Mini Vacation

We took a little mini vacation to California over the weekend for Avery's first birthday. We got there on Friday and right away I met with the wedding planner for Becky's wedding while Dan watched the girls. Then we traded and he went to their L.A. office to support the launch and I took the girls to Joey's place. After a while, we headed over to Brittany's mom's house. Bridget fixed a nice dinner and she had some toys that Mia loved playing with.



The girls LOVE holding Max and Avery! It will be the recurrent theme for this post. I guess it makes them feel "older". After all, they are aunts!





The next day we met Joey, Brittany and Avery at Underwood Farms.





The farm had an ingenious way of feeding the animals through drain pipes without getting near them.



There was a cute little chicken show going on all the time.



The girls got to play on three different playgrounds!



We were shocked that Anna requested to ride the ponies. The last time we tried this she just screamed.





There was a live animal show we got to watch.



Moms and kiddos went on a train ride. Yes, it was as uncomfortable as it looks!



We ended our trip by picking strawberries. It was a beautiful fun trip!

After a Mexican lunch, we went back to our hotel and took naps! After that we went swimming. Becky, Arek and Max joined us. It wasn't very warm so we spent most of our time in the "hot pool".





After swimming, we headed over to the gym where Avery's party was going to be and helped decorate. Beth and Greg joined us after their day of wine tasting. Everyone was tired after that so we went out for burgers and called it a day, a fun day!

Update

I have been forgetting to blog lately! We have been sooo busy, but we have our house back! Except for some window treatments, stain on the deck handrails, and a few pieces of furniture, we are almost done.

Here is our new fireplace. The space of above the mantel will be for a T.V. or artwork if we don't like the T.V. up so high. We had to build the fireplace all the way to the ceiling to vent it since there is a bedroom on the other side of the wall.



This window used to be a fireplace. It totally blocked our view. We wanted to put in a six foot wide window, but we would have to restructure the entire two story wall. Wasn't going to happen! So we settled for four feet which is what the fireplace had been.



We were very happy with our contractor. From the back of the house you cannot tell there was ever a fireplace where the middle window is. It stuck out 18 inches on to the deck. The two side windows were enlarged one foot taller as well.



Our deck used to end after the third window. We couldn't even fit our table on it. The extension came out great!



Tomorrow we are leaving for California to celebrate Avery's first birthday! It's a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party. This is one of my all time favorite children's books.

Anna had her yearly developmental evaluation a few days ago. She will definitely qualify for free preschool where there will be speech services. But they also noticed, and I have wondered, that her sight may not be great. She gets really close to pictures, she likes to wear my glasses and she is pretty clumsy. It may be nothing, but I'll take her to a pediatric eye doctor next Friday. She would look cute in glasses!

While we are in California I'll also meet with a wedding planner for Becky's wedding and spend a few days at my mom's house. It will be nice for the kids to get to know one of their grandparents a little better.

Night Night

After four and half months Anna finally feels safe enough to take a nap on her bed in the new house. She has had one every day this week. Yay! No more falling asleep in her dinner plate!



The inside of the house is just a smidgen away from being done. The fireplace grills that go on the top and the bottom of the firebox are missing. Someone accidentally threw them away! We are getting the new ones tomorrow and then I'll post pictures.

Spring is finally here in Colorado, although everywhere you go there are still trees and bushes with no green leaves. This was the coldest spring since we have lived here. But we did have a warm fall to make up for it!



The barbecue is hooked up. Let the fun in the sun begin!

The Velveteen Rabbit

Today we went to a children's play, The Velveteen Rabbit. Mia loved it! We read the story last week at home. At this time last year she had a hard time sitting through an hour long children's performance. But not now! She was riveted, laughing, mesmerized. Anna sat quietly the whole time but I'm not sure she understood very much of it.



We didn't want to go back to the house afterward as the painter was doing the finishing touches in the main room (whoopee!) , so we went out to lunch.



Life is feeling a lot more normal these days. The kids are feeling it too. They are going to sleep better and smiling a lot during the day.:)

Mother's Day 2013

Happy Mother's Day to all! Dan asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day and I said, "Go outside!". We have had a very cold spring this year and I just want to do something out in the warm sunshine. So we decided to hop our fence and go on a hike.

First we did some trash pickup as there is a low spot behind our house where it accumulates.



We then had to search for a place to cross the creek. We found this little concrete dam.



Anna got pretty tired early on so I rested with her while Dan and Mia explored one of the trails.



Here is a picture of the back of our house from the trail.



There is some grading going on here. We hope there are not houses going in here. As far as we know it is still zoned as open space.



A tree they pulled up. :(



We saw these animal tracks but don't know what made them.


We were the only ones out there today. I guess all the other mothers chose brunch!


Hubby and I hope to do this every Sunday!

Musical Petting Zoo

Every first Tuesday at the Performing Arts Center in the next town over they have a program for preschoolers. We attended for the first time. It was called A Musical Petting Zoo.

There were four musicians. Each of them explained how their instrument worked and what it was called.



They played some cute little tunes and asked the kids what animal they reminded them of. Then they played a classical piece followed by five songs that the kids new, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc.

Then the petting zoo opened! The kids could go to different stations and play the different instruments. Mia's favorite was the flute.



Anna could barely see over the base. So cute!



The actually played a song on the violin, with a little help.



After the zoo, we ate boxed lunches. The girls loved it! We hope to go again next month!

This Week

We have been having fun this last week. We went to Logan and Lorelei's birthday parties.



Anna is enjoying her swimming lessons. She likes it much better now that there are two other kids in her class. She didn't like going back and forth the whole time with the teacher without any break. She likes her down time!



This morning Mia was playing with some blocks when I went in the shower. When I came out she had made us breakfast! It was so cute. And I was so glad she didn't get into anything dangerous!



This past Saturday I went on a 24 hour trip to Las Vegas. We took my friend, Sheri, to see Donny and Marie for her 50th birthday. It was so nice to get some sun!!! And the show was quite fun!



Life is getting back to normal again even though nothing in the house is completely done. We have a schedule again which makes all the difference!