Welcome to the circus.

2012-01-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

Vienesse Whirls

2012-01-17T13:00:00.005-07:00

My mum gave me a cook book for Christmas, I have to say the recipes are fantastic. So over the weekend i thought I'd try one of them out. This is what in my mind they should look like....

I have to say it was an interesting recipe, lots of corn starch and the frosting contained flour and hot milk. It looked like lumpy mashed potatoes! Anyway once the dough for the biscuits was made i put it in the pipping bag to make them look all pretty an swirly but the pipping bag split on me and there was stuff everywhere. The kids thought it was hysterical! So instead of pretty swirls we rolled the dough into small balls and flattened them down and baked them!

They came out looking good so once cooled i filled them with jam and the crazy frosting and let them set in the fridge. Here's the finished product......

I have to say the frosting tasted so good, not too sweet and really creamy. Overall a lot of fun to make and they tasted pretty good for the first time. This is one of the things i have discovered living abroad, there is a lot of things, especially food, that you miss and the greatest accomplishment for me is to be able to make some of these things so i have a taste of back home and my childhood. This definitely fitted into this category.

Congratulations

2012-01-16T15:44:00.002-07:00

A big congratulations to my husband and two of our friends on finishing the rock 'n roll half marathon over the weekend. I know the training was hard, especially over the holidays. We are very proud of you all. What a great way to start the year.

Hubby has also signed up to take part in the Boulder tri series this summer, which includes a sprint, olympic and half ironman triathlons. Although he's done a Ironman before he's never done the half ironman and not in the middle of the hot summer either. Should be an interesting time ahead, including a lot of training. Good luck to him.

What just happened.

2012-01-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and started the day in the usual way. I'm not sure why, perhaps because this is the first full week after new year, but my schedule went from empty and quiet to jam packed full!

Last night I suddenly realised that my friend is having her baby in 5-6 weeks and would probably like a baby shower, why I neglected to notice this before I am not sure! As I ticked of starting that task, about 20 other things appeared, including me talking to 3 preschool classes this Friday, swim lessons, new soccer season, some accounting work to do, some MOMS Club things, plus Wednesday my hubby heads to Phoenix for 5 days to run the rock and roll half marathon!

Fun and games time!

Games.

2012-01-06T16:26:00.003-07:00

I love playing games whether it's on line, on a computer, on the wii, you name it. I am a puzzler at heart and love silly little games. The real problem is the time aspect. These silly little games can easily eat away hours. I try to be really restrictive with myself, for example i have never played angry birds, (i may be one of only a few left who haven't), i just knew i'd get drawn in.

There is however one game for the wii I have wanted for a long time.

The problem is my son wants this game too. I would like to get it because of the nostalgia aspect, Mario games are the icon of the some of the original games. I want to super size myself, collect coins and get the 1 ups. My son would like the game for entirely different reasons, most simply because he is 8, it's fun and it's Mario. This could lead to conflict in our house. Mummy not like conflict :-(

Anyway, even with the doubt in my head, a couple of days ago i bought the game. It is sitting in an envelope at my feet right now. I haven't opened it yet but I think tonight is the night, simply put - IT'S MARIO TIME!

Our Son!

2012-01-03T19:58:00.002-07:00

It's hard because i don't want to be that boastful parent, but at the same time sometimes things happen and it's hard not to want to say something to the whole world.

Recently our son sat a state test at school, we, as the proud parent we are hoped he would do well; but even we were shocked when his teacher showed us the results. His teacher was stunned and we were both proud and slightly stunned too.

What happens next, we are not sure, but i felt that as the proud parents we are we wanted to mention it here and remind everyone how proud we are of how smart our boy really is. Everyday he takes by surprise asking questions and sharing his knowledge. It is a pleasure to watch him learn and we can not wait to see what lies ahead for him.

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T19:49:00.003-07:00

A very happy new year to you all. All the best for 2012.

As always there has been a lot going on in our household and yet i haven't posted anything in a while. When i started this blog, almost 4 years ago, it was very hard to keep in touch with family spread all around the world. Even over those short years things have changed so much technology wise that keeping in contact, chatting, seeing photo's and finding out what is going on is a lot easier. Which is partly the reason i don't post so much.

The other part is down to laziness if i am honest. I often have things i want to post, but time seems to disappear and i never post them :-( So i am going to try and make a better effort this year, hopefully things will improve and i will get my act together and start posting more regularly. Fingers crossed.

And we are done!

2011-11-14T20:04:00.005-07:00

Football (soccer) is a huge part of our lives. August was the start of the season, As well as his one three games hubby is coach for both our kids teams. Each week we had 11 football activities. It was a long and fun season, finally, after a couple of snow delays, the season finished this weekend . :-)

This was the first season for our girl and what a season! She had a fantastic time and scored numerous goals. Our boy did us proud too, it was his first season on a 6 v 6 team and being able to play keeper.

Here's a couple of shot from the season.

baking time.

2011-11-11T14:47:00.003-07:00

It's mid November and as the holidays fast approach it's baking time. If your looking for a different recipe check out my bakery blog along with mincemeat tarts, and lots of chocolaty minty recipes i have just posted some white chocolate and cranberry blondies . What ever you are baking try I hope you have a fun time, and i hope it tastes good!!

That line....

2011-11-10T09:43:00.002-07:00

I love our school; I love the staff; I love the ethos; I love that my kids love going there every day. There is however one thing i do not like, the parking situation at our school. As our school has got more popular, there are more cars and this year particularly things have gotten a little crazy. There have be altercations between parents, someone "scraped" the school bus with their car, people park in fire lanes, block the buses, even stop and park in the drop off line. Everyday is an adventure!

The school and staff as well as the council and police have all been working to make it better; They brought in a new parking scheme; have taken extra time out of their schedule to implement it. The police have been ticketing people parking illegally or speeding, i hear 50 people have received tickets so far; and yet the chaos continues.

Most of the time I arrive early before the chaos and watch it all happen happy in the knowledge that i am not involved, but honestly does it really have to be this way? My real problem with this whole situation is why can't people act like adults; Why can't you follow a few simple rules; Park sensible; and set a good example for the child in your car. Yes in an ideal world we could all drive up to the door, get out of our car, hug and then watch them walk school, then at the end of the day we'd be first in line to get our kids and drive off first. Lets be realistic, that is just never going to happen, so face the truth, be patient, act responsible and most importantly lets make things safe for all the children at our school.

I really hope things improve, but i tend to think probably not. Certain people are set in their ways and will always be there causing chaos. I just try to stay out of the way and hope that their child will be heading to middle school soon!

On a side note Part of the real problem at the school is the number of parents who drive. So many of them live less than half a mile from the school and could easily walk their kids to school eliminating half the issues. My hat goes of to those who do, especially on those really cold/snowy days. I wish i could!

Our trip

2011-11-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a rollercoaster ride since we got home. I have never had many jet lag problems previously, but this time was hard. Both of us suffered. It was so wonderful to be back home with the boys and Echo. we missed them so much. It's a doubel edge sword really as it was so wonderful to be in the UK too and see family. It was such a wonderful eye openign experience for our nearly 4 year old. being on a plane, seeing where family lives, spending time with just mummy, trying new foods, seeing different birds and animals walking on the beach ... the list goes on and on.

Here's just a couple of photo's from the trip.

Snow

2011-10-27T14:28:00.003-06:00

Had our first big snow storm of the season yesterday, a lot earlier than we are use to. Today, the roads are clear, the sun is out and everything looks so beautiful. THis is why we live in colorado.

We're back!

2011-10-20T09:57:00.002-06:00

after a wonderful trip to my Mum's in England, the girls are back home. We had a fantastic time and will write more and post pictures soon. For now we are glad to be home again and to be able to see the boys and echo!

check your e-mail

2011-09-19T14:35:00.003-06:00

October 6th is my mums and Stan's silver wedding anniversary. For many many months i have talked about going home for this event, but prices have been extremely high this year and i felt it was just too much.

Things too a turn at the weekend when prices went down by a third. My husband turns to me and says check your e-mail - and there were two tickets for my daughter and i to go to London.

So next month the girls will be heading east for two weeks. to say i am excited is an understatement! So is our girl who thinks we are going today. can not wait to see some of the family and show my daughter some of the sights of England/London.

I have the best husband ever.

Calendars

2011-09-06T21:23:00.003-06:00

A little back ground for my story. For the last few months Hubby and I have been trying to work of off the same calendar, so as to avoid clashes and too many events in our lives. We have been using google calendar. The general rule is whom ever posts their event first gets to go.

So, today during a playgroup one of my friends asks - when is the beer festival this year? I thought i knew but you know how you have that slight doubt sometime, anyway i though, better get on the calendar and look it up. I checked both weekends, it keep coming up with NO EVENTS?! This got me to realising my husband, bless him, has never put the actual beer fest on the calendar. (tee hee)

SOOOOOO being the loving wife that i am i went on the calendar and posted a few events of my own that weekend - cocktails, painting nails, MNO, washing my hair... you name it :-)

Unlikely i will get away with it, but worth a try!

sore heads.

2011-08-30T10:12:00.002-06:00

My boy loves school, he loves learning new things,his teachers, his friends, the whole thing really. So when he was apprehensive to go to school on Friday for testing it was a red flag for us. We talked about it and randomly he tells us he has been getting sore heads while reading and this is why he doesn't want to go.

So we get his eyes tested and he has so over active eye muscles that affect him while reading or studying anything up close. So he will have to have glasses. This opened up a whole mine field of questions for hubby and I as we have zero experience with glasses or buying them. Thankfully we got it all sorted out and the glasses have been ordered. Overall he is taking it really well, he is a little apprehensive about what comments his friends will have to say, but he only has to wear them for reading and writing and not all the time which is good news.

The other good news is that he will grow out of it. With the help of the glasses he won't be in pain and can continue to enjoy school and learning as much as before. Apparently this is a common defect that many children have that quite often will never be detected as the never tell a parent or guardian or teacher that it is sore when they read. Instead what happens is they loose interested in reading and writing and consequently loose interest in school and learning.

Here's my one final thought. If you had asked me before last week if my child had issues with reading i would have said no, i would have said he was a strong reader, reading several grades above his age and that he loved reading. We are just so glad that he told us and that we can correct it easily and he wont' be in pain anymore. So, I'm asking if you have a child please just take a moment today and ask them if they get sore heads or pain while reading. They'll almost likely say no, but isn't it better to check.

football

2011-08-22T21:18:00.002-06:00

somehow i have landed up with my very own fantasy football league team - SAY WHAT??!! ( for those not in the know you can pick a fantasy league online containing players from the English premier league. the idea being to compete against others and to possibly win money or bragging rights!)

I am not sure how this happened really but hubby had created a fantasy team and was talking about it, i mentioned it to my brother who had a team and others mentioned their teams on twitter and FB, so the next thing i knew i had a team! WHY? well i will be the first to admit I have very little knowledge of the players, or of the teams, so i wanted to see if someone with little to no knowledge could do well and possibly beat the teams my friends and family had.

I did take on some advice from my brother and Dave as well as picking some completely random people. I don't plan on doing much else except checking my score every now and then.

Today i checked in. The good news, my husbands team has 25 points, mines has 60! I am very proud of the first week, who knows what will happen over the year! Not likely many of you will have a team but if you do let me know!

Happy Birthday

2011-08-20T12:00:00.000-06:00

A happy birthday to my wonderful husband. I hope you have a fun filled and memorable day. We have several surprises for you. xxx

Space station

2011-08-17T16:13:00.002-06:00

Ever wanted to see the international space station. My friend told me about this sight, you sign up to follow them on twitter and they will message you when the space station in passing over your city. If your interested check out their site. I just signed up today so haven't had any messages yet but when i do we will check it out and let you know how it goes. It's suppose to be fun to see.

busy and fun weekend

2011-08-11T20:43:00.005-06:00

A very busy weekend. It all started Thursday with both the kids finishing up swim lessons. They have both done so well this session. "D" passed his level and is allowed to move up to the next. "I" has really improved too.

