The Hormans

Program for Brett's Concert I'm a mom who tries. I make it to most of my kids' performances and I even film them. But once the videos are uploaded to the computer, they never come out again...until today! Here's some footage of Brett in his Spring 2012 band concert. This is especially for the two grandmas. Hope you enjoy! ("That's my Johnny!" Can anyone name that movie?)

This post is especially for the proud grandmas and aunties out there. I love to hear children sing and got teary eyed and goose-bumpy when I heard these 300+ kids singing this beautiful song last night. This is a combined elementary school choir and Alex's music teacher is the guy leading this song. Alex is the blond kid near the top under the flag in the purple shirt. Also, I had a hot and tired 4-year-old on my lap. Also, I was hot and tired. Oh and also, we were at the top of the bleachers on the far side from Alex...pretty much the farthest away we could be. I think the little camera did a great job. Hope you enjoy!

We took advantage of beautiful weather this St. Patrick's Day and headed to downtown Denver for the parade. To say it was crowded would be an understatement. This was a crush of green-clad humanity, much of it reeking of beer at 11:00 in the morning. It was crazy! I have never seen so many people dressed in green in one spot. We linked hands with the kids in a single line and squeezed between the people gathered on the sidewalks to watch the parade. We finally found a bit of room to expand and parked ourselves. I don't know that Matthew had ever seen so many people. If you look across the street you can see rows of people sitting and standing wherever there was room. This picture doesn't do the crowd justice--we were closer to dozens of strangers than we would be to family. Then the parade came by! Dancers, fire trucks, a little of everything. And at one point, a lot of scooters! Part of the crowd where we were was always fluid, people jockeying for better viewing, crossing...

As usual, everyone has celebrated a birthday in the last year. Around here, the cake is the important thing, at least for me. You'll see what I mean. We'll start in February with Alex, who at 9, is quite enamored with reptiles. Then on to Steve, who was honored with a delectable Boston Cream Pie. That was absolutely worth the effort! It's Brett's turn! To celebrate turning 12, he chose my favorite--Deep Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake. Matthew turned 3 in June. He wanted a zebra cake very badly. My ideas of using fondant and crafting something beautiful fell victim to my busy life and habit of procrastinating. Regardless, Matthew was very much pleased with the Mommy and Baby Zebra cake. And, as a bonus, he got to keep the zebras as toys. How old am I now? Three! It's hard to make the fingers work! If I had a birthday and there's no photographic proof, did I really age another year? Finally in 2011, we have Lucas, now 7! This fire truck was pretty fun to do and made f...

You know the best thing about having a fire pit in the backyard? Yes...you can have s'mores just about any time you want... Even better...pants are optional!

Matthew was lying on the floor singing to himself. I eventually realized he was singing a familiar song. "Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop, when it blows up the Lego guy dies..."