That's the thing about kids and glass...

Last fall I bought a cute little glass stand with matching cute little glass dome.  I was going to be a cute little mom and bake cute little cookies to put under the dome.  Today was that day.  Olivia and I made some cute little cookies.  I put the first batch under the dome.  Liv got a hankering for a cookie and voila...dome on the floor, cracked into a bunch of cute little pieces.  Olivia justified the accident by stating, "Well, I guess you can either have glass or you can have kids."  Yes, I think that about sums it up.  At least the  cookies are yummy!

A Three Minute Tour

Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit and brought their canoe for us to borrow for a while.  We decided today was the perfect time to try it out, and Olivia decided today was a great day to become deathly afraid of water!  It started out ok, Liv was just a little reluctant to walk in the sand.  Getting into the canoe was another story...we were out to sea only about two minutes before her screams and her death grip around my neck were too much were too much to handle so Tim and Annie dropped us on the shore and headed back out.  Liv and I drove up the shore a bit and caught them at another beachy area.  I yelled out to come closer for a photo and that is when Olivia decided she wanted another try - just to be in the picture.  So she went out for one more minute - no screams this time - to finish out the day.

Big Summer Blowout!

Well, summer is coming to a screeching halt and in just one week school will start up again.  Annie will be a fullfledge third grader and Olivia will be a first grader.   This summer we've hiked, camped out, traveled around, spent many afternoons at the pool, and are now feverishly working overtime to get Annie to finish up her summer homework.  The girls have done two art camps (learning about pop art, mixed media, paper mâché, and mosaics).  Annie spent a week taking care of and riding a pony named Gretel while Olivia stared as Anna in a production of Frozen.  They both made props for and starred in a Magic Tree House play.  Last week Annie spent a week at Camp Chief Ouray up in the mountains around Winterpark with her best friend Marie and she can't stop talking about it.  Next week they will be checking out a gymnastics camp down the street....then it's back to the grind of homework and after school activities.  But until then we are gonna fit in as much pool time as possible...Cannonball!

Ski Trip

Yesterday marked week 4 of 5 for the girls stint in ski school up in Winterpark.  Typically we have to be awake, dressed, and in the truck by 6:30 am in order to get the girls to their group in time for the day to start.  For girls, this basically means that they sleep in their ski undergarments and just roll directly out of bed and directly into the car, but this last weekend we decided to stay up there over night.  I'm not sure what happened, but Tim and I convinced ourselves that we still had to be up by 6:30.  For me that is an increase in sleep time by about 15 minutes...minus the 2 hours of sleep lost due to bad condo pillows, so I ended up behind on that one - so I like to sleep! 

Anyways, we left town on Saturday after dropping the dog off with some good friends only to discover that it was time for lunch.  After a quick stop at our fav lunch spot we were finally really on the road.  The girls have been begging to go tubing up in the mountains so that was the plan for Saturday.  Olivia gave a good showing and made it down the tubing hill about 4 times before calling it quits.  In her defense, it was very very cold that afternoon...but I still wonder - she literally screamed at the top of her lungs like the scared little 5 year old that she is all the way down the hill for every run.  Annie absolutely loved it.  Tim tolerated it.  I was pretty much as scared as Olivia was (it was a very tall and fast ride!)...but I'd like to go and do it again.  After that we picked up some dinner and spent some time in the hot tub to warm ourselves back up.

On Sunday, we got up good and early to a brisk negative 4 degrees, made our way to drop the girls off at ski school, and then Tim and I headed off to ski with some old friends who I met when Annie was just a baby.  The snow was wonderful, and the crowds were low (thanks to the Broncos for that!).  When we picked the girls up that afternoon, Olivia really wanted to show us what she had learned and I have to admit that the last 4 weeks have really paid off for our little scaredy cat.  She is doing so much better than at the beginning of the year and is so proud of her progress.  Annie is really tearing it up now too so I'm excited to see what kind of new terrain we can hit as a family once the ski school sessions are over for them.  I have to add, I'm not sure what kind of temperature Annie usually runs at but everytime we see her on the hill or at pick up, she always has her coat unzipped.  She says she gets too hot.  I wish there was a way for me to take some of that heat for myself!

Here are a few photos from the tubing adventure...

What's wrong with this picture?

I'm not sure which is more out of sorts about this photo...the fact that Annie looks like she's turned into a bobble-head doll, or that she has 2 rows of bottom level teeth. The dentist decided to give Annie one month to wiggle her baby teeth loose before she would pull the 2 middle ones. You can probably guess what happened. The thing we were not expecting to happen was that the dentist would accidentally pull all 4 bottom baby teeth. Needless to say Annie had a few not to positive things to say about the dentist.

3.5

Here's our beauty, Olivia - turning on the charm for her half birthday. We spent the weekend camping on Guenella Pass and taking in the golden aspen leaves.

Soccer!

Below is a video of Annie's last soccer game of the summer. She had been having motivational issues until I happened upon a very effective product called Kid Soccer Game Energy Enhancement Booster Supplement - more commonly known as "pop-rocks". Just one small handful of this magical substance turned our "it's too hot, I don't like to exercise, I just want to sit under this umbrella and torment my sister" Annie, into a soccer ball chasing machine! Watch the video and see if catch the part where she totally jukes that blondie opposing player...yeah, that part didn't actually happen - but this video is the best minute of soccer she played all year, and I just happened to get it all on tape. Enjoy!