New Dinosaur Exhibit

One of the perks of your husband working for a company that sponsors museum exhibits is free annual passes to those museums. (I'm not going to lie - I'm going to miss this perk a lot!)

The Museum of Nature and Science has a new dinosaur exhibit and Becky and I took the kids to the member-only preview. As exhibits go, is was probably my least favorite. I guess I have already seen one too many dinosaur museums, exhibits, etc.

The kids really liked the exploration tables. They made these fossil beds so realistic it took kids all day just to expose a little bone.

They take this work very seriously, especially Mia.

There were lots of life size skeletons and some interactive displays. I did not see the name of one dinosaur the whole night that I recognized.

We were there less than 90 minutes and then headed out to Panera for dinner and home. I was glad I didn't pay a lot of money to see this.

Some Other Fall Things

One day we decided to drive up to the mountains and look at fall leaves. We couldn't have picked a worse day. We almost never get fog in Colorado, but there was no visibility most of the way up the mountain. There was a little when we got to the hot dog restaurant.



It was a treat for Charlie to come with us on this outing. We saw a few aspens changing color but not a whole lot due to the visibility. Oh...and everyone said the hot dogs were not very good.



The girls had a Fun Run to raise money for their school. Here is Anna getting ready to run. She was so excited! She actually ran more laps than Mia.

Mia is running holding hands with her best friend, Ellie.

I took the test for a green stripe on my yellow belt. I asked Anna to take pictures. What do you think of this one? I have ten more just like it, until she found a friend to go play with. Who needs to see your face anyway.

Our "Seasons"

The last few months we have had a few "seasons" at our house. The longest one was the "youtube" video season. They took literally hundreds of videos over the summer to put on youtube. I have not uploaded any yet. We plan to get a channel that only friends and relatives can look at but I haven't got on the ball with that.

Then it was the season of "offices". They turned the playroom and front office into their offices. This season is lasting a long time and they still have it set up as Mia's Vet Office and Anna and Rylee's Bosses Office.

The next season was rock painting. Thankfully, that was short. And then there was the season of science experiments. Anna checked out a science video from the library. The experiments were actually very good, at their level and they needed minimal help from me. Mia is way more interested in science than Anna so she performed most of them, even doing them at breakfast.

The last season was the art show, another fast season because neither one of them like to draw too much. What will be next?

Anna's 7th Birthday

Anna's seventh birthday was strung out over a week. Mia was singing the national anthem at Coors Field with about 500 other kids on Anna's actual birthday so we did a few things early.

This year was a family activity for her instead of a party and she opted for a shopping spree at the mall.  Not your usual seven year old birthday fun but she enjoyed it!

Ready to head in!

She bought fake fingernails, boots, a stuffed owl for Mia, matching earrings for her and Rylee, a necklace, and lip gloss. Afterward she chose the Food Court for her family dinner! Whoopee!

Brittany and Joey sent her a gift card to Target so she bought a beauty parlor chair for her American Girl doll.

When Becky and Arek got back from Poland we celebrated both Maks' and Anna's birthdays.

First with a smoothie...

Anna is two years older and about two inches shorter.

While Anna was on her shopping spree she was invited to be in a fashion show on her birthday at the Justice store. On the big day, she picked out an outfit. It was so cute that I bought it.

Mia got to be in it too.

Anna literally ran downtime aisle. Mia walked a bit slower but was still very tentative.

That night we went to the Rockies game. They clinched the wild card spot right before the game so the game actually meant nothing. We could not tell where Mia was in the mix of 500 kids singing the national anthem but it was a good experience for her. 

Anna eventually got over the fact that the game was on her birthday and cheered Mia on. She is usually a good sport. Happy Birthday sweet Anna!

Apple Picking 2017

One of the things the girls never seem to forget is apple picking time. As soon as they know summer is over they ask, "When are we going apple picking??"

It's been even more fun the last few years be because Oli and Maks have got to go with us!

Maks is always the happiest kid.

Maks and Mia are the best of friends.

There were tons and tons of apples this year!

This and That August 2017

 I love getting to watch these guys every Wednesday.

Oli can ride this scooter like nobody's business.

At grandma's house they can use as many straws as they want.

The girls got to be outside at school for the eclipse. They did lots of activities such as moon cookies. It was 95% in our part of Colorado which meant it just got dim for awhile. But it was still pretty cool.

 Anna loves to check out cookbooks from the school library. One week she checked out a cookie making book. The girls wanted to make them without any help from me.

You can see them stirring Anna's batter and you can see Mia's batter on the right. This is how it looks when they followed the EXACT same recipe!

Their school had a movie night out on the lawn. It was a lot of fun until the sprinklers started coming on. Apparently no one thought of that. :o

Good-bye summer!