The End of March?

Seriously - time is just whirling by at this point! Pictures help me remember what we've been up to so I'll tell the story of our month with captions =)

M and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary! We enjoyed a nice meal at a fondue restaurant on Saturday while the kids were with grandparents AND we took Monday (our actual anniversary) off work to work out, have lunch at a winery, go bowling and see a movie. He is still the cheese to my macaroni and I'm so thankful to have him as my husband =)

Spring in the Rockies usually provides some weather extremes and this one is no different. We've had some really nice weather where the kids could wear short sleeves and ride in the bike trailer to the park...

and some very snowy weather too. In all honesty I'm ready to say goodbye to the snow for the year...but we're expecting more tonight *sigh*

There was St Patrick's day parties at the kids schools:

And we went on our longest family road trip to date (500 miles each way) to visit family for 5 days. The kids did great with the drive but only did about an hour of this:

They had a great time with their cousins. Can't see any relation here, can you?

They loved staying with their great aunt and uncle. 

We came home 2 days before Easter and managed to find the bunny on Saturday. This was the first time Cole has seen the Easter bunny and you can see he's a touch concerned!

Easter morning had a lot of surprises in store. This was just after following the jelly bean trail to their presents and doing our indoor egg hunt (we had 10" of snow and it was 10 degrees so the bunny took pity on us).

We hosted brunch for 13. Here's K all dressed up getting ready to eat.

C got a Thomas the train from his grandparents and he has played with it constantly since. This sweater vest makes him look so grown up *sniff, sniff*

I think that's it for March, we'll see what April has in store for us =)

2016 so far...

Some big happenings so far this year =) We're going for the high level updates here!

K has had a trio of firsts! She lost her first tooth, read her first book all by herself (Green Eggs & Ham) and had her first school music program.  My little girl is growing up *sniff, sniff*

C is moving out of toddler-dom and into full on little boy. He is 100% adorable and has entered the "why" and "mama, mama, mama" stages.

The kids have been developing an even stronger sibling relationship. They miss each other so much when they're away from each other and it's really awesome to watch them love each other! I hope it stays this way =)

M's grandmother passed and he had some skin cancer removed from his back so hopefully the year improves rapidly from here for him. At least his Broncos won the super bowl!

As for me...not much new. Just enjoying a busy life =) I tried to find a picture of me from this year but it doesn't look like we have one. I'll share a few family pictures we had on Christmas Eve day.

In March M & I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary and we're taking a road trip to visit family over Spring break. More photo ops!

Catch up!

I've been away from this blog space for too long! Not sure if anyone out there is still reading at this point...but if you are, Hi! 

December went by in a flash. K had her first ballet recital and it was adorable. She cried when it was over and wanted to do it all again. Needless to say we're already signed up for the spring show. 

(she's standing up in red)

 

C finished his adjustment to a new daycare and we're really happy we made the switch. He loves his new teacher and I am pleased with the classroom,learning, etc. as well as the organization, communication and accessibility of the management. They had a nice Christmas party complete with Santa and Mrs. Claus too.

December also had a bunch of snow, which both kids adored!

Christmas was so fun, with the kids now 5.5 and 2.5 (WOW, how did that happen?!) they were both into all the festivities. We had ~20 family members in town for the festivities and even their closest aged cousins, who are 8 and 11 were here. To say they had a wonderful time is an understatement.

We ended the year with a round of strep throat for K but we caught it early and she was able to ring in the new year, along with C, with some yoga and a dance party!

Hope everyone's New Year is off to a good start =)

Pumpkin Patch

The kids are both doing great. K is still enjoying kindergarten and her teachers had great things to say at our first ever parent/teacher conferences last week. She is obsessed with learning to read and makes progress every day. C is still adjusting to his new daycare (we switched a few weeks ago) and drop offs are still a bit tough. They are still in love with each other, when not fighting over toys and such of course =)

It has been a warm fall here so far and the weekends have been wonderful!  This past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch so I thought it was perfect fodder for a blog update.

All smiles!

This little pig was a new addition to the petting zoo this year

C's first pony ride and he loved it

Maybe next year he'll be able to see over the sign

Growing like weeds!

Strong!

Exactly three pumpkins high

Is it just me or is this pig a little scary?

Silly boy at lunch after the pumpkin patch

Kindergarten, Camping, Dance & More

K loves school! There has not been one complaint about it unless you count complaining about getting up so early =) She loves the "specials" which include music, P.E., art, computer lab, etc. Some days she reports MANY details and some days hardly any. She learned how to tie her shoe from her new friend Lilly last week and is very proud. I think she just may wear out her laces tying and retying them. 

The weekend after her first full week was my 40th birthday. And what makes a girl feel 40? Taking the kids camping for the first time, that's what. The first night was horrible - C didn't go to sleep until 11pm and got up at 5:45am, K fell out of her bunk at 2:30am and M and I got about 2 hours of sleep. To be honest I considered packing up and coming home bright an early that morning...but thankfully Saturday was great with morning walks around the lake, fishing where K got her 1st fish and rounded out with fun at the lake beach in the afternoon and smores by the fire that night. The 2nd night was wonderful where we all slept ~11 hours. Nice! Sunday was my actual b-day and we enjoyed a morning pontoon boat ride around the lake before going to lunch with friends. 

Another bit of news is that we've decided to switch daycares the end of this month. C will be there full days and K for just a few hours after school. It's a big change for them and I'm keeping everything crossed that the change goes smoothly. I hope C will really thrive there. His class will be a little smaller and I hope he builds on his rapidly growing vocabulary =)

Ok, that was a lot of words...here's the main point of the post, some photos!

Sunrise while camping, courtesy of C's early wake up

Checking out a caterpillar on our morning walk

K's first fish!

 

C giving it a shot

Playing with some friends at the "beach", ok, generous term I know

Roasting marshmallows 

She was so patient and got a perfectly toasted one after about 10 minutes

Kids not sure of the life jackets on the way out of the marina 

A rare sighting of M and me together

K started a ballet class and it gets more adorable each and every week =)

Look at that smile, this kid!

Trying on my sunglasses, cutie pie!