Monday, January 30, 2012
Jump Rope
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Shoes
I don't usually make a habit of taking pictures of the clothing and shoes my kids leave around, but every time I walked by Misha's shoes, I thought, "I need to take a picture of those." So, I did.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Gung Hey Fat Choy!
Gung Hey Fat Choy means "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year." And "Gung Hey Fat Choy" is what Kristen said to me as she presented me this cute little red envelope filled with paper money and a certificate good for "giveing my mama a spa". Such a sweet girl!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Happy Birthday to Me!
Sunday is a perfect day for me to celebrate a birthday. It is the one day of the week that I don't get up to exercise, and I stay in bed being lazy for a bit. Thus, my children were able to make me breakfast in bed. I believe Misha was the first one up yesterday morning. She then woke up her sisters to help her. It was a bad move to wake Kristen up--she was C.R.A.B.B.Y all day long, and she knew it! She even lamented being crabby on my birthday.
Chris had early meetings on Sunday so he missed the action with breakfast. All three girls came in to my bedroom around 7:30 am singing "Happy Birthday" with Amy carrying my breakfast tray. They had made me oatmeal (with flax) and brought milk, orange juice, a banana, and my vitamins. Kristen had made me a birthday crown on Saturday, and I got to wear that. Since I am usually the camera taker, I got a big dose of my own medicine with Kristen trying to snap pictures of me with my iPad, Misha on my Canon G12, and Amy on my new Canon T3i. I wished I had a camera to take a picture of them. "Wait, Mom, look here." "No, look here." "Smile." All coming from different directions, and in the midst of it all, I say to Kristen, "You're not putting that on Facebook are you?" Whew, that could have been scary.
It's a good thing that Amy focused on Kristen's head instead of my face!
The girls left to get started on their breakfast of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. Kristen was still in a pretty cranky mood and came back up to my room devastated that she hadn't finished or started or bought a birthday present for me. At that time, Chris came home and bounded up the stairs. With early Sunday meetings, he misses out on Sunday birthday breakfast celebrations. I was talking with Kristen when Chris came in and said, "I bet Dad could hook you up." Without even having to explain what she was upset about, Chris grabbed her by the hand and led her back downstairs where the girls helped to wrap my birthday presents--in the comics. Two more lenses for my camera and a filter! Woohoo. I am pretty spoiled and loved and celebrated.
When I came downstairs, Amy was busy trying to find candles for the obligatory "candles in your breakfast" birthday shot. She asked, while rummaging through the candle numbers, "How old are you?" I responded and she searched a little more, "Hmm, will 28 be good?" Yes, it would, but somehow 18 was even better. Thus,
The morning passed by pretty smoothly. I'm not a fan of 1:00 pm church, but we found ways to keep busy. The girls played Twister for a bit, Kristen tried to create a zip line for her dolls from the catwalk to the kitchen table, and I practiced with my new lens.
By dinner time, Kristen was finally beginning to come out of her funk and be happy. We had turkey tetrazini that I had put together after Christmas dinner in December. Amy tried her hand at a pumpkin angel food cake. It did not rise as much as a normal angel food and was quite dense, but a good try nonetheless. With a little whipped topping and caramel topping drizzled on top, it was quite tasty.
Lucky for me, my birthday celebrations began on Friday. Chris brought me some beautiful red tulips, and we followed that with dinner with friends.
On Saturday evening, the girls wanted to celebrate with going out to dinner and we ended up at Saltgrass--without Misha--who opted to spend time at her friend's house.
Another year and all even numbers to boot. Somehow that makes a difference to me.
Chris had early meetings on Sunday so he missed the action with breakfast. All three girls came in to my bedroom around 7:30 am singing "Happy Birthday" with Amy carrying my breakfast tray. They had made me oatmeal (with flax) and brought milk, orange juice, a banana, and my vitamins. Kristen had made me a birthday crown on Saturday, and I got to wear that. Since I am usually the camera taker, I got a big dose of my own medicine with Kristen trying to snap pictures of me with my iPad, Misha on my Canon G12, and Amy on my new Canon T3i. I wished I had a camera to take a picture of them. "Wait, Mom, look here." "No, look here." "Smile." All coming from different directions, and in the midst of it all, I say to Kristen, "You're not putting that on Facebook are you?" Whew, that could have been scary.
