Amy's Birthday Party

If you know when Amy's birthday is, you might be thinking, "Wait, I thought..." No worries, you didn't really miss it. Her birthday is still in December. My girls only get birthday parties every three to four years--at ages 5, 8, 12, and 16. We started at age five because I felt that before that, they didn't really get the concept and it was mostly for the parents. I do not favor big friend parties every year, thus the schedule. We tell them well in advance of their birthdays that we will only have a party on those years; seems to cut down on the "Can I? Can I?" requests.

So, the last time Amy had a party when she was eight, it was in the middle of a blizzard at the end of December. Not so fun for traveling guests. I suggested to her at the beginning of the summer, that I would be willing to let her have a party in the summer if she wished. She wished. The nice thing for me was that she pretty much planned the whole thing. Well, it was a natural result from her father mentioning 'whipped cream' and 'slip and slide' in the same sentence. She created her own invitations, planned a color theme, decorated our house, made and decorated her own cupcakes, and created a list of activities. I didn't really have to do much, though I did provide the financial backing, and I hung around throughout the event.



I think the boys might have felt the whipped topping was more fun to eat.

The theme for most of the gifts changed a lot in four years. Gift cards seemed to be the gift of choice, though her friend Audrey did give her a gift bag full of duct tape. Duct tape wallet anyone?



Happy early birthday sweetheart.

Groupon Summer

We have enjoyed using our "groupons" (I use that term to cover the variety of coupon sites I follow) this summer. We purchased tickets to Adventure Golf and Raceway a couple of months ago and were finally able to use them at the end of July. The park was open until 11 pm; we lasted until 10 pm, and surprisingly, it was still pretty busy. We made it through two of the three mini-golf courses and stood in line forever at the raceway for a five minute ride.







For some reason, after dark, our golf balls kept getting stuck in tubes and slots of different holes. Sad to say, we caused a bit of a back log. The second funny thing about this picture is that Chris was looking for my golf ball. I hadn't had my turn yet.

You Know It's Your Kid When....

Tomorrow is my last day of driving to swim lessons. I've been driving in to Longmont for the past month, but my littlest swimmer has improved so much. Amy and her best friend, Audrey, have been taking a Junior Lifeguard course for four days this week that begins after Kristen and Misha's lessons finish. They must be too cool to sit in the shade by the pool next to me, so they sat in the car waiting for their class to start.

Yesterday, I was leisurely reading a book by the pool when I heard a car alarm blaring in the parking lot. I put it out of my mind for a second until I realized that 1) it wasn't turning off, 2) my daughter and her friend were sitting in our car, and 3) she had the car keys.

The way Amy and Audrey tell the story, they were sitting in the car talking, when this older guy started using his glasses to scratch the ground and was then walking around our car. Amy got nervous and wanted to quietly put the key in the ignition in order to roll up the windows. Well, she must have locked the doors first and all of a sudden the car alarm started honking incessantly. Scared the bejeebies out of them, until they started laughing. Scared the guy next to them. I don't think he was laughing.

After about fifteen seconds passed (that's a long time in car alarm time), it dawned on me that this was likely my car alarm going off. I checked the parking lot and sure enough, the lights on my car were flashing. I took off running toward the girls and as soon as Amy saw me, she opened the door and climbed out of the car. I pushed the alarm button on the key fob and finally there was silence. That was until Audrey climbed out of the back seat of the car and both girls bent over double laughing.

Rappin'

Misha, Kristen and I were driving in to swimming lessons listening to Disney Radio on XM when all of a sudden Misha blurts out, "Kristen could be a rapper. She talks a lot. She would just need to talk a little faster and she could be a rapper." I say, "Why not?" We could make a little money off our little chatter-box.

My Gift of Tongues

The other night after dinner, Kristen was sitting in my office next to me when her stomach made an enormous, rumbly growl. She laughed. I said it was just saying thanks for a good dinner. She made me laugh when she asked, "Do you speak belly?"

