Welcome to our World

You can't have a birthday without some birthday cake!  My mom found a Darth Vader cake topper that actually made the breathing sounds.  D loved it!  I'm glad I got a picture when I did because the entire cake ended up on the floor right after this shot.  We scrapped off the top and there was still plenty of frosting to go around, as you can see by the D's face.  D loved having 7 boys to help him celebrate turning 7 to watch Zootopia with him.  Popcorn, soda, a movie and play time is all they needed to be a pretty happy group of little guys.  You'll notice big sister did sneak in with a chair of her own on the end.  (: I love these birthday interviews.  I think the answer about where he would want to go on vacation was the only one that surprised me but I had to laugh out loud when he said it. D also had his yearly check up with the doctor and did great answering her questions but got a nasty little surprise.  We didn't thi...

  We convinced Hubby to take Friday  off work and join us for Girl Scout Day at Elitch Gardens. We got there around 2pm a nd turns out GS Day ended at 1pm . It wasn't the right way to start the day, but we sure had a lot of fun!  After working our way through kiddie land and eating an early (and disgusting) dinner, we cooled off by getting soaked in Disaster Canyon. We loved it!  It was mine and Husband's and K's favorite ride of the day. Well, M hated it and the rest of us thought it was great. Luckily I had brought my biggest sweatshirt along and it served as a perfect dress for her. She got to pick out rides like Troika and Dragon Wing and was super happy once again. It was fun to ride rides we had never ridden before and watch N enjoy the Buckaroo for the first time. She liked the motorcycle ride best. And D's fav was the Sidewinder with Disaster Canyon coming in 2nd. We stayed until past bedtime, taking in as much as we could before heading home....

My oldest 3 attended the first of two week long, all day summer camps in June. D and M thought the description for Camp Invention sounded great and were all for it. K took a little convincing, but since her teacher was the one in charge, she agreed. I was quite relieved that all 3 of them loved it!  The games with Ms. P and the Crickobots with Ms. S were their favorites.  K also made a great friend there, which makes me so happy. M is hoping she gets assigned to Ms. P's 1st grade classroom as well. Fingers crossed!  After some quick work at home, K and M earned the Brownie Girl Scout "Inventor" badge to boot. Bonus! N went to preschool 3 of the 5 mornings her siblings were away. She has loved having something to do. You can tell she feels so grown up. Yesterday N didn't even notice I was there to pick her up because she was having so much fun with her new friend, A. Last night one of the last things she said to me was about how excited she was to go back ...

As the school year came to a close, it was obvious to Hubby and I that D needed a weekend away.  First grade takes a lot of adjustment and we are proud of him for doing so well with the outrageous academic standards of modern America.  So, using his birthday as an excuse, he and I had an overnighter in Denver doing things we had never done before.  On Friday we went to the Scout store to buy him his Cub Scout uniform, spent the afternoon at Pirate's Cove (the best!), bought his birthday presents at the Lego Store, ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and watched the newest Night at the Museum movie at the hotel. He had such a difficult time deciding between 2 sets that he gave up me throwing him a birthday party so that he could buy both.  They are pretty amazing Star Wars sets, so I can't blame him.   On Saturday, after swimming at the hotel pool, we visited Dinosaur Ridge.  It took way less time than I thought it would, so w...

 Summer means hiking Boulder Canyon...  homework...  funny texts to my spouse (this was about N)...  and playing at my parents house to change things up a bit.  On this day, D was at Indoor Soccer for the morning so we ate at Chick-Fil-A after picking him up.  We figured since my parent's house was so close we called Grandma and went to go visit.  I did a spring clean of the sandbox while my mother had activities for them to do inside.  Then they enjoyed the big backyard until Hubby texted to say he was on his way home.  Well, my dad had just gotten home from work and M was so sad to be leaving the house that she threw the biggest temper tantrum of her life.  I felt so bad for her.  After my dad and I eventually got her in the mini van to leave, this song came on the radio.  I felt like it was being broadcast just for us.  (For the record, D's biggest temper tantrum was not too long ago and was over h...