It's a good thing that Amy focused on Kristen's head instead of my face!
The girls left to get started on their breakfast of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. Kristen was still in a pretty cranky mood and came back up to my room devastated that she hadn't finished or started or bought a birthday present for me. At that time, Chris came home and bounded up the stairs. With early Sunday meetings, he misses out on Sunday birthday breakfast celebrations. I was talking with Kristen when Chris came in and said, "I bet Dad could hook you up." Without even having to explain what she was upset about, Chris grabbed her by the hand and led her back downstairs where the girls helped to wrap my birthday presents--in the comics. Two more lenses for my camera and a filter! Woohoo. I am pretty spoiled and loved and celebrated.
When I came downstairs, Amy was busy trying to find candles for the obligatory "candles in your breakfast" birthday shot. She asked, while rummaging through the candle numbers, "How old are you?" I responded and she searched a little more, "Hmm, will 28 be good?" Yes, it would, but somehow 18 was even better. Thus,
The morning passed by pretty smoothly. I'm not a fan of 1:00 pm church, but we found ways to keep busy. The girls played Twister for a bit, Kristen tried to create a zip line for her dolls from the catwalk to the kitchen table, and I practiced with my new lens.
By dinner time, Kristen was finally beginning to come out of her funk and be happy. We had turkey tetrazini that I had put together after Christmas dinner in December. Amy tried her hand at a pumpkin angel food cake. It did not rise as much as a normal angel food and was quite dense, but a good try nonetheless. With a little whipped topping and caramel topping drizzled on top, it was quite tasty.
Lucky for me, my birthday celebrations began on Friday. Chris brought me some beautiful red tulips, and we followed that with dinner with friends.
On Saturday evening, the girls wanted to celebrate with going out to dinner and we ended up at Saltgrass--without Misha--who opted to spend time at her friend's house.
Another year and all even numbers to boot. Somehow that makes a difference to me.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Rocky Mountain National Park
What do you get when you combine a free admission weekend to the national park and a day off from school? A quick trip to Estes Park and on to Rocky Mountain National Park. That's what. We packed up dinner, snacks, power bars, clothes, and loads of winter wear and headed up to Estes Park after church Sunday afternoon. We were able to find a "bonus time" deal at Chris' parents' timeshare with enough beds for all (though Amy might argue that sleeping on the couch was less than favorable. She might even say it was noisy).
We had a mish mash of dinner on Sunday night with leftover pizza and two microwave meals for Chris and I. Add in some licorice, popcorn, cookies, apples, blueberries and pumpkin donuts and I don't believe any one went hungry. Monday morning we ate at "Egg and I" for quite a great breakfast. Chris' pancake was the size of a dinner plate and Misha's and Kristen's weren't much smaller. Amy had waffles, and I had a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, granola and a fruit cup. I declined the toast. It was filling, but since we only brought power bars for hiking, we told the girls to eat up.
After breakfast we drove back to the hotel to pack up our stuff and head further up the mountain. The snowflakes were randomly falling but picked up in intensity as we neared Bear Lake. The road turned from completely dry to snow covered--nice to have four-wheel drive now for times like this. The parking lot at Bear Lake, usually crowded with tourists, was only about 1/3 full. We began to pull on our snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, sunglasses and scarfs. With all that gear, the cold was manageable and only my face felt the chill.
We walked toward the lake which was frozen over and ventured out on to the ice.
Kristen was pretty nervous about walking on it, and clutched my hand until we reached the other side of the lake. At that point, she realized she wasn't going to fall into water and promptly turned around to go back and make snow angels on the ice.
