It's that Time of Year.....

It's that time of year again, when all we can talk about is cupcakes and we have to show off the newest tattoos (from our goody bags of course).  Yes it's birthday party time!  For those of you lucky enough to plan for a summer baby (coming from someone who has 2 winter birthdays) and the endless possibilities of a kickin' party, we salute you!  Fortunately we have some friends with some of these birthdays and have been to some sweet parties this year.  I don't ever remember going to these types of parties as a kid.  We were excited just to be able to take a friend or two to Chucky Cheese.  Now we have Monkey Bizness parties (the best place on Earth), pool parties, and even rented jumpy houses.  Kids' birthday parties is where the money is at!  And now with our group expanding exponentially our weekends can get pretty booked by these parties, but the kids just absolutely love them and that makes it worth it, right? 

Two weeks ago Kennedy turned one.  Party stats:
1.  location - pool (on a hot day was perfect!)
2.  theme - bright flowers
3.  goody bags - great tattoos, curvy straws, and candy goodies!
4.  dessert - colored cupcakes! (parents compared poo colors later)

Great party with great food.  Laurel knows how to keep the kids happy as well as the adults with the delicious food.

Eating their cupcakes 

 BFFs (Yes Brooklynn has discovered she usually sports a wedgie and now will ask us to fix her wedgie)

 The little peanut eating her big cupcake

Last weekend was Julian's 1st birthday party.  The kids had a blast at the park/playground and pretending to be dogs. 

Party stats:

location - Broomfield park

theme - puppy party (so cute!  the kids had ears, listened to "Who Let the Dogs Out", and ate PB & J  biscuits)

goody bags - stuffed dog, candy, more tattoos

dessert - assortment of cupcakes, cake, and some delicious parfaits (and my favorite, puppy chow)

A cupcake just Julian's size

Chris's homemade dog house

 Caught them sneaking a glance at the desserts

Eating from doggy bowls

 All the kids (I know it's not great, but getting all 10 kids to sit together was an accomplishment)



The best part of this party was the theme with the decorations and favors - the girls are still playing with the ears and acting like dogs. 

Whew!  We'll have a few more birthdays soon, but of course, we always love to get together with our friends and get the kids together for some fun too!

Our BFF....a little peer pressure!

We have been taking full advantage of our time with our friends this summer and taking advantage of power of peer pressure.  It's really a symbiotic relationship - we use our friends to coax Brooklynn into being more adventurous and, in turn, our kids get them to eat!  Whenever we try to convince Brooklynn to try something we get a "no" immediately, but put another kid out there to watch and she does it!  I never realized the power of peer pressure, but I'm glad I realize it now, because it could be much scarier as a teenager.  Uggghhh....don't want to think about having teenage daughters!

The girls and their daring friends:

 After trying to get Brooklynn to do the big slide at Monkey Bizness, Hazel is successful at her first attempt!

 It even helped at the water park!  She went down a water slide.

 Having Cousin Kenz around has really helped as well.  After this ride Brooklynn took a shot at it too!



Isn't it Ironic.....

So when  your babies are born you always have this vision of what kind of person they'll be.  Steve and I were sure we were going to have some athletes on our hands - softball for the girls, soccer for the boys (if those ever come.....)  How could we have anything else with ESPN constantly on the tube and the dinner conversations revolving around the Rockies?  Boy were we wrong!  It turns out kids have their own personalities.  That nature vs. nurture debate in Psychology 101 always pops into my mind now!  Our little Brooklynn would rather twirl in a fluffy dress while she dances in front of a mirror than ever pick up a baseball bat.  Although it freaked us out a little at first we've come to love fostering her interests and watch her creative juices flow.  I truly believe you learn more from people who are different, and she's finally teaching me how to be a "girly girl".

Who knows what the future holds for our little dancing queen..I mean I HATED P.E. until 2nd grade, so we may just have a star athlete on our hands, but if we don't we'll be there at every recital, cheer competition (ugghh) or whatever she desires to do!

  She even had to be a purple dragon

 Loving her mirror time

 At dance class with daddy (As you can see I'm not even very good at dressing her girly, but we'll get better)

*She just finished her last "parent & tot" dance class, so next week we'll start the combo tap/ballet class on her own.  She became such a leader in her dance class, so hopefully she carries the momentum to the next class and rocks it!

