Chocolate Tacos...

The week is winding down and we are getting ready to make the trek back home tomorrow. This week has been so much fun...from the pool time to the river banks...from the mountains to the caves and everything in between.

A memorable moment...

One evening we had a family wii night playing bocce ball in our pjs with hot chocolate to drink... all in front of a cozy fire. perfection.

Up and Down

Today was a superb day! We went down to Glenwood Springs, took a gondola ride to the caverns and went through the caves. It was super cool! Very historical and educational- the girls had a good time...although I could have done with out the 171 stairs (that took you into the coolest part of the cave...and of course 171 back up to get out).



I took a bunch of great pix (of the cave textures and formations) that I hope to frame and put up at home. The girls had fun picking out mineral rocks...we're going to make copper wire pendants out of them when we get home. They should make some super neat necklaces.


On the way back up to Avon we stopped by the Colorado River and let the girls throw rocks in and play. It was fun...though I not sure how they collected so many rocks, leaves and drift wood in such a short time? I think we may make a piece of art out of the drift wood- its pretty cool!

She'll be comin' round the mountain...

We headed up the mountain into San Isabel National Forest. It was beautiful!
The first sight of snow- and we had to pull the van over so the girls could have a snowball fight! They had fun for about 4 minutes - then they realized they had no coats on and were wearing sandals...the freezing coldness started to set in! But dang- those 4 minutes were FUN!






It was a good day!

We made it!!!

Thursday we drove as far as Denver, grabbed a hotel - then got up early and went to the Denver zoo. It is a really nice facility! The girls had fun and really that's all that matters! It was a GORGEOUS day out- perfect for being outdoors!!

There was one animal that we saw that seriously crazy...like a mix between a zebra, a llama and an African deer...petri dish breeding gone whacky...I don't know. We had never seen anything like it before.

What do you think?



Pretty nuts...huh!?


We're in Avon now- relaxing and playing wii!

My big plans for tomorrow...sleeping in! Although I'm pretty sure there's more in store than just that!

On our way....

I think its pretty ironic that we are leaving here for CO- yet the snow is here and its 60 where we are going...makes you wonder? Although they did get 6 or so inches up in the mountains- hopefully it will still be there when we get there!


Random thoughts about the trip:

Roadtrip...8 hours and 38 minutes...592 miles...

A week of relaxation...swimming...reading...hiking...shopping...family togetherness...playing board games...chilling by the fire...taking photos...blogging...making Halloween cookies...wii playoffs...puzzles...enjoying each other.



My only expectation is that I get to sleep in later than my usual wake up time of 5:40 am... here's to hoping!!!

Saw II

Remember this

We were running out of days in OCTOBER (can you believe it almost November?!!!!)- we leave for CO tomorrow. So Monday night we carved our pumpkins...our gloriously wonderful perfectly picked pumpkins from our visit to the patch a few weeks ago!

Here are a few pix of the fun...

Sweetest thing

Have you ever had just one of those days- where all the little annoyances, griping, complaining, bickering - just about send you over the edge? And its not one big thing that's caused the stress level to go up- its the culmination of 18 hours of trying to play catch up, be a good mom/wife, and take care of the house.

Anyway- yesterday was one of those days....So after cleaning up the kitchen and starting the dishwasher...I headed off to bed. As I laid there replaying the day and mentally checking off my to-do list...John slid his hand in mine, gave it squeeze and held it for awhile. He didn't say anything- he just held my hand. A sign that he knew my day was not the greatest and he knew I was stressed. A sign that he loved me and appreciated all that I do. All of those sentiments were expressed without words- instead, by a simple sweet gesture.

Love you, babe!

Fun TIME

We spent the weekend it KC with the Kelly clan...and we had a really good time! We went here and here and the girls and I went with gma K to this place. I could have spent a whole day there! Simply AMAZING!! I am so going back!!!!!

I had never really been to KC besides the rare childhood visit to see my grandparents. I hadn't been back for more than 12 years...and I am now officially in love with the Plaza area of KC!

