Summer Fun

I am going to start from Father's Day.  The kids and I gave B some of his favorite things (hot, spicy, salty).  

The kids made this book about dad, in which they each answered questions about B (i.e. how old is he?  what's his name?  what's his job? etc.).  I had them each draw a picture for B and then I scanned them and transferred them onto a tshirt.  His final gift was a "day off" from me and the kids.  I made him breakfast and left it for him by his bed so that he could enjoy breakfast in bed.  Then, the kids and I packed into the car and snuck out of the house.  Thankfully, B slept in that day.  We spent the day at my parents' house while B got to have the day all to himself.  He chose to....can you guess....go fishing!  We came back at bedtime, put the kids to bed, and then enjoyed a quiet dinner together.  I tweaked this idea from the Dating Divas.

B and I enjoyed a lovely date where we attended a Bach Choral concert at CSU.

 The kids and I had a picnic and played at the splash park.  Tiny A did not want to stay with the rest of the group, so I had to chase him around most of the time.  Cb's was at Girl Scout Day Camp, so she wasn't with us.

Speaking of Girls Scout Camp, Cb's had a great week.  She got to do so many activities, including fishing, canoeing, hiking, country dancing, lasso throwing, crafts, and more.

I grew some zucchini! 

Tonight, B is super-dad (well, every night/day, really) and is having a backyard campout with the three older ones.  They are SO excited!  See middle A shaking her hips to the music?:)  She loves to move!  Cb's is singing along with daddy.  Such a beautiful voice.:)  F is running in and out of the tent.  Full of energy!

 

Have you hugged a pug today?  I highly recommend it.  It's good for the soul.

The Nutcracker

 Sunday afternoon, Cadence and I got to go on a little date to see the "Nutcracker" ballet.  It was the first time for both of us!

Cadence loved it and thought everything was very pretty.  She wanted to know why there weren't any kids her age dancing (the youngest were around 7), because she wanted to dance with the ballerinas.  Thankfully, I read the synopsis to her before the ballet started so I knew what was going on during the performance when she asked, which was every few minutes.:)  The only thing that scared her was the crashing cymbals during the Mouse King fight.  She really enjoyed clapping whenever the audience clapped.

At the end, she thought that the main character, "Clara", and the nutcracker were going to get married.  Very cute!

A fun date and a fun way to celebrate this time of year!

Date Day!

Saturday, Brad and I were blessed to have an entire date day (broken up into two parts so that I could come home and feed Aria at lunch time). My mom came up for the day and night so that we could have some quality time together. What a blessing! Once we were out and about, though, you kind of forget what to do with yourselves. At first, it feels like we should be "doing" something, not just sitting in this coffee shop. But, that's what we don't get to "do" enough of, just sit with each other without the distractions of children and work.

Since we were going to be spending the entire day out on the town, we had to think of some inexpensive activities to do. So, we started off by going to a Starbucks in Old Town (we had a gift card). I'd always wanted to go into this Starbucks because it looks kind of retro. It's on the very corner, with a corner door, of College and LaPorte. It was fun to sit, talk and watch the people go by.

After coffee, we headed to Whole Foods for a delicious lunch (we had a gift card for there too!). Their salad bar was amazing, making it so much fun to build our own salads. Also, I am not an olive eater, but their olive bar smelled unbelievable. I have to admit, I love Whole Foods. I don't shop there, but the fact that they are selling food...I respect that. Sorry, I was having a "Zoolander" moment. Anyway, back to the date. I really do love to walk around Whole Foods and maybe get a treat every once awhile. I just like the atmosphere.

Next, after a quick stop at home to feed Aria, we headed out for round 2 of our date! We shot out to the thrift shop to rummage through their treasures and pick a present out for each other (I know, it sounds cheap...which it was! That was the point.) Brad found some cute candle holders for me and for him, some CSU bandannas. From there, we headed up north to a second hand furniture shop. I am on the hunt for cute student desks to use in our basement for the kids. Though it was a nice shop, no luck in finding the desk I was looking for. It's amazing how much you can pack into a day when you don't have 3 little ones in tow.

Our date swung back around to Old Town where we perused some of the local shops, and stopped into Mary's Mountain Cookies for a big cookie. Yum! I was happy to see lots of people walking around town, it was fun. We stopped into The Old Firehouse Bookstore which was connected to Happy Lucky's Tea Shop. Brad bought some smoke flavored tea.

We still had a few hours left in our date and credit on our gift card, so we went back to Starbucks for another coffee and chat until we felt like it wasn't too early to eat dinner. It's not that we didn't love spending the whole day together, we really did, but it's hard to think of things to do when it's cold out and you don't want to spend a fortune. For dinner, we ate at Mexicali and split a delicious sweet pork burrito and creamy tortilla soup.

All in all, a fabulous day with a fabulous man! What a treat! And, my mom survived all three kids, colds, lack of naps, potty training and all. Way to go, mom!

The weekend wasn't over, yet, though. We were blessed to have more visitors on Sunday. Bill (Grampy) and Karen (Granny/MomPom) drove up for church, lunch and a visit. The kids loved seeing them and we always love to see them. Always so much to chat about and not enough time. What a terrific weekend!