Shiny Rocks

I was looking for ideas for a "spring break Staycation" post for work so we invited the Hanlins to spend the night and go adventuring with us at the beginning of March. On Friday night we had an impromptu party when Nick stopped by and then Justin joined us. That was fun! We had dinner then played games. Mia went to bed and I stayed downstairs with her so she wouldn't be scared. The boys were all 100% fine with that because Dave let them stay up way late. Like midnight late or something crazy like that. They loved it. 

And since they were all up so late I let them sleep in so they wouldn't be grumpy! We had German pancakes for breakfast and check out the size of them! We all decided we've never seen them grow quite to big.

Our first stop of the day was a visit to the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum. They give you a scavenger hunt when you arrive which was a good way to start but it wasn't too long before the kids lost interest in the scavenger hunt because they were just excited to see all the cool gems and minerals there.

 This was Mia's favorite - a crown made of local gems!

 

All of the items in this case were carved from minerals!

They have a cool exhibit downstairs called Blaster's Uranium Mine where you can learn about mining...

...and see fluorescent minerals. Those were very cool!

We even got to see a fossilized dinosaur bone.

This marble is the Colorado state stone:

And this was just a cool green rock. (Probably should have written down what it was...)

When we got back to the car I asked the kids if they thought they'd have fun when I first told them where we were going - they all said NO! Well, did they have fun?  YES! They all loved it! And we were all amazed at the gorgeous things and colors this earth creates!!

Next we planned to go have a picnic and hike around at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. About that. It was early March and even though it was ridiculously nice down in Littleton (thus the shorts) it was still snowy and cold up the hill. If you look in the background behind the kids you can see the picnic table...

So, we had our picnic in the car. (About a week later I went to put something int he back seat of my car and thought "why are there potato chip crumbs back here!?"  Oh yeah! Picnic...)

Just a little snow...

I never did write up that post for work because my plan didn't work out quite as I had hoped. However, we did have a super fun time with the Hanlin kiddos! And really that was the point. 

Where will our next adventure be? Hmmm...

Weekend Review

Dave and I had Becky & Jeff's kiddos for a few days last weekend and we had lots of fun. Here are some random thoughts from the weekend:

We picked them up from the Pinewood Derby where Nana and Ponka had cheered them on. Tiernan's car won "Best Theme" and Josh's car won "Most Patriotic."  Nice job boys!

I had bought tickets to the Denver Pops Orchestra months before and I tried to find tickets for the kids so they could join us but much to their dismay I was unsuccessful.  Instead we (as Dad puts it) sublet our babysitting job to a great babysitter and the kids claim they had way more fun that way. Dave and I enjoyed the concert so it was a win-win. The concert was in a beautiful old church downtown - here's a little glimpse:

One day we made George Washington's favorite hoe cakes (recipe from Mount Vernon). Josh said (& Tiernan agreed) he didn't want to hurt George Washington's feelings (because he really likes George Washington) but these really aren't very good. We all agreed. Sorry Mr. Washington but we prefer our modern pancakes! We decided if he were here today he would agree.

Mia came knocking on our door on Sunday night to tell me she threw up all over the bed.  :(  Poor girl,  it's no fun to be sick but it's even worse in someone else's house. Then she got to stay here on Monday and be bored out of her mind all day while the boys were at school. Darn the luck!

This is how T left his sleeping bag in the mornings:

And this is how Josh left his:

Classic Josh and Tiernan! :)

We found out that I am missing quite a few important things since I haven't moved everything over to our house (since we'll be moving out shortly there's no point in moving everything over just yet). A few examples:

None of the kids brought a comb and I only have a round brush here. Josh said that kind hurts. I told him to be careful. 

I only had one set of sheets for the guest bed where Mia threw up so she got to sleep on the couch while I washed sheets. She said, "I nevah slept on a couch before!" Ah yes, well you never know what new and exciting thing you get to try at Carrie's house...  

Drinks for school lunch? Um....... Oh wait a minute! I have a box of Capri Sun in my car. See? It's good to be prepared. In your car. 

Kid books to read at bedtime. I have lots of them!! Just not here. 

Next time we have them for a weekend we should be in a new house with all our stuff so we'll be better prepared and that will be good for everyone. Either way we had fun with them and were so glad they could come stay with us!  :D

Part 3 - Wrapping Up Our Summer Adventures

Here's the final installment of "What I did on my summer vacation with my Little Hs."

We had lots of story times. You can see that I have three sides so that I can fit three kids perfectly:

We enjoyed Ice Cream Soda day even though it was rainy. Actually the kids loved it! They put on their rain gear and played in the rain for a long time.

Speaking of water, we had a spontaneous Flotsam day. Have you ever read the book Flotsam by David Wiesner? It's a great book for kids - no words (or very few? can't remember at the moment), wonderful pictures and the kids make up the story as you go. Anyway, we started out by doing a science experiment to see what things float and what sinks. In our back yard we have sea shells scattered along the pebble walkway so the kids went out and gathered sea shells, rocks, sticks, leaves, etc. and their bowls just started to look like bowls of flotsam:

To continue on the floating experiments I gathered up lots and lots of pennies then we made a boat out of foil, floated it in a big bowl of water and added pennies one at a time to see how many the boat could hold before it would sink. Naturally they all needed their own big bowl, foil, and pennies because that's so much more fun. And it was the best thing! They played for over an hour without fighting or whining or anything. And they probably would have played longer if I hadn't called them in for lunch. Water just works wonders for kids, doesn't it?

