Rodeo

Who knew that I'd be so busy with all the time in the world!  Summer has been crazy so far, I can barely keep up with food, and I have no idea what we've been doing!

The kids did get to spend the night and Grandma Jaynie's last week.  They made mini donuts... intense concentration :)

We also went to the Elizabeth Stampede... voted the best small town rodeo (or something like that).  It is a small town :)  We had a blast, and were able to visit some friends that lived close by.  Alex liked the bulls, and Lydia liked the clown.  Alex was bummed when he found out that he was too big for mutton bustin'

Hope everyone else is super busy doing nothing this summer too!

End of school

Lydia's first trophy, and a cake with made out of rainbow sparkles (team name)

We got to go to "night of fire and thunder" at Bandimere speedway.  It was fun, and COLD! 

Alex & part of his class after the water activity of field day... they liked getting wet :)

Lydia at field day, water... they missed the part about getting the water in the bucket and just squeezed out the sponge on their heads.  Her shirt is a drawn self portrait of every kid in her class... coolest shirt for kindergarten ever!

I know you can't see the faces, but this is Lydia and her kindergarten teacher, Ms. Arleth.  She is sad that today was the last day with this amazing teacher, what a fantastic lady!

Alex's class on the last day, they also got self-portrait t-shirts of the class.

Pretty Lydi

Life has been very eventful for Lydia lately!  She's been playing soccer on the weekends, and really loves it.  Maybe one day I'll shell out the money for real soccer shorts :)

She lost her very first tooth!  Actually, I kind of knocked it out (It was really loose and I flicked it with my finger, but didn't know my own strength).  She was super excited about the toothfairy!

She also turned 6 yesterday!  We had a camping birthday party, roasting hot dogs on the outdoor fire pit, s'mores instead of cake, silly string war...

And reading scary stories in the tent by lantern light.  The tent was indoors because of the rain, but it was still scary :).  Today she gets to eat in the cafeteria for the first time (it's a practice run for first grade).  She is really enjoying each new experience, and she is so much fun to be around.  I love you Lydia!

Almost summer

We enjoyed the first zoo day of 2013 last friday... beautiful weather!

Alex finally started baseball.  He had a great first game.  We just missed the storm too, this was tuesday night and wednesday we got 4-6 inches of snow!

I also had my spring piano recital.  These are all of my students (minus one adult...).  They did SO well, I really like this little hobby of mine :)

We are counting down the days to summer vacation, just a birthday, field day, tons of parties, fundraiser, soccer/baseball games, and a holiday before we're finally free!!!!

Birthday

Mom's birthday was a week ago, and we all got together for her party yesterday.  She wanted legos for her present, so the kids could have fun :)  I love grandmas

We also had a very mild day at the kite festival this year.  There was hardly any wind until the end where it was like 30 mph!  Here is Lydia waiting for wind...

and here's Alex, he can't get his kite down the winds are so strong!  Dave had to help.

Winter in springtime

We have had a good snowstorm every week for the past month, so for the most part we're still inside playing :)

Autumn & Lydia are acting out their favorite barbie movie (princess and the pop star).  I'm not super familiar with it, but I'm pretty sure the root beer bottle is supposed to be the magic microphone...

Alex & Lydia all dressed up for their sock hop at school.  They both still love to get into character

I found this in Alex's backpack the other day.  "Alex please come to Diggers funeral.  Its at the second reeses.  It will mean a lot to me.  Love, Cami"

I asked him how the funeral went and he said it was postponed, due to snow.  The next day they couldn't find Digger (digger is a worm), I told him he had gone to a better place.

Lydia wrote this for me, she wanted to write I love Kindergarten... but got confused about how it was spelled, so changed it to Kendra.  I'll take seconds, no problem :)

"I luve Kendra my mom she is vere nise"

Finally, here's my volleyball team I played on for the last few months.  It was really fun, and hard.  They all play really well.  We had a tournament at the end and I was all giddy and excited just like in school.  I'm glad I could play.

face painting

I decided I should learn how to face paint :)  It's a useful skill that would really come in handy at fundraisers and birthday parties (right?)  Actually, I did it just for fun.

I'm not an artist, so these are a little rough.  But I thought it was awesome that I had such willing victims!

First, my favorite, the frog :)

Shark

Butterfly

Then I let the kids practice on me... the balloons got a little out of control :)

And this is up to interpretation, it started as a dolphin, then maybe a penguin?

anyone out there good at face painting, and can give us some pointers?

Easter

It has been spring break this week, and we have had SO much fun!  We tried rollerskating, jump street (where the kids got a quick lesson in dodge ball, and I realized that seeing my 5 year old hit by a ball from a 10 year old turns me into a mother bear!), swimming, and the Colorado History Museum.  Here the kids are driving a model T ford, it was cool.

We have had some snow this winter, this was a good storm.  Alex will only doing action poses lately.

Our Easter Egg hunt was awesome, as always.  We are never able to find all the eggs, but there is still plenty of candy for all!

And of course the easter outfits.  Alex opted for the bow tie today, and got LOADS of compliments!

Happy Easter everyone!  And happy spring!

Ski weekend

Last thursday Alex received his Bobcat (the first advancement in cub scouts).  He got a little pin for me as well :)  And a small disclaimer: no one looks good in a scout shirt but little cubs.

