Quick 5

Welcome Fall!! We're so excited to see you! Wish you had brought weather that was more fall-like, instead of these upper-80s temps, though...

1. Matchy matchy part II!

2. Lee mostly works from home these days. As in, usually he only goes into the office one day a week. It has made school drop off and pick up a dream. But he still makes sure to go in for the Taste of Denver West. His office complex hosts this event every year in the fall, with sample booths set up by many restaurants near the office (there are a lot.) This year he got to meet a special guest:

That's Miles, the mascot of the Broncos, in case you were unfamiliar. Joya needed to clarify whether or not that was a real horse, or a human in a horse costume. I asked her what she thought, and she concluded that since the Chick-fil-a Cow is a human dressed as a cow, then Miles must be a human dressed as a horse. I love watching little kids work out logic.

3. We are just three weeks away from Joya's birthday. Which is good, because she's been asking since July how many days it is until her birthday. If I were a more together, Pinteresty mom I would have made her one of those construction paper chain things you can use to count down the days. I thought about it...does that count? But of course I didn't. Anyway, her birthday is three weeks away, but suddenly she seems so much older to me. More kid, less preschooler. She rarely wakes up in the night anymore and she's pretty good about entertaining herself. She likes to learn and she loves to be treated as a big kid. I'm still having a hard time thinking of what to get her for her birthday, though. We've had many conversations, but there isn't really anything specific that she wants. These are her exact words: "I want anything princessy, sparkly, GIRLY." So there you have it.

4. Last Saturday my sister and brother-in-law brought their kids to my parents house so they could go watch the Georgia game with other fans. So we went up too, so the kids could have cousin time. I guess I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. The point was, they played together so well. Even the babies (Bria and Elli) did well, although they still don't really play together. They just did their own thing, and there were no fights, no tears and I didn't even have to bust out the timer to help settle disputes. At one point I told my mom not to look directly at any of them, lest our eye contact open the door to all that is whiny or fighting.  I always hoped this day would come for the cousins.

5. Remember all that rain we had in April and May? And then our basement flooded? Well, I don't think it's rained here since July. What's up with that??

Happy weekend all!

Quick 5

It's a four-day weekend around here for us!

1. It's been pretty hot around here lately, and I almost forgot fall is coming. Which means my girls are going to need shoes. You know, the closed toe kind that you wear with socks. But apparently that is not an easy task. I mean, if you want to pay $25 or $30 for shoes for a preschooler that she'll wear for only 5 months or so, then you're golden. But if you don't want to pay that, you're kind of up a creek without a paddle. I suppose I could pay $11.00 for dirty, banged up used shoes, but that doesn't seem right either. So I've dragged my girls from store to store, and I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and pay the big bucks.

2. I'm torn between two generations. Mine, which filled our bellies with raw cookie dough, and the current one, which writes lengthy science filled articles about the dangers of such behaviors. Because of this, Bria got to try raw cookie dough for the first time at age 2 1/2. I love watching her eyes get big when she discovers the goodness of life.

 3. We have a four-day weekend because of Parent Teacher conferences. Alaina had Thursday and Friday off of school this week. We went to her conference yesterday, and she is doing quite well. She's ahead of the game in reading and math, which doesn't surprise us. Apparently her math class will be starting 3rd grade math soon, with the hopes of being done with it and ready for 4th grade math by the end of 2nd grade. It makes me a bit nervous, because I've been warned that it gets much harder much quicker, but her math teacher has an excellent policy about homework. If we can't figure out the homework at home, all we have to do is circle it and write "Teach Me," and then the teacher will go over it in class. That right there makes me feel better. Alaina's teacher also told us that she had a tendency to be a "bit chatty," but we all knew that about her, didn't we?

4. Alaina's school had a Book Fair this week. They let the kids walk through and make a wish list. Alaina was proud to be able to count out her money and take some with her to buy her very own book. (A Captain Underpants book, of course!)

 

5. You might be surprised at how often I have to remind my girls to look forward while they're walking.

Go Broncos!!

Quick 5

The days are hot and the mornings are cool.