Friday morning we started work on emptying and painting "I's" room. it wasn't really part of the plan for this weekend but we fitted it in and the room looks great. We have a princess castle wall as well as an art wall, for storing art work rather than randomly sticking pictures everywhere.

Sunday "D" took part in a kids triathlon. He had a great time and we had fun watching him, hopefully they will continue running it again next year.

Finally Sunday night after waiting for ever, the first tooth fell out. He was so proud and yes the tooth fairy did visit, which also made his day!

Teeth

2011-08-11T20:31:00.002-06:00

My oldest never got his first tooth till he was 13 months. At his 1 year check up the DR didn't believe he had no teeth. So stepping forward a few years it should have come as no surprise to me that it would take forever for him to loose his first tooth.

We went through Kindergarten - NOTHING. We went through first grade - NOTHING. HE was the only kid in class who hadn't lost a tooth. Daily i have friends telling me he's/she's lost her first tooth. Kids as young as 4 and 5 loosing them - STILL NOTHING.

My son felt a little left out, why wasn't this happening to him. We reassured him as did his dentist. Now I wasn't too bothered in the fact the longer he has them the better to be honest, what i worried about was them never coming out and surgery. I love my kids Dentist, him and his wife are close friends, and there is no one I'd rather have surgically removing my kids teeth, but I'd rather avoid it if at all possible.

The other day there was a glimmer of light, a slight wobble. I wasn't sure if my eye's deceived me, they have in the past. Yesterday it seemed to wobble a little more, but wasn't sure. TODAY he bit into something and the thing nearly fell out. It's official we have a wobbly tooth and the tooth fairy will be with us soon. I am so happy that we are there and my son is so excited. His sister is not so amused and she wishes to know when hers will fall out....!

Time with my son

2011-08-07T10:40:00.005-06:00

Things are busy around here and so although most days i get alone time with our little princess it is very rare that i get time with just my son, we have game nights, we go out for dinner, we drive to various sporting events together, but realistically with school and all the other things we have going on, having time just to hang out or go somewhere together doesn't happen very often.

This week was different, i made a concerted effort to make sure the girl had lots of camps to go to, on her own, so that we could spend time together before school started again. I let him choose where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do and he picked two great locations to visit - the wild animal sanctuary and Mount Evans.

The wild Animal Sanctuary
Tuesday we set off early and headed east. The sanctuary is a rescue location for carnivores of all types. They are mainly rescued from homes, zoos, circuses and locations where they are not well looked after. They rescue the animals bring them back to the plains of Colorado and rehabilitate them so they have a better quality of life and can live out the rest of their lives in a safe environment. Some of the stories are heartbreaking, it's so sad that man can be so cruel to animals. many of these animals have only lived in cages, have never set foot on grass, never eaten meat (some of the bears only ever had bread to eat), never had water to play in. It's just good to know that there are organisations out there helping these animals.

While we were there we saw many animals including tigers, a wolf, leopards, bears, mountain lions, plus many others. We learned so many things and it really was a great day out. We'll be going back.

MT Evans
For our second trip we headed to mount Evans, a place we had both been too before, but really enjoy going back to. We drove to Echo lake, walked around a little then drove in to the park area. We saw many animals as we drove higher and higher, including mountain goats, deer and marmots. We stopped at summit lake to look at the wildflowers and take in the view before driving to 14000 feet and taking in the view. Colorado truly is a stunningly beautiful place. If you have never been on the road before make sure and put it on your to do list. It is a wondrous place and is only open for a few months a year. Well worth the visit.

eggs

2011-08-05T18:09:00.001-06:00

Illegal goods!

Inspiration

2011-07-31T18:50:00.004-06:00

I haven't blogged in forever and to be honest i have no really reason why. There has been lots going on, things to write about, things to mention, it just never happened. Perhaps i just need a few weeks off?!

So what brings me to writing today. INSPIRATION. I read an article today, it made me cry (if you want to read it let me know). I'm not sure why but it just got this thought in my head about writing again.

I think part of the reason i haven't written is because we had so many visitors and i wanted to spend time with them. Some years we are very lucky to see our families and others not so much. When we are lucky enough to see them i want to make the most of it and hang out and take them to places with the kids and enjoy life together.

My dad came over in May and then traveled to Montana where he cycled for a month. It was wonderful watching him play with the kids, cycle to school with David and to just hang out with him. Late May i drove up to meet him in Yellowstone. It was fantastic to show him the sights and places that we had talked about so many times in the past. Yellowstone and Teton are truly memorable palces. I was very sorry i couldn't take David with us, I know he would have gotten so much out of the trip, hopefully sometime soon instead.

At the start of June we headed as a family to Vegas, for our ten year wedding anniversary. The four of us went hiking in Zion NP, another amazing place. Then we headed to our rented home in Vegas,picked up my Dad, Brother and met friends and hung out. We did visit the strip, but really we were just as happy staying beside our pool and hanging out. Visiting the hoover Dam was by far the favourite part of the trip including stopping for lunch at boulder brewery!

Once we got home my mum came over to visit. The kids love hanging out with her and we got to go to some cool places as well. Plus thankfully this year the weather cooperated and was nice while she was here, unlike last year!

I'm hoping now I've actually got my finger out and started writing again that i will continue. Fingers crossed!

Beautiful.

2011-05-24T18:57:00.004-06:00

Teton and Yellowstone National parks have to be two of my favourites and i have been looking forward to and talking about touring this area with my Dad for a long time. The drive up yesterday was stunning, my daughter was fantastic and we were blessed with sun. Unfortunately my daugther got ill, which has been a minor set back but we have still been able to get out and see some things adn have another few days to explore. We are all looking forward to it especially my daugther who wants to see yogi bear. Here's a couple of pictures. This place is stunnign if you haven't been you should make it a priority.

Rule number one...

2011-05-24T18:44:00.002-06:00

The first rule when you travel with kids should be always bring medicine and a thermometer. Forget all the other crap you think you need this should be the first thing because otherwise you will land up in the middle of nowhere one night (say Yellowstone) with the nearest DR of any kind 100+ miles away and your child will get sick (vomiting, massive temperature, sore limbs etc etc...) There will be no shops open to buy the things and suddenly you will become a neurotic parent.

Last night i nearly threw my child in the car and drove 150 miles to the ER. I tried to remain calm, I phoned my friend who is a nurse, and tried all the things i could think of, but eventually i needed a second opinion from someone in the medical field. I spoke to the hotel staff and eventually the local paramendics came and checked her out. It was a long sleepless night but we made it and she is looking better today.

So I am writing this as a reminder to all my friends who are parents. I have NEVER left home without those things before ever. i packed in a hurry thinking i had everything and i practically did except for the one thing that i really needed. It was a horrible feeling as a parent that you could have done one simple thing that would have made the situation better and would have made me feel better. From now on it will be the first thing i pack.

Owls

2011-05-18T21:25:00.006-06:00

You can tell it is spring here, there are a lot of busy animals out there in the animal kingdom. We currently have a pair of ducks trying to nest in my front garden, which is hilarious to me. A couple of weeks ago a bald eagle flew right over the top of us at Standley lake very inspirational and the other night we were out and came across a mother and 3 fox cubs. They were pretty big and were fighting and frolicking around. We were luck our whole family got to see them.

Last week i took my Dad out for a walk nearby and we saw a couple of beavers swimming in a local pond. It was so peaceful to watch plus there were no bugs out as it's still too early in the year. Hard to get a good photo because of the light but you can see one below swimming near the tree.

Finally The girl and i went for an organised walk a few weeks ago and as a bonus found an owls nest on the trail. So last weekend i took the kids along to see. I was amazed at how big they got in two weeks. Anyway below a picture of the mother and one of the chicks. (click on the pictures for a better look)

It's been a while.

2011-05-14T13:04:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since i wrote, we've had family in town and although there have been time i have wanted to write, i have basically passed it off so i could chat and catch up. The other main reason has been the weather, it really has been fantastic and at this time of the year all i want to do is spend time outside tidying up the garden and preparing it for summer. The whole place has had a spring clean, I've cut grass, weeded, tidied up leaves, painted the deck, removed a hot tub and planted grass seed.

I have also been spring cleaning indoors. Today i spent an hour cleaning out my wardrobe. I purged a lot packed up the winter things(although it's still wintry around here so i saved a few pieces) I looked out all the summer things and then organised all my hung clothes into sections. It's a masterpiece and i am very happy. It didn't take long but it feels like a huge weight of my shoulders. I have been inspired by my friend blog, she is way more organised than i will ever be but she has some great hints and ideas and i am trying to get things tidied up around here. It's hard when you have little kids, your just trying to survive, but with our little one heading of to preschool soon, there will be a little more free time and it's time to get this house ship shape one step at a time!

Finally, this June i will finish up being joint president of the MOMS Club. I love working with the group and the people but my time is up and i am moving forward by taking on another project. I don't want to say too much about it here, other than it's going to be a lot of fun and challenge me a lot.

The Wedding

2011-04-28T14:34:00.002-06:00

In case you have been asleep for the last few months you will probably know that tomorrow is the Royal wedding. I'm very excited about it, it's nice to see some happy things in the news and not all doom and gloom. I want to see the dress and the dresses others are wearing, all the hats and everyone dressed up, the crowds. The whole thing.

That's why i'm a little sad that the wedding is so early, realistically if i want to watch the wedding i would need to get up at 3am. Maybe even 2am. I really want to see everything and watch all the pomp and circumstance, so the plan is to record it all. Go to bed early, get up at 3am and watch the recording, which with adverts will mean i will catch up pretty quick!

That's the plan anyway we will see how it goes. If i happen to see you tomorrow i apologise in advance for the grumpy ness and the lack of sleep but it will totally be worth it!

Easter Things.

2011-04-24T19:25:00.003-06:00

Happy Easter to you all. I hope you had a fun day. We awoke early had an Easter egg hunt at 7am then homemade pancakes for breakfast before munching on some of those chocolate eggs some of you sent! I took the kids out for a walk to the lake, then we all headed to the park for a family picnic the traditional rolling of eggs and then after playing some footie!

Just a thought for tomorrow. pop out and grab some of those egg dying kits while they are dirt cheap. Dying eggs is such fun for kids and so inexpensive to do why not buy a few extra kits and use them during the summer. Or even better keep those plastic eggs in a safe place and have a summer egg hunt, just maybe not candy inside. I have put goldfish, raisins, nuts, beads, marbles all sorts of things in for them in the past.

Family Photo's

2011-04-12T10:54:00.007-06:00

A few of our family photo's from the photographer. The rest are on Facebook, if you can't access them let me know.

A video from back home

2011-04-05T19:43:00.004-06:00

A friend sent this on to me, not only does it show of the skill of this cyclist, but the beautiful country we come from. Made my day.

Spring Cleaning.

2011-04-04T17:22:00.002-06:00

Well the boys have been out of town for a few days, and so us girls have been hard at work spring cleaning. The first step was removing the changing table for the house. That thing was huge and had little storage, it was great for changing babies on, but now the kids are bigger it's not necessary, so out it went and was replaced by a chest of drawers we had downstairs.

the next big step was cleaning up the toys, i really didn't throw out that many just re organised their storage. Doing this and with extra room after removing the changing table, finally we have been able to remove all toys from the front room. This is going to be a huge surprise for my husband when he gets home tonight, it's something he has wanted for a long time, i wasn't sure i could get them all to fit in the two bedrooms, so i haven't mentioned it to him, but i was successful and apart from a basket of books every single kids toy is in their bedrooms (except for the Lego downstairs).

