Last day at the pool

The ridiculous heat finally broke a bit, but I decided to take the kids for one last afternoon at the pool. 

We left Quinn with Daddy so we could actually swim and have fun.  Unfortunately, the HOA must have decided to save a few late-season dollars by shutting off the heater a few days early and since the nights get so much cooler here even when it's 90 degrees outside the pool water quickly turns frigid without a heater!  Even Caleb couldn't stand it for more than a few minutes.  Boo!

Sophie tried to stick it out but it was just too cold.  Look at those lips - so blue they're almost white! Oh well.

Gateway Fun Park!

Another weekend, another fun adventure!  This time we went to Gateway Fun Park in Boulder to use up some coupons that were expiring soon.

First up, go karts.  Caleb was a bit disappointed that he wasn't tall enough to drive the regular ones but the kiddie karts were still fun!

Doesn't she look like she's plotting something in this shot?

Round and around and around they went. 

Sophie bringing up the rear.

Next was mini golf with Daddy.

Lining up the perfect shot.

Taking liberties with her "one stroke" and "guiding" the ball to the hole. 

It's actually a really pretty course.  We only lost a few balls to the water...

A picture to prove I was actually there, too.

All the action was just too exhausting for Quinn!

After you're done playing you return the balls (safely retrieved from the water!) down a peg board and if you ball goes in the hole you win a free game of mini golf.  Caleb had no idea about any of this but popped his ball in and actually won!

Of course, after that he was sure that it was all skill and insisted on doing Mike and Sophie's balls - none of those were winners.

Breaking the scale...

We headed to Pearl Street for lunch, Chipotle - worst experience ever!  95* outside with no breeze and high humidity, no fans or air running, Quinn had a massive blowout, the (shared) bathroom had no baby changing table, also no A/c or fan running and smelled like a barn.  Yuck!  Quinny's face pretty much sums up how I felt about the whole experience! ;)

If you look closely, you can see his thumb stuck inside the paci.  Guess he couldn't decide which he wanted so he tried both and got the thumb stuck.  Poor guy!

All saved by a trip for gelato, though.

5 months old!!!

Quinn Ethan Charles

Age - 5 months

Occupation - looking cute

growing way too fast

and making adorable squealing noises

Likes - sucking his toes and blowing spit bubbles

Dislikes - being put down; sleeping in any fashion

Still just {thisclose} to rolling over - will surely be any day now - and getting more active by the day!!

Sweet little bug!!

More Sophie fashion

Sophia loves her fancy clothes, and she loves to do "fashion shows" so here is another cute outfit she put together.

You would think this was all purchased together but nope!  I had a friend make the darling lollipop tee for Sophie's "Sweet Shoppe" 5th birthday party to go with a light pink frilly pettiskirt.  The same friend had made the curly-Q bow for Sophie - when she was just a few months old!  It happens to match perfectly.  Then we pulled out some shorts I had purchased the previous year and they also happened to match perfectly.  Sophia realized she had all these matching pieces and it quickly became one of her favorite outfits!

Fort Collins

For the first weekend after school started we decided to head up to Fort Collins for the day.  No real agenda, just to hang out as a family.  Fort Collins is a gorgeous city with tons of amazing parks and old homes that make me swoon!

First up, the old street car/trolley from city park down towards old town.  Didn't think to take pictures but the trolley takes you right past some of the most gorgeous homes and old neighborhoods.  The trolley itself is beautiful, as well.   

The ride was cut short by a block or so due to a cycling race through town so we watched a bit of the race then headed down to explore.

Not sure what Caleb is doing here or why the violence towards the poor fake gorilla but he insisted on the pic...

We wandered for a few hours - and almost missing our trolley ride back to the park where our car was!!  Thankfully the trolley was behind schedule so we made it back.  The kids played at the playground then we walked around the lake.  Caleb was disappointed we were too late for paddleboats - next time!  The ducks are obviously conditioned to think anyone tossing things into the water was feeding them so they swarmed Sophie when she started tossing pebbles into the water!

After dinner we walked around a bit more and the kids found an open piano to play around on

And then the highlight of the night......

We happened on a horse-drawn carriage that was way too cheap to pass up!  The kids were thrilled beyond words.  We hopped on board and let Donald - an enormous Belgian draft horse -  take us on a leisurely trip around town.

accidentally moved the camera setting but the picture turned out kind of cool looking!

Back where we started.

So much fun!

Popsicles!

As a little back-to-school treat for the kids (and me!) I decided to splurge on one of these fancy little guys

A zoku quick pop maker!  This might seem like overkill but the kids love frozen treats but I hate the sugar and junk in the store-bought variety and rarely have the forethought to make pops ahead of time.  This makes popsicles in 10 minutes.  It's like an ice cream maker with the super-cooling liquid inside.  You store it in the freezer and when you want popsicles you pour in juice, pureed fruits or whatever, wait 10 minutes and...

