Princesses!

This is Z and her friend E.  E and her brother live in the neighborhood, and happen to be about the same age as our kids.  And they go to the same charter school as our kids.  And they are even in the same classes as our kids!  How cool is that?  We're trading babysitting with their parents, which really works out just perfectly for everyone.  Obviously, tonight it's our turn to watch all four kids.

No school!

The kids had a week off child care before school started.  One day, we went to Boulder to play at one of our favorite parks and have a picnic lunch.  M stole an hour away from work to join us.  This park has a big pile of rocks that's riddled with caves:

It also features a paved path all the way around it, the perfect place to scooter your heart out:

At least one of my kids still likes having her picture taken, and will actually smile for a photo:

New Mexico

We headed to my aunt & uncle's place in New Mexico on Friday the 13th for a mini-family vacation.  They live in a beautiful little valley in the mountains, about halfway between Taos and Santa Fe on the High Road.  We stayed in the guest yurt:

The grownups slept in the bed, while the kids and the dog slept in a nest on the floor.  Speaking of dogs, Kenai went with us.  He ran with a pack of four other dogs while he was there, and never ran away or got lost even once.  Who knew he was smart enough to do that?!

We spent one day in Santa Fe, where we visited El Rancho de las Golindrinas, a Spanish colonial living history museum.  If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it.  Our kids' attention span allowed us about an hour and a half there, but we could've spent the whole day.  It's huge, and a fascinating place.  We followed that up with lunch at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and a little lounging time on the plaza in Santa Fe.  It happened to be the 400th birthday of Santa Fe this year, and we stumbled upon a celebratory procession at the Catholic church near the plaza.  Think dozens and dozens of priests, monks and bishops, some carrying crosses, a cacophony of bells, all preceded by palanquins bearing saints.

The next day, some friends of my aunt & uncle, who happen to have a daughter B's age, came for a picnic.  We loaded the coolers, kids, and dogs (in order of importance) into the trucks and drove up the fire road into the national forest that borders their property.  We parked across a stream from a lovely little glade and waded across, hauling all our gear.  The grownups spent several relaxing hours lounging in the shade, while the kids and dogs frolicked on the hillside bordering the glade.  Picnic pics:

"I want another cookie!"

Z all loaded up & ready to go:

and chilling with her dad:

while Sissy chilled in the chair next to them:

The only second B held still the entire day:

"What?  You want me to take a bath?!  But it's only been three days with me exploring the forest 16 hours a day without even a washcloth touching my skin!"

It was a lovely mini-vacation, and all of us, including Kiki, had a fabulous time.  I hope it's not another three years before we can go again!  At 5.5 hours away, it's so close, and yet so far.  Particularly with a three year-old and a six year-old in the back seat.  I'm not above bribing them with candy to keep the peace though!

Z does her own hair

Z got in a little trouble today and got sent to her room for awhile.  After she finished her hissy fit (note the pink & puffy eyes -- it was a doozy), it got veeeeeeerrrrrrry quiet in there.  When she came out, she had done her own hair.  She wore it like this all morning, and everyone at C0stco thought it was bootiful.

Happy birthday to the twinnadoes

My sister and her family were here to visit in early August.  I only got to see them once, thanks to my wackadoo travel schedule.  The twins turned one shortly after they left, so my mom seized the opportunity to throw a party. Here's my sister with one of the two cute patooties -- I think this one is S, but I can't say for sure (REALLY identical twins):

That one must be A if the one in the yellow baby speedo is S.  Or I could be totally wrong.  Apparently she doesn't feed them enough, because one tried to eat my lens cap and the pool toys:

But his dad distracted him with a Mike's (What?!  You're not supposed to give that to babies?  But it makes them sleepy!)

One more extremely cute baby picture before we move on to pictures of my own babies:

Sadly, you won't see any pictures of B in this post.  He doesn't much like having his picture taken anymore, and besides, he had a kajillion cousins to play with at this party, so the best I could've done would have been a B-tinted blur anyway.  Here's my bathing beauty Z:

Who can also be quite the ham:

She occasionally holds still for a picture:

But most of the time you have to put the camera in multiple-shot mode and hope for the best: