Boo Boo's Birthday!

Steve and I have been looking forward to the day we can do a simple birthday party at home where the parents drop off their kiddos, we order pizza, play games, and call it good rather than rent out a place and spend a fortune.  We figured the 7th birthday would be a good start.  To make it easy we invited all the girls in Brooklynn's class for a Saturday afternoon party.  Brooklynn wanted an art theme, so I bought some canvases and setup our painting party.  How hard could it be to instruct a simple painting to 7 year-olds?  Little did I know........

We had 10 girls total and our "little" party turned into quite the production (doesn't it always?)  Steve assembled the easels (made out of donated pizza boxes - thanks to Pinterest).  I sewed together some easy aprons with the girls' names, and we made some paint brush Rice Krispies treats.  This would be easy peasy!  Four hours with 10 girls on a snowy afternoon would be a blast!

The cute little 1st graders soon turned into drama queen, emotional, screaming monsters running through our house.  The painting was fun, but it was difficult to instruct them all at different levels with the short attention spans.

All in all the owls turned out cute and the kids had a fun gift to take home.

After our pizza it was on to games.  The biggest success was the doughnuts on a string.  The kids had fun watching each other and the powdered sugar made it messy and even funnier!

Our innovative group that figured out the floor was much easier!

Cake time!

Present time

All I can say is that we were both ready for a drink and bed right after.  Brooklynn had her best bud, Adilan sleep over, and it was easy compared to the craziness we endured that afternoon!

On her actual birthday we all went to have lunch with Brooklynn.  It's always fun having lunch with her and having all the kids want to sit with us!

Then we went back to her class to hand out treats after they sang to her.  She absolutely loved it!  I know last year her teacher didn't make a big deal about birthdays, which I completely understood, but it was nice to see her really bask in the joy of the celebrating.

That night we opened gifts and went out to eat at Red Robin.  The girls picked out these hats at Target and wear them constantly!  Gotta love the Fedoras!

Brooklynn attempting to get every present in the picture and look cool doing it!

Dessert time at Red Robin!

Our "little" 7 year-old

The next weekend was our family brunch party.  Brooklynn was so appreciative of all her gifts and it was fun watching her read all her cards!

 Birthday "Turbo" snail cinnamon roll

 Always so goofy

Brooklynn's Favorites
1.  Toy - Barbies
2.  Food - Mac & cheese
3.  Activity - drawing
4.  Movie - Turbo
5.  Color - pink
6.  Subject - Math
7.  Book - If Mom had 3 Arms
8.  Sports team - Rams (duh)
9.  Place to go - school (ahhhhh)

When I grow up I want to be a singer, artist, dancer, or teacher.

Height - 4'2 (85%)
Weight - 57 lb (76%)

We love you Boo Bear and you still amaze us everyday!

Valentine's Day Celebrations and Mountain Getaway Re-Deux

I'm not much of a Valentine's Day fan, but with 3 girls that love any excuse to color their worlds pink, purple, and red, I don't have much of a choice but to shut up and enjoy the hoopla.

The weekend before the big day Chandler had her first sleepover at our house with her BFF, Taylor.  All the girls love Tay Tay, so everyone was excited and had a great time decorating cupcakes, watching movies, and ending the night with mini-makeovers.  

 My favorite smile of Ady.....EVER!

 Their creations

With both girls fully immersed in the Valentine's school party modes, it's become quite the climactic holiday around here.  I absolutely adore homemade valentines (even though the girls don't see the uniqueness as cool), so we sit down and make our valentines days in advance.  This year I found this cute ones on Pinterest for Brooklynn's class:

Brooklynn's class did an ice cream party on Tuesday, since they had the rest of the week off, so I was able to bring Ady and Chandy and introduce them to the craziness otherwise known as school parties.  Chandler even participated in their BINGO game.  This girl couldn't be more ready for kindergarten!

 The kids checking their bags.  They were so cute going around thanking each other for the valentines!

On Saturday we headed up to Allenspark, which is outside Estes Park for a winter getaway re-deux, since the girls were so sick for the last one and only Chandler got in some minor sledding.  Dad and Kenz met us up there to enjoy our quaint little cabin.  We were warned that the cabin had  no cable, no cell phone service, and no Internet, but I wasn't fully convinced until I witnessed it for myself.  Hell, we even get phone service at the summit of the 14ers.  Little did I know our "unplugged" weekend would be just what we needed.  We played endless amounts of games, puzzles, and listened to the girls play the keyboard nonstop.

Saturday the weather was beautiful so we drove into Estes Park to walk around the bustling town!  The streets were packed with people enjoying the warm weather.

Chandler found these at a little shop.....so funny!

 Cousins bonding on the river.  (What you don't see is me freaking out because they just want to "dip" in the water)  I thought for sure we'd have someone try it!

 Sunday morning we packed up the cars and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park to their snow play area.  We knew the snow would be limited, but we weren't going to let that slow us down.  When we arrived we were basically sledding on grass, but the flurries started shortly after and we finally had some real snow to sled!

More cousin love!

 Ady and Brooklynn are ready to go!

After a heavy snowstorm all day Sunday and into the night we woke up Monday determined to find snowing near the cabin.  Eventually we found a good spot and the girls were at it again!  Finally.....a little sledding time to top off our fabulous family weekend!

