A Little Picture Buffet

This is the smorgasbord that is our life.  Buckle up, we're going for a ride...

When Max isn't pushing people's buttons and making us crazy, he's a pretty fun brother to have around.

Finn likes yogurt.  And wearing his brother's soccer jersey.

Finn also enjoys shoes.  Especially when they're not his. Word to the wise, start looking for your shoes at least 10 minutes before you need to leave the house.

I had a horrible realization as I watched Luke walk into school on one of the last days.  The poor kid had unknowingly worn his little brothers jeans to school.  I prayed that the other little first graders would be just as oblivious as he was and not notice the skin hanging out between his pants and his sock.  When he got home, I broke the news.

"Luke, I think you accidentally wore Max's jeans to school today."  And then he walked over to me, pulled out the tag, and showed me the 8. The size jeans that he wears.  Er, wore.  

Poor Elise, had unknowingly watched her child grow right before her eyes.  

After realizing that Max had been in the bathroom for nearly 45 minutes, I called through the door asking if he was okay.  He assured me he was.  "What's the hold up then?" I said.  "Well, Mom. I just don't want to wipe my bottom because it's so gross."  I've seen a lot of procrastination in my days, just never about this.

I continue to have more laundry than seems humanly possible to produce.  I feel the upcoming purge in my bones.  This one's going to be big, folks.

The only good thing about it are the smiles it brings to Jack when we plop him in the middle of the laundry mountain.

Sometimes, Jack falls asleep touching my face and I want to freeze time.  The best I can do is take a picture.

Max's girlfriend, Anna moved away.  Yet, not two weeks later, Kamryn has stepped into her place.  And the funny thing is, that while he is worthy of the name "Ladies Man", he doesn't do the pursuing.  He's not running away though either, obviously.

I really like this kid.

 This dot to dot made Luke so happy.  All 1,476 dots.

I realized not long ago, that these two are the miniatures of two of my older brothers. 

 Luke is the brainy, analytical, rational, little Bret.  

Max is the talkative, charismatic, loveable, little Ian.  

With Bret and Ian as the pattern, I already know how this story turns out.  I hope they stay really great friends.

A poor little frog got stuck in our window well.  Ava surprised me by not batting an eye at picking him up for the rescue. 

Finally, after waiting through and endless winter and a May snowstorm, walking weather is back and we love it!

Birthday Blowout Bonanza

Two days after Ava's birthday was Memorial Day, the day set aside for Dan's birthday request--a visit to Royal Gorge Bridge, home to the tallest bridge in the United States.  It was the tallest in the world, until China one upped us.  

A couple of years ago, it fell victim to a horrible forest fire.  Many buildings were burned, but luckily only a few slats of the bridge.  Rebuilding has begun, but we were told it's not like it used to be.  

Hey, Everybody! Look right here!

Or not.

The Gondola is nice and new.

As the ride began, Finn reached over and intertwined our fingers all by himself.  I couldn't complain, it was a long way down!

Once we were safely on the other side of the gorge, we went to an aerial and magic show. 

It began with this lady dressed in her janitor costume, trying to get the silks down.  She chose Luke from the audience to assist her.  

Once they were successful, she handed him this Mr. VIP sign and told him he would get a special reward.  

She then came out dressed like Marilyn Monroe and sang him "Happy Birthday".  He was so, so embarrassed.  She performed the rest of her show on the silks and winked and pointed at him the whole time.  

It was too dark in there to get a picture to accurately illustrate the blush on that boy's cheeks.

After the show, we walked across the actual bridge.  It was less scary than I thought it would be.

We have state identity issues.  Without much thought we took our picture in front of the Texas flag.  

And then we remembered that we live in Colorado now.  Unfortunately, the Colorado flag was at the far end of the bridge and by the time we got there,

The kid's were too hungry to stop for another picture.

The cracks were a little creepy.

The three black dots in the sky, is the gondola we rode.

We stopped to eat our picnic lunch before heading home.

Jack maintained his usual position. 

Hey, Everybody! Look right here!

Friday I set up a birthday scavenger hunt for Dan.  The prize at the end was dinner that night at our favorite, Perry's.  

I think if I lightened this picture it could be a contender for his calendar.