We got some other things done too, including carpet cleaning, making room for an office desk for hubby in the basement, sorting all the board games out and cleaning one of the sofa's with the cleaning machine. The girls also managed a whole bunch of girlie things including painting nails, a pyjama party, making bread and cakes, braiding hair etc etc...

I hope the boys come home and like the changes. Particularly the front room. Either way we can't wait to have them home, the girl has asked me about 100 times today if we are leaving for the airport yet!

North bound

2011-03-31T20:45:00.002-06:00

Well, the boys are out of town this weekend they are in Phoenix, but don't worry the girls will be having a few days way soon. My Dad is coming over at the start of May and heading to Montana for three weeks for a cycling holiday. His cycling route finishes in West Yellowstone so the Girl and I are going to be heading up there to join him for a few days touring Yellowstone NP and Teton NP.

I am excited to head back up to that area. Hubby and I went up there in 2002 for a few days, i really loved it. It will be nice to revisit the area and see some of the sights and to be able to spend some time with my dad. He has talked about going to that area for a long time and I am excited that i will be able to help support him cycling around the area and let him drive around some of the sights too. I wish i could take the boys too, but it's not possible this time but i hope the girl will be old enough to appreciate the beauty of the area. I am also hoping to be able to see my first moose. I have wanted and tried to see one for many years, but yet to succeed. Fingers crossed.

animals.

2011-03-25T11:56:00.003-06:00

So i am looking to the spring and summer months. I really want to try some sort of animal "experiment" with the kids, like an ant farm or butterflies. I've seen Ladybugs and then there are those bizarre sea shrimp things that Katie and Stephanie have. I am sure there are others out there too. Anyone tried anything like this with their kids? Any suggestions or tips. It has to be something we can leave for a few days at a time as we have several weekends we will be away. I'd love to hear all your thoughts and suggestions......HELP!

Washing on a schedule?

2011-03-23T18:44:00.002-06:00

you know keeping up with all our family washing is bad enough, "we" take part in a lot of sports and activities and there is always a pile of washing to do, the problem now is that all of a sudden a lot of the kids clothes need to be ready for certain day - football tops, shin guards, scout uniforms etc. Things cant just be thrown in the basket anymore they have to go straight down stairs otherwise they get lost in with all the other things and next thing you know it is Wednesday again and your frantically searching through a basket or in the wardrobe trying to find a certain shirt!

At the end of the day, whether we are searching for things or not the kids are enrolled in a lot of activities right now and are having a great time with them all.

Earth hour

2011-03-21T19:47:00.004-06:00

This Saturday is Earth hour. Please join me and my family and the millions of others around the world by doing a little to help our earth and turn off your lights. There 128 countries taking part, thousands of cities, many iconic landmarks, all will be in the dark for one hour of more this Saturday, please join them.

It's that time of year

2011-03-15T20:00:00.003-06:00

Well it has finally come to spring time, well almost and that can mean only one thing in this family - FOOTBALL. Let the fun begin! Hubby has three games a week, the boy has two trainings plus a game and the girl has one game a week. That's if we don't have any make up games, here's hoping no games get cancelled. With all these games we have been stocking up, got two new chairs, sunscreen, ice packs, and have updated the medical kit. Looks like we are ready to go.

Thankfully i do not play as i have no idea how we'd fit it in!

Japan

2011-03-13T09:50:00.002-06:00

I feel i need to write a small something about the situation in Japan. This truly will be an event that will be remembered for decades by generations around the world. Dealing with just an Earthquake, or a Tsunami or the nuclear situation on it's own would be terrifying without having to deal with all three at once.

Who knows what lies ahead for this nation over the next few days and weeks and even years. There has been the odd story of hope, of the 65year old man being rescued after floating 10 miles out to sea on a roof (see below), of people being found under buildings alive. Lets hope for more positive things like these happening, of the nuclear situation calming down and of this nation slowly starting to be able to move forward.
My heart and prayers go out to this nation. This truly has been a reminder to the whole world, through all the unrest and fighting, through differences in religion, no matter what your point of view the only person in charge on this planet is mother nature and we should never forget that.

Oh i wish...

2011-03-12T10:49:00.003-07:00

Oh how i wish i could be in Edinburgh right now. Several months ago my brother won a silent auction, the prize being dinner at Edinburgh Castle. Tonight my Brother, Father, Mother, Step father and various other members of my family and some of his friends are meeting there to have drinks and dinner. I so wish i could be there with them, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. One of the disadvantages of living so far away.

I really hope they all have a fantastic time, i am sure the food and wine will be great as well as the banter. Enjoy yourselves.

Outside.

2011-03-02T15:49:00.005-07:00

Well the weather around here the last week has just been so nice. The sun has been out and playing outside has been a viable option for the kids. It has been all bubbles and chalk, playing with outdoor toys and running around. We've been to parks and on walks, flying kites and I even put the tent up yesterday so they could play in it.

It has been fantastic, we have all enjoyed the nice springlike weather. Yes more snow will come, March is our snowiest month, but slowly the days are growing longer, there is more light, the sun is higher int he sky and spring is slowly arriving. I can't wait.

There's an app for that.

2011-02-28T17:10:00.005-07:00

I know a lot of my readers have i-phones or smart phones. Like most people we have games on our phones, angry birds, puzzle games, kids games you name it. I'm always on the look out for something that is not only fun but also educational, especially for the boy.

Recently a friend told me about a great app that i absolutely love, it's fun and educational and the good news is the company that designed it has a couple of other apps and games. The app is called Stack the states, it's a great geography game testing knowledge of the US states. It has cute little states (see the picture below). It asks questions about state capitals, common nicknames, neighbouring states and all sorts of fun questions. Every time you win games you win a state and can progress towards winning all of the states.

There is also Stack the countries asking questions from around the world and rocket maths where you answer math questions and earn money to build a rocket.

Check them out, worth the money and the challenge. Thought I'd pass the info along.

The oscars

2011-02-27T17:50:00.005-07:00

I really like watching the Oscars (which are tonight) but i am not a fan of the actual trophy/award. Every time i look at it i keep thinking of Kryten of red dwarf. Particularly the head. I'm not sure why it just looks a bit weird to me. I've included pictures below what do you think?

Either way hoping the Kings Speech does well tonight.

Accident prone

2011-02-26T10:00:00.002-07:00

Well yesterday was accident day. In spectacular style our son went sliding up the hall into his hot wheels tack and rammed a piece into the corner of his eye. He is the luckiest kid ever. He has a black eye and a scratch on the outside but thankfully his actual eye is okay.

Earlier in the day i went outside and missed the step and went over my ankle. By the end of the day putting weight on it was awful. This morning it's not as bad thankfully which is just as well as hubby went to footie last night and strained his groin. He says the muscle went pop (ouch). so now we are both hobbling around the house.

Unfortunately we both hurt our right legs. So driving anywhere today could be interesting. Just hoping that there will be no more accidents today and that hubby and i can walk again soon :-)

A mini travel agency.

2011-02-23T16:54:00.003-07:00

You know we have done a lot of travelling, whether as a family or individuals which is why a lot of people ask us for advice on travelling. It's that time of year when a lot of people book up holidays and lately we have been running a little travel agency, helping people with routes to drive, where to go in Scotland and national park recommendations. As well as booking up things for our Las Vegas trip. It's been fun. I like planning this sort of thing and passing on all the information that we have so that others can have a good trip too. It makes us kind of jealous too, we really want to go to Glacier national park too and see all the beautiful sights.

Wherever you are planning your next holiday to, i hope you have a wonderful time and if you need any help let us know

Construction is done.

2011-02-20T09:33:00.002-07:00

A new look to things around here. It's nice to change things around every now and then. It's hard and as a friend put it "stressful" to change your template, you see things you like but they don't quite work, or the colours don't match up. It takes a little work to get things looking good. I tried lots of back grounds but i always go back to one of my favourite pictures. It has the beautiful Colorado mountains in the background as well as some thistles in the foreground. It really represents us as a family.

On a side note, for those who understand, i have tried to change this template for a long time but for some reason FireFox will not let me edit my template, i can only edit it on explorer. Any thoughts let me know. I hate how Microsoft dominates things. Anyway the main thing is i finally got it working, i hope you like the changes.

construction

2011-02-19T17:22:00.002-07:00

Trying out some new templates, so if things look funky, sorry, it will be looking good soon.

3 years on ...

2011-02-08T22:29:00.004-07:00

Three years ago today i started this blog. It was something i had thought about for a while. After the death of my Mother in law suddenly and my return to the USA I started writing as a way for our family and friends around the world to keep up with our family antics. I would chat to my family and friends on the phone, when i would hang up there would always be that story i didn't tell them, or that moment that i forgot to mention, it can be hard. I wanted a way for them all to keep up with us, so that when cool things happened yes they would hear about it on the phone, or in person, but for those i don't chat to as often or for the times i forgot there would be somewhere they could go and see what we were doing. To find out that our daughter was crawling, that our son had learned to swim; that my dog just threw up on the sofa; That i had built a huge castle cake or that my husband was an IRONMAN!

And so here i am 3 years on. When i started our daughter was merely a baby. I was up 4-6 times a night nursing her. Our Boy was in preschool. They have both grown up so much since then. Tonight i nostalgically read through some previous posts. It was fun seeing how they have grown, how our family life has grown over that time.

I hope whether you are, family or friend, or unknown, whether you live near or far, you will pop in every so often and see what we have been up to and I hope you have as much fun reading about all our antics as i do writing about them.

40 things to do in Denver when it's 40 below.

2011-02-01T18:54:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow is a "snow day" well actually we should be calling it a "bloody cold outside day". My son's school district has decided to close primarily due to school buses not starting in the cold temperatures which could result in kids being stranded at the bus stop. It seems a little lame really my son's school has maybe 20 kids who go by bus, but at the end of the day once they call the house saying no school there's not much you can do about it except wonder what to do with the kids!

Seen as it's was 40 below with wind chill, here's 40 ideas other than watching TV or Playing computer games to do with your kids tomorrow or any other snow day. (Or any regular day)

Wrap up warm and go outside. Even for a small amount of time.
Bake. Make cookies. There are lots of simple recipes for kids to follow.
potato painting
Make paper bag puppets.
Painting.
Give them their bath during the day.
Have a sleep over, bring the mattresses into the front room, stay in your pj's and have fun.
Go on demand and look up the fitness section they have a whole kids area. My kids love the yoga section.
Fold some paper in half, staple it and get them to create a book. Older kids can write and draw, younger kids can use crayons and stickers.
Have them write letters or cards to the grandparents.
a - z games, get them to find things around the house starting with each letter of the alphabet. Or they can write a list if older.
Go online and find some educational games - maths games, geography games, spelling games, there's lots out there.
Create a science experiment again research online there are lots of easy ones out there.
Play some board games.
Teach them an easy card game.
Get them helping out with chores - washing dishes, sweeping, etc
Skype or call some family members.
Read some books.
Have a fashion show - get the kids dressed up and walk the run way.
Have a puppet show.
For a lot of kids it will be the 100th day at school - get them to measure out 100 of different things, choc chips, goldfish, pasta, Lego, crayons.
If you have a bird feeder in your garden take note of all the different types you see and the numbers. IF they are old enough they can create graphs or charts from the data.
If you have Lego get them to build the highest tower they can in 5 minutes, or build a bridge, car, boat, plane, house, what ever works. Have a race with the cars.
Create a home movie - or get them to reenact a film they know.
Look at old family photo's. Dig out your baby pictures, or old pictures of your parents, siblings, wedding photo's, school pictures.
Cup staking.
Do some scrap booking.
Build a giant indoor fort. Use the sofa's blankets, duvets the whole lot.
Have a treasure hunt, or a scavenger hunt. If they can't read print out pictures of what to find or where to go.
Turn on music and Dance, play musical statues, teach them silly dances.
Have a tea party.
Help them plan your spring break or summer holiday - were of to Vegas today we researched kid things to do found an aquarium, cool parks to take kids too etc.
Have them create a Menu for dinner, set the table, let them help cook. Make place cards. You can even go on research napkin folding if your keen!
If you have them make a line of dominoes to knock down. try spirals, triangles.
Hide and seek - make sure to set boundaries if you need them like no going in the basement ( i mention this after personal experience!)
Bowling, find a ball and things to knock down - bottles, blocks you name it.
pretend play - pretend to be animals, pretend to be different people, pretend to go to different places like on safari, to the jungle, to the grand canyon.
It's little gym time. warm up tip toe around, bear walk, tumble, stand on one leg, find a 2x4 and use it as a balance beam. Sing a song and warm down at the end.
Re-organise furniture. I often reorganise the front room furniture on cold days. The kids like it too. We move the sofa's hoover underneath, tidy up the toys, they love it.
Get them to search through their toys and clothes and sort out things to take to charities. You can use the weather to explain that some kids need clothes to stay warm to encourage them to give away.

