Is it 5 o'clock yet?

I just called Scott to see when he was coming home and his response was "You know it is only 2:55, right?". We have had a nice full day of activity and we still have half a day to go! I have learned my lesson and did not put the girls down for naps this afternoon. The last two nights they have not fallen asleep until well after 10 pm. By 10 pm, I am usually curled up on the couch, halfway to dreamdom. Well, I decided that we would push on through nap time and (hopefully) hit a 7 pm bedtime instead of 10 pm. We played on the swing set this morning, met some friends for lunch at Jimmy John's (sorry about the lettuce explosion), rode bikes in the church parking lot and went to the library to sign up for the summer reading club. I love that we get ALL this time to hang out and do fun stuff together. I will really love it when the temperature gets above 70 degrees and we can go to the pool. We did a drive-by today and there were a few families there. Probably the mothers that had already exhausted all their fun summer ideas! I promised the kids that tomorrow we would definitely hit the pool, no matter the wind speed or air temp. Stay tuned for more updates on pool fun.

Memorial Day Weekend 08'

We had a great weekend. Friday night, we celebrated Scott's birthday. That's right-he can no longer make fun of me for being old because we are now the same age (at least for the next 6 months). Our dear friends, The Young's, came over for dinner and we had a great time, as always, laughing and hanging out! Saturday, I went to lunch with my Beta Sigma Phi chicas! The weather cleared just in time for us to enjoy our lunch on the patio. We pretty much worked around the house for the rest of the day getting odd jobs done. Sunday, we went to church and then headed to Old Colorado City for Territory Days. Monday, we got up way too early (4:15 am) and headed to Boulder with 52,000 other crazy people so that I could run the Bolder Boulder, a 10k race that pulls people from all over the state, country and world. Despite the somewhat crummy weather, I had a great time. There are bands playing throughout the race, an Elvis impersonator, belly dancers, beer giveaways and lots of spectators cheering you on! I caught sight of Sam as I was approaching the finish and he blew me a kiss. Life doesn't get sweeter than that....
We had a fun conversation on the way home.
S: Good job on your race Mom!
me: Thanks buddy!
S: Too bad you lost.

Well, there were several thousand people that did if fact beat me but, in my defense, there were several thousand people that finished after me...

School's Out

As an end of the school year celebration, we hosted our very first cupcake decorating party. Eight of our school friends came over and iced, sprinkled and chowed down on chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. There is nothing like loading your kids up on sugar at 9:30 in the morning! I guess we are just getting ourselves ready for the craziness of summer. As you can see, Paige really enjoyed her cupcake! Yes, that is frosting coming out her nose. I was so busy with the kids I didn't get a chance to take any other pictures. Just imagine how a kitchen might look after 11 kids devoured cupcakes. Oh well, they really had fun!!!

He has lost another one!!!

Sam lost another tooth! Now he is missing both front teeth on the top! How will he chew his food! Lucky for him, the permanent teeth are already coming down!

Kindergarten Here I Come!

Alice has graduated from preschool and is off to Kindergarten! Good job Alice!!!

Deer Treats

Today we decided to plant flowers. I know, I know, they will only last a couple days and the deer will eat every last one of our beautiful flowers but it is still fun to plant them and attempt to keep them alive. I have tried every recipe and idea to keep the deer away from my plants but I have to admit that I love seeing them (the deer) in our yard so much, it doesn't bother me that they graze on my petunias. After church, we headed out to pick out flowers for our pots. The kids each picked out a couple special flowers for their own pots. Once we were home, they painted their pots with bright colors and filled them with flowers. Once all our flowers were potted and strategically placed (on top of the picnic table and hanging from the eaves) Sam, Alice and Paige played on the swing set for the rest of the afternoon. Another fun filled day down and back to school tomorrow. Only 4 more days for Sam and he will officially be done with Kindergarten. Alice's last day of school is tomorrow and she has her preschool graduation. I really cannot believe that she will be going to Kindergarten. She just doesn't seem big enough.

Two words that send shivers up my spine- SUMMER VACATION!!! Just kidding, we have lots planned and it will go by in a flash and I will be so sad come August when they all head off to school.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend. We sure did!!

