Corn maze & pumpkin patch

So it turned out the corn maze didn't open until noon (we got there at 10:30ish), and all the pumpkins froze overnight & turned to mush, but it was still a good time.  And an excellent day to take pictures.

B built this fort with the help of some other kids:

Children of the corn?

Too cool to smile for a photo:

Until his dad says "poop."

Where's B?

She's part monkey:

But always glamorous:

A couple parting shots that I just couldn't pass up -- a storm moving in over the Rockies, and a perfect rural farm scene.

Happy half-birthday to B!

Poor B.  M and I were extremely poor planners when it came to that whole get-pregnant and have-a-baby thing.  His birthday is Christmas Eve, when it is VERY hard to get all your friends to come to a party.  To make up for our bad planning, we started having half-birthdays when he was three and a half.  On his actual birthday, we just have a small party for family.  The half-birthday is when we have the big bash with all his friends.

This year, B requested a rollerskating party.  He had gone rollerskating earlier this summer and loved it.  So a rollerskating party it was.  The rink even gave him a free pair of skates as a birthday gift!

Here's the half-birthday dude looking like a pro on skates:

And here are the three musketeers (B and his two best friends from school):

Here's one of the musketeers looking particularly angelic:

This little guy is the younger brother of the third musketeer, the one seated in the middle in the two pictures above:

I think B considers him sort of an honorary little brother.  He's very protective of the little guy, and genuinely likes him.

And this is our friends' daughter.  A lot of Z's pretty clothes are hand-me-downs from this very fashionable young lady.

I had forgotten how much fun rollerskating is!  It had been at least 25 years since I'd been on rollerskates and I was pretty rusty, but there's something very soothing about it.

Happy birthday sweet B.  I love you!

I pity the fool

Before and after:

Yes, I realize the "after" shot looks like a mug shot. It was his idea, but he didn't like it until about two days after we did it. Now that all the boys in Z's preschool want mohawks too, he's decided it's pretty cool after all.  I'll try to get a happier-looking shot, one that captures the spirit of the 'do, in the next few days.

During:

Field Day

Today was B's last day of kindergarten.  Only it wasn't a school day -- it was field day!  They had it at a park, since his school doesn't have playing fields yet.  (They're being built this summer.)  Kids stayed with their class and competed against their classmates, and rotated around three stations:  tug-o-war, 25-yard dash, and egg & spoon race.  We started at the tug-o-war:

The event we all like the best was the 25-yard dash though. Z got to race:

I love how that little boy is leering at Z instead of watching where he's going!

I got to race, with B on my back (I'm the one in a pink t-shirt, black shorts, and blue cap, with a monkey on my back):

B ended up winning a second-place ribbon in the 25-yard dash. He was SO proud! He did great too. The kid who beat him was at least six inches taller, so I don't think B had a chance against him.

Look at the determination on this kid's face!

This is the face of a tired B:

Thanks Banana!

B's school held a fundraiser recently, and their Nana won a four-pack of Hammond's lollipops in the door prize drawing.  The kids didn't think Nana needed lollipops so much, so they came up with the idea that they should persuade her to give the lollipops to them, and in return they'd send her some art work.  She fell for it (she's kind of a pushover when it comes to the grandkids!), and here's B enjoying his lolli after lunch today:

Look ma, no teef!

Check out B's new haircut -- yep, I finally convinced him to get it cut. I told him it was either that or let me wash & comb it more often. He went with the haircut to avoid that!

And an evening wagon ride around the neighborhood is a great thing to do on a spring day! It's certainly better than staying cooped up in the house with tired kids.

Oldies but goodies

Taken on January 10, and left to languish on the computer without a bloggy home:

Sunny afternoon at the playground

B loves the beach

I think he inherited this from me.  That's odd, seeing as how M grew up by the beach and loves the mountains beyond all else.  And I grew up with the mountains, but feel more at home at the beach than anywhere else.  B seems to have the beach thing going on:



Yes, it's been a criminally long time since I updated the blog.  While we were on vacation my job somehow exploded, and I found myself cramming for a whole week for a big presentation, then flying off to Pennsylvania to deliver it last week.  But now I'm on Christmas vacation, so I'll be catching up.

Snow day

We woke up this morning to nearly a foot of snow on the ground.  Actually, we woke up at 5:30, when the automated call from the school district told us that schools would be closed for the day.  Then we went back to sleep, and by the time we got up around 7:00, the snow was starting to pile up.  It's closer to two feet now I think, and still snowing hard.  Who knows how much we'll have by the time it's moved on tomorrow?  I'm trying not to think about it.