And then, because you can never have too much birthday, the next day we hosted Luke's birthday party at the bowling alley again, a month early, in hopes of catching his friends before they went on summer vacation.  It back fired a little, because it was the last week of school and everyone was insanely busy.

But we still had a really fun time with the kids who could come.  

My kids are the ones laying down.

We'll celebrate again on his actual birthday at the end of June.

Of course we still hadn't had Dan's birthday dinner and cake with the family and since my parents were passing through that Sunday, the day after bowling, we did it with them.

And I don't know that there's anything to say about Dan that I haven't already said.  I feel like we both grew up a lot this year.  Life kind of kicked our booty's the last 12 months.  But Dan keeps on.  He does what he does, and then he does a little more.  Always conscientious about work and his family.  Always looking forward to something. And always my favorite!  Happy Birthday, Baby!

Ava Girl is Growing Up

It's sad but true, now that we've moved away from our beloved babysitting co-op in Flower Mound, the frequency of our dates has declined big time.

It doesn't help that there are just so many kids.  And while the big ones are generally well behaved, Finn sometimes isn't and Jack, well Jack is just a huge wild card.

We have gone out a few times and the usual protocol is to put all the kids to bed before we leave, except Ava, and then she and the babysitter can watch a movie before Ava goes to sleep.  Honestly, I think it might be a babysitter's dream.

But a few weeks ago, we really wanted to go to dinner with some friends. (Have I ever mentioned that our old friends from college, Reid and Emily, welcomed us to Colorado by moving to a house just 10 minutes away? Well, they did and we have been all the happier for it!)   And since most people like to eat dinner before 8:30pm, we needed a different plan of attack.

So I called in the big guns.  I arranged for two 15 year old girls to tag team.  And since bedtime has the potential to be a genuine crisis, we got them a movie and told them to keep everyone up until we got home at 9pm.  I did tell them they could put Jack to bed at 8pm because he lays down easy.

We went to dinner.  It was wonderful.  We agreed that we should eat dinner at a more appropriate hour more often.

We returned a bit past 9pm.  And I will forever remember the scene that awaited us when we walked in the house.

As we entered, we could hear Jack is fussing.  We walked down the hall and it was clear, between the lack of other noise and the dim lights, that perhaps bedtime had commenced after all.  But through the open french doors of Jack's room, I peered through the dark and saw Ava, bouncing on the bed with a fussy Jack, as a babysitter stood helplessly looking on from each side.


The big boys had gone to bed after the movie finished.

Ava had already put Finn to bed.

And now Jack would only quiet when Ava bounced him.


I know from experience that fussy babies are not much fun, but really, the other babysitter's dream scenario is the one where the oldest child you're watching does all the dirty work.

You know what this did? It gave us the tiniest taste of the built-in-babysitter days that await us!

But mostly it revealed how grown up and responsible our little girl has become and how grateful we both are for her.  She is so special to us.

A few weeks later she just went and turned 10.

She wanted a horse party at home. She planned the entire thing.  That's a mom's birthday party dream.  Honestly, she had the guest list, the food, the games, the favors, the schedule, everything planned out to the minute.

It was great and she was very happy with it, though all the party pics are on Dan's phone.

And then this morning, Ava got in the van with my parents and rode away. They had stopped over on their way west and we loved getting to see them even if it was just for a day.

 I was left in the driveway wondering what just happened.  12 hours before, this was not in the plans. That left very little time for me to come to terms with the idea that she is old enough to go away without me.  I started wondering if I was old enough for her to go away without me.  But she came up with a pretty good plan last night as she watched her grandparents pack up for their drive the next morning.

She could ride with them to Idaho and spend time with her cousins, and meet back up with me when I came for my nephew's wedding next weekend.  Her original plan included staying with her cousins another week and meeting back up with us in South Dakota at our family reunion the following weekend.  Two weeks was too much for me, and she doesn't know it, but it would have been too much for her as well.  Instead, I was able to buy her a fairly inexpensive ticket on my flight back to Denver after the wedding.  Thus, Ava's idea made a lot of sense and forced me to be a big girl and let my big girl have an adventure.

All I know is that I missed her before she even left, but I'm pretty sure she's gonna have a great time.