We headed up to Winter Park on Friday for a ski weekend!  We have been a few times before, but staying up there friday night and skiing again on saturday is THE best way to do it!  No traffic, sleeping in, hot tub, so fun!

My parents joined us on friday, and I was so glad they were there.  I always get a little stressed out when we start skiing with the kids.  My parents were a great reminder to relax and have fun.

We have taught the kids how to ski using a rope tied onto their waist.  So, if they go too fast we can gently slow them down.  I always said that as soon as they could turn and stop we'd take off the rope.  Well, about 2 runs into saturday a ski patrolman told us we couldn't use the ropes, so the kids were on their own!  It was hard for me to "cut the apron strings", but it was good too.  Although Lydia bombed down that first run, they quickly started skiing smarter and safer.  It was so fun to watch!  By the end of the second day we were tired and sore, and we all wanted to come up again next weekend.  I remembered why I love skiing so much.

Ramblings

Here's Alex when he only had 1 1/2 holes in his mouth :)  Now he has three, but rarely slows down so I can capture it.  He's also growing his hair out, I'm holding my tongue.

I found the chickens like this in the nesting box yesterday!  They haven't quite figured out the pecking order... and are going to use the box AT THE SAME TIME.  Total goofballs.

My sister found this is our toys today.  I have no idea who drew it (or etched it?)  but I'm totally impressed.  Even if it was an adult I'm impressed.  I had to take a picture to show Dave, the kids wanted to shake it up.  I gotta say, it was really fun to find this in the toy box!  

pinewood

Big time cub scouter!  Alex is super excited to be a legitimate cub scouter now (he's been coming with me to scouts since this summer).  I have now experienced a pinewood derby from the point of "mom" and I LOVE that the dads get into the race & creation too.  Dave helped Alex do quite a bit of the car, and it turned out pretty well!  It won a couple races, got second most of the time.  We were happy :)  After about 90 minutes of working on the car Dave put on the wheels (apparently the last step) and the back corner broke off!  ARGH!  Little super glue and it was as good as new.

Alex also lost three teeth in three days!  Our tooth fairy was busy!  He now has a lovely smile with so many holes it makes me smile to see it :)  He is so cute!

Alex's baptism & New Years

For New Years Eve we had a little party.  While I was cleaning and cooking Lydia and her buddies decided to decorate, with string.  They probably used 15 balls of string.  It took a LONG time to unwrap all that string!

Yesterday Alex was baptized!  It was such a neat experience.  Alex has always been very curious and thirsty for knowledge, and his baptism day was no exception.  It was very neat to see him understand the promises that he was making.

We are the luckiest people in the world, because our WHOLE family was able to come out for Alex's baptism.  So Alex had all of his uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents there.  We shot a quick pictures afterwards since we'll probably never get everyone there again (except for Lydia's baptism ;)

What a great start to a new year!

10 years! and a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  It snowed this christmas, and we never even got out to play in it.  The kids stayed in their pajamas all day long, and we all just relaxed.  What a great holiday!

Lydia composed her first piano piece too.  She does know how to write musical notes, but she went for their letter names today.  It took her about 30 minutes of serious thought, playing, replaying, etc.  It was so stinkin' cute to watch!  After she performed her piece, Alex played it too.. to prove that it was real.

Today is our 10 year anniversary!  This was the only picture of us together, without kids, this year :)   

For our 10 year anniversary I'd like to summarize our experiences by numbers

One home
Two children
Three cars (only one lemon)
Four international trips (we wish that was higher!)
Five emergency room visits
Six wedding dishes we have each broken (12 in all...)
Seven plane rides that we wrestled children on
Eight million hugs and kisses (I couldn't think of one for eight :)
Nine pets (2 fish, one dog, one rabbit, five chickens)
Ten Great Years!

Can't wait for the next ten!

It's the holiday season

Now that my kids are both in school for part of the day, I have loads of time on my hands!  Unfortunately, I have forgotten what being really busy is like.  Which is actually wonderful, except for when I become busy again (christmas) and have to figure out how to make it work :)

Alex will be 8 on wednesday, and so he had a birthday party on saturday.  He invited 9 friends, and only 3 could come because of vacations, ski-team, sickness, etc.  They still had a blast though!

I teach piano now, and so I had a recital with my students and their families.  We were able to pack 25 people into our small living room/dining room area, and the students all did really well.  Dave recorded it, but I thought I'd just take pictures of my kids "acting" like they're playing so you wouldn't have to watch the video.  

Dave and I realized that we have mice.  We're totally disgusted, and so yesterday (after the birthday party) we tore the house apart looking for the little buggers.  We didn't find much, except for droppings... but we have lots of poison out now.  In my "tearing up the house" I pushed the sofa too far one direction and knocked OVER the christmas tree!  Only a few ornaments broke, but one was from our trip to Mexico, the other from Naples, Italy.  I cried and cried.  Our family tradition is to get souvenir ornaments when we travel, so I mourn the loss of memories too.  So sad!

We also went to the Golden Candlelight walk.  You hold candles while walking down main street singing carols with about 4,000 (give or take) other people.  It's a great way to bring in the christmas season.

Besides this I've been baking, cooking, eating, shopping, and eating some more!  I love the holidays!