34

34. That's how old I turned today.  34 is a good number I guess.  I don't feel too old.  We didn't have anything super special planned for my birthday.  Dean and I joined a bowling league with one of his coworkers so that's how we spent Friday night.  Saturday I took the kids to the pumpkin patch.  The big surprise came Saturday evening when I came home from grocery shopping and Dean and the kids had cleaned the house.  When we left that morning it looked like a small tornado had made its way through leaving a little disaster in every room.  I was so thankful they had cleaned while I was gone. 

This morning they surprised me by making breakfast and making me a "cake" out of donuts. They all came into the bedroom singing, holding my "cake" with candles and each kid had a homemade card. That was great. I look forward to the next 34 years.

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aMAZEing

The kids and I took a little trip to Canon City yesterday to visit a pumpkin patch.  It's called Diana's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze.  I sort of felt like I was in a maze trying to get there.  The trusty map from Map Quest wasn't so trusty.  I got lost a few times and then called the pumpkin patch (twice) for directions.  By the time we got there I was, let's just say, aggravated. 

We got our tickets and away we went into the maze.  They set it up like the game of Clue.  There were signs with weapons, people and places and we marked them off our cards as we found them.  There were also scarecrows with clues to help.  I was forewarned by the owner  not to go all the way through since I was "wearing" the baby.  We didn't make it through and never found out who did it. We wandered around for nearly  forty minutes which was about thirty minutes too long for Katie.  She fell and was too hot.  I guess she takes after me and gets cranky when the weather is too warm.

I got our picnic lunch ready while the kids played in the loose, dry corn.  They threw it, filled buckets, dove in it and  buried their sister.  Next, we went over to slide.  They propped a big culvert pipe on a haystack to make the slide.  We had fun climbing up and sliding down into more loose corn.  I went down with Andrew and landed a little too hard at the bottom.  The rest of the day my rear end hurt when I sat down.

The kids also got to choose a pumpkin. Decisions, decisions. They chose great ones. I wish we could have stayed longer and made it through the maze. Next time I need to take cash so we can buy some apple cider or a carmel apple.

City Park

A few weekends ago we went to Pueblo for a birthday party at City Park.  I'd been there a time or two before but had no idea they had kiddie rides for a quarter a ride.  The kids had so much fun.


Mini roller coaster

Charles and Katie in a UFO

Andrew checking out the action

Katie

Eric and Charles waiting for Katie

Katie in a classic car

Carousel ride

Carousel ride

Eric holding on tight

Daddy and Andrew

The Three Amigos

Waiting for the ride to start

Andrew's first carousel ride

Daddy and Andrew

First Day of School 2011

First day of Second grade for Charles and Fifth grade for Eric

Lasy year of elementary school

Charles

Big brother, Little brother

Katie sending the boys off to school

Katie's first day of Advanced Pre-K (or as she calls it "adavanced capri-K")

Katie

Andrew's 1st Birthday

I had so much fun planning and decorating for Andrew's first birthday!  I think that I get the most excited of anyone over birthdays (not necessarily my own).  I decided to do a Monster theme for his birthday.  I found a lot of inspiration on other blogs (thank you creative people out there). 

I started out by making the birthday banner.  I free handed the letters on small paper plates and used monster clip art to embellish.  Then I punched a hole in each and strung it on a ribbon.  I thought it turned out super cute.

 I found the monster watermelon on a blog and then added a few of my own touches (Dean gave me the idea of saving the top of the pineapple as a hat).  I struggled to get the watermelon out of the mouth so I resorted to cutting off the bottom and scooping it out from there.  Much easier. Everyone loved the watermelon monster.

The hardest part was coming up with a cake.  I saw an adorable three layer cake where each layer was a different size and color and decorated with a monster face.  Then I saw the cute little cupcakes.  I decided that I would do one small cake for Andrew and cupcakes for everyone else.  His little cake was adorable.  The kids loved helping with the cupcakes.  There's nothing like squirting frosting willy-nilly all over a cupcake.  

                                    

Just for fun I made monster masks for the kids to hold as their picture was being taken.



Happy Birthday Andrew!  We all had a great time celebrating you.  This is what Andrew looked like one year ago and what he looks like now.

Pioneer Days 2011

My kids look forward to Pioneer Days every summer.  They love going down to see their cousins, watch the parades, run in the races, ride the carnival rides and ride horses.  We didn't go to Pioneer Days last year because I was three weeks away from having Andrew.  We couldn't miss it this year.  I have many fond memories of Pioneer Days from my childhood and I hope my kids are making the same kind of memories. 

This year I entered the annual Manassa Pioneer Days 5K run.  My sister and I did it together.  We started out running like everyone else but sadly after a block and a half we decided to walk.  We aren't runners but we had  fun walking and talking.  I don't know how long it took us to finish but I do know we didn't break any records or come in last.

The kids don't get to see my family too often so it is such a treat when we go down to visit.  They house hop from one cousin's house to another.  After the celebration was over my parents invited the boys to stay down for a few extra days.  They had sleepovers and went swimming at Splash Land.  (I was really happy to find out that the pool had reopened).  I'm glad they were able to spend time with their grandparents and cousins but I am even more glad to have them back home.