The girls found a few places for sliding down the hillside as we made our way around the lake. It was snowing quite a lot, and though Chris and I had expected many complaints, we didn't hear a single one. We were all about making memories, and this day was perfect for it.
After completing our trip around, Chris returned to the car to drive down to the Alberta Falls parking lot, and the girls and I started the one-mile hike to the trail head. We didn't want to have to climb back up to Bear Lake after hiking to the falls. We met up with Chris in no time and were on our way. Kristen was beginning to lose a little steam, but she still managed to beat her sisters and pass a bunch of boys. It helped that I grabbed on to the back of her jacket and propelled her along.
Alberta Falls were definitely different in the winter. Chris and I had snowshoed to them a couple of years ago, but this was a first for the girls. Usually you can hear the falls as you get closer, but they were completely frozen over. In fact, after lunch we spent most of our time playing in the snow and jumping off rocks whilst standing mid-stream.
Lunch was interesting. We had a little bread, leftover licorice and power bars. Once we sat down, a small chipmunk came out of the trees and raced toward us. It had no fear, and raced around our legs until it climbed up on to Chris. He may or may not have fed it bread. The chipmunk was promptly named "Jaws" and kept us all entertained.
Crazy girl! You don't win snowball fights with your dad.
If you happen to hike to Alberta Falls in the next day or so, and if someone hasn't ruined it, you will see the Kline family snow fort sitting in the middle of the falls. I don't think we have ever played in the snow together like that, and it was great. Throughout the day, the girls had so much fun they kept asking if we could make this an annual tradition.
Chris had to be back home to leave for the airport at three pm, so we left the falls after completing our snow fort. Except for having to following insanely slow people down the mountain, our drive home was uneventful.
We had a mish mash of dinner on Sunday night with leftover pizza and two microwave meals for Chris and I. Add in some licorice, popcorn, cookies, apples, blueberries and pumpkin donuts and I don't believe any one went hungry. Monday morning we ate at "Egg and I" for quite a great breakfast. Chris' pancake was the size of a dinner plate and Misha's and Kristen's weren't much smaller. Amy had waffles, and I had a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, granola and a fruit cup. I declined the toast. It was filling, but since we only brought power bars for hiking, we told the girls to eat up.
After breakfast we drove back to the hotel to pack up our stuff and head further up the mountain. The snowflakes were randomly falling but picked up in intensity as we neared Bear Lake. The road turned from completely dry to snow covered--nice to have four-wheel drive now for times like this. The parking lot at Bear Lake, usually crowded with tourists, was only about 1/3 full. We began to pull on our snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, sunglasses and scarfs. With all that gear, the cold was manageable and only my face felt the chill.
We walked toward the lake which was frozen over and ventured out on to the ice.
Kristen was pretty nervous about walking on it, and clutched my hand until we reached the other side of the lake. At that point, she realized she wasn't going to fall into water and promptly turned around to go back and make snow angels on the ice.
The girls found a few places for sliding down the hillside as we made our way around the lake. It was snowing quite a lot, and though Chris and I had expected many complaints, we didn't hear a single one. We were all about making memories, and this day was perfect for it.
After completing our trip around, Chris returned to the car to drive down to the Alberta Falls parking lot, and the girls and I started the one-mile hike to the trail head. We didn't want to have to climb back up to Bear Lake after hiking to the falls. We met up with Chris in no time and were on our way. Kristen was beginning to lose a little steam, but she still managed to beat her sisters and pass a bunch of boys. It helped that I grabbed on to the back of her jacket and propelled her along.
Alberta Falls were definitely different in the winter. Chris and I had snowshoed to them a couple of years ago, but this was a first for the girls. Usually you can hear the falls as you get closer, but they were completely frozen over. In fact, after lunch we spent most of our time playing in the snow and jumping off rocks whilst standing mid-stream.
Lunch was interesting. We had a little bread, leftover licorice and power bars. Once we sat down, a small chipmunk came out of the trees and raced toward us. It had no fear, and raced around our legs until it climbed up on to Chris. He may or may not have fed it bread. The chipmunk was promptly named "Jaws" and kept us all entertained.