What ever you do stay warm and have fun.

I look forward to your questions.

2011-01-31T15:32:00.002-07:00

Just in case you have ever wondered what's the difference between the UK, British Isles, Great Britain etc etc, my good friend over at Eat Play Love just shared this link with me. Hope it explains everything and a whole lot more.

Vegas Anyone?

2011-01-17T14:44:00.002-07:00

I'm not totally sure when it all started, but for nearly ten years there has been talk of us having a 10 year anniversary reunion in VEGAS. I am not sure why Vegas, it's not every one's cup of tea, but i guess at the time at a wedding the sound of "Vegas in Ten years" sounded good, that and the thought of going to the hoover damn, grand canyon and death valley too.

So last weekend my Brother and i got chatting and fixed a date. It's official everyone, we will be meeting in Vegas in June. So here is our open invitation to all our friends and family, whether you were at our wedding or have gotten to know us since then, if you are interested in joining us please let us know and i can send you the details. So far we have several interested parties, including my Brother and a few friends.

Some of the group will have kids with them, including us, some will not, some will spend all the time in the spa, some will want to see the sights, some will have been before, some will have not and some maybe spending more time and money in the casino's than others, but the whole idea is to all at least meet up, enjoy ourselves and to help us celebrate. We hope some of you can make it!

woodpeckers

2011-01-15T16:07:00.002-07:00

Our bird feeders have been attracting woodpeckers, 3 today. Very cool.

Transiberian orchestra.

2011-01-11T19:35:00.002-07:00

Months ago i hear a radio advert for the Trans Siberian orchestra. With my Dad planning to come to town i thought i might look into taking him along to see the show. He's a big classical music lover and i have liked the music that i had heard on the radio, I thought it would be a cool thing to do. Then things got busy, we went to phoenix for the Ironman, etc etc and next thing i know my Dad is here and it is Christmas.

One morning just before Christmas, Hubby tells me he has bought my Dad and I tickets to see the show as a Christmas gift. I was ecstatic. It had been ages since i had been to a concert. I wasn't sure what my Dad would really think, i knew the music was a mixture between classical an rock. I just hoped he'd enjoy it. So, that afternoon we headed off to the show. We parked and headed in to the great seats Hubby had got us, we were on the main floor, near some of the mini stages and the control area. We had literally no idea what to expect, other than to hear good music. What we had not anticipated was all the lasers, fire and fireworks. Even thinking about it now it blows my mind away. It was an amazing show, something that i can quite honestly not describe to you in words. The artists were running around our seats, their were fireballs going off right next to us. The lasers were out of this world, something you'd never see anywhere else. It would blow your mind. If you have seen the show i am sure you will know what i mean, if you haven't perhaps this small video clip will give you some insight. The video was from the actual show we were at. We were sitting just below one of the two stages that come down from the ceiling, the one on the right. Right next to the stage with all the fireballs. Those two sentences alone should peak your interest!

My Dad and I had a fantastic time. It was truly an amazing show and the seats we had made it even more so. I would absolutely go and see it again. The artists gave 100 % to their show, with maximum thought given to the audience. It was by far one of the most memorable shows I've ever seen.

On a side note when i got home my brother asked to see pictures. I had taken one in the whole two hour concert. I'm hoping this video will explain why!

Vegetables anyone?

2011-01-11T12:46:00.002-07:00

It's the new year, time to stop eating all those rich foods from over the holidays and get back to reality. Time to eat smaller meals and to eat more fruit and veg which may have been cut back over the holidays. The hard part of this thought for me is inspiring my kids to eat the veggies. Our daughter is not a big eater although she will eat most things, just small amounts. Our son on the other hand is a picky eater. Inspiring him to eat vegetables is hard work. When he was a toddler he would eat everything but over time he has become really picky.

Which brings me to this great idea, I first heard about their book through the MOMS Club when they contacted us wanting to talk about healthy eating for kids. Their book is excellent, it's inexpensive, and it has many wonderful ideas for encouraging your kids to eat more healthily and to have fun in the kitchen. Inside their book they have a bingo sheet with 24 different fruits and veggies. The idea is to try each fruit or veggie and then cross them off. If they cross out a line they get a reward and if they cross them all out they get an extra reward. Some of them are harder to find than others an some are probably things your kids have tried before.

My kids started theirs last year and so far have done 8 or 9 squares, with more squares tonight. So far there have been a couple that they have thought were good and a few they really didn't like but the main things is they tried them and even if at the end they only like one extra thing it will progress in the right direction.

So even if your kids love most fruits and veggies or are picky eaters like one of mine, have some fun and check this page out, or even better check out their book, but most importantly encourage your kids to eat healthily and to have fun in the kitchen.

Birds

2011-01-07T09:11:00.003-07:00

A quick post on all the dead birds. I am not sure if you have heard about this, but 3000 birds were found dead in Arkansas at the start of the year, then on the 5th and other 500 found in the neighbouring state of Louisiana. There have also been reports of dead birds as far away as Sweden.

It's all started a bunch of conspiracy theories, the two states concerned are big religious states and there are theories of a sign from god and the start of the end of the world. Along with UFO sights claiming alien activity!

Autopsies have been carried out and chemical analysis, answers to which will come at the end of the month. More realistic theories include being hit by lightening or hail, or there was some sort of chemical release. What is worrying is that if it was a chemical release it could continue for a whole month before we know. Also interesting is the fact that only certain birds have been infected.

Whatever the explanation, it has been very disturbing to watch the pictures and video coming from these areas with streets strewn with dead birds.

Positive thinking

2011-01-04T15:16:00.002-07:00

I'm pushing for more positive thinking. Lets be optimistic people. It's something that seems to disappear around this time of year; it's winter; it's cold outside and dark; Cabin fever sets in; It's after all the holidays and excitement and reality settles in. Many people are trying to loose a few pounds, trying to pay bills and save some money. Many people also set very unrealistic goals for them selves which brings around negativity.

Now i am not saying i am huge on the optimistic front some times, but my goal for this year is to be more optimistic. To look at each situation and no matter how bad find 3 good things about it. I am doing this partly for myself and partly for a friend, to help support her in her quest to be more positive. I hope you will join us.

Happy New year

2011-01-01T09:25:00.003-07:00

The new year a time to reflect on the year past and the future. Yes i haven't posted in 10 days, but i had good reason, with my Dad and Brother here i wanted to just enjoy the moment. They had a busy time while they were here including a trip to Children's hospital, xrays, shopping, putting lights on the roof, a 7th birthday party, bowling,skiing, building a whole k'nex roller coaster, going for walks, playing games, two of us went to see the transiberian orchestra, all the eating and drinking, catching up an just generally spending time together. Not forgetting Christmas and my Son's birthday! On Christmas Eve we all went shopping together for each other in the same shop. On the day we had an early rise and a wonderful day. We were all very lucky to get such great gifts and to be happy and healthy and to have a bountiful meal.

2010 was an interesting year for us as a family, we have had a lot of visitors, which has been fantastic. The big event for us was Dave completing his Ironman an all the training that accompanied that. It was a huge part of our lives for a good part of the year. It was very hard at times and also very inspiring. We had some sad news as well, we lost a close friend at the start of the year. She was such a wonderful person, She would light up any room that she went in with her long red hair and her wonderful smile. I think of her often. We also had a close family friend diagnosed with brain cancer. She had surgery and was recovering well, but recently has been having seizures. They are not sure what is going on. It has been a worrying time for us, and especially for my Dad. Here's hoping 2011 brings good news.

There have been other stories from 2010, some of which i have written about here and some i have kept to myself, but overall lots of fun memories. So, onto 2011. Lots of big events for next year....

It's our ten year wedding anniversary in June, we are hoping to have a ten year reunion party in June, for anyone interested!
In July Dave and i will have been together for 15 years.
In April my Dad turns 65.
In August Dave turns 40.
In October my Mum and Stan celebrate their silver wedding anniversary.
The kids will turn 4 and 8.
The girl will be starting preschool.
Hopefully there will be no more nappies (hopefully sometime really soon!)
There will be more triathlon training too as hubby has signed up for a half Ironman.

So lots of cool things to come. I hope you all have a good 2011, live life to the full and enjoy every moment. All the best.

birthday boy

2010-12-21T11:46:00.003-07:00

Happy birthday to our wonederful son, can't believe he is 7! We got up extra early this morning, 5am, had pancakes and then came home to open presents. Since then we have been building all things lego, we now have a lego train set, track and train station in our basement! No major plans for the rest of the day other than building a 900 piece roller coaster.

Dr's and Dentists.

2010-12-17T09:23:00.003-07:00

Well with both the kids birthdays it's that time of year for visits to the Dr and Dentist. Last week the girl went to the Dr an to our total amazement was on the chart for both height and weight, in fact she was in the 17th percentile for weight. This is a minor miracle as she has literally never been on the chart EVER! After years of being told to give her things to put weight on, and totally ignoring their advice, our patience has finally paid off, she is on the charts now and hopefully will stay there. I left the office dancing!

We also had a trip to the dentist for both the kids, he's a family friend an their office does such a great job, the girl had never been before so we were worried how she'd get on going back into the office on her own, but she did fantastic, we're very proud of her. "D" has been many times and was excited to see if he was going to loose a tooth anytime soon, no joy I'm afraid son, but it will happen one day.

An extra clown is joining us.

2010-12-16T07:13:00.003-07:00

Had an excellent night out last night, and now we are currently sitting at the kitchen table making signs for my brothers arrival this afternoon. The kids are super excited and so am I. We saw each other for a few days last year an a couple of days the year before, but this will be the first time in nearly 4 years we will have time together. We are all looking forward to seeing him and to having a fun Christmas time. to the airport we go.....

those christmas signs ...

2010-12-13T12:25:00.001-07:00

This time last week i have to be honest, it may have been December but it just didn't feel like Christmas time. The UK had lots of snow, i had a lot of my shopping done, there were decorations everywhere, and yet something was missing. Maybe it was the fact it was nearly 70F outside an sunny....

This week is a different story. It's still warm around here, but it's beginning to feel like Christmas. We have got all our cards written and sent, got our tree and got it decorate last night. The decorations are up, my shopping is almost done, and my family will be here soon. The other thing that make me think of Christmas is the baking, we have our cake and the mincemeat pies, plus a lot of other things going on. All those Christmas smells of ginger an spice hanging in the air make it very Christmas like.

Where ever you are and what ever you plans are i hope it's starting to feel like Christmas with you.

Shopping.

2010-12-10T15:37:00.002-07:00

This is a post i have done before, but it's one i like to always write around this time of year.....

What do you want for Christmas? remember last year, did you get the gifts you want? or did you land up with lots of weird things or a bunch of gift cards that you still haven't quite used? what about your kids, if you have any, did grandma buy the right thing; Did your brother go toy crazy? were the toys all inappropriate for your child? Or really loud?

