February 2013, continued...

I forgot a few of our February events...

On President's Day I took the kids up to the Denver Downtown Aquarium, since they had the day off from school.  They always love museums, zoos, and aquariums, so I figured it would be a hit.  We had a great day there.  They have some fun exhibits, including a big aquarium tank where a few times a day they have mermaids swimming in with all of the big fish and sea turtles, and another exhibit where it simulates a flash flood.  It was, however, very crowded due to every child being out of school that day, but oh well.  We'll have to take another trip up there someday when it's less crowded.  

Also in February, Scott put board and batten up on our master bedroom walls and I helped caulk and paint.  He did such a great job!  It is a beautiful room.  I need to take some better wall pictures now with everything back in place.

 Alex joined his Science Olympiad team at school and February was the month of their first competition.  He competed in three events.  The one he spent the most time working on was this Rube Goldberg machine (a machine that goes through many different sequences to perform a simple task).  He was on a team with 2 other boys (one of whom's dad is an engineer...so he helped guide them in this project a great deal).  Their team did well and they were able to go on to the state competition in Golden, CO in March.  This is the only lame picture I got of their great project. :-/ 

2013 - Year Review

Well, since I missed recording pretty much all of 2013, I am going to recap our year. I'll pick out some of the memorable events of the year, I certainly don't remember everything!

January & February 2013-
    We took a trip out to Utah for Christmas at the end of 2012.  Scott had to fly home to get back to work before the kids and I had to be home, so we stayed until about January 3rd and I drove home with the kids.  The weather was sunny and beautiful, but the temperature was 1 degree Farenheit practically the whole way home.  Luckily the van drove fine and we made it home safe and sound.  It was just really chilly when we got out to eat and go potty. :)
    Analeigh's birthday is January 24th.  We had a fun party for her with a few of her good friends (Maya, Ella, and Kylee).  They came to our house and we had tacos and cake, opened presents, then I took the 4 of them + Abigail to a place called Color Me Mine.  It is a ceramics painting studio, and it happened to be pajama night there, so the girls all wore their pajamas.  They each picked an item to paint and got to work.  They did a great job!  Analeigh painted a sea turtle jewelry box and it turned out beautifully!  I told Abigail we didn't want to leave any white on our projects and she took to the task seriously and painted and painted until no white was showing on her cute kitty cat.
    For Christmas we had given Analeigh a gift card to American Girl store, so for her birthday weekend I took her up to the Denver American Girl store to use her gift card and out to eat at the White Chocolate Grill restaurant, which welcomes girls and their dolls and gives you a free dessert if you bring your doll in.  We had a great date day!!

   
    February brings my birthday and Valentine's Day.  Not too much excitement otherwise this year.  The kids and Scott got me some nice things for my birthday.  The kids are always so good to remember something I have mentioned liking and getting Scott to get it for me.  This year there was a dress that I had liked at Macy's and they showed it to Scott and got it for me.  They (Scott) made me a cake also.  I always like chocolate cake with chocolate frosting...mmmmm!
    For Valentine's Day I put a new heart on each member of our family's door with something I love about them on it each night until Valentine's Day.  They seemed to love it and I loved doing it! 
   Right before Thanksgiving of 2012 (when Mom and Dad and Robby and Michelle and their family were coming to stay) our double oven decided to quit working...of course!!  Scott found one that someone was selling on Craigslist and I went and picked it up and it worked!  Until February of 2013, that is. :(  Our second double oven had gone out in less than 8 months of living here.  Ugh!  So in February we ended up going to Best Buy and buying stainless steel KitchenAid appliances for our kitchen.  Since we were getting a new double oven, we decided to go ahead and make the switch from white appliances to the popular stainless steel look and got a new refrigerator and microwave as well. We still haven't switched out our dishwasher, but it is still working great (knock on wood) and you don't notice it since it is among the white kitchen cabinets. Anyway, that happened in February :)  .

Cutting Analeigh's tie-dye birthday cake

Kind of lop-sided, but still fun and tasty :)

The party crew

Birthday Girl at the paint studio

Ella and Kylee working together

Analeigh and Maya, focused

Abigail working hard at covering the whole thing :)

Abigail's finished cat, before firing

Analeigh's finished turtle, before firing

Mom and Analeigh date

Look at all those different looks for Julie!

Trying on shoes



Mommy's Birthday

And...just a cute shot :)

 

Summer Break Week 2 Day 1

      Alex and Analeigh are on summer break from school now.  The past two summers have been spent packing and moving, so we are looking forward to just having some good ol' summertime fun this year!
      Today is Monday June 3.  My parents were here over the weekend to support the kids in some of their end of school year activities.  Alex had a soccer tournament, and both girls had dance recitals (with different dance studios).  They all did great in their different activities, and it was so nice of mom and dad to come out and be here for the kids.  It is so nice to live closer!!
      The kids and I decided we are going to try and go to the YMCA three times a week (probably Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), so we started out our day by going there.  I checked Analeigh in to Kid Zone and Abigail and Andrew in to Child Watch and then Alex and I went and worked out. 
      When we got home I set up our new kiddie pool in the backyard and all the kids played in it most of the afternoon.  It was around 87 degrees today, so it finally felt warm enough to play in the water.  Although the hose water that filled up the pool was verrryyy cold. I also called my good friend Candace in Virginia and had a good chat with her.  Then I put Andrew down for a nap and Abigail down for a rest and sat down to pay bills (woo hoo! NOT).  The kids had their friends over to play in the water with them later in the afternoon, then they all (except Andrew) went over to the Andersons to play on their slip and slide.
      They came home about 6pm and I finished up what I was doing and we had dinner of chicken sandwiches and cucumbers and tomatoes, then had a quick family home evening where we discussed "Personal Responsibility" and talked about our plans for the summer.  Scott was on call and was working late tonight, so he missed out.  Then I got the little ones in the bath and they were all tucked in to bed!