Summer Vacation Continued....

Having a summer birthday is both a blessing and a curse.

Blessing:  I never had to go to school on my birthday.
Curse:  People vacation in the summer so they can't always come to your birthday party which as a child can be a big deal.
Blessing:  You get to celebrate your birthday while on vacation.
Curse:  Summer is HOT and I am not a fan of HOT weather.

Over the years I have celebrated many of my birthdays while on family vacation.  This year was no exception.  I celebrated my birthday in Snowmass with my family.  If my sister could have been there we would all have been together but a girl can't have everything.

There was no huge birthday celebration just a nice dinner with my family.  And since my brother's birthday is just 5 days after mine, it was a double birthday dinner for both of us.

On the street outside of the restaurant we found this sculpture.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

In the past husband has tried to capture this pose with the three older children.  He thought it would be funny for a family Christmas card.  Since we found this sculpture we thought we would take another shot at getting our own personal See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil pose.

Here are the results.

Two out of three...not bad.

Again...two out of three.  Of course, a different two.

Maybe one out of three.  I'm sure you are asking yourself, "Will they ever get this?"  I was wondering the same thing myself but then.....

Yes!  Success! 

 After dinner and our photo session on the streets of Aspen we headed back to the house for a little birthday ice cream on the deck.

Yummy strawberry!

Ava and Uncle John Robert are waiting so patiently for their desserts.

We were then treated to an impromptu musical concert by John David. Ella, and Harrison... in their pajamas of course.

Yep....that's John David playing his "bellows" guitar.  The twins are playing their wooden spoon trumpets.

And this little girl was the backup dancer for the band.

Good times to cherish!

Summer Vacation!

Obviously this post is long overdue and I haven't exactly gone in order but better late than never right?
This summer we changed things up a bit and spent our summer vacation in Snowmass, Colorado, just outside of Aspen.  Usually we are pretty die hard beach goers but this year, with my brother moving to Arizona, the trip west to the mountains turned our to be perfect.  He and Jessica were able to stop by on their way to their new jobs and visit for a day or two and we got to explore something different.  Plus, the cooler weather and lack of humidity was fabulous.

Here are a few shots of our fun times exploring Colorado.

This guy and his friends came to nap on patio area outside our bedroom every day.

You can see how close he is.   All of us were mesmerized Ava and the boys in particular.

You can see in this picture the side of the portable crib where Ava slept while we were there.  She was right up again the sliding doors to the outside and would take her nap every day with the deer.  

The view looking out over the valley from our house.

On our morning walk we discovered this little stream flowing down the mountainside.

The color of the flowers was breathtaking

Exploring the shops in Snowmass.

Just the girls posing for a photo op.

On Wednesday nights during the summer the town of Snowmass has a rodeo.  If you know my children, you know they love rodeo, especially John David.   So of course we had to attend.

As part of the rodeo they have two events for children....Mutton Bustin' and a Calf Scramble.  For those of you who are not up on your rodeo lingo....Mutton Bustin' is little cowboys and cowgirls riding sheep instead of bulls.  They have to hold on for 8 seconds....or until they fall off.  It is hysterical.  A Calf Scramble is when they turn calves with ribbons tied to their tails out into the rodeo arena.  The children chase the calves and try to pull the ribbon out of their tails.  

My three didn't want to ride the sheep but they did participate in the calf scramble.

None of them caught the calf and got the ribbon but they had a blast running around the area (holding hands I might add).

When they got finished and back to the stands they were so proud of themselves for "working as a team."

Near Snowmass there is also an old silver mining town that is now a ghost town.  We spent an afternoon exploring the ghost town and enjoying the scenery.

The ghost town is on a small river.  We took the opportunity to stick out feet in the water.  Boy was it cold!!!

One of the many prairie dogs that now makes it home in the ghost town.

Higher Learning....From the Carpool Line

Everyday when I pick up the twins from preschool, I take a few minutes while they are getting buckled in to their car seats and before leaving the school parking lot to ask about their day.  The usual stuff like Who did you play with today?, What was for snack?, What did you learn today?  What did you sing in music?, you get the drift.  Most days I get a pretty decent amount of information.  I played with Harrison Y. Camilla and Isabella weren't there so I couldn't play with them.  We had graham crackers and water for snack. etc, etc.  Yesterday however the twins were unusually quiet about what went on at school that morning so we headed for home without much information being shared.  That is until we got to the stop light and then all of a sudden they couldn't wait to tell me what they learned in school.

So here goes.  Higher learning as taught by Ella from the carpool line.

Ella:  Mommy, do you know what we did at school today?
Me:  No honey, what did you do?
Ella:  We learned about real and make-believe.
Me:  Wow!  What did you learn?  Can you tell me the difference between real and make-believe?
Ella:  Yes!  
Me:  What is the difference?
Ella:  Real is "real" and make-believe is "make-believe."