Voila!  Healthy, tasty popsicles in a flash!  Aren't they pretty?  Blueberry juice with little apple slice hearts. 

The kids are already wanting to make every single fancy one on the box, but some of those can be tricky to release from the maker so we've stuck with easy ones for now - blueberry juice, pureed watermelon with lime juice, even cantaloupe!  Makes fruit after school way more fun.  And considering a found a great deal on the set I think it was well worth it!  The kids have basically had fruit for "dessert" every night this week and not complained or asked for junk once!

And a few bonus pictures of Sophie's original First day of school outfit, which ended up being her second day of school outfit after she ditched it for a fancier dress...

Little ham!

First Day of School

Where did the summer (and my little girl's baby-hood) go?!  I can't believe it's already time for school.  We need to start planning summer vacations.  The sameness of our summer days makes it seem to fly by all the faster, I think!

Sophie has been very nervous about going to "all day school" and eating lunch there.  She was not looking forward to today -even though she got Caleb's 1st grade teacher, who we adore!  She got a little teary when we were getting dressed but said she wanted to try hard not to cry at school so no kids would tease her. :(

Daddy went to work a little late so he could see us off this morning.  He made pancakes and eggs for breakfast, too!

Sophie was excited to get her new lunch box as a "starting school" gift.

All ready to go!

 Caleb's first day of 3rd grade!  He wasn't nervous at all.  He was assigned to a class that had no teacher hired when they released class placement lists six days before school started!!  We met the new teacher on supply drop off night 2 days ago.  And when I say "new" I mean it literally - I think she may be 12!!  Supposedly she has taught for 2 years already in Boulder Valley though.  Brand new, really young teachers can be really great - all that energy and creativity, thinking outside the box; or a nightmare - not comfortable in their own skin and not confident enough to individualize things rather than stick to the 'prescribed' plan, disorganized, unstructured.  I was going to be one of "those" parents and see about switching classes but Caleb already has decided he loves her, though, and I'm not surprised - she is pretty cute and is sweet with the kids.  We shall see how this unfolds.

 Sophie had a last-minute wardrobe decision change!  She decided to go with a more "fancy" outfit for her first day.

 She looks like such a big girl with her back pack on!

My gorgeous girl!

Sophie did great walking into the school.  She was nervous but before we left the car she asked for "kissing hands" - our tradition since preschool to help her not be scared and miss me so much - and even gave ME kissing hands to help when I miss her during the day.  Love that girl!

 Finding her desk.

 She didn't cry at all once we got to the school!  Her mama might have a little bit (or a lot...) though!


Unfortunately, after school was another story.  She ran to me in tears saying, "Mama, my day was just horrible!"  Apparently, she was overwhelmed by the lunch room and couldn't find a friend to sit by.  When she finally found an open spot to sit, some rotten vile little boy from another class (also 1st grade) told her, "You can't sit here" then SPAT on her face!  If you know Sophia at all you know that she is a complete worry-wort and is afraid of just about everything these days, so not only was she sad and upset about being slighted like that but was also terrified she got "germs" from his spit! She was afraid she would get in trouble for "telling" so she found another spot and was "sad all day".  My poor girl!  Her exact words (vocabulary by Fancy Nancy) were, "I was just heartbroken because you weren't there when I was so sad."  Ugh!

Luckily, I had thought to bring a special treat for the end of the day figuring she'd be tired.  A hug and a Popsicle made it all better!

Per our family tradition, we went out for dinner to celebrate the new school year but in a huge break from tradition Caleb got Sophie to agree to go to Walnut Brewery instead of our usual trip to The Med!! (Again, if you know them you know how huge this is!  So often do they choose The Med that it's become a bit of a running joke!)  Caleb has been obsessed with the firecracker shrimp (tempura fried shrimp with spicy thai chili sauce) that we had at WB when my aunt and uncle visited last month and has been begging to go there ever since.  We get there, start looking at the menu and - NO FIRECRACKER SHRIMP!!!!  They took them off the menu "a while ago" due to cross-contamination concerns re: the fry oil and shellfish allergies.  Seriously?!  You have got to be kidding me!  Caleb melted and we almost left but after scouring the menu we found calamari (his fave from the med) with the same dipping sauce as the firecracker shrimp (why the waitress didn't point this out when he was melting after she told him about the shrimp, I will never know!).   Crisis averted, he was happy, yummy dinner for all!

The plan for day 2 - I'll walk her in and help her talk to the teacher about what happened.  We already talked to a kindergarten friend after school today about trying to find each other at lunch so she has someone to sit with.  Crossing fingers for a better day!