Theme: Harvest and Bloom

Location: The Rainforest Retreat, Seattle

Year: 2024

Art: Paul McGhee

Invite Backstory:

Interestingly, if you don’t harvest artichokes they bloom into beautiful purple flowers. Much like with our kids - our work raising them is mostly done. The harvest is in and now we watch them bloom.

You’ll notice that the Artichoke lady is in bloom with her purple cap. I had envisioned her wearing a slinky beret but it looked like a sausage on her head so I found an image I could draw - a baseball cap.

This is the fourth entrant in the family series.

Party Highlights

This party started 4 weeks early when a college friend from Oregon arrived with her daughter thinking it was party day. It was a great surprise and we had fun catching up in the garden. And then a batch of ATOs - including the great Alaa Ismail, who was an ‘All 10’ sweatshirt winner - came 2 days early so we got to catch up over some low-end liquids at a local brew pub and warm up for the party

The kids really delivered on this party. Greer managed the pizza oven for the traveler dinner, John again managed the Slippery slide during the party and Skye launched the Rootbeer float stand with her school friends.

We brought back the Party Map to make sure everyone knew the 10 key party stops they needed to make, including stops at the blackberry and strawberry bushes and the apple tree.

I had been getting party-themed shirts printed out before the party and would wear them with the great artichoke hat that my brother Charles made (see AM #10) so I never need to wear anything else when I’m not at work (sampling below).

My siblings that couldn’t make the party asked for a recap and so I made them a video (below) - it will give you a feel for the party and hopefully motivate you to come to #18. See you there!