Elementary-bound

Isaac's first day of Kindergarten was Thursday morning, August 19th. They start the kindergartners slowly. The parents stay with their kids and the class lasted a whopping 50 minutes. Albeit short, Isaac enjoyed seeing his classroom, re-meeting his teacher, seeing, yes seeing (I'm convinced young children don't actually meet one another for several weeks, after playing side by side) his classmates, and most importantly endulging in a donut and juice box

He enjoyed his first full week, but has sorely missed play time and time outside. The first day I asked him how recess was and he replied, "It was SOOO short."
"I know, it's 10 minutes," I said.

"Ten minutes?! 10 seconds!"

Needless to say, I think he and I are both very pleased he's only doing a half-day.

Free Day at the Denver Botanic Gardens

Early on in the summer I marked my calendar with all of the upcoming "Free Days" for Colorado activities and sites. However, with all the fun we've had at the pool this summer and with two weeks of VBS, there hasn't been a lot of time for our typical summer field trips.

We finally enjoyed a free day on July 22nd. The kids and I drove up to Denver to go to the Botanic Gardens. Even though our planned picnic lunch in the gardens turned into a picnic lunch at Whole Foods, watching the storm roll in, and parking was nearly impossible, we really had a great time. The kids always enjoy seeing something new.

Capturing all three of them in one shot is a lot harder than one might think...

This is one of my new favorite photos of my boys!

Their favorite part was rolling down this hill over and over and over again!

What happens...

If you leave three crazy kids in the hands of MiMi and PopPop for dinner, fun, and bedtime?

This...

This...

This...

This...

AND...This...

A great hike up the incline, a jog down Barr Trail, and a Margarita to top it off for Mom and Dad!

At the base, with the incline straight up behind us.

The view from the top

A Simple prayer...

After a myriad of thankful prayers tonight, Austin had just one simple request..

"And please make StarWars real..."

Where Did These Kids Come From?

Today we took the kids to the Airplane Restaurant for a special treat. This is a restaurant that literally has a retired cargo plane as part of the restaurant. Let's see: a restaurant, kids menus, model airplanes and photos of airplanes everywhere, AND a cockpit to play in...that's how you spell Heaven to a particular 4 and 6-year-old boy. I guess I should mention Elyse was pretty darn excited too!

In the past, we've eaten in the airplane, but today it was a 45 minute wait to be in the actual airplane, so we just ate under the wing. It took some convincing for ACE, but eventually his enthusiasm about being there came back. All three kids were so extremely excited that they were louder than usual...hard to believe! In between our plentiful pleas to get them to be excited QUIETLY, I said to Kurt, "where did these kids come from?" thinking it so strange that all three of our kids are incredibly outgoing, loud, and almost boisterous, especially considering both their parents are the quiet ones in their respective families.

Although it was intended to be rhetorical, Austin quickly responded to my question with a slight roll of the eyes, some gesturing in my direction and a "Mommmmm, you know where we came from! We came from your belly!"

Following in the shoes of her great grandmother

Elyse's great grandmother, Gram, was a tap dancer. And, from what I hear, a pretty good one! (If her swing and ballroom dancing are any indication, I'm betting she was incredible!)

Although Elyse doesn't have the official shoes...yet, tapping may just be in her future, too!