Quick trip south

A few weeks ago Mark and I were discussing how we could celebrate our kids' birthdays differently this year. We came up with a plan to travel south and visit Albuquerque for a change of scenery and some needed family time. 

We left early Friday morning and got in ABQ at lunch time.  We thoroughly enjoyed eating at resturaunts we don't have in Durango.  Our first stop was Chick Fil A. Yum! 

After lunch we headed to the ABQ zoo and aquarium.  I'm so glad we did. They don't really compare to the ones in Denver but they're far better than the ones we have in Durango (we call the local fish store the Durango zoo!). 

The kids especially loved the shark tank.  I think we all could've sat and stared for quite a while! 

After the aquarium we wandered the zoo and loved seeing the polar bears and seals get fed. The zoo doesn't take long to see everything. It's quite compact! 

Look at the sweet baby chimpanzees! 

From there we left and found our hotel.  We had heard about Hotel Cascada from some friends. It's a hotel with an indoor water park. I had hoped to go down not on a weekend (take advantage of our homeschool schedule and avoid crowds) but they have different winter hours and were only open on the weekend. Bummer.  So we swam with a few hundred of our closest friends ;) I'm pretty sure there were a dozen or more parties happening there this weekend. It's the place to go! 

*Not my photo 

We had a great time though. The hardest part was that Mark and I were both battling colds the entire weekend. Makes swimming a bit more cold and challenging. It definitely motivated us to get the kids into swim lessons ASAP. 

We swam part of the day Saturday then went shopping for some clothes for the kids.  And I bought my first pair of skinny jeans. I just had to throw that in for the record. It's taken me several years to succumb to this trend...here's hoping I don't look like I poured myself into them! 

Anywho, after shopping we took the kids to Cracker Barrel (not helping me at all with the trying to not look like I was poured into my pants!). I forgot how much food they give you! 

We thought for 10 seconds about swimming but decided going back to the room and watching the food network sounded way more fun.  My kids love Chopped! Unfortunately we had some late night partying neighbors move in next door on Saturday so getting to sleep was a bit challenging. We had to call the front desk when they wouldn't get quiet after Mark asked them to (I promise we waited until after 10pm although I probably could've been asleep at 7). 

We got up and ate breakfast in the room.  I let my kids pick cereal for the trip before we left.  Lesson learned.  Sugar on top of sugar is what they picked.  Oy! 

After breakfast we went and swam for another hour before showering and heading out. We ate lunch at Red Robin - Mark's favorite - and drove home to 7 inches of snow. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that there was no snow in New Mexico and as soon as we crossed the border - bam.  Snow. Beautiful snow. 

Now to unpack and start laundry.  It was a great weekend of making memories. 

Kate is 8 and it's great

We've had a little too much fun with the rhyming of this birthday!  But the truth is Kate is 8 and she thinks it's great! 

The very first thing she did Monday morning (her birthday) was head to the car and take out her car seat.  She's been counting down the days.  Frankly so have we!  The car seat has been an issue for her since she was 3! 

Her birthday was the small one this year. She didn't get a big party but she did get to pick one friend that she could celebrate with.  Surprisingly she chose Madi (not really...I actually typed that with much sarcasm ;) ). She's been begging to have Madi spend the night for weeks.  They love to draw, play with their American girl dolls and do gymnastics.  All of which they did! 

We went to dinner.  Kate's choice was Applebee's. 

The rest of us enjoying our dinner out.  Ya know, like the crazy people we are. 

After dinner we went home and had root beer floats and watched Frozen (again!). The girls stayed up late and got up early. Madi's an earlier riser than Kate ;) 

They put on their leotards and went and jumped on the trampoline (brr!). Kate caught me as I pulled out my phone and was getting ready to blaze out of the picture.  I still caught her! 

They played and drew pictures then asked if they could make cupcakes for their friends they were going to see at lunch. The only ingredients I had were for banana bread muffins.  They were happy to do that. 