A lot of the time, and i am sure many others are the same, my whole family asks me what to get for all 4 of us. To be honest its hard enough coming up with ideas for me let alone 3 other people for Christmas, and lets not forget we also have two birthdays around this time. That's why many years ago i got myself a wish list on Amazon. Now throughout the year if i see something i might like i add it to my list. Then once it comes to my birthday or Christmas i glance over the list make sure i haven't bought any of them, or i still want them and then let my family shop from the list. Not everyone does, sometimes, they will get ideas and buy other stuff, or buy it from say Target instead of Amazon, but the idea is to have a list, with ideas and suggestions.

My list was such a success that original year that we all have lists. Hubby has his own account and the kids are tagged onto my account. As we go through the year i add ideas to the list, toys we have played with at other houses or have seen while out shopping. Clothes, books anything that is appropriate for them. It has been fantastic and my family love it too, they know what toys to get; if there are duplicates the return policy is fantastic; nearly all gifts can be wrapped, and most of them ship for free.

And so as i do every year i thought i would pass this shopping idea onto my readers, i know it maybe a little late for this year, but perhaps not. I hope it will work for some of you. It doesn't have to be amazon i know many other companies have lists, but they do have a huge stock with lots of options. Either way happy shopping and Merry Christmas when it comes!

Early release

2010-12-08T07:44:00.002-07:00

Today we have early release at my son's school. We have 4 of these random days through out the year. I am slightly confused by this concept. Now at other schools it's a weekly thing so every Wednesday say is early release, and i understand that concept, what i don't get is 4 random days, on in September one just before Christmas, one in February and one in May. Why not bunch them together say the last week before Christmas holidays. In my case it is not a problem, but if you work surely organising child care for four random days makes things an organisational nightmare.

These days are so random that i have no information on when he actually gets released. i had to speak to several friends before i found out. It all just seems really unorganised. Which is surprising as every school in our district is doing it, and Jeff co is the a pretty big school district!

Anyway that's my rant for the day. My son will be home before 1 pm and we can have a fun afternoon.

On a side note I cleaned the carpet in the front room yesterday. Took me and "I" all day but it looks bloody fantastic now!!

It's been a whole week where have you been???

2010-12-07T10:00:00.002-07:00

Well we are back into life at home and a routine. The boy is back at school, Hubby is back at work and the girl and I have been tackling everything Christmas.

printed off 100 photo's for cards.
We've written all our cards.
wrapped all the overseas gifts.
we've been online and made calendars
we've bought regular calendars.
we made a Christmas wreath.
bought gifts for a child through a local charity.
I have finished about 95% of our shopping.
we've been to numerous Post Offices.
written numerous custom forms.
and done several Christmas crafts.
finally got caught up with all the washing from our trip.
we also drew some rainbows.

We have not yet decorated. In our house we do not decorate till 12 days before Christmas, or there about, so the tree and everything will go up this weekend and that's pretty much been it. It doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me it was plenty. I am just grateful that the weather has cooperated. For those of you in the US go on the BBC website and check out the weather they have been having. It's been like a really bad Colorado storm, but with now infrastructure to clear the roads or to deal with it. So many of our family and friends are snowed in. Even in urban areas. They have had several feet of snow and the weather has been bad for nearly two weeks now. Temps are freezing -12C (9F) Last night one of my friends took 10 hours to get home. Another slept on a bus on the motorway (interstate). For all of you in the Europe reading this please stay warm and safe and i hope things get better soon.

The life of an ironmans family

2010-11-29T17:03:00.004-07:00

5am it's race day i get up and get everything ready for race day.

5.30 wake kids and get them dressed and head to the race venue

6.15 after being lost, nearly crashing car and finding a parking spot we get out and head to the transition area.

6.30 - 6.45 scan the 2,700 participants for my husband - FAIL head to swim area

7 watch the racers leave. sit down and eat breakfast, text, FB and twitter to two accounts. then queue for toilets.

8.30 watch my husband exit the water. Take photo's and then tweet, text and FB (T,T and FB). Thank god he is still alive as it was so COLD!

8.45 watch hubby leave transition area and head out on bike. (T,T and FB)

8-45 - 3.00 move the car and stand at the side of the road cheering husband 5 times. in between we each lunch and shop and get lost 2 more times. (T,T and FB many times)

3.30 watch hubby return from the windiest bike ride ever. I am so proud as i know he has 8 hrs to finish the run which should be great. (T,T and FB)

3.45 Hubby heads out on the run. we find our friend Ray and then head to the bridge, which involves much more climbing and crossing of bike routes and running routes than i had expected.

4.00 - 9 pm stand on the side of a bridge waiting for hubby to cross three times. Take photo's. Daughter falls asleep in stroller boy falls a sleep on the ground. all while it spits with rain for hours. All that matters is we motivate daddy to keep going. only a few more miles now. (T,T and FB many times)

9.15 we head to the bleachers/stands and the finish line. i find a good spot and carry the girl as she sleeps, i sit down and the boy falls asleep on my other arm, somewhere out there my husband is still running. Ray is out on the course trying to find him and cheer.

10.45 - My husband is an official Ironman. we are so proud, i woke both the kids just before he crossed the line. we rush to the end and find him.

11 i head to get his time - he can barely take it in 15hrs and 45 mins. Ray goes to collect his bike while we look after our ironman.

12.00 we arrive back to Lauren and ray's and put the kids to bed then head to bed ourselves after some food.

Monday - my husband has 5 hrs sleep and has insomnia! we have the breakfast of champions and head off to buy some memorabilia and post pictures. Walking is slow! At the arena there are many people hobbling and walking slow. everyone is wearing their hats proudly and congratulating each other. It is such an inspirational thing to see.

Hubby will be writing his own post on the race and his day sometime soon, for those who read it.

My son has super cool teeth!

2010-11-29T16:45:00.002-07:00

My son teethed as a baby for months and finally at 13 months we got our first tooth. for those with out kids, or for those who have forgotten, this is pretty late in the game. Most kids have their first tooth by 5-12 months (according to dental websites). Once the first tooth arrived, pretty much every bloody tooth arrived soon after!

6 years on and we are at the other end of the scale, most kids loose their first tooth at around 5-6 years old (again according to dental websites). My son is approaching 7, and he has lost no teeth. This is a fact that frustrates him a lot, most of the people in his class have lost at least one or they have a wobbly tooth. All he wants for Christmas is to loose a tooth so the tooth fairy will come.

I on the other hand am rejoicing, the longer those adult teeth stay hidden the better I say. that's why i think he has such super cool teeth, I'd much rather have him keep the baby teeth to nearly 8 than loose them at 5. In the long run proper dental hygiene is the key for longevity, but for now his dentist thinks another 6 months.....

on a side note my biggest worry at the time scale that we are on is that he'll discover the truth about the tooth fairy before he's even lost any teeth, that would make me so sad.

Happy Birthday time!

2010-11-27T12:06:00.002-07:00

Happy birthday to our little girl hard to believe she is three today.

Ironman

2010-11-24T15:15:00.001-07:00

My husband is an Ironman, we are so very proud, we drove home yesterday and are busy unpacking, preparing or thanksgiving and the girls birthday so i will blog about the event tomorrow, but or now we are so very proud o him, he did so well, a real inspiration.

Ironman central

2010-11-19T21:58:00.003-07:00

Well we are in Phoenix and the ironman is 2 days away. I have been busy keeping the kids entertained and have been doing some shopping at Sprinkles, H and M and of course Ikea. The last couple of days have been all ironman, and the next few will be too.

Yesterday we went along for the packet pick up, roads were already closed, 4 days before the event. There were a lot of very thin and very fit people. Dave picked up his number and packet. Got his body markings done too - he's number 890! The paint the numbers on you and also your age. It was nice to see where things will be centered. It was a very busy area, it will be a logistical nightmare on the day i feel.

We had to collect some last minute items today and then tonight we went along to the banquet and compulsory meeting. It was very cool sitting there watching 2500 people who are about to compete. They brought up the oldest and youngest competitors, mother daughter, father son and husband and wife pairs. They asked for those who had lost weight, 6 people out of the 2500 had lost more than 50 lbs, including my hubby, i was so very proud. Out of the 6 one had lost 110 lbs, amazing.

There were inspirational stories, funny stories including when the mayor got a phone call saying the damn had broken and was empty - 90 days ago! He got it fixed for this event. Plus good news for the kids, the race director has given them permission to stay up past midnight! So only two days to go. It looks like it will be cold on Sunday now. Maybe even raining. I may not post again till after the event, but you can watch the event on www.ironmanlive.com again, he's number 890. I will also be posting details on twitter that day for those on there you can follow him at clydeuktoiron

For now, i will wish my husband luck, take it one stage at a time. We know you can do this. We will be there all day supporting you. The kids are beyond themselves excited to watch you. I can not wait to see you cross that finish line and accomplish your goal. The kids and I will be there with you as you start ans we will be there to meet you at the end.

less than a week to go

2010-11-15T09:49:00.002-07:00

Well folks less than a week to go till Dave's Ironman. Please support him but giving to a fantastic cause. We can't wait to see how well he does and be there to support him. Good luck honey xx

Party time

2010-11-09T10:26:00.005-07:00

Back in September we decided it would be nice for our little princess to have a birthday party. So we booked a party at the little gym. We have had every birthday party there except 3. They pretty much help us out in every way possible, they have a party room, they do the clean up and most of all my kids just love it. All the kids love it.

Sunday was the day of the party, for the last 3 months every day my daughter has asked was her party today, finally i could say yes it is. We went out an bought a new party dressed and got everything ready including the cake (see post below).

Everyone had a wonderful time. All the party goers were girls except one little boy who did so well. Of course "D" was also there and he had a friend who came to play as well. Here's a couple of pictures of the event. can't believe our little girl turns three soon.

The candy cake

2010-11-09T10:17:00.002-07:00

6 weeks ago i looked through a cake book with the kids and they loved the castle cake - i kept looking at it thinking could i do this? I researched, i mumbled, i panicked, then eventually i ordered the box of towers and turrets, i was committed!

When the box appeared i read the instructions from start to finish, about 10 times, panicked some more and then placed the box aside for the week of the party.

Thursday i started reading the booklet again then it was time to start. I frosted the towers, hand placed around 1000 pieces of flowers, dots and m and m's. I bought some frosting and made the rest. I made a lot of cake. I used dowels to support it and finally on Saturday night it was finished.

I was frightened to construct the thing totally till we got to the party room, in case i damaged anything, so I was literally finishing constructing the cake as people arrived. So here it is. It wasn't as difficult as i thought it would be, but it took many hours. Everyone loved it, I loved it and most of my Daughter loved it.

Now to plan the cake for the boys birthday party! A Dragon castle......

The beach

2010-11-07T07:56:00.002-07:00

Where we stay is about as far away from the the sea/ocean as you can get. Coming from a place where the water was always near by i miss it a lot, The walking on the beach, the listening to the waves, the sea-salt smell, the breeze, the seagulls the whole lot.

That's why i have found the next best thing, Standley lake. At the moment the water is so low that it has created a huge beach all the way around it. I have been taking the kids out there every weekend for a walk there. It truly is beautiful. If you live near by you should check it out, what with the beautiful warm days we have been having, and the mountains in the back ground it, it's a great place to take the kids to burn of energy, go for a picnic, or like us for an afternoon walk.

cake, cake and more cake

2010-11-04T11:47:00.003-06:00

So we had the football cake last week, Christmas cake on Monday and now it is time to start the castle cake. I found some great cake decorations instead of sweets to limit the amount and cost and to cut down on the weight.