Favorites:

Kynna- the zoo and the art museum
Kwynny- the zoo and Kaleidoscope
Pucca- swimming and shopping (does that surprise anyone?!)
Me- dinner with J and N...not so much the 'dinner' but the stories and conversation were priceless! love you guys!
John- just being with his family

pix of the fun:

Mr. Moon

Did anyone else see the moon last night??? It was absolutely the most beautiful. big. full, bright-shining beacon I've ever seen!

It really was amazing! The girls and I went and grabbed an ice cream cone -then sat in the parking lot and just stared at it...we even saw Mr. Moon's face!!! It was pretty cool!

Busy little bee

Our family is meeting up with the rest of the Kelly clan in KC this weekend- to hang out, shop and tour-ize KC's best sites.

The fun all starts Thursday- we're heading out at noon...but before then I have a crap load of stuff to do...not to mention Just John and I are taking the girls to CO for a week and we leave for that next Thursday. Since the turn around time in between trips is short- it feels like the load of stuff to do has doubled!

Any-whooooooooo....I'm so not complaining. I'm so thrilled with the upcoming trips and spending time with family! In fact I love traveling and vacations...its the two days before that are always a killer!

A quick run down of my to-do list:

• Completely catch up on laundry (as of right now that's only 2 loads...yeahhhh!)
  
• Pick up the house- completely clean if possible, but its looking unlikely
• Get Ems stuff ready for Kennel
  
• Finish packing bags (everything is out, just need to actually get out the luggage and 'pack' it
  
• Get all electronics out and charged (5 ipods, three cameras, 1 video camera, a wii, a laptop, 3 DSs and both cellphones)...charging last thing right now.
  

• Pay and mail out bills (yuck)
  
• color hair - if there's time...otherwise I'll take it with me to CO and do it there
• make packing list for CO trip
• Get all confirmations and other paper work printed off and organized for both trips
• watch a movie with Just John (scheduled for tomorrow night at 7:45pm...yippeee!)
  
• head to church tomorrow evening and help quilt for a bit (5:30-7:30)
  
• hopefully VT with Shannon (thinking thursday a.m if it works)
  

I know...I know... lists! Can't help it- I'm all about the lists! In fact my new favorite application on my mac- is the sticky notes! I'm not even going to tell you how many I have on my desktop!!! shameful, really! - but I am saving paper...

Favor-licious

Some close family friends of ours- have a daughter who is getting married in Dec. My mom and I are throwing the bridal shower...its a kitchen themed shower- which is very practical and seemed to work perfect for the young couple.

Anyway... I had alot of fun getting things ready for the shower...could it be I'm starting to like crafty projects or just that I really love this family....hmmmm.

So the party favors were by far my favorite...

They are little tins filled with a great home-made spice rub that I mixed up. The white card stock cut-out underneath the 'Thank You' leaf has an easy recipe to use the rub in.

All are in a basket with a little sign that says "Thanks for helping spice things up!"

I scored on the little tins...60 for $10!!! Killer, I know!

FUN FUN - hope everyone has fun!!

Scarves....so not a man thing!

We went back to GI town today to visit my brother and his family (visiting from Utah), my grandparents, great-grandma, my mom and my little brother and his girlfriend came up from Kansas - we took some family pictures since everyone was together...and we're not sure when that will happen again. Plus my brother and his wife are expecting baby #5 so our family will be plus one the next time we all congregate.


ANYWAY - I digress...Today I wore my favorite scarf. As I'm running out of the house to leave this morning Just John says "Are you cold?"

I say - "Huh?"

He says "Its 70 degrees with like 90% humidity and your wearing a scarf?"

I say - "Its not that kind of scarf - its a fashion accessory...like a necklace -its ok!"


So we drive to GI town...we meet up with my little brother and his girlfriend for lunch and he says "So sis, what's up with the scarf? You sick or something?"