This is always an interesting experience for me.  God uses these times to refine me in my need for order and control!  The girls were super enthusiastic and excited to bake.  This pictures cracks me up because of how they wanted to get a teaspoon of baking soda.  Can you see what can happen here? A pile of baking soda in the bowl?  Thankfully I caught them once I realized what was about to happen and showed them the right way to measure.  

In the end the muffins were good and the girls had a good time.  

It's blowing my mind a little bit that she is 8.  We're planning on getting her into gymnastics soon.  The girl is naturally talented and coordinated.  She's taught herself many things already and she's constantly doing cartwheels in the house. Next Mary Lou Retton? 

On a random side note, our house is going under contract as soon as we can get the papers signed.  As we learned last year, it doesn't mean for sure that we're moving but it's definitely a step in that direction.  If all goes well we will be out of our house at the end of April (a week before Mark graduates from school!). If any family reads this and you'd like to road trip down here around this time, we're more than happy to see you! ;)

Now to work on an offer for the house we'd like to move to...

The BIG 1-0!

He was so little once!

Kale is now joining the world of double digit age.  He turns 10 today! Oh my. I really don't know how that happened.

We celebrated on Saturday with friends.  He invited 3 other guys his age to go see the Lego move (of course!) and then to lunch. 

It was sooo hard getting a good picture of 4 goofy 10 year old boys. Especially in a dark theater before the movie started. Kate was such a trooper hanging with 5 boys! 

Here are Mark and I taking a selfie before the start of the movie.  Note our excitement ;) 

The movie was good (the boys of course loved it).  Getting them out was like herding cats on cat nip.  They were bouncing off the walls so excited about everything. 

We headed to Wendy's for lunch (Kale's pick) where he opened presents.

You'll be shocked to learn that he got a LOT of Legos...which he very much wasn't disappointed with. 

These four boys were hilarious.  Their conversations were so fun to listen to.  At one point they were discussing the cost of Legos and blaming it on Obama. Haha! I know you'll never believe me when I tell you that that wasn't from Mark and I but I promise you we've never said anything like that to Kale.  That was all them!

After lunch we enjoyed these huge cupcakes from the Yellow Carrot.  They make gluten free cupcakes which were wonderful! One of the boys can't have gluten so it was a fun and different treat.  The kids devoured them! 

Mark is working today and then has a meeting tonight so instead of doing dinner we had lunch.  Kale picked Denny's. :)

He also got a package in the mail from his aunt and uncle.  I think he reminds me of Maverick from Top Gun. 

I'm in awe that this sweet, smart and kind young man is 10 today.  He's definitely at that age where he doesn't want to be a little kid but is trying to figure out how to be around adults.  

He's a joy and we adore him! 

Epic Star Wars Party

Yesterday was Jack's 5th birthday. Since his birthday is so far away from Kale and Kate's he usually feels left out of the birthday craziness that is February and March. He's waited 6 long months for his party and he's been busy planning pretty much this whole time. 

Today was that day. 

We got the decorations. 

We got the cake. 

We ordered Pad Wan Pizza. 

We made Obi-Wan-Kebobs. (The bottoms had chrome duct tape to make them look like light sabers)

And we served Vadar-Ade to drink. 

Thank you Pinterest for helping me make this birthday creative. 

We watched the movie Epic with 6, 5&6 year olds. They were a bit antsy during the show but that's to be expected. 

Elias, Norah, Violet, Pax, Darth Vadar (birthday boy), Benen and Josie. Kale and Kate are there too ;) 

Dog pile of love. 

This, along with a nerf gun, a gift certificate, Star Wars Legos, and an epic play date were the blessings his friends brought him. They sure know my little Jedi! 

Time marches on

Today I am 

 Ta da! 

I don't really care about my age. At least I  haven't yet. Maybe that will change as the decades go by. For now, it doesn't bother me. 

My hubby did a great job. It's not fair that it's left up to the spouse but since we don't have other family here he's left in charge. He came through. 