There you have it.  Higher learning from the mouth of a four year old.  What have you learned today?

Our First Day!

Last week was the twins first day of school.  They are "big kids" at their school now, in the 4 year old class.  They go to school every day (which is a very big deal to them because it means they are like big brother) and they are now big enough to play in the fort.  The fort may be the most exciting part of it all.  You see, there is a "fort" on the playground complete with spyglasses, a fireman's pole, and a big slide, but the school rule is that only children in the 4 year old and kindergarten transition classes can play in the fort.   So it is a very big deal to be old enough to play in the fort. 

But I digress.  Last week was the twins last first day of school at our wonderful St. Mark's.  The twins were ready to go.  I was ready for them to go.  And, as opposed to last year, when I cried after everyone started back to school even though I had been looking forward to that day for weeks, this year no tears from Mommy.  No tears from the twins either, not that that was a surprise.  It was a bitter sweet day even though there were no tears.  It is the twins last year in preschool.  Next year they will start kindergarten.  It happened so fast.  I am just starting to get used to the idea of John David being in kindergarten.  Next year three of my babies will be in big school.  I'm not sure I am ready for that.  Plus, husband had a big deposition that morning and couldn't be there for first day of school pictures on the front steps or to walk them in to school.  I know he wished he could have been there.  And, as you will see, Harrison was upset about it too.

Little Ava was hiding behind the big chalkboard sign for these photos.  If you look closely you can see her little hand peeking out the side of Harrison's photo.

My beautiful girl!

Here Harrison is saying "I want my daddy."  He wasn't keen on having his pictures taken that morning because daddy wasn't there.

Thankfully he got over it pretty quickly and smiled for a few of the later shots.

Posing with their homework.  They each had to make a "Me" board filling it with things that represented each of them.  They had a good time making them (with some help from Mom and Dad)

They wasted no time getting right to work

...or play!

It is going to be a great year.  They come home every day and tell me how AWESOME school was.  Yeah for a new school year.

A New Routine

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.

We have now finished the third week of school and we are starting to settle in to our new school year routine.  With John David starting kindergarten our whole daily routine has changed.  Everything from what time the alarm goes off to lunchtime, nap time, how long of a nap everyone gets, everything, has changed.  We have gone from preschool that started at 8:30, was not more than 3 minutes from our house, and where if you were late it was no big deal, to  big school that starts at 7:50, is at least 20 minutes from the house, and being tardy is a bigger deal.  My alarm now goes off at 5:30 YIKES and the boys, aka husband and John David, are out of the house by 7:15 each morning.  It has been an adjustment but I have to say I am enjoying the extra time in the mornings to get things accomplished.  I seem to be the most productive in the mornings and late at night so the extra time in the morning has been great.

The hardest part of our new school year routine (other than getting up at 5:30 in the morning) has been nap time.  I have been blessed to have four children that are good sleepers, including taking good naps. Even John David who is 6 will still take a nap most of the time.  Last year everyone usually went down for a nap around 1 or 1:30 (depending on how things were going that day) and took a good 2 to 3 hour nap.  Those were a great couple of hours for me to get some things accomplished around the house and get all the prep work for dinner done.  With school starting I now have to wake everyone up from their naps no later than 2:30 in order to get everyone around and loaded in the car to make it to carpool for John David.  I have moved nap time up in the day but Ava and the twins have not completely adjusted to this switch.  It is taking them much longer than usual to fall asleep and as a result they are not getting a good long nap in each day.  It has made for some very cranky children lately.

Of course, now that we are starting to settle in to our new routine, it is time to change things up some more.  The twins will start school on Tuesday adding more complexities to our daily schedule.  More places to be, more appointments to keep up with, more driving around town for me.  But we are ready! The twins are so excited and can't wait for school to start.  The last three weeks with John David already in school have been hard for them.  They want to be "big" and go to school too.  We have been to open house and seen our teacher, Ms. Bonnie.  We are so blessed to be in Ms. Bonnie's class this year.  John David was in Ms. Bonnie's class when he was 4 and to say that he adored her would be a huge understatement.  The twins are already in love with Ms. Bonnie and are so excited they get to have Ms. Bonnie as their teacher just like big brother did.

In all of this change I also went back to work....sort of, a little.  I started teaching ballet classes one night a week and I have been having so much fun.  I adored being back in the studio and didn't realize how much I had missed it.  Of course, my "working" means I have to be more organized and all the ball than usually, especially on Wednesday nights (the night I teach) since I am not home for dinner or bed time.

I think all this "routine" is good for us.  It makes our days and nights easier.  It makes sure we don't miss fun or important stuff in the chaos that is our life.  But at times I do worry that my children are going to grow up being too scheduled, too rigid, and will miss out on the impromptu, spur of the moment fun things that life is all about.  Finding that balance is always a challenge.  But for now, I am glad we are settling into our school year routine.