Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Summer in a Nutshell

Sometimes blogging just seems hard.  I feel like I don't have anything terribly clever to say, or that my pictures aren't quite perfect.  But the bottom line is, it doesn't have to be perfect.  It's the story of my girls, written down for them to someday enjoy.  Sounds pretty perfect to me.

So let's back up a bit, and cover a few things I missed...

Irish Festival in the Park
Our girls love to be outside.  The reason doesn't matter, as long as there's fresh air and room to run.  Add in a little music they can dance to, and it's their idea of heaven.  So the annual Irish Festival is always a must. 

A little break from dancing.

Listening to some tunes, loving on Daddy.


Lunch Fit for a Princess (or two...)
Here's another event we won't be missing anytime soon: Fondue Fairytale at the Melting Pot.  It's a chance dress up, eat great food (well, maybe just the chocolate), and hang out with Disney's finest.

Princess Anna made Ava shy.

"Abra Cadabra - turn this water into chocolate milk!"
 
Cinderella is enchanted.
And a Little Staycation
We are lucky enough to live in a place where the rest of the world likes to vacation, and we're smart enough to take advantage.  At least once a year we book a hotel in Colorado Springs for a bit of R&R.  This year, more than once.  We always hit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.





 

Oh, and did I mention that Andy tossed in 26.2 miles straight up and down a mountain during one of our little trips?  Sir, you are my hero.


Watching our Garden Grow
As you probably know, food isn't exactly popular with Big Sister.  So we decided a little gardening was in order.  Food's much more interesting when you grow it yourself, right? 

Andy put together a little garden box, we filled it with dirt, tossed in a few seeds, and hoped for the best.  To be honest we didn't expect much. 



Believe it or not, that silly little box yielded about a million tomatoes.  I'm still kicking myself for not taking any pictures.  I'll do better next year.

*****************************
There was, of course much more, and I'll do my best to get to it.  It feels good to be back.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

A little denial, and a big haircut.

It started with the backyard camping photos.  Despite my affection for my baby girl's wispy blonde curls, I could no longer deny one simple fact: Little Sister's hair was a mess.  She was sporting a serious mullet, and it was time to do something about it.  So we hopped in the car and headed for the Jack and Jill hair salon. 

Ava went first, just to show Lila how it's done. 



Then it was Lila's turn.  For the first 2 minutes, she made this face...
 

Then Ava brought her some toys, the sugar from the lollipop kicked in, and we settled into this...


We even got a pretty good smile at one point.


She was very pleased with the final result. 
 


 And they even gave us a sweet little memento to commemorate the occasion.


I'll miss the mullet, but I think I can learn to live with this...


"Seriously, how cute am I??"

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Camping, Kid-Style

Camping's awesome.  Campfires, sleeping under the stars, s'mores - what's not to love?  I see plenty of campouts in our family's future.  But despite what some questionable wardrobe choices in my 20's might suggest, I'm no fool; when you've got little kids, a dry-run is in order.  So we tossed out a tent and a couple of camping chairs in the yard, and took the first step in introducing our girls to a night in the great outdoors.



What better way to say, "Hey, this camping thing?  You totally want to try it." than by introducing chocolate and marshmallows into the equation.  And since there was no way I was setting any fires in my backyard, a can of Sterno was the next best thing.



Andy takes his marshmallow-roasting very seriously.



That part was a hit.  Next up, a little bedtime routine.  Story time...


And getting to know our tent.


An offer to actually sleep in the tent was politely refused, but I think we're on the right track.  Next up, a weekend in Chatfield State Park. Wish us luck and stay tuned.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Back in the swing of things.

With everything that's happened this summer this blog has fallen off the radar a bit.  But rest assured, we've been as busy as ever.  Case in point...

Last Saturday we joined a few friends for a day at Heritage Square.  In case you may have forgotten, it's a fabulous miniature amusement part tucked right into the foothills.  Plenty of rides fit for both our girls, along with some halfway decent food made for a pretty nice afternoon.

This next picture is of what is about to be the fastest amusement park attraction Ava's ever been on.  I'm not sure who was more nervous - her or me - but Ollie and Brady were ready to ride, and Ava was not about to be left out. 


I shouldn't have worried.


This thing spun in both directions at what looked to me like a nauseating speed; the kids thought it was awesome.


Lila wasn't thrilled with the spinning rides, but was pretty happy on the whirly-bus.  I only have a picture from the inside so you'll just have to use your imagination about what it actually looked like.


And then we had what I consider a monumental first: Baby's First Pony Ride. Kids and animals can be a pretty unpredictable pairing, so I had no idea what the result of a Lila/Pony combo would be.  Again, all my fears were unfounded.  Little Sister was a natural.



Big Sister, of course, thought it was pretty cool too.


I have lots more to catch up on, but I think this was a pretty good start.  More to come...

Monday, July 14, 2014

Rest in Peace, Grandpa George


The day Ava was born.  He was so happy to be there.




Grandpa and Lila.  I'm so glad they got to meet each other.


This picture is my favorite.
You were a brilliant, funny, loving man, and we miss you every day. I'm only sorry we didn't have more time with you. 

Cheers to a life well lived. 

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Tips for a Successful Sleepover

First of all, allow me to assure that yes, I was told I was crazy.  "You're hosting a sleepover for your 4 year old?  Um, yeah, good luck with that."  But thanks to an episode of Doc McStuffins that featured exactly that, my child was obsessed.  So I called up the mom of the requested friend (who I happen to know is almost as crazy as I am) and made the arrangements.  And I don't mind telling you, it was pretty cool.  So if your kid watched that same episode of Doc and won't let the idea of a sleepover go, here are a few tips for pulling it off...

1.) Planned activities are your friend.
Anyone who goes into a night like this without a plan is asking for trouble.  Bored children will be forced to find something to amuse themselves, and your house is likely to pay the price.  So to avoid the toilet-papering of my dining room, we made jewelry boxes.



Lila didn't get a jewelry box, but she was not about to be left out of an art project.


We topped them off with some glitter initials we found at the craft store.  Gorgeous - and time consuming.

2.) Do not serve meatloaf.
Have plenty of kid-friendly food on hand.  Nobody needs a broccoli-related tantrum at a sleepover.  We went with pizza and ice cream sundaes.

Some intense conversation going on.


 
3.) Run them into the ground.
This one is the most important.  No matter how wigged out a kid gets about sleeping away from home for the first time, or how badly two little girls want to keep each other up all night, sheer exhaustion will ultimately win. 
 
Catch me if you can!

Swing-Ball.  Andy's invention.  Very popular around here.

 
Notice that it's dark out.  "Running them into the ground" must continue until bedtime.
The kids came downstairs at 8:30 and asked to go to bed.  They crawled into their sleeping bags, and other than a few minutes of first-sleepover trepidation, we didn't hear a peep out of them until 6:15 the next morning. 
 
Score 1 for Mom and the perfect sleepover.