He surprised me at lunch (every Tuesday we have lunch with friends at park or at the church). He brought flowers and a cupcake for me and cookies for all the kids. It was very special. Loved it! He also brought home dinner and dessert and cooked it all. Then they introduced me to the movie Escape from Planet Earth. We do family movies for birthdays. That ways everyone is included. 

My dear friend Jen said she was bringing me a birthday sombrero to lunch but instead came with this cute thing. 

A DIY mug from Starbucks. She said it gave her the cold sweats thinking about writing on it so she let me come up with my own plan. Like Jen, I got a bit nervous thinking about what I could permanently write on this cute mug. What if my writing was terrible? What if I hated what I picked? I know...I've got to relax a bit more :) after some deliberation this is what I came up with 

Seek first the Kingdom. 

It's my life verse and since I drink a lot of coffee while reading my bible in the mornings, I thought it was appropriate. I did NOT use a ruler so don't pay attention to the "straight" lines. It makes it unique! 

My birthday reminded me (thanks to endless Facebook notification day) that I am truly blessed with family and friends. Thank you Lord for another year! 

And then she was 6

Yesterday, the 3rd, was my sweet little girl's birthday. Unfortunately for her, fortunate for us, Mark and I were at the church learning how to be better parents. We were blessed to be able to host and attend a great parenting conference at the church and we learned a ton! Sadly that prevented us from celebrating her birthday on her actual birthday...

So we did it beforehand.

It started Thursday night when we had her friend Madi over for a sleep over.Aren't they sweet? This was Kate's first sleepover at our house. She's been to Madi's and another friend but it was a first here. They stayed up giggling till 9:45 when I finally begged them to rest! Then they were up at 6! Too stinkin exciting!

Kate got to open up her presents.

Tinkerbell dolls from Madi and a bike from us.
We took them swimming and then to lunch at Dairy Queen. When we got home that afternoon all the kids were wiped out!

I think overall she had a good birthday. I mean we celebrated it for 3 days!
Friday night as I put her into bed I told her this was the last time I'd kiss her goodnight as a 5 year old. Kinda made me sad...She really is getting to be so grown up. Even at 6.

Of course she asked me this morning if she was 6 1/2 now....

And then he was 8

Friday was Kale's 8th birthday. I completely ran out of time this weekend to blog about it so here is my Monday morning update before we start school (yes he has school today - his teacher gave him his birthday week off...)

He woke up to his family singing a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday, opened a few presents - Legos and a book to keep all of his art - then put Legos together with dad while I ran errands. When I got home we all went to lunch together. Kale requested ice cream so we headed to Dairy Queen.

He had a few gifts and cards (with $) in the mail. Baseball stuff from the CoopersAdventures in Odyssey from Chad and AlishaIron Man fist and special crayons from Aunt Kelly and almost Uncle CarsonDinner was corn dogs...his request again.
Silly little brotherSilly little sisterWe had small group Friday night so the kid party was Saturday morning. He had invited 4 friends but only 2 were able to come. It turned out to be just fine and we had a blast. We took the kids to the Rec Center to go swimming and then to Burger King for lunch and presents.

Jack, Anna, Kate, Kale and TobyAnna gave Kale a signed painting of a whale shark that she had painted. It's really cool!And he is always thrilled with Legos (thanks Toby!)I think overall he was pleased with his birthday weekend.

I'm a bit amazed that he's 8. He is now not required to ride in a booster seat. A huge, wonderful change for all of us! He's totally not a little kid anymore. He's very independent, very much a thinker, loves to play Legos (alone), will still snuggle occasionally, is definitely the oldest child (meaning he's king of the castle or so he thinks...), funny, smart, learning to joke around with us, creative, sweet when he wants to be and a leader. He almost reaches Mark's shoulder which seems impossible for me to comprehend. He's transforming right before our eyes! He's lost all of his front baby teeth and that really changes his appearance.

I miss my little Bubba but I sure love and adore the 8 year old one. It reminds me that the next 10 years will go by way too fast.
I love you Kale! Happy Birthday my sweet boy!