Daring Amy

Amy has got to be the most daring of all my girls. She has been hoping for a long time to try, well I don't even know what it is called, but you get hooked in to a bungee system while on a trampoline and then you bounce, flip, fly. She has stood in line before where we told her we didn't want to wait any longer because it was taking so long. Despite the heat, she was determined to have her go at the trampoline bungee activity. She stood in line for probably an hour and a half until it was finally her turn. But, it put the hugest smile on her face. She loved it!

Going up.



Going down.



I love the part of the smile on her face that I can see. (Click on the picture to enlarge it).

Double Digits for Misha

My Misha is TEN! She was so anxious for her day to arrive, and when it was all done? Deflated that her day had come and gone so quickly. But, we did happen to have a little fun while it lasted.

I made Misha's requested donuts (not deep-fried) for breakfast. Since we only had a #1 in our birthday candle selection, she created her "0" from the donuts. She had told Amy all week long that she would have to get up at 7:23 am (Misha's actual birth time), but Amy wasn't having anything to do with that. Sadly, she had to wait until both Chris and Amy were out of bed to open presents. See that yellow polka-dotted present? She had hinted, asked, begged for a Nintendo DS. I told her repeatedly that she wouldn't be getting one. She didn't believe me and thought that the yellow polka-dotted present was her beloved DS. Sorry sweetie. But, it was a pretty cool clock from IKEA that allowed you to record your own message to be played when the alarm went off. All three girls had a lot of fun with that.





The plan for the day was to attend the Rhythm on the River in Longmont early in the day and then, depending on the weather, follow it up with more fun activities. The weather was certainly cooperative for the morning, maybe a little too cooperative as it was HOT! We tried to stay in shady areas, and Chris was fond of pouring water all over us.

We walked around different booths, picked up all kinds of stuff, Kristen got her face painted, Kristen and Misha chased bubbles, they all made crafts, and finally we had lunch. The girls were happy with pizza from one of the vendors, Chris had tacos, and I had a falafel. It was quite tasty.




On our way back to the car, we stopped for a brief visit to the farmer's market. It was the end of their day, and a lot of the veggies were looking a little limp. Not too tempting.

Because of the possibility of rain, thunder and lightning, we nixed the go-carts and mini-golf idea as well the swim park. But we did have another option up our sleeve--slot cars at the Slot Car Speedway in Longmont. Little cars racing around on tracks, crashing, and flying off course. It was a hit.



Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Date Night on Golden Pond

Chris was out of town all last week. His flight got him home around 6:20 and I was excited for date night with him. We knew we wouldn't be able to go out on Saturday evening since it was Misha's birthday, so he walked in the door, hugged his girls, changed into something more casual, and we were off.

We had dinner at Deli Cioso in Longmont and followed that with a walk around Golden Pond. The sun was setting, there was a bit of chill from the wind, and I happened to have my camera in my purse still. I was able to capture a few pictures. Really, it was most wonderful to spend time with Chris.

Swimming Lessons

Kristen has been taking swimming lessons at Sunset Pool this summer. I am now on my 3rd week of lessons...so much fun. Her first session ended last Friday. I guess her teachers told her that they would be jumping off the diving boards on Friday. Kristen isn't much of a daredevil, and she was definitely not looking forward to Friday. In fact, she confided that she was really afraid. I told her that her teachers would be there to catch her, and she would not be alone.

As she nervously waited in line, I got my camera ready for a few pictures. You can't overlook a first. When it was her turn, I yelled her name from across the pool so that she would know that I was watching her and cheering her on. She put on a brave face and tentatively walked to the end of the board. After a few seconds, she jumped. Woohoo Kristen. She was a little less afraid the second time and on her third try she tried to run and jump. It was more like run, stop, then jump, but she did it.

Kristen

Kristen certainly has a way with words. She said to me earlier today, "Mom, I'm starving. I don't want any good food. I want sugar."