So far I have already made the tops for the towers, covered them in icing and dipped in sugar. They were topped with hollowed out sweets. Only going for 8 towers, 12 seemed a lot, mind you so does 8. I have the door and windows also done, just iced them and added decorations. I also did the base today, covered in foil then green icing with green coconut grass on top (left over from football cake).

Tomorrow i will make the cakes (one 8" and one 6") and will cover them in pink and orange frosting. and place on the base, with dowels. I have never made a cake with dowels in it. I am freaking out about that part. I will need to put icing on the towers tomorrow also so that it will set.

Saturday, is construction day. Add the towers, windows, pipe around the edges and add the sweets on. I am going to leave some of it off for Sunday so as to avoid damages.

The big thing for me is getting it there. Some of the pieces will need to stay off until we get there, the rest will be on my lap, my husband driving at 20 mph the whole time!

This thing is taking a lot of time and money, although quite a bit of it i will be able to re-use for the boys castle cake, which is more complicated...... what on earth was i thinking!

it only takes 3 1/2 hrs

2010-11-01T14:44:00.003-06:00

So last week i decide it was time to make the Christmas cake. Got the book out, bought the ingredients only problem was finding time to make it. It probably takes a 1/2 hour to mix and then 31/2 hours to cook, then another hour to cool down. There was so much going on what with Halloween and training, school parties, gym classes, oh and making the cake for the footie game. Finally today, was the day. The girl helped me, we mixed the basic cake mix, added in all sorts of fruits and nuts, then copious amounts of alcohol.

It just came out of the oven and it looks so good. Smells like a whisky distillery in the house, but with a fruity tang! pictures to follow.

It's halloween tomorrow

2010-10-30T19:50:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow as most of you know is Halloween, the kids are so excited, we have been carving and painting pumpkins, attending Halloween themed events and running around in costumes for weeks. Tomorrow is something else in my mind too, it is the start of the end of the year. I can count out events and dates, work out how many weeks to things, and look forward to all the cool things coming up. Its going to be a busy time, here's the basic plan for the rest of the year, happy Halloween to you all.

Halloween
6 days then Birthday party time for the girl.
6 more days and the dog goes in to kennels
next day we drive to phoenix
5 days there thenIRON MAN!
1 day for Dave to sleep then we drive home
one more day and then It's thanksgiving
black Friday
then the girls birthday.
three days and we open advent calendars
two weeks and my brother arrives
next day we kill my brother by making him play footie at altitude!
boys birthday party and my brother if he survives will maybe babysit!
two days then my Dad arrives
Boy's birthday
3 days then Christmas day
Boxing Day
next day my dad leaves
next day my brother leaves
2 more days and it's new years eve......!

Ironman time.

2010-10-28T19:51:00.004-06:00

As most of you know, next month, my husband is participating in an Ironman. That's a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle & a 26.2 mile run. As part of it, he is raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. If you'd like to sponsor him please click on this link. All donations for this wonderful cause gratefully appreciated.

Good luck Honey, we'll be there at the finish line waiting on you.

Cake

2010-10-24T09:16:00.004-06:00

So the other day when the boy was sick i decided to entertain him by looking up birthday cakes. With both kids birthdays coming up before Christmas a little planning wouldn't go amiss.

instantly my daughter saw this castle cake
It looks cute, the towers and turrets are a plastic set you can order on line. Then the boy saw this cake....
and so later that day i decided to buy the kit. WHAT WAS I THINKING! I'm hoping it won't be too difficult, the ratings were good, although some people had issues, fingers crossed i am not one of those people. I do not expect the cake to look like the ones above a simpler version would be fine. Anyone ever used then before????

Observations

2010-10-22T21:46:00.002-06:00

First off, boy was that tree rotten, since it's departure lots of the root has broken off, other bits are being eaten by ants? It makes me sad every time i turn the corner and see it gone, but i'd be even sadder if it fell on the house!
We have a mouse, and the bloody thing is eluding me. I have tried relentlessly every night to catch the blasted thing, but alas he escapes each time - I WILL CATCH YOU.
Wasps. suddenly we have a big wasp problem, the cold has come and they are getting grumpy, i moved the trap near where they are and now we have a bigger problem - Angry wasps. Hoping it will snow and they will go away soon!
The tree in the back yard has a lot of leaves to loose and i am not excited about picking them all up. don't get me wrong right now it looks beautiful, with all it's yellow and golden leaves, but soon enough all those will be in my garden....
Finally i hope it stays dry this weekend, with hubby reaching his max in training, i;m on my own and god help us if we are stuck indoors all weekend, hoping to go to the zoo or the beach at standley lake, maybe both if it cooperates.

Ironman....

2010-10-22T08:26:00.004-06:00

Today is October 22nd, less than a month now to hubby's Ironman (sorry to freak you out there honey). Finally after weeks of trying to get things sorted out he is finally signed up for it. He always had a spot there was just a technical glitch that was freaking me out, but good news it's all sorted, so time to try and get our trip planned.

Things are moving in the right direction, got the dog accommodation, have checked out hotel prices, totally horrifying prices, we may have to stay with friends for some nights, provided that snake is gone. I spoke to the school have to take the boy out for 7 days, his teacher was so wonderful about it, thank god. We are going to drive down, as we will be there for 9 days and hiring a car for that length of time plus the flights and all the luggage, including a bike etc, it's just not worth it, so we are driving. We have done it many, many times before, with both kids so shouldn't be too bad. Plus we can bring everything but the kitchen sink!

For the moment though, training is in full swing. He has his largest cycle, swim and run coming up, as well as some brick workouts before all the tapering begins (slowing down before the race). the amount of food and supplements being eaten at the weekend is scary! We are hoping this weekends cycle is uneventful, unlike this week as it's been an unsuccessful week of cycling and the pit crew (ie me and the kids in the car) has been used to it's full capacity. I have driven many miles to find him, to collect air canisters, to drop off a pump and to pick up lube. So hopefully Saturday will go well as he is gone for 6-7 hrs and cycling 100 miles - finding him if he breaks down will be much harder. Hoping all goes well for you honey!

On a side note if you are interested in triathlons, check out our friends new blog, she's a mother of 3, and is aiming to do a 1/2 ironman next year. Wishing her lots of luck.

Just like that and it was gone.

2010-10-13T13:22:00.002-06:00

We had to get the big tree in the front garden taken down today. We'd been thinking about it for a while. Once my Dad saw it last month, he was worried about it falling on the house, i was too, if it had fallen it would have been onto the house or car.

The tree guy gave me an offer last month and i thought about it, he came back today and took $50 of the offer if we got it done today, and so we said yes.

We are very sorry to loose the tree, loosing a big tree like that is such a shame, but it got very badly damaged in a spring storm a few years back and just never recovered. As our cousin pointed out the tree was beautiful in winter with the snow on it, and at it's finest it was gorgeous in the spring with all the new green leaves, but recently half the tree has been dead and finally we had to say goodbye. we'll miss you tree.

On a side note my son will be gutted, he didn't want it to come down and we did it while he was at school, sorry son.

A couple of observations

2010-10-12T21:23:00.002-06:00

First off i was out getting petrol today and right next to me was this mother, she was sitting in her car, window half down instructing her son how to use the petrol pump. Her son was maybe a couple years older than mine, that's right folks she had her 9 (approx) year pumping gas. She was happily sitting in her driver seat shouting instructions out the window, and to be honest not really paying attention. Thankfully they were finishing up, as i felt really uneasy. I really wanted to say something, although, you never quite know a situation, maybe she was disabled, but to be honest my underlying thought was what the hell was she thinking? and is this even legal.....?

My second thought of the day is about Halloween costumes. Maybe i just didn't see it before because i have always shopped in the Darth Vader/star wars/toy story section for my son, but OMG the costumes they have for girls are just awful. They are smutty, tacky and shocking. what happened to being a princess, a witch, or your favourite character?? They are everywhere, apart from a mini mouse costume and a couple of others the majority of choice at Target was awful. We shopped there Saturday and i had to chaperon my son around the costumes because i thought they were inappropriate for him to see. Some of these costumes were for ages 3-4 kids. Maybe i am just being old fashioned, i hope not.

Well that's me off my soap box now. You will be glad to hear that while the kid was getting petrol for his mother, my kids were in the back of the car fighting, just like brother and sister are suppose to. You will also be glad to here that this year we will be dressed as Darth Vader and a fairy princess!

Inspiration.

2010-10-11T08:35:00.004-06:00

Friday i looked after a friends kid. The two girls played happily most of the day, it was fantastic. At one point we went outside to draw with the chalk, it was then it happened, my child drew a person, not a circle, not some lines or dots, A PERSON. It was then i realised my baby girl is almost a preschooler. I almost wanted to shed tears, one in happiness that she took such a wonderful step forward, it was inspiring, and one because she's not a baby/toddler anymore.

It's happening in other ways too, her speech has improved, we actually said a proper letter "R" the other day, not a "w" sound. She is going to gym class on her own, something i thought might never happen. The list goes on...

Our boy is growing too, upwards! Recently he's been eating EVERYTHING, he went for a nap at the weekend, and seems to have grown about 4 inches. He got his first black eye the other day. He's a learning machine too, never fails to impress me with all the facts he knows. The other day at school he was asked to write down a sum that added to 10 - like 5+5= 10, having got one right the teacher asked him to write down another, so he wrote them all down 0+10 =10, 1+9 = 10..... 10 +0 =10. A very proud moment!

Sometimes as your kids change you don't see it, they grow an inch in height here and there, sneaking up on you. They learn things and you don't know how, this weekend i actually saw those changes right in front of me, it was beautiful, inspiring and wonderful I can't wait to see what's next.

an update

2010-10-02T13:45:00.002-06:00

For those of you who read my blog - a year in the life of our camera, I apologise. I have been slacking off posting. Today I have collected all the photo's together and have been updating, hopefully I will be back up to date by the end of the day. At the moment there are only photo's till the end of August.

If you haven't been read our camera blog before, we basically take one picture everyday for the first year of the camera's life. Well worth a visit to catch up on some cool family pictures.

extra clowns

2010-10-01T11:14:00.002-06:00

I got an e-mail today " ...get the clown suit ordered, I will be joining the circus" My brother is coming to visit for Christmas, YEAH. And my dad is coming back over to visit too. So we will have two extra clowns joining the circus this Christmas. Very excited.....

Enough sick people already.

2010-09-27T08:13:00.005-06:00

First hubby at the start of the month with his rash, resulting in a trip to ER. Then the girl vomiting everywhere all last weekend. Then last night the dog went out side just before bed, got stung/bitten not sure which, her eye's started swelling up and we landed up at the emergency vet. Several "kick ass" drugs later, the vets words not mine, she is much better, but drowsy. Not to mention the hubby has had flu like symptoms since Thursday. Just praying we can make it another few days into October without anything else happening.

On the bright side my dad is here on his visit hence the reason i haven't been on the computer, been spending time with him. David is in his element. Dad has been out cycling and walking, we took a trip to the mountains and today were headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. It's been a great visit so far.

168 Hrs Day 7

2010-09-21T22:24:00.000-06:00

woke up at 4.30 for no reason and couldn't sleep

7.00 girl wakes us up, not the boy but the girl(very rare). I snooze while Dave gets up. I then get up and we all rush through the school routine, boy colours in grandad's sign.

8 off to school

8.30 home and laze around start cleaning kitchen

8.58 realise i am suppose to be at a coffee morning in two minutes... Head off to coffee morning

11.30 Home, lunch, finish emptying dishwasher, hoover, clean bathroom, kids room's our bedroom and the front room. Clean the kitchen table which is a magnet for things!

12.30 hubby home from cycle, he then gets ready to go out swimming with friends. I check e-mail and do some MOMS club things.

1pm friend arrives and takes hubby away for lessons. I check Dad's flight, coming in late, just me and the boy going to airport. Locate baby DVDs for a mother in the MOMS club. Find bag of clothes i was suppose to take this morning. Pay some bills, try to phone my mother, constantly engaged. Text my brother who doesn't answer suspect they are chatting to each other.