Crazy girl! You don't win snowball fights with your dad.
If you happen to hike to Alberta Falls in the next day or so, and if someone hasn't ruined it, you will see the Kline family snow fort sitting in the middle of the falls. I don't think we have ever played in the snow together like that, and it was great. Throughout the day, the girls had so much fun they kept asking if we could make this an annual tradition.
Chris had to be back home to leave for the airport at three pm, so we left the falls after completing our snow fort. Except for having to following insanely slow people down the mountain, our drive home was uneventful.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Budding Photographer
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Candy Land
Kristen set up her Candyland game for me to play with her. The first thing I did as I sat down was to shuffle the cards. I know that girl well enough to know that the very first card, and probably the third card too, were rigged in her favor. The game was over pretty quickly as I selected the card she had set for herself. She was a perfect target for a little camera practice.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Painting
So thrilled to finally have our front entry and upstairs hallway painted. Chris and I had these grand intentions about eight years ago to paint. We accomplished a lot, but after working on the living room with it two story walls, we weren't too anxious to continue painting the front hall. On Friday, I had the same guys who painted Amy's room and the powder bath before Christmas come back and finish for me. Honestly, I dislike painting so much that I couldn't imagine having it as my job.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Year's Eve
So, I think this is a tradition that we won't continue. For the past two years, we have spent New Year's Eve in downtown Denver. We were once again at the "E" hotel and this year we stipulated "no swimming". Last year the girls chose to swim rather than watch the fireworks. We started our evening together with a movie at the Cherry Creek Mall AMC, "We Bought a Zoo". Kristen was quite adamant before hand that she didn't want to see this stupid movie. Seriously, sometimes we wonder why we even try to plan fun things for our kids. Bad attitude! And that wasn't the only one for the night. After leaving the movie, Kristen was hoping to visit the zoo someday. We stopped for dinner at Cafe Rio and for a Mexican food-lover, I am just going to say, I don't like their food. It has a weird taste.
We headed to the hotel next through the crazy downtown traffic. My kids were amazed by all the people, and all the girls wearing too short dresses, and all the people smoking. Seriously, smoke was everywhere. After checking in, we headed over to the 16th street mall. Misha was not happy now. She does not like loud noises and was not looking forward to the fireworks. Her attitude just went downhill from there. We sugared the girls up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and then made our way toward the firework staging area. It was up on a roof, so clearly visibly to many people. In fact, we would have had a perfect view in our hotel room.
After the fireworks were over, we made our way back to the hotel room. Misha took her bad mood to bed and the rest of us watched tv and played games until the midnight hour. Kristen almost made it. She was in one of the beds with me playing a word game on my iPad, when she just laid down, rolled over, and fell asleep. At midnight, Chris, Amy, and I watched those fireworks again out our window. Perfect view. We drifted off to sleep to the sounds of people screaming and shouting and making lots of raucous noise in the hall way.
We headed to the hotel next through the crazy downtown traffic. My kids were amazed by all the people, and all the girls wearing too short dresses, and all the people smoking. Seriously, smoke was everywhere. After checking in, we headed over to the 16th street mall. Misha was not happy now. She does not like loud noises and was not looking forward to the fireworks. Her attitude just went downhill from there. We sugared the girls up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and then made our way toward the firework staging area. It was up on a roof, so clearly visibly to many people. In fact, we would have had a perfect view in our hotel room.
After the fireworks were over, we made our way back to the hotel room. Misha took her bad mood to bed and the rest of us watched tv and played games until the midnight hour. Kristen almost made it. She was in one of the beds with me playing a word game on my iPad, when she just laid down, rolled over, and fell asleep. At midnight, Chris, Amy, and I watched those fireworks again out our window. Perfect view. We drifted off to sleep to the sounds of people screaming and shouting and making lots of raucous noise in the hall way.
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