Beautiful people

The amazing B

Three things B has done this weekend that have blown me away:

1. He figured out how to swim. All four of us went to the pool yesterday, and after years of swimming lessons and a gradually shrinking fear of the water, B is now fearless, and he can swim.

2. He gets multiplication and fractions! This morning, he asked me how long it was until Halloween. I said about two and a half months. It took him all of three seconds to say "So that's ten weeks then?" You could've knocked me over with a feather!

3. He summitted our backyard mountain. He's been taking walks and mini-hikes on it for years, but today, he went all the way to the top with me. I am thrilled that B likes to hike and is developing the stamina for some real hiking, because it's one of my favorite things to do, and of course I'd love to do it with one of my favorite people on earth!

Upcoming amazing feat by B: Kindergarten, starting Wednesday!

Cupcakes go swimming

B & Z's preschool has pulled all the kindergarten-bound kids out of the regular class and put them in their own group for the summer. After much debate and several votes, the group of 12 kids settled on "Cupcakes" as the class name. B and several of the other boys were sorely disappointed, having lobbied hard for "Stormtroopers." These kids have their own classroom in the college that their teacher has fitted out with toys kept hidden all year long & brought out only for this last summer of preschool, plus a bunch of the college's laptops. I hear there have been several happy mornings spent playing supposedly "educational" computer games. They also get special activities, like a once-a-week trip to a neighborhood pool nearby, a couple of visits from the fire department, and several visits from a local city's outreach program. B has been having loads of fun, and M & I think it's good that he's been interacting with kids his own age all summer. All year he's gravitated toward younger kids in his class that he can boss around; hanging out with his peers and getting a taste of his own medicine is probably good for him!

Last week, I chaperoned the Cupcakes on their first trip to the neighborhood pool. It was about a half-hour walk to get there, with a trip down a path through a big field that was just swarming with ladybugs, a quick pass by a classmate's house, and arrival at the pool just as all the five year-olds were running out of steam. I wish I could go with them every week, but sadly, my work schedule demands I sit in front of a computer all day in an office with windows that don't even open, rather than hanging out at the pool.

Cupcakes: class picture

B at the pool

Sharks!

Family Fire Muster

B and I went to the Family Fire Muster on Saturday. It's hosted every year by our local fire protection district, and it's AWESOME. They bring out every fire truck and piece of rescue equipment they have, and let the kids go in all of them and climb all over it all. They have all sorts of games and activities, all intended to teach kids in a fun way how to be safe around water and on bikes, how to tell apart toys and tools, how to crawl under smoke, and my personal favorite, how to stop, drop and roll.

[Until very recently, B apparently thought it was the "Fire Mustard." How do I know this? Because a couple weeks ago, he asked me if there was a "Fire Ketchup" too.]

This year, we hiked over there from our neighborhood -- just a quick half-hour hike across a little section of our backyard mountain -- and met our friends Rachael and Jody. Here's B hiking over:


First stop, the fire engines, of course:

Actually, B is a little jaded about fire engines. My brother is a firefighter, so B has had a few opportunities to hang out at the firehouse with him. I guess fire engines just aren't so cool after you spend that much time around them. I still think they're pretty cool...

Then there was water safety (will you look at those lashes?!):

Being silly with Rachael:

And Rachael looking pretty:

This is my favorite part of the Fire Muster. The kids dress up in "bunker gear" and then run a few yards, stop-drop-and-roll, and get up and run some more. It's hysterical to watch those little tiny kids all tricked out in that heavy gear, trying to run.


Last stop of the day was shooting the fire hose:

The long walk home, after a full day in the hot sun:

That's my backyard mountain in the background. And B is stopping to get a closer look at a bug, probably a ladybug. There are a bazillion of them up there right now. I kept stopping to get a closer look at these:

They are all over the mountain (in fact, the whole mountain is just covered with wildflowers right now), but I'm not sure what they are because they're not in my field guide to the flowers of Colorado. I'm guessing some sort of wild orchid?

And last but not least, here's B after I told him we needed to start hurrying in order to get home before the daily round of thunderstorms started:

That, my friends, is the face of a tired boy at the end of a long day who does NOT want to be told to hurry.

Tomorrow (assuming I can get my lazy self to do two blog posts in two days): Our big trip to the top of Mount Evans with my friend Nia. There was lots of wildlife, and believe it or not, a snow storm!