Beautiful.....Scary Weather

Now I know I'm not a cold weather fan and there's nothing that makes me happier than a nice day to spend outside with the girls, but our unseasonably warm month loaded with 70-degree days really should have us all worried!  It's tough to get scared of this weather when it just feels so nice!

Of course I heard someone on the news (probably Fox) say the other day, "It looks like global warming is really happening."  I had to laugh.  That's all I can do.  It's unfathomable to me that there are still naysayers out there.  Of course our climate is changing....there's proof of it everyday!  To believe it is a political debate is ignorant.  It is a matter of preserving humanity!

And then we get this beautiful weather followed by snow which just upsets people.  I mean, we do live in Colorado.  It's supposed to snow here.  Our snowfall impacts a large portion of this part of the U.S.  We should praise the snowfall!  We need it now more than ever!

So while I won't hesitate to enjoy the beautiful weather I'm trying to remember in the back of my mind that this is the reason we need to preserve our Earth!  This has to be our top priority, because while we're enjoying this sunshine the East coast is getting bombarded with record snow, which is not normal.  None of this is and we're doing this to ourselves!

Enjoying the tire swing at Wash Park

 Man love on a sunny day

 We even wore short-sleeves at the zoo with Papa

 Chandler in a sundress with her BFF Taylor

Date Night in the Fort

Steve and I were able to enjoy a date night in Fort Collins while mom took the girls to a play.  Of course the date night turned into a group date at Beau Jo's followed by a CSU basketball game (our favorite type of dates).  It was awesome to meet up with some friends for dinner and then watch the Rams pounce San Diego State.  It's always nice to be back "home" and see all the changes around town.  Maybe someday we'll be able to live there.......

They're off to a good start

 We had to laugh at these parking signs.  $1/ hour and 1st hour free.  Our grand total for parking for the night - $2!  You can't find that in Denver!

 Old Town all lit up at night

Mountain Getaway

Since we're not skiing aficionados, we seldom get up to the mountains in the winter.  I know it sounds so like an untypical Coloradoan, but skiing has gotten so expensive, and with 3 kids it's just not feasible right now.  I miss it dearly and hope our kids will be able to experience it in a few years, but I think we'll have to win the lottery for that!

Luckily we've found another winter pastime we enjoy - snowshoeing.  So Steve booked my aunt & uncle's condo in Keystone for the long MLK weekend with Mark and Char too.  The girls were excited to get away (especially since we just completed all our antibiotics for strep and pink eye).  We were finally healthy and ready to have some fun!

It started out well with a little swimming for the ladies on Saturday morning.  By the afternoon Brooklynn was complaining of a sore throat and Ady's eye looked pink.  You've got to be kidding me!  There's no way they were sick!

 So we took out Chandler for some sledding with Katie, Adam, Brett, and Cenee who were up in the mountains for the weekend.  Katie found an awesome hill, and we were off!  Here's the group trying to train sled.  Never quite worked out for them, but the effort was amazing!

 Then Ady decided she was ready to sled.  I just love her cheesy smile!

 Sledding with papa before she demanded to go on her own.

 Sunday morning we were able to get away and go snowshoeing while Magra and Papa took the girls to the children's museum.  The weather was gorgeous!  We did about a 5 mile hike before returning to take care of our now even-sicker girlies.  Uggghhh!

 I think this perfectly sums up the weekend for Brooklynn - totally bummed she didn't feel well and was stuck in bed.  Poor girl!

After we left on Monday we took the girls to the doctor.  Turned out Brooklynn had strep again, so the antibiotics hadn't worked.  So she was onto another round.  Ady had an ear infection, but luckily healed eventually on its own.  It was great to be in the mountains for the weekend and experience the winter crowd and the gorgeous weather, but we were disappointed the girls didn't get to enjoy it like they wanted.  Another example of the unpredictability of kids!

Yee Haw!

It was that time of year again and how could we resist putting on our "yee haws" (Ady's boots as she calls them) and visit our Western roots?  Most of the time Denver feels like a hippy-ish, pot-loving, exercise-freakish town, but once I year we get to see the other side and even act like them a little.  It almost feels like a different world, but the girls love to visit the animals and watch the rodeo.

Dad and I took the "little" girls to the stock show on a weekday to take in the smells, feed the aggressive goats, and even ride a pony.   They had a blast and couldn't wait to see the rodeo the next week.

 Ady finally mustered up enough gall to feed those pesky goats

The next week the whole fam went to the rodeo.  We'd been preparing the girls for the events, and they were ecstatic to see the wrestling, bull bucking, and the clowns.  We again toured the grounds and even got to watch the Clydesdales getting ready for the rodeo.  Steve and I were in awe watching those majestic animals, but the girls were less than impressed.

Getting ready to leave

 Of course we had to go on CU night and we just happened to be swimming in gold and black pom poms.  Ady picked one up and rubbed it in daddy's face, and all hell broke loose.  Brooklynn was in tears and couldn't understand why we'd torture daddy like that.

Brooklynn was a real cheerleader for the events.  It was amazing to see her excitement for each event, and you'd think she was a rodeo enthusiast.  They all decided they wanted a shot at the mutton busting next year and Chandler would try her hand at barrel racing.  A girl can dream, right?