I reply (complete with exaggerated eye-roll): "Its in fashion - its trendy to wear it this way! seeing as I wasn't getting through to him, I add "Its just a girl thing"


We then meet up with the rest of my family and my mom comes over and says "Hey, your scarf..."

I immediately cut her off and go into this justificational rant on how its in style to wear scarves and why is it on the rare occasion that I dress like an actual adult - I'm getting criticized.

She looks at me in bewilderment and says- "Just wanted to know where you got it dear."

ummm - ya.

So I've come to learn that men just don't get scarves... And for the record- scarves are cool...trendy...stylish...pretty and I really like them, in fact I might need a few more for our vacation to snow-y CO...

Pumpkin Patch

We spent a lovely Friday evening at a local pumpkin patch. We had a ton of fun - haunted houses, mazes, hay stacks, tricycle races, kettle corn and of course...picking your very own pumpkin!

We went with Shannon, her children and another girl...the evening was -perfection! Have I mentioned that I LOVE fall!

little miracles...

We were told this would never happen...

Part 2

The twins have to give oral book reports next week and they each need a visual aid. Here's what we came up with...

Kynna's book report is on a book called Gossamer.

The main characters are:

Littlest One: a young inexperienced fairy-like creature that bestows dreams on its human charges.

John: An angry abused foster child that comes to live at Littlest One's assigned home

The sinisteeds: Evil creatures that inflict nightmares on humans

Summary: Littlest One is learning how to bestow dreams on humans when her human takes John in. He's troubled and angry which allows him to be an easy target for the sinisteeds. Will the young inexperienced Littlest One be able to save him from the torment?

Visual Aid: Since Kynna's book didn't have illustrations, we doctored a photo of our Emma (using some editing software) to look like a scene described in the book. (The part she's going to read out loud during her report) In this passage, Littlest One's teacher is teaching her bestow a dream on a dog as her first lesson.



Kwynny's book is called The Tale of Despereaux.

Summary: A story about a human princess that is taken prisoner by rat king and his chubby female hench-woman. She's thrown in a dark dungeon deep in the castle and its up to her friend, a mouse called Despereaux to save her. Can a little mouse defeat the rat king and save his beloved Princess Pea?

Characters:
Princess Pea, Despereaux, Miggery Sow, and Roscero (the rat king).

Visual aid: A diorama of the four main characters in the dungeon. This was a joint effort of kynna, kwynny, pucca and I.

Something we did this weekend Part 1

The girls and I worked on school projects this weekend. The twins have book reports due next week which have to be given in front of the class and have a visual aid to go with it. Pucca wanted to make something for her friends at school.

So as for Part 1 - here are the treats we made for her class. They are made from tp rolls, tissue paper and pipe cleaners. We filled them with candy. And glued on the jack-o-lantern faces.



Tomorrow I'll post about the book reports...the visual aids are simply smashing!!!!

How's that spelled?!

Pucca is constantly babbling about all the typical kindergarten stuff!

But the one that's taking the most toll is..."and how do you spell that?"

Don't get me wrong- I love the fact she's learning and enjoying it so much she wants to do it ALL the time. And it doesn't surprise me- she was sooooo ready for school! We've been doing flashcards and workbooks for years now...so this is a good thing!

But this weekend...all weekend...all of her 30 waking hours this weekend - were filled with
"and how do you spell that?"


For example:

John and I were talking about a grill - she cuts in "how do you spell that?"

"Spell what?"

"grill"

"g-r-i-l-l"

And she very carefully writes it down in her notebook. This went on - I'm not kidding you - all weekend long! Now I know how I sound right now...how could I find fault with a child's yearning to grow and learn!? What kind of parent am I?

So let me clarify...I'm not finding fault with it and I'm not really complaining - we'll just call it 'explaining' for the benefit of the grandparents who are luckily 88 miles away! ;)

One funny thing though- when John and I couldn't take the spelling anymore, she moved on to her sisters. They were sitting on the couch playing their DSs and Pucca was hounding them for words. Finally Kwynn says "Please quit being so annoying" (always so polite)

Pucca replies "how do you spell that?"

