diagonal shadow splitting the image in half?)

So, alas, we have here the final image, after much tweaking and noodling. Of course, the more I look at this, the more things I want to change. Why is that always the case?

Ava Thursday: Runny noses

As for our sweet little artist and her doodle for the day, this was a drawing she did some time ago, maybe when she was 2 1/2. She was on this head kick, where she would draw heads all the time. The way she drew them was always the same: circle for the head first, then the circles for the eyes and nose. Line for the mouth next, and then she'd scribble in the hair and color in the features. Occasionally, she'd add some details at this stage, and here, she drew lines coming from the noses of two of her subjects, denoting runny noses. From left to right, this is Nani (my mom), Naomi and Ava (with runny noses), and Matt. Naomi and Matt are Ava's much-adored cousins who live in Indiana.

Illustration Friday: Black & White

Click on image for a closer look!

Black & white is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday, and so I just had to do it. I eeked out minutes here and there, spanning a couple of days, to work on it. Just a simple scene of some dude at a bar. That's all. Kinda dark bar, but that's the way those places usually seem to me, anyway. That is, if I ever find myself in one. Not much of a drinker, so this kind of environment is so foreign to me. Plus, I wanted to evoke the look of film noir a bit, with the harsh darks and spot lighting. I had fun with this IF entry.

UPDATE: See how I did this piece with a How-to!

Out of the mouth of babes...

There's been about three or four times in the past two months where Michael Jackson is shown on TV, in full bizarro regalia, umbrella and all, and Ava turns to us and sweetly asks, "What's her name?"

To which, one of us replies, "Well, ummm..." and diverts her attention with either a Polly Pocket, princess Barbie, or some pretty pink coloring book, as the other quickly changes the channel.

Oh to be a father

Can I just say how lucky I am to have the best kids known to mankind? And the best wife ever? Yeah, yeah, what great sentimental overdramatic pap I'm pumping out right now, but I'm on a post-Father's day high and there's no stoppin' me now.

It's quite something to add a new label to your persona. When I became an uncle that was such a big emotional deal for me. The term "uncle" sounded so old and official. I was 25 at the time and the last I checked 25 wasn't at all old, nor was it official-sounding. You aren't just given a new label in life; It becomes you and forms you. Maybe I'm not that typical uncle that gives unnecessary advice, smokes Swisher Sweets, or somehow always needs a place to stay, borrowing money from your old pop time to time, but I did become that uncle that liked to act silly, make stupid faces, speak like Scooby-Doo on the phone for birthdays, become instant human monkey-bars, and draw funny pictures if poked and proded long enough. Throughout the years I've realized that once you're labelled something, it doesn't always have to be what the rest of the world expects from you. I know that my niece and nephew will look at me as the only Uncle Ward that they'll ever know, and that they'll love me for who I am.

Becoming a father was like that, but on a much larger scale. It literally took the wind out of my lungs once I saw Ava emerge from her mother and was held up in front of me to witness the beginning of a new, wonderful life. A new life!

A new baby is born! And thus: A new father is born! A new mother is born!

It was so overwhelming and so BIG at first. To have this little thing that you've helped create with someone you love so dearly, in your arms while she's sleeping for the first time in her entire life, well, that's just so HUGE. It's beyond comprehension. To hear the slight whistling of the air going through her tiny nose on her first night on earth: HUGE. To watch her eat for the first time: HUGE. To witness her eyes focusing on objects in front of her, to have her cling onto your index finger, which must seem like a treetrunk to her -- all of it monumental and larger than life itself.

Memories are fleeting, but there are a few moments in my burgeoning career as a father that stand out like tent-poles for me, and I will never forget them. Here are a few:

As I was holding Ava in my arms sometime during her first year, she began to study my face and slowly reached up and ran her pudgy little hands down my rough cheeks, both sides. She did this several times and I just melted right there on the spot. It was as if she was very intent on knowing who this strange person was who was holding her all the time, tickling her just to get her to laugh, making the crazyiest faces she's ever seen. The next day, I was beaming very loudly to everyone at work that they all must experience being a parent, as it's the best thing that's ever happened to me, period. I wanted every guy there to experience what I just experienced the day before. They all looked at me like I was nuts.