1. Matchy matchy!! (Full disclosure...I had to practically force Alaina to wear the shirt. She's just not a pink stripe girl. But she finally got on board with the matching.)

2. On Sunday we went to my parents' house for dinner. We used to go there a couple times a month, but we've not been able to do that this year. Early last week, Bria started asking to see Grammy every day. Every time we got in the car she'd start cheering for Grammy's, then crying when she found out we were NOT going to Grammy's. So we made it a point to go to Grammy's. I think it helped. Now she has a bee in her bonnet about seeing Uncle Josh, Aunt Mindy, and Apple Ben. Unfortunately she'll have to wait awhile for those.

3. We tried to have a fun day on Labor Day. We took the girls to Cabela's to just wander around and see the animals. They loved the fish. Bria wasn't as thrilled with the stuffed animals as I hoped she'd be. Then she wanted all the things, so our last 20 minutes was spent dragging around a screaming toddler. Then we took the girls out to eat. To a sit down restaurant. Without a coupon or gift card. It was a big deal. And no, not as fun for us as we wanted, but the girls liked it.

 4. Tuesday did not go as planned. Alaina spent the day like this instead of at school:

Okay, she mostly watched movies. But then took a good nap. Hopefully it's the only sick day we'll have to take this whole year.

5. The rest of my garden may have flopped, but raspberry time seems to be kicking into gear. I'm getting about a dozen each time, instead of five. I would probably get more, but Bria pilfers them off the bush when she goes out to play. I should have seen that one coming. Alaina and Joya have a strong sense of staying away unless I tell them to go get them, but Bria feels the freedom to pick and eat whatever her little eye sees. Bless.

The weekend is upon us.

Quick 5

It's like my dear friend Becky always said in college: "The days are long, but the weeks are fast." Oh boy, are they.

1. I always hoped that since I have only girls, one of them would have long hair. Alaina can't be bothered with long hair and Joya has the world's most tender head (I'm tempted to contact Guinness World Records about it) so both of them have short hair. Bria has never minded me brushing her hair, so I thought she was it. Well, it's turns out she's a hair chewer. And that grosses me out to no end. So little Bria got her very first hair cut this week. I took her to the expensive kid place that lets them watch movies during the cut, and Bria watched Frozen. She was perfectly cooperative, although she kept telling the stylist that the conditioner she was spraying her hair "stinks!!"

2. You know all those jokes about people trying to pawn off their garden produce this time of year? That does not apply to me. So far, in my three years of home gardening, I've only gotten my garden to produce paltry amounts. Not really even enough to feed my family. I've gotten ONE zucchini this year, and one or two peppers. But never enough at once to really do something with them. I still have to buy stuff at the store. I've gotten TWO tomatoes:

 Don't worry; they're supposed to look like that. The girls must have horked my little plant marker that says what they are, but they're some kind of heirloom variety that would turn pink and black. Sure enough they did. Also my raspberry bush is giving us berries, but only about 5 at a time. We each get one tiny berry each day. I've tried leaving them on the bush until we have more, but then the birds get them. I think the dream of having a bunch of produce at once belongs in the category of unicorns and Neverland.

3. My left arm and my left thigh are nice and tan. That's it. I forgot the tan you get when sitting in the carpool pick up line. No need to point and laugh; I'm aware.

4. Thanks to a generous gift from Lee's parents, our house has gotten a facelift: a new front door! The old one was so brown and crusty. The installer even remarked at how big a difference a real, insulated, air tight door would make, compared to the splintered wood one we had before.

We decided to paint it red. After the first coat, we were kind of nervous at what we had done. It looked...amateur.

But by the end of three coats, we were SO PLEASED.

And now the great debate is whether or not to paint the door frame white or brown. The UPS guy says white (seriously), but I think I'm leaning toward brown, because the trim around the garage is brown. We're taking votes, by the way. Speak up!

5. We've done the best we can on our house so far:

2012

2015

Dead trees gone, new roof, new door...maybe someday we'll get a good handle on that yard of ours. Baby steps!

Have a great long weekend!