K:"What?"

P:"Annoying"

McKynna answers "p-u-c-c-a"

Pucca carefully write down every letter and then realizes what she wrote.... her face was so funny - all scrunched with her little furrowed brow and wrinkled nose. The whole time the girls were smiling - knowing their little sister was going to take the bait. She's such an easy target!

In the end- we are super proud of pucca's want and willingness to learn and be taught! To her we say - Keep it up! who knows-maybe one day she'll help cure cancer!

Lunch Basket

All three of the girls take cold lunch to school- everyday. We get up around 5:45am and things are still crazy- trying to get everyone showered, dressed, hair done, lunches packed and bags ready- then out the door by 7:05am to catch the bus. Not to mention I like to get my shower and stuff done before we leave too...not a must, but its nice! And John's up and getting ready too.

So to make things run a little smoother- I've set up a few things like setting out clothes the night before, putting school stuff in backpacks the night before and usually having pucca take her bath the night before to help cut down on the bathroom congestion the next morning. One other thing that I've come up with is the LUNCH BASKET...



Its a basket I have sitting out on my counter filled with lunch items for the kids' cold lunches.

The girls know they need to pack a drink, a sandwich, a carb (chips, crackers or pretzels), a snack item (granola bar, twizzlers, almonds, fruitsnacks) and on occasion I let them pack a dessert (cookies, little debbie snack, muffin).

I make the sandwiches and they pick out the rest and pack their lunch bags.

The girls also take carrots and dressing, pudding, apple sauce- things that require refrigeration, but this just helps them along. That way I'm not having to decide...probably picking something they don't want resulting in them not eating their lunch OR them standing at the pantry door for 15 minutes trying to decide what to take. SO for us its win-win!

Its almost time!!!!

Its become a little family tradition to play in the leaves...not sure how or why! I hate the leaves- they are dirty and crinkly and make a HUGE mess in your hair! But for whatever reasons- our kids love it!

I remember when the twins were about 18 moths old and they were playing in the leaves at our house in GI town. It was a beautiful fall day- bright sunshine and the twins just sat there in their little pink winter coats, picking up handfuls of leaves, dropping them and watching them fall. They did that for about an hour- which in toddler time is FOREVER! When Pucca got that age- she was exactly the same! Its been fun...and in a few weeks it will be leaf time once again!








'leaf' crowns 2004
















teaching pucca the 'correct' way to throw leaves

(2004)







2005-this year was CRAZY! Look at the amount of leaves...and that wasn't even the whole yard's worth. The pile was so big that we had the kids completely covered!

Check out pucca's face- so funny!








Cousin Sam getting in on the leaf action

(2006)











This one is from last year- proving the twins haven't outgrown the leaves just yet

(2007)

new pumpkin idea

This idea has been circulating the blog-o-sphere for a couple weeks now...so I thought I would try it out.





1. Its made from a paperback book. Fold all the pages- one by one- into towards the spine of the book.

2. Then wrap the covers together and secure with a few staples or tape.

3. Work with the pages to get them spread around into a complete circle- tape or glue may be required depending on how exact you want to be.

4. Run out into your backyard and grab a stick- poke it into the center (book spine) of the pumpkin.

I cut the jack-o-lantern faces out of black construction paper and used tape to adhere them.

Its that simple!!!


Here are a few more folding/cutting options you could try!!

Super Kid

Look what our little munchkin brought home!!



Way to go, Pucca!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 years ago...

Two years ago we were frantically woken up at 6am by a passerby who happen to notice our house was on fire. It was one crazy hectic morning...but I think we handled it well...calmly.

We only lost the side of the garage and most of the attic - had it been a few minutes later and the house would have been a total loss. Here are a few pix of the aftermath:





The girls also celebrated fire safety this week at both schools- Pucca toured a fire station. We went over our fire plan and talked about fire safety - because you just never know!