Woof, woof!

How MUCH is that do-ggy in the window -

 

....ruff, ruff....

 

...the one with the wa-ggily ta-a-a-il?

How much is that doggy in the window?

Sorry, this one's not for sale!!!

And I think we'll keep this one, too!

(face paint courtesy a classmate's birthday party)

Mr. Bones pays a visit to 1st grade

For the culmination of their science unit on dinosaurs, Mr. Bones came to visit the first grade classes.  Mr. Bones is an art teacher-turned paleontology volunteer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. 

He makes amazingly detailed and realistic, life sized dinosaur skeleton puppets out of paper mache and foam - he sketches actual fossils and fossil castings to make his puppets entirely anatomically correct.

The kids all loved being able to touch the puppets but the highlight was when "Junior" - the baby T-Rex - "ate" them!

Sophie was chosen to help Mr. Bones demonstrate the size and scale of his current juvenile T-Rex puppet to the mama T-Rex puppet head he just completed.

Mildly freaked out! But not as startled as her classmate!

mama and baby

It's really cool but keep it away from me!

The head alone is bigger than a first grader!

He's in the process of trying to develop a rig that will allow him to wear a full-sized T-rex puppet but for now it's just the head. 

It was such a blast and I'm glad I was able to come and watch.  We've seen Mr. Bones at the museum before but never had the chance to see so many of his different puppets nor hear so much about him and how he makes them.  He is definitely one VERY cool guy!

6 months old!!!

Six months already! (Actually, he's 7mos now and I'm way behind in getting pictures up!  Will be doing a bunch of updates so keeping this brief...)

Stats: 13lb 15oz (3rd percentile), 26inches (almost 50th percentile).  Head 40th percentile.
So far Quinn seems to be tracking like both his siblings, but is following closer to Sophia's curve.  He's just a little bug.

Blastoff!

 What do you get when you take 1 plastic bottle an add cardboard "fins", copious amounts of duct tape and a jerry-rigged launch pad?

 A water rocket, of course!!

Add some water for "fuel"...

 Surgically alter a wine cork to fit...

 ...get a cute assistant to soften up the cork a bit so Daddy doesn't slice off his fingertip (again)  with the razor blade (hee hee - sorry Mike!  Needed a reason for that picture because why ELSE would I be letting my infant gnaw on a wine cork??)


Pump it full of air with a tire pump until.....

 BLAST-OFF!!!

The rocket took off too fast for me to capture but it was pretty cool.  The crew will be making some minor modifications to the design prior to their next mission, but overall it was a success!

This is what happens...

When you have a big sister who desperately wanted a baby girl! 

You have to put up with being dressed up in all sorts of girly get-ups!

Family picnic

The weather was gorgeous today!  Sunny but with the perfect amount of breeze. 
We headed off to Boulder Creek for a picnik and afternoon by the water.

First, look who's rolling over!

Yep, sweet little bub figured it out and soon there will be no stopping this little one.  He is on a mission.  Heaven help me!

Someone had been busy earlier in the day!  Look at that triangular rick balanced on a boulder with another rock on top of it!  We know for sure these were "real" because a little later some bigger kids were playing and knocked most of them down.  Talk about patience getting those things to stand!

Caleb and Sophie headed off to explore the creek. 

Caleb tried the rope swing

And I'd love to be able to show you all the wonderful things we did the rest of the afternoon, like Sophie crossing a log "bridge", Quinny's first time in a park swing, or our walk down the creek but the above photo is the last normal picture my poor little point and click camera took! :(  All the rest look like this

or worse!  We still have the nice camera but that's a little too big (and nice!) to lug everywhere in the diaper bag.  Guess it's time for a new camera!