1.30 check e-mail and FB, then get car ready to go to the cleaners, that's right i cleaned my car so that i could go to the cleaners! Came in and Hoovered the stairs.

2.00 off to cleaners. then pick boy up from school and home.

3.40 did the final bit of cleaning, boy did homework, girl builds a train track. Then i make dinner and check time of flight.

4.45 finish off dinner then we get in the car to go football training.

6.00 home briefly, drop of Dave and the girl, boy gets changed, pick up large sign and head to the airport. Flight says its coming in at 6.35 running really late... Boy reads out books in the car for homework.

6.50 arrive, drive through the cones into the short term car park even though they say its full, find 100 spaces. Abandon car. head to international arrivals. plane hasn't landed yet, or so it says!

7.40 waiting patiently, 163 people have come off the plane, according to the 6 year olds calculations. Then Dad comes through, wooo hooo

8.15 home, get boy to bed, make cup of tea and sit and chat. Dad manages to stay up past 10, usually people pass out way before that!

10.30 dad heads to bed, so check e-mail and FB organise a few things for tomorrow and head to bed, read a chapter of my book then sleep.

168 hrs Day 6

2010-09-20T22:28:00.000-06:00

7.15 awake and dress. make breakfast, then empty and refill dishwasher. make boys lunch, check e-mail and FB, girl finally gets up.

8 bus time

8.30 take girls temp. Still high. I think she now has an ear infection. Tidy up breakfast things and the kitchen then call Dr. Appointment at 2pm

9.15 call my Dad he is in the hotel next to the airport will be here tomorrow.

9.30 leave to go to bank, then donut shop then oil change.

10.15 at The Wave. Decided to get car washed and all shiny.

10.30 car needs new battery it is dead. grrr. Guy says it will take 10 minutes to get. Girl and i sit patiently waiting. I write agenda for next board meeting, pay bills on line, check e-mail and entertain girl. Girl and i get more inpatient. Mummy gets very angry at man and at manager.

12 pm battery finally turns up. I decide i do not have time for car wash (boo hoo) however the manager gives me a rain check for the best car wash they do, plus waxing and detailing. I take it.

12.30 home. so much for a quick trip out. Feed girl, who isn't hungry. Eat. Girl gets grumpy, mummy gives big hugs.

1.00 head down stairs scrub toilet and bathroom while girl plays. Fix TV - thanks Comcast!

1.30 off to DR. No ear infection she has roseola. Drive home Girl passes out finally, she naps.

2.30 with baby napping i tidy up the front room, except the tower of blocks, sort out washing then watch a cooking program.

3.50 Boy is home the girl gets up and i feed them a snack and they watch Timmy time. I go out and check yes i have an oil leak. Call company, get everyone in car and drive to have car reinspected. Boy reads his homework book in the car. thankfully all is okay and then we drive home again

4.30 start dinner. Clear table and set it. Check E-mail, write a little of this post, give dog meds.

5 Dinner.

5.30 Test boy on his spelling. decide it would be good to make a giant sign for my dads arrival tomorrow. find board, paper, glue and other necessary items.

6.00 Boy and i construct a huge sign (pictures later). We cut out letters and stick things down. Girl helps daddy with sprinklers.

6.30 start bath, and bedtime routine. write list for shopping, leave kids with Dave and head out to get much needed items...

7.30 unpack much needed items. Start washing, then watch being human and warehouse 13 with hubby. More washing.

10. Check e-mail write most of the rest of this post and have a bath. Good night...

168 hrs Day 5 (the longest day ever or was that yesterday!)

2010-09-19T11:56:00.004-06:00

12.15 sit with girl and try to console her. it's hard to explain to a 2 year old why they can't have a drink. No hubby yet a friend is giving him a lift home.

12.30 text a bitchy text to hubby to check if he is alive.

12.40 hubby is alive and home. Girl still awake, hubby pretty sober, i hand over the reigns and pass out.

middle of the night awake several times and check girl several times.

6.30 ish boy gets up fresh as a daisy and eager to do stuff. Dave gets up i Pass out.

8.45 get up. take girls temp still high. start to tidy up things, gather up washing. Have breakfast. Check e-mail and FB answer numerous texts.

9.30 Hubby decides to take boy to footie. Not keen on the idea, but once the girl stops crying and calms down it all works out. We watch Little Mermaid.

10 am once girl settled watching movie start to clean every surface the girl could have touched. Praying no one else will get this.

10.45 Decide i better get dressed. Start cleaning up all manner of things, bedrooms, bathroom, DVD's, 100 stuffed animals that once again landed up in the front room. Give dog her meds. Answer 10 texts!

12 pm Girl and i have a dance party "'cause tonight's gonna be a good night". Hubby calls he's on his way home. I say I'll make lunch. enter kitchen realise there are no clean dishes. call hubby back eat lunch out! Girl plays with baby doll, feeds it, changes it and all manner of things. Dog heads to bedroom in protest after girl throws a ball at her head. Girl on timeout. Dishwasher time...

12.40 boys home. I make myself lunch. Research making Cornish pasties, may make them for dinner. Sit down and chat with hubby then Alec calls so i chat to him. Watch Jets fly past.

1.40 Decide to take kids out in hope girl will fall asleep in car and so hubby can shower. Spend next 20 mins persuading them to get in the car

2pm Drive around Broomfield looking for trains and at air tankers, with no luck, this girl ain't sleeping. Realise boy has done no homework this weekend.

2.40 arrive home, get home work out, Sit with boy and read and then move to the kitchen to start making pastry (from scratch) while boy does sentences and girl sits glued to Daddy's knee watching the broncos (go Bronco's!)

3.30 pastry made start on filling (sneak in more veggies) and boy starts to make cookies. Make the pasties and finish off cookie dough. Put pasties in the oven. Do more reading with the boy. Check E-mail and FB. Tidy table and start setting it for dinner. Find a tin of beans to have with dinner. Cook beans and take out pasties to allow to cool, put in cookies.

5.00 Dinner. Girl has napped on Daddy's knee and is now in a horrible mood. Eventually she eats, then the boy eats. Hubby and I inhale ours! Tidy up some of the mess need to empty dishwasher to do the rest (Later i say...)

5.45 Decide we have had enough of whining, try to get girl ready for bed. Boy and I play a game of crack the code then we play hide and seek with my shoes! Boy builds tower bigger than himself! Girl goes to bed. Girl whines for a long time...

6.30 eventually persuade son that he needs to get ready for bed. Pj's on, he then spends 20 minutes doing teeth. The whole time i ignore him because at least he is actually doing his teeth without complaining.

6.50 girl still whining shout "tonight's gonna be a good good night" under the door.

7 Boy down, girl thinking about it, time to do some washing. Do a bit more cleaning of the basement, then hubby and I settle down to watch TV together

8.30 We Decide to tackle the DVD's downstairs. Takes a long time....

9.15 hubby still finishing, i come up stairs and tidy front room, then check e-mail and FB, play a silly game online, write this post then pass out at 10 pm......

168 hours, day 4

2010-09-18T14:45:00.005-06:00

7 30 ish ( not totally sure) got up, dressed and ready for the day. Breakfast. Check e-mail and FB. Then get boy ready for footie game. Once dressed we head out in car to the jeffco airport to look at 4 jets that arrived last night.

8.45 home pick up girl and Daddy and all manner of essentials and head to boys footie game. Bump into one of my passengers from last night - looked ROUGH!

10 home, hubby has shower and gets kilt on ready for the final day of the beer fest. I get kids occupied then make lunch for hubby to take with him. Chat to Dad he leaves Islay tomorrow on his way here....

10.50 in car and headed downtown. Locate large blue bear. Drop off hubby. Many cheers and comments due to the kilt...

11.20 park up downtown. Get kids ready. head out for a walk around down town and 16th street mall. Discover food court we use to go too is closed. so find somewhere else. Take kids on bus and to the chocolate factory then back to the car. walk back to car point out lots of buildings, the boy loves seeing the Denver mint.

1.30 leave downtown and drive home.

1.55 home, chat to Dad again about what to pack. let kids play with the Wii. Kids play with it for about 10 minutes get board and decide to play with bouncy balls then the Lego. Serve Ice lollies even though it's cooler outside. Discover we can't make it to a birthday party as we are at another one :-( Check other e-mail and FB.

3.00 Girl goes down hill rapidly. She was fine playing with a bouncy ball one minute and practically passed out the next. Take temp, realise thermometer is broken. get another one - 103.4F Look after girl till she falls asleep - boy is building power miners and watching Top Gear at the north pole with me.

4.00 speak to hubby, my best friend and my brother mostly about the beer festival and the Italian grand prix.

4.30 try to put girl to bed lasts about 5 minutes, then she wakens. Take temp again and decide we need to get a new thermometer and some more ibuprofen.

5 Make it to Walgreens. Shop. Take girls temp 99.9, great getting better. Boy complains he is hungry, stop to buy him dinner. Girl vomits, in her car seat and everywhere else in the car.

5.15 spend 30 mins in a car park with vomiting child cleaning car and car seat, entertaining 6 year old who is still hungry as i took away all food , consoling 2 year old and avoiding stares from passers by in the car park of a fast food chain.

6. return home. scrub the kids down. Son not happy about this. Into PJ's and in front room to watch a program while i scrub and disinfect the whole car.

6.30 put girl to bed. feed boy and i, although personally i am not hungry anymore. Boy then educates me on the tricks his new star wars skateboard can do. Boy and i play a game, Saturday is game night. then brush teeth and bed for boy. Chat to friend on east coast, she has had a similarly awful day.

7.45 check girls temp again - 101F. Check e-mail and FB then go downstairs to tackle all the washing from the vomit. Try to feed dog, no food, locate new bag, fill dog bin and feed dog. Dog very grateful.

8.15 Bath, clean bathroom, speak to hubby about how the hell he is going to get home tonight. Look at pile of dishes in kitchen and think screw it they can wait till tomorrow. Sit down and read my book for half an hour.

9.15 check watching again. then watch the rest of top gear and any mindless TV that takes my fancy. Write this post.

10.40 Girl has had little sleep she refuses to sleep till she gets a drink, so i gave her a sip about 20 mins ago, should have gone with my gut instinct as she vomited all over the bedroom.

11 doing more washing... Finish this post. Hoping Dave makes it home soon. Headed to bed, girl still awake wanting a drink.

168 hours - day 3

2010-09-17T23:07:00.000-06:00

6 something, woken by David, i go back to bed for more sleep

7.15 get dressed then get breakfast. Look out boys clothes for school photo's. Make his lunch and sort out homework folders, photo money and 10 minutes reading. get kids dressed and ready.

8 school bus time

8.30 Hubby's gone back to bed. Girl gets to watch Dora while i make hair respectable, sort out e-mail and FB. Tidy up breakfast things. read the mail from yesterday.

9 head to the bank, deposit cheques and get 20 $1 coins for the tooth fairy. Drop of beer tickets. Chat to friend. Hubby calls he's awake.

10.15 Hubby has shower then i head out to 2 Targets looking for a bike i saw on sale for $15. No luck though. Come home, make lunch for the three of us. Check e-mail, answer texts and get ready to drive downtown.

12.15 back on the road again. Realise 36 is backed up so will have to come home another way. Drop hubby off and then get lost twice in the Highlands neighbourhood trying to get to I-70. deal with 2 phone calls about the beer fest.

1 pm at Costco buying supplies for the beer fest tomorrow and some household things. renew membership. Buy a smoothie to share with girl

1.30 get lost in wheatridge/arvada

1.45 make it to ANOTHER target. find bike. Very kind stranger with kids distracts my kid while i sneak a large box into my trolley and cover with jacket. Pay for bike. occupy girl then sneak bike in a black bag and into the car. Celebrate!!