Our Sweet Bundle of ....Trouble!

Ever since we were "surprised" by the conception of Chandler we knew we were in for it!  She was so active in the womb and then as soon as she was born the nurses said, "She's a squirmy one."  She wasn't kidding!  We've always had our hands full with her and now that she's a toddler it only seems to escalate.  Some of her recent ventures:

1.  She loves to look at you, wait until you're looking, then give her charming smile and RUN!  This could be into the street, away from the shopping cart, anywhere that will get her in trouble.  She almost seems to enjoy being in trouble!
2.  A few weeks ago she gave "her look" and then grabbed my cell phone and threw it into a large cup of iced tea.  It was like she knew exactly where NOT to put the phone.  Uggghhh!
3.  We had some friends over and we were in the living room chatting while the kids were playing.  All of a sudden we hear the garage door slam shut.  Steve jumped out of the chair and ran over.  Next thing we see Steve chasing Chandler down the sidewalk.  Scary!

She's so bright and clever it's terrifying.  She just charms every stranger with her "hi"s and "bye"s and can look so innocent.  She's the friendliest little girl ever - another reason to be scared for her to grow into a teenager!

Happy Birthday America!

It's always a fun time celebrating the Fourth with a long weekend of BBQs, zoo trips, and fireworks to commence the celebration.  We went to the Lewis' house for some grilling on Saturday.  The kids had a blast running around the yard tackling the dads and playing ring-a-round the rosie.  Oh how the BBQs have changed - from playing horse nuts and drinking beers to chasing kids and breaking up fights.  It was still great to get all the kids together and celebrate!

 Uh oh Zach.  Watch our for Brooklynn's mean pimp slap!

 Loving the ring-a-round the rosie

The best part - we all fall down!

 Sunday we packed up early to go to the zoo (before the triple-digit temps fried us).  We were able to stick it out for a few hours before we were exhausted!  Later I cheered on the Rockies with mom and Kenz, while Steve planted some trees in the yard.  Even gotta do some yardwork on the weekend -  ugh!

Brooklynn enjoying her lunch

 They were so cute climbing on the hippo at lunch

 Best part - the choo choo!

 Monday was a relaxing morning and afternoon, so we could rest up for the big fireworks display.  We had a nice dinner at Grandma and Papa's house before walking over to Westminster's fireworks.  Brooklynn could hardly contain herself when the nearby fireworks started and her excitement even grew as the "real" ones started.  Chandler loved them too with her many "oooohhhs" and "aaahhhhs". 

Ready to go!

 Getting ready......

 Loving the time with Cousin Damon

Whew - what a weekend!  I always look forward to the big summer weekend, but then it also reminds me that summer is already halfway over - boo!  

Childrens' Museum & Monkey Bizness....does it get any better?

This summer has been busy, busy, busy!  I've found that keeping the girls couped up in the house causes bickering between all of us.  It's been too hot to do outdoor activities (boo), so we've been hitting up the air conditioned places.  Hopefully it'll cool down, so we can actually enjoy some outdoor stuff too.

Wednesday we went to the Childrens' Museum with Grandma Betsy.  The girls had a great time as usual!

 Brooklynn doing the grocery shopping

 Thursday we met the Deegans at Monkey Bizness.  This was a big occasion for Brooklynn, because she asks to go there every single day when she awakes.  On this day when I told her we actually were going she didn't seem to truly believe me.  Then when we pulled up to the mall and she saw the sign she was speechless, while Chandler just chanted, "Ooohhh ooohhh" (her word for monkey). 



Chandler actually painted this time and only managed to eat a little of the paint

 Our serious artist

 Brooklynn finally conquers the big slide on her own.  We've been working on this for months, but all she really needed was a brave friend to show her how it's done!

 Wiped out!



Everthing's coming up.......Spinach!

A couple months ago we planted our first garden and after long hours of weeding and watering we're finally able to reap the benefits of our garden - fresh baby spinach, cilantro, and lettuce whenever we want!  I didn't realize how fun gardening would be, but it's so neat to go right outside the back door and just cut off our veggies. 

Our spinach salad