Grandma's Visit

Grandma Ball actually came to visit in June, I'm just now getting to blogging about it.

It was fun for my girls to get home from vacation, decompress for a day or two, and have something fun to look forward to in Grandma's visit. Grandma, aka Linda, was headed to Chicago for the National Education Association Representative Assembly and had a very long layover in Denver, though it ended up being a little longer than she bargained for.

Linda's flight arrived on Thursday that 23rd around 4 pm. Chris was on his way home from meetings in Denver and detoured over to DIA to pick up his mom. Needing to make a trip to Costco, I asked if he wanted to meet us there to pick up some stuff and then have dinner. Always nice to finagle myself out of making dinner. (Gasp! Seriously, I don't always enjoy making dinner and coming up with creative ideas every night.)

Shopping at Costco is always a more expensive trip with Chris along for the ride--we pretty much hit our budget for the month in one fell swoop. We stuck the cold stuff in our collapsible cooler and headed over to Famous Dave's for dinner. The girls and Linda had never been there before. The girls complained. Linda didn't. My girls would choose Subway any chance they could.

Friday was a pretty laid back day. We did a little grocery shopping, house cleaning, and relaxing. Linda graciously agreed to watch our girls for the evening so that Chris and I could go out. Lucky kids got to see Cars 2 and loved it.





They packed a picnic dinner and after the movie, settled in for a Friday night musical performance at The Orchard outdoor shopping mall.



Once Chris finished work, he and I headed for a much needed evening together...and apart from our children.

Saturday after finishing a few chores, we headed up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park for a picnic and a day of hiking. The Scandinavian Festival was being held in Estes, so we kind of skirted the main road through town to avoid a lot of the traffic.



We stopped at Endovalley for lunch and then drove a short distance to Alluvial Fan waterfall where we spent a lot of time enjoying the view and climbing on rocks.





It wasn't a true hike, however, and you know, once we've promised our kids a hike, we have to follow through! We drove toward Bear Lake. After parking our van at then end of trail to Bierstadt Lake, we hopped the bus up to Bear Lake where we could hike back down to our van. The last time we did this hike with Linda, it rained on us and we hurried down the switchbacks to the parking lot as fast as we could.

No rain this time, though there was some snow that we had to climb through and many more little streams than we usually see.



We ended our day with dinner in downtown Estes followed by some ice cream.

Sunday, though it is supposed to be a day of rest, isn't always. And Chris called me after church inquiring as to what time I would like the missionaries to come for dinner. I had remembered earlier in the week that they were coming, but then promptly forgot to remember later in the week. Fortunately I had actually planned a Sunday dinner and thawed extra mahi mahi. It worked out. Kind of funny. One of the missionaries asked if we minded if he didn't eat the fish. Chris told him he should try it because it was pretty mild. Not sure that the elder appreciated it, but he ate it.

Monday was Kristen's first day of swimming lessons at Sunset Pool. It's an outdoor pool that my kids have loved for the past couple of summers. We brought a picnic lunch and settled in to watch Kristen swim. I thought for sure her teacher would say that Kristen needed to move to a lower level, but she has been really good about working with her.

Chris was working in Denver on Monday. We planned to meet him in Golden for dinner and the head on over to the Alpine Slide at Heritage Park.







Tuesday was a bit of a repeat for swimming lessons, but we also had tennis lessons for Amy and Misha at 9:30. It was an early day to be out of the house. I told the girls we could stay and swim at 1 pm when the pool opened for free swim. They had a blast swimming with Grandma. Chris left for a quick trip to New York. Linda was supposed to be taking the Amtrak train to Chicago later that evening, but they called to say that because of a crash earlier in the week, the train would be delayed. She scrambled to get a flight and make different arrangements. My girls were thrilled that she was able to stay another day and play.

On Wednesday, we had to leave after Kristen's swimming lesson for the airport to drop Linda off and then be home in time for piano lessons at 2 pm. We made it with about twenty minutes to spare. As usual, there were tears saying goodbye.