One day we made shark shirts for the boys and a buddyfly shirt for Mia. These were really fun and easy to make but I'm really annoyed with the shirts themselves (Hanes t-shirts) because they shrunk so much when we washed them. So obnoxious!

One of the highlights that the kids really loved was movie night! We set up our projector to watch movies on the family room wall. The kids made signs for the movie and concessions. Tiernan sold tickets and treats: popcorn in movie style popcorn bags, taffy, and fudge (since it happened to be national fudge day), and pop! Josh was the ticket taker and Mia made sure everyone was invited and attended the movie. The kids set up blankets and pillows on the floor and we closed all the curtains to make it as dark as we could. (I'm not nice enough to let them stay up until it is dark before we even start the movie.)

This was so popular we had another movie night the next week and the Little Hs can't wait to do this with all their cousins in Durango later this summer. So much fun!

We went on lots of picnics in the park - too many in fact since the kids have said they don't want to go on any more picnics! Wow. I never would have expected that. :)

What a fun visit with my Little Hs!

Part Duex (That works since their parents were in France, right?)

On Daniel Boone day we went on an "exploration" hike at Chatfield. The boys had fun exploring and recording what they found in their explorer journals.

Mia? Well, she was not so into it and would have been happier staying home that day but 2 out of 3 isn't so bad.

We went up to the Heron Observation deck and even spotted a heron! And disagreed on exactly how many boats were on the lake. And enjoyed snacks while watching for more herons or anything else that was interesting.

One day we painted with corn cobs (between you and me, it was not nearly as impressive as the picture in Family Fun lead me to believe... What? Do they have professional corn cob painters there? I mean, really!)

...which evolved into finger painting then whole hand painting which is soooo fun! And just a little messy.

One of our favorite days was National Root Beer Day! We made homemade root beer (for the first time ever) and it was super fun. Let's be honest, anything with dry ice is super fun!

We had playgroup at our house that day and the Little Hs are rather shy critters. This is how the conversation went the day before playgroup:

Me: We're having playgroup here tomorrow for Root Beer Day.

Little Hs: We're not going.

Me: Um, it's at our house.

Little Hs: Well, we're not coming out then.

Me: That might be a little goofy.

Little Hs: We don't care.

When the big day arrived the making of root beer lured them unsuspectingly outside. They clustered together in the sandbox as the kids started arriving until they realized it wasn't scary at all - it was just a big group of friends and lots of fun. Whew!

Mia

Can you guess how old my niece is? (I love this picture!)

Summertime

I was looking at the flowers

this morning (yeah!!) and enjoying the comfortable temperature and at the same time realizing that it will clearly be a hot day. Then I did a little weeding in the garden where produce is really starting to grow and I was excited that summer is finally here. After years of mostly hating summer the last four summers have been so much more fun and enjoyable. Here are a few things I love about summer:

Visiting family and meeting my newest niece! Little Ava is so tiny and cute. She made Cameron seem so big which really made Mia seem huge.

Playing with the locals. We're on a mission to try new parks this summer and find a great place for family photos in July. This was at Lair O' the Bear park.

Fresh herbs in the garden - I have parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, chives, and cilantro. Yum - well, except for the cilantro, that's not so yum... hee hee

Fresh fruit to eat and make yummy things with. Avery and I made this galette that was so yummy. (Unless you ask Avery, she wasn't so thrilled about it.)

Here's to a great summer filled with family, friends, fresh, delicious food, and lots of adventure!

Note in a Bottle

I got the best mail a couple weeks ago (I'm a little behind in my posting - what a shock!) - it was a note in a bottle! The kind you hope to see if you're stranded on an island.

Avery sent me a note and some stickers to share with Mia. That was the most exciting mail I've ever received. And I have to tell you too that I was really impressed with the Post Office because they didn't smash the bottle at all. So, if you're looking to wow someone, send them a note in a bottle.

Blowin' Bubbles

Mia (my niece) saw me blowing bubbles with my gum the other day and at first she was confused but very interested. Then she got excited and tried popping the bubbles and she thought it was so funny. She kept sticking out her tongue trying to figure out how I was doing it. This is a video Becky took of her reaction - it was pretty funny. :)

Isn't she so cute!?

Brothers

Last night I asked the little boys (my nephews) if they wanted to have a fire in the fire pit. Of course they did! What self-respecting little (or big) boy doesn't want to play with - or near - fire? So we put jackets on and headed outside only find that it was raining. :(   Joshie and Tiernan were really quite upset so Justin explained that the wood was too wet. 

Tiernan, who is 2, said, "Wet's go in da sront yard!" [Let's go in the front yard!]

His big brother Joshie, who has reached the wise age of 4, put his hands in the air, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Tiern, it's raining in the front yard too." Then he made a classic Joshie face that said 'sorry kid, better luck next time!' 

Good thing uncle Nick got there just then! He saved the day, as always, by letting the boys tackle him relentlessly. Poor Nick probably went home with a headache and a sore back but the little guys were sure happy!