Jennifer

Extreme Green Makeover

Yesterday, the kids and I headed off to church for the better part of the day for a seminar that was titled Extreme Green Makeover. Since I am on the Green Committee at church, I thought that it would be great to get some more ideas for how we can make our church and the community around us more environmentally friendly. The presenter was Rebekah Simon-Peter. She was a wonderful presenter and gave so much knowledge. It was also my New Year's Resolution (which I usually never do) to make our home and personal life a "greener", less wasteful place. Here are some of the easy ideas that we have done to eliminate many bags of trash per week...

-Reusable grocery bags, plastic bags blow!

-making a weekly load to the recycling center with plastic, metal, glass, cardboard, Styrofoam

-changing out all light bulbs

-started using environmentally safe cleaning products and detergent. (I still use Clorox wipes! with kids they are a must)

-stopped using most paper products. We now use cloth napkins for meals and old washcloths for spills and cleaning. I still have paper towels in the kitchen, again, with kids they are a must.

There is still lots of things that I would like to change around here and I am by no means great at this but I feel like if I sort of work on my little part of the world it makes it a better place for my kids.

After we left church, I felt like I owed it the kids to give them a bit of park time.

We ended up staying at the park until dinner. What a day! Here are some pics of the kids having a blast playing together. After dinner and a good scrubbing in the tub, they all crashed out in bed.

Have a great day!

Jen

Princess Down!

Here is Paige, Friday evening, after a hard day of play. She fell asleep while I was trying to get dinner ready. She is so sweet when she sleeps!

Happy Mother's Day

My wonderful day started out with breakfast in bed and ended with three kids sound asleep in bed. It can't get much better than that. This morning we went to church and then this afternoon we went to Waldo Canyon for a hike. Two of my favorite things to do! It was a gorgeous day to be outside. On our hike, we saw a couple lizards. The kids thought that was great. Every time they hear a rustle in the bushes, they stop to investigate. I prefer to keep moving. I am really proud of them, they are such good hikers. Sometimes I can't believe how far their little legs will take them. They love to jump off every rock, point out every flower and climb every tree. After our hike, we were starving, so we headed for home and Scott put cheeseburgers on the grill! I could not have asked for a nicer day! I was wondering...maybe we should celebrate Mother's Day once a month....just a thought?!?!?

Mother's Day Tea

In honor of Mother's Day, Alice's preschool had a Mother's Tea. It was very fun. All the children came in singing, You Are My Sunshine, and holding daisies. (start waterworks). Alice and I had a really nice time snacking on fruit, crackers and pudding. It was very sweet and the kids went to a lot of work making the pudding and setting up for the event.

Congrats Sam!

Sam lost his tooth! If you haven't seen him lately, his top front tooth seemed to have been dangling for weeks! Everyone from grandpa to the grocery store clerk to our pastor offered to pull it out but Sam wanted to wait for it to fall out. Thanks to a lot of waiting and a well timed bump on the back of a kitchen chair, his tooth FINALLY flew out. Yes, I did say flew. The tooth fairy made a visit to our house and Sam is one dollar richer.

As you can see from the pictures Sam earned his gold belt in Karate last night. He tested last week and his instructor had to evaluate his test over the weekend. Sam waited very patiently throughout the entire class and in the last minute, he was awarded his belt. He is so excited and so are we! Great work!

This morning, I left Scott and the kids to fend for themselves and I went over to Garden of the Gods for a 5 mile race with my friend Kim. If you aren't from Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods is a wonderfully magical open space park at the base of Pike's Peak. Sandstone formation line the park and it is breathtaking no matter the day/time/weather. I think that it is my favorite place to visit so close to home. It was a bit chilly but overall a beautiful morning in the Garden. We finally finished the race 48 minutes later after huffing and puffing up and down, but mostly up, the hills of the park. Wow, what a way to start the day! Enjoy the pics. No, it wasn't snowing but I love the picture so I added it anyway.

You're an Animal!!

We decided to brave the wind and crowds today to check out the new exhibit at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The Rocky Mountain Wild houses tons of cool animals that live in this part of the country. There were mountain lions, grizzly bears, otters, a bald eagle, a young bull moose, snakes, porcupines, and the list goes on and on.....The new part of the zoo also has a chairlift that takes you to the top of the zoo, opening on May 23rd. I am sure that it will have fabulous views of Colorado Springs. You probably can see all the way to Kansas (aka Powers Blvd.) Thank goodness there was enclosures because the mountain lion and grizzly bear both thought Sam would be a yummy snack. We had a great time visiting the new animals and even stopped by to feed the giraffes on our way out. The zoo is one of our favorite spots in the Springs and in warmer weather we visit very often.