To hear Ava laugh is priceless. I made her laugh uncontrollably one night, while mom was out, teaching. It was just after Easter and Ava was almost 2 years-old. I placed one of those plastic eggs that you put candy in, in my mouth and spit it out in front of her. She laughed so much, it sounded like she couldn't breathe, as she would gasp in air with such gusto. It sounded like she was hyperventilating. It was so funny, I taped it so Andrea would see it when she got home.

To witness my two beautiful infants be born right in front of me was simply amazing. (Of course, the pain that Andrea had to endure was definitely not amazing, and she'll have to tell you the birthstories when she's good and ready.) Nothing can describe it. I still think about both wonderful events to this day.

I love hearing Ezra say his first word, "ball." It sounds right on some days, but sometimes it comes out sounding like, "ba, ba, bah." He'll reach out and try to grab the object that looks most like a ball or balloon, but is almost always beyond his reach. Sorry, kiddo. You can't havies.

---------------

My Father's Day was great. Got some wonderful artwork done by Ava, as well as a piece done by both Ava and her mommy, Andrea. I love these new drawings, but am conflicted about posting them, as I can't always share every single Ava drawing that's out there. There are some drawings that are meant for family, and family only, and I plan on respecting that. These drawings are precious, and I love them dearly.

Oh! -- I got some great presents, too. Thank you, Andrea, for making my Father's Day the best I've ever had. And thank you, Ava and Ezra, for making me so proud to be called father. I am truly blessed.

Ava Thursday: Baking Cookies

I love this drawing by Ava. The colors, the composition in the way she drew herself at an angle, almost as if she's in motion, the shapes, the objects on the ground -- all of it works for me. Ava took extra time in coloring all the stripes on the dress, and the effort shows. I wasn't able to get the story here from our little artist until I returned home from work, so that's why I was a little late in posting this. Ava tells me that this is her baking cookies, with a spoon in her right hand. Over on the far right, we see her red apron, with one of her brown shoes immediately to the left of it. Apparently Ava got so carried away with her baking, that she didn't even notice that she was half-barefooted. In front of her, on the ground are (from left to right): a cookie, sugar, and a bowl. I know, I know, the middle item looks more like a bowl, but I wasn't going to argue.

This is a slight departure from the way Ava's been drawing lately, but it's a welcome departure. The analogous colors are bolder and more aggressive, correlating with each other very nicely. Again, I love this picture.

Paper Arts & Crafts

What a great gem of a find. The title of this booklet caught my eye, while sifting through some dusty ephemera at this antiques market in Illinois. The bright reds and oranges were calling me, I guess. I wasn't expecting much, but when I picked it up and thumbed through it, I was pleasantly surprised to see all these wonderful spot illustrations spread throughout. And, again, there is no mention of who did the artwork, but I've seen the artist's work before. I'm guessing that this is late 50's, possibly '57 or '58.

If you'd like to see these images in a slideshow, check out my Flickr Fun Ephemera photoset, and click on the "View as slideshow" link in the upper-right. This photoset will be an on-going thing, with me updating it periodically, adding images from my vast collection of fun, quirky and interesting ephemera, when I get the chance. I'll upload the Busy Office, Busy People images into this set later on, as well as others I've posted here on The Ward-O-Matic. I'd like to have all my scanned wonders together in one place for everybody to check out. Hopefully, it'll be a source of inspiration for all of you who like this sort of thing.

Onto the images:









Because the two following images are horizontal, you don't really get a chance to fully appreciate the artwork. So click on them to view much larger versions:




Now, go and cut some paper!

Birthday Bash

The event was a success and the boy had a great time rubbing cake all over himself. If you're curious reading about all the sordid details, my dear wife has a nice write up at her blog. Andrea does tend to go a little overboard for birthdays and holidays, with all the decorations and gifts -- and she'll be the first to admit it, too --but I must say that to her credit, she's making these special moments quite memorable for our little ones. She's the keeper of traditions in her family, and without her, birthdays would be dull, boring affairs.

Andrea has an incredible creative spirit and a great knack for fun. Even though she's worn out by the end of the day from all the preparations, invitations, decorations, cake and presents, she never fails to achieve what she originally set out to do: make this day extra special for the one having a birthday. I love to see what she comes up with for each birthday, and with Ava's coming up in July, Lord only knows what amazing things will transpire that magical day.

And you just know that Andrea's love of birthdays and parties is rubbing off onto Ava....