Don't judge me...

 

Whatever...like you've never given your infant a taste of your fudge bar when nobody was looking...

Diva

Aspen has definitely learned how to get what she wants.  Brian took her outside with him to inspect the garden and when I looked out the door I saw her happily playing with some zucchini.  I thought, "Oh, that's cute...I'm going to take a picture".  Unfortunately, she spotted me when I opened the door and decided to work her magic.

After taking these pictures I plopped her on my lap to demonstrate how quickly the tide can turn.

 

Yes, she's spoiled rotten...and she does this to me all day long.

Kindergarten!

I had to wake Micah up early today because normally he isn't up by 6:45 or 7am.  When I went into his room to wake him up he opened his eyes and said "Is it time for kindergarten?"  He was excited when he got dressed, excited when he brushed his teeth, excited to climb into the van with his backpack...in fact, he was so excited that he forgot his shoes!  He sat in the car for about 10 minutes while I woke up brother and sister and then we drove to school.  When I opened the van door and got out to let all the kids out he said "Oh, I don't have any shoes."  We had to drive back home and get his shoes and luckily, probably because it was everyone's first day...kids were still waiting outside the classroom when we got there.  

Micah is ready to go!

 

Waiting to go inside

 

Micah's teacher making sure Mom or Dad was there to pick him up

 

A present for Mom

Micah is so glad that he gets to go to school again tomorrow, and for even longer than today!  Every Wednesday is early release day, so I had to get Micah at 10am (pooey, a whole 2 hours of school).  Tomorrow we will both get an extra 45 minutes of freedom.  

And on a side note...Aspen has pink eye.  Not surprised?  Me neither. 

Riddle me this...

What's 3 yrs old, has two pink eyes, and likes to throw tantrums? 

You got it!  It's Mason....with pink eye!

At Last!

Micah's first day of kindergarten is tomorrow!  I have been waiting for this day for the last 3 years!  I am looking forward to first grade even more because it will be full-day.  Oh, yeah...and Micah is excited too (as if that matters).  I have a feeling he will love school...he is such a social kid and things have been pretty boring around our house lately.  The downside?  7:45am.  That's right...that is when school starts.  I have to be somewhere at 7:30am.  NOT COOL.  Also not cool?  Aspen gets most of her sleep in the morning.  I am not looking forward to interrupting her morning sleep 5 days a week.

Mason will be starting preschool in September...which means making lots of trips to drop off and pick up kids.  Preschool for Mason is only 1.5 hours.  Bummer.  It would actually be a lot easier for me if I didn't have Mason in preschool this year, but he really needs to socialize with children other than his brother.  He is so shy that he refuses to make friends even when someone asks him to play.  I hope this will be a good experience for him.

Just think...only 1825 days until I can shove them all out the door together.  Hooray!  Let the countdown begin!

Backyard Camp-out

On Friday the 13th we camped out in our backyard with the boys.  Brian set up a tent and we barbecued brats.  The boys were so excited to sleep outside! 

We could hardly get the boys to eat any of their dinner because they were in such a hurry to eat s'mores

Micah roasting his own marshmallow over the camp fire

Yum!

Aspen was perfectly happy sitting on her blanket all evening.  I guess she just loves the outdoors!

She really wanted to touch that fire.  She kept reaching for the lantern.

Aspen was so tired...I tried to get her to go to bed because
it was obvious she needed to sleep, but she got so mad
when I tried to put her in her crib.  She just wanted to play
outside with the rest of us.  I know, I am such a pushover.

Seriously, how can you say no to a face like that?

"Come on Mom, lets get in the tent!"

Mason having fun with the flashlight.  When I showed him
what to do he kept telling me not to do that with my face. 
I think he was a little scared.

shadow puppets

Unfortunately, Micah also came down with pink eye the same day we had our camp-out.  So he was pretty annoyed with his eyes and the constant drainage.  Brian had to get up early the next morning to go to work, so he ended up bringing the boys back inside at about 5:30am.  I slept inside with Aspen.  The boys had a fun time...and I am happy to report that so far no one else has come down with pink eye. 

Dinosaur Ridge

On Saturday we took the boys to Dinosaur Ridge over by Red Rocks.  Mason loves Dinosaurs so we thought this might be fun for them to see...especially because it was something to do for free!

Here are the boys pointing to some Dinosaur tracks!

 

Here is a better picture of all the dinosaur footprints...obviously they are colored in with something to make them more visible.  I think there were something like three different kinds of dinosaur tracks.

The footprints were the coolest part of the ridge.  There were also things to see like dinosaur bone pieces in the rocks and trace fossils of rippling waves and plant roots.  Nothing too exciting. 

The visitor's center had some dino statues around the entrance.

 

We did end up paying for a bus ride back to our van, because it was a pretty far walk and we were too tuckered out for the return trip!