Mad Scientists

A little back story, I didn't realize until it was time to plan my kids birthdays and after my mom had passed away, just how much I used her to plan everything!  I mentioned this one day to my friend Tosha, just as an observation.  A few days later, she called and offered to put on a mad scientist party for my kids!  Awesome.  The day could not have been better.  We had twelve kids join us and twelve kids leave the party happy and with gooey goo in a take home bag!

Thank you Tosha Stapelman and thank you Pauline Matson for making us all so very happy.  What a happy birthday it was for Kedzie and ethan. 

Here's the crazy monster cake that Travis did.  It was delicious. 

My job was to get out the invitations, order balloons and pizza!  Check.  I did a marvelous job.  The kids enjoyed their pizza and green slimy orange soda to go along with it. 

Welcome to the lab!

Mad Scientists Pauline and Tosha

Lab Assistants: Lindie, Reagan, Kedzie, Cali, Camden, Ethan, Bailey, Shawn, Brooks and Dayton.  

What?!!!

First experiment with soda and some other stuff!  Great explosions and messes!  

What happens when you mix a little food coloring, water, dry ice and salt?! Pure awesomeness. 

Happy 7th Birthday to Kedzie and Happy 5th Birthday to Ethan!

Cute girlfriends

The ever popular diet coke, mentos experiment.

Kedzie and Dayton!  Friends since birth.  

It was a fabulous birthday party.  One which shall never be out done!  Thanks again friends for making it happen.  Happy birthday to my sweet children.  We dedicated the diet coke experiments to Grandma Mary.  She would have/did love the party!  

Happy 7th Birthday to Kedzie

And a Happy Birthday to my most beautiful, blue eyed girl!  She's seven!  It's hard to believe! However, she is learning and growing at astounding rates!  She can read like a 2nd grader, all she wanted was a razor scooter and she still loves to play with her pretend animals.  She is smart and funny and has one heck of an imagination!  She is so lovable and generally one of the happiest people I know.  

Her birthday was filled with fun.  She did have to go to school, but it was the 100th day of school, so extra celebrating!  She woke me up at 5:55 wondering if it was time to head to the store for donuts! I made her wait until 6:15!  So, she's started out the day with a breakfast of champions!  Grandma Kathy and I took Taco Bell cheese rolls to her for lunch at 10:50am (early!) and then she chose to have dinner with the family at Chipotle!  Yes, there is a trend and a favorite dining location for our family.  

Anyway, Kedzie had a wonderful birthday and I'm so proud of her and all that she does to help me and her brothers and for how happy and friendly she is to those she is around every day.  Love you Kedzie!  Have a wonderful year!

This was the final gift from Grandma Mary to Kedzie.  So sweet.

Happy 5th Birthday Ethan!

For some reason, it's really strange for me to think and say that Ethan is five!  I guess in my mind, he's still my little Ethan.  But, not any more!  He's registered for Kindergarten, can spell his name and is the best Mario wii player in town.  He's just plain awesome! 

His birthday was filled with celebration!  Gifts in the morning, cupcakes at preschool, lunch at McDonald's with dad and friends, dinner with Thelma and the family at Chipotle!  Lots of Mario in between.  He really was so excited about his birthday he just couldn't settle down!

So, Ethan I think you are an amazing individual.  You are smart, you are funny, you are sassy and determined.  You make me laugh every day!  I simply can't wait to watch you grow this year, it's going to be amazing!  

Happy 5th Birthday buddy!  Love you. 

January Randomness at it's finest

We have had a few fun moments during our crazy month of January!

My kids love icee's at our local Target!  Especially through the silly straws!

Happy Birthday to Grandma Mary!  We thought it would be great to celebrate my mom's birthday with the Hollands and a tea party.  It is exactly how she would have wanted it.  Happy Birthday mom!

Kedzie and Ethan are having a Mad Scientist Birthday Party and Ethan and Alex wanted to get a head start on their experiments!  Ethan spent about an hour going through all of my spices and water in order to create five bowls of fascinating experiments!  It was fun to watch them play.  Alex was so worn out half way through that I convinced him to go lay next to Whitey and take a nap.  It worked!  

Copper 2012

Oh what a wonderful break from Life!  Our kids didn't have school on Thursday or Friday due to Conferences, so we headed to the mountains!  We were fortunate enough to be invited by some friends, the Thornton's and Busch's to stay in their mountain house, so we got friends, fun, skiiing and lots of food!  I should also mention the weather!  While in the mountains we had no snow and beautiful skies. Denver got 18 inches of snow!  We left the blizzard and we were so happy we did!  

The mountain house is in Breckenridge, so we spent Thursday afternoon wandering the town.  We really enjoyed the snow sculptures.  Amazing what people can do with a ten foot square of snow.  

We also rode the high speed gondola.  That was awesome for my kids.  

On Friday, the kids had ski and board lessons! Ethan wanted to snowboard this year, and he was awesome.  He had a 1 on 1 class, just out of coincidence and he learned a lot.  He was so happy, even when he fell!  

We decided to put Alex is the day care program so that Travis and I could actually ski together!  It was worth every penny.  Expensive!  Anyway, at the end of the day, he wanted to be just like Ethan, so Ethan's teacher let him ride the magic carpet and run down the hill.  He loved that.  

But then, I thought I'd buckle him up in the snowboard just for a minute!  Well, he told me to let go of him and let him go faster and all of a sudden, my baby was snowboarding!  He went down a small hill twice and was so proud of himself.  I just ran along side of him, thinking that if he crashed I'd catch him!  He didn't really crash and he was in Heaven! 

After three lessons, Kedzie has the hang of skiing!  We are so proud!  She finally went up a lift and skied down a green.  She was thrilled with herself as well.  She's also sore and keeps reminding us of that fact!  We were so proud of our kids and their bravery and strength.  We really had a great day!

Travis and I had a great day too!  We are so grateful that we can still ski and that we could be together without kids for a while!  It was beautiful and oh so much fun.  Trying to plan the next trip! 

We loved spending time with the Thornton's, Busch's and Gibson's.  They are wonderful friends.  And, our kids have such a great time together.  Both nights, they were crazy in the hot tub!  

We had a memorable, relaxing weekend!  Thanks for the good times!