2.15 stop at french bakery for a treat.

2.45 make it home. leave large box in car in hope no one will notice and i can bring it in once they're in bed. unpack the other things. Girl plays with dolly's and makes pretend cookies. I clean up, empty and fill dishwasher, give dog meds, sort out beds, clean bathroom, hoover and a number of other jobs.

3.30 sit down for 5 mins and check e-mail, chat to friend who's kid has finally found a good DR before running to bus stop to get boy.

4 pm. Check school things and set kids up with a snack. then we set up the furniture in the front room like a train. Ever single stuffed animal in the house joins the train. I let kids play while i read mail and my book.

5 pm Dinner, after which we all sit down to watch part of the BBC life series about fish. Then it's into PJ's for the kids and after much persuasion BED!

7pm Gather up washing and head to basement. Spend 45mins tidying the bedroom again for my dad, putting away boxes, hoovering and making the bed.

8.15 Shower. Then check E-mail and FB. Then sit down to watch trashy TV.

9.30 clean out car. Get kids into car and head off.

10 wait on drunken Gentlemen. Watch numerous shady people on the street, including one drunk person getting in his car and driving. Get text hubby has lost 2 drunk people, sigh.

10.25 4 drunken gentlemen in car we head back home after discussion on which route i should take.

11 arrive at second friend home and pop into see the two wives for 2 secs and to let their husbands know we expect them to drive us one night!

11.15 kids in bed. Hubby and i chat then i pass out from exhaustion - hubby still chatting ( it think)

(wrote this post on Saturday morning...)

168 hours - day 2

2010-09-16T21:28:00.000-06:00

I know where a lot of my time will go the next 3 days, in the car!

7.00 get up make breakfast for me and kids, make school lunch. Am glad my back feels so much better.

7.30 try to persuade kids to get dressed. Ask about 50 times. Boy thankfully listens, girl, not so much. I check E-mail and FB. Another 50 tries and they both have clothes on. Brush boys hair, pack school bag and get dressed.

8 am Hubby leaves for a 6 hr cycle while I walk the boy to the school bus.

8.30 moved car seats around to accommodate drunken people this weekend.

8.31 realise pretty quickly i will need to clean inside of car. out comes a bucket of water, clothes and the hoover. Dog escapes and heads down street. Catch dog. Chat to neighbour then finally start. Girl spends this time washing the windows, which i re do, collecting pennies that mummy finds (about $1.50) and playing with every single button in the car.

9.30 come in, put pennies in piggy bank and give girl a snack, she plays with Lego while i phone varies people trying to see if anyone wants tickets to the beer fest. then i call my mother who had left a message. Have decided to put tickets on FB, but then i chat to another friend, her neighbour might like them.....

10.30 in the car off to the park to meet friends.

11.30 stop in at sonic for lunch. Chat to brother on phone, then head to Target, we have a nappy emergency. Notice they have many goods on sale, secretly buy when girl not looking, several toys for Christmas and birthdays coming up, and the nappies!

12.30 home, set up the girl with her new pack of chalk on the black board, while i hide gifts, tidy up the front room, collect up the washing for later and check out pictures of my cousins 40th online. Hoping hubby will be home soon so i can drive him downtown before the school pickup.

1 pm No sign of hubby, so set up girl with penguin video and set of to tackle the dishwasher while calling my Dad, he'll be here on Tuesday.

1.30 Hubby arrives home, make his lunch, help him get ready. Check e-mail. Find sharpies. Realise school fundraiser was due in yesterday 9oops). change the girls nappy. get girls shoes on. Tidy up lunch things. Write part of this post, as unlikely to remember it all at 10pm, wonder many times if i will i make it back in time to collect boy.

2.15 Get in car. Drive to office depot so hubby can buy a folder. Drive downtown and drop hubby at convention centre with the parting word from him of "woo hoo BEER!"

3 pm point out train to sleeping girl while trying to remember my way around downtown.

3.25 arrive home a lot earlier than expected. so park up at bus stop, read e-mail while girl sits in the front of the car like a big girl.

3.40 bus arrives, chat to a neighbour friend and exchange numbers in case i am late for bus tomorrow (much better plan!). Then drive to school age playgroup. Two friends turn up and we put the world to right while kids play.

4.45 leave park, drive to friends house to drop off clothes. Stop to drop off a DVD. Then take kids out for dinner. We then drive to Costco for petrol and then home. The poor boy has been out of the house for 10 hours.

6pm Decide to let them play while i sort out school bags and lunch boxes and feed the dog. Into Pj's, teeth brushed and then we all sit and watch a video on San Diego zoo.

7pm one kid down, i read to the other and then let him play for 10 mins while i fill in the photo packet for school picture day. Put other kid to bed then tackle the washing.

7.45 chatted to friend while i try to tidy the room my dad is suppose to sleep in....

8.15 Shower then watching part 1 of the final of master chef. then write this post.

9.20 start getting ready for beer pick up. Always nervous first night, got to remember the route, where to park, find the passengers and look after the kids too. Planned dept at 9.35 pm, return time unknown, hopefully 10.40, I'll update tomorrow!

The 168 hour challenge.

2010-09-15T22:00:00.000-06:00

So i have been reading a couple of blogs who have just started doing a 168 hour challenge. Blogging about what you do for 168 hours (7 days) . It comes from this blog and a lot of people use it to see where there time goes. That's part of my reasoning, although i know where several hours are wasted, i more just want to let people know what we do as a family as well, so i may add in things everyone else is doing too.

So lets start with today - Wednesday 15th of September

6.40 hubby and boy get up. They headed up to bagel shop to stock up on bagels for this weekends big event - the beer festival.

7.15 - 8am Get up. Make breakfast and boys lunch. Get dressed. Bagel burnt, hubby kindly makes me another. Put homework in bag and get boy ready for school. Went on line and checked e-mail and FB.

8am - 8.30 Hubby takes boy to school, along with the girl. I give the dog her meds, then head down stairs and tackle the washing. Put one load on, empty tumble dryer, and put away two baskets of clothes.

8.30 -8.45 am Tidied up breakfast thing, bathroom after boy redecorated it with toothpaste! located DVD to take back to redbox before we forget about it and get charged $20.

8.45 Head out to playgroup, chatted to friends, texted other friends, had a great time all round, then drove to Walmart.

10.30 - 11am Returned DVD, bought toothpaste and leeks to make soup with. Bumped into a friend so chatted for several minutes.

11 am Drove home. Called friend to bitch about something. un loaded shopping. set girl up with activity. checked e-mail, which resulted in a couple of quick phone calls, all MOMS club things. Texted a friend too.

11.45 Girl and I started making lentil soup. Realised after starting i had very little lentils, sigh. Veggie soup it was.

12.15 Fed girl some lunch, to keep her happy and let her watch some TV, while i tidied up in kitchen and waited on soup. Answered phone to some weird Irish guy who my hubby met in the gym - he wants us to go to a quiz night tonight. Friend dropped by with clothes for the fire victims. (our club is collecting)

12.45 ate some soup with the girl then sat outside reading while girl played. Defended girl against numerous flies and bees which she is scared off. Pretended to eat some cake - made from grass. Hubby appeared from basement after his 17 mile run.

1.15pm made hubby some lunch including the soup, tidied up our lunch things. Sat down and finally blogged. read friends blogs, heard about the 168 hr challenge. Phoned friend and asked her about it. Decided to start my own 168 hr challenge.

1.45 pm searched for swim costume and swim diapers for girl so daddy can take her to the water fountains. persuaded her she did not need a set of dominoes with her. Got her changed and dressed to go.Tidied up lunch things and laid out food for dinner prep. Also tidied the kitchen table up which had being taken over. Skipped past the ever increasingly large pile of dishes waiting to go in the machine.

2.15 pm Hubby leaves with girls after checking he didn't crush any bones in her foot. I turn on radio and tackle dishwasher, recycling and cleaning kitchen. Tidied front room and hoovered. Then move to basement to sort out yet more washing - we do a basket a day in this house, sometimes more. Chatted to board members about the members meeting. phone a friend and asked if she wanted beer festival tickets.

3pm Left to pick boy up from school, some how tweaked my back. Chatted with friends, one of whom had brought a big bag of clothes for my kids. got the boy and went to get him a hair cut for school photo's Friday. Read homework folder while there.

4 pm Arrived home, back very sore. kids played on bikes while hubby fitted new triathlon bars to bike. I sat down and researched boy scouts after the boy came home with a sticker inviting us to come along tonight. We'd love him to do it but not tonight, way to much going on right now. Started dinner while boy started homework. Sneaked in some extra veggies when no one was looking! Then we sat and he read to me for 10 minutes.

5pm cooked up some Brussels sprouts and looked out cutlery and place mats. Can barely walk now. spent 5 minutes trying to rub back, did nothing.

5.15 dinner. The boy ate it (WOOO HOOO) Daddy loved it, i liked it, the girl ate some. Mandarin oranges (in fruit juice not syrup) for dessert for those who wanted them. I take painkillers.

5.45 kids go outside to play. I help Dave fill in his food diary. kids play happily for 5 minutes then several meltdowns later, girl is inside on a timeout.

5.55 girl still on timeout screaming, meanwhile i rescue boy who is stuck in the tree. Head off to tidy up dinner dishes, feed dog and check washing. Read to the boy while doing the washing, then he reads to me then it's off for a bath.

6.15 kids in bath. I chat to a friend about the Beer fest, then another about school, then another beer fest captain appears wanting tickets. I supervise the kids in the bath. Dave deals with the girl while i help the boy out, then tidy the bathroom.

6.30 girl in bed. I do a few chores then sit down to watch an episode of top gear. Boy gets ready for bed and is allowed on the computer to play.

7.00 boy in bed, finish watching top gear while hubby gets ready to go for a 1.75 mile swim. Chat to neighbour, who was looking for a bike pump, about her crazy divorce.

8.00 Hubby heads off, I sit down for the final of some trashy TV program. Would empty the dishwasher but after a 10 sec attempt decided my back would appreciate the break tonight. So sat down at comp, check mail, sorted out the plan for tomorrow and then checked FB,and wrote most of this post, then put on a bath. Hoping the heat will ease the pain.

9.00 watched another program. then finished this post and read book.

10 bed...

Blogging...

2010-09-15T13:11:00.005-06:00

Watched Julie and Julia last night. It was a great film, it really showed off that part of Julia Childs life well, it also depicted writing a blog well! It was real and honest, it didn't just show the highs, but the lows and the meltdowns too.

I love writing my blog, but sometimes, it's hard fitting it in, there's that thin line about documenting your families life and having the time to actually document your lives as there is a lot going on. That's how it has been lately, it feels like the start of school came and suddenly there was just a huge amount of things going on. Nothing huge just lots of little things. So i am here today to blog a little and to summarise. I hope you will understand and look forward to more posts coming back soon. I have a new project starting today!!

the summary

school started, i am back to driving to school and walking to bus stops.
hubby had his birthday (next year is the big 40!).
went to several birthday parties mainly kids including one with 26 kids.....!
went to a baby shower and sat without kids having afternoon tea, very nice.
held recipe club at house - 12 people and their kids came.
held the Secret sister reveal party.
read a whole book.
went to boulder to the tea house for dinner.
ran the Member Meeting
joined the PTA
went to footie training 6 times, organised snack roster and medical forms!
looked after the kids while hubby trained.
went to curriculum night - learnt that i would probably fail 1st grade!
phoned brother many times after he'd been to a wedding, been to Scandinavia, started a new job, went to the Italian grand prix.........
cancelled a night out with friends due to exhaustion, again so sorry.
went to reservoir, hubby had an allergic reaction, hubby went to ER, picked hubby up, hubby taking large amount of pain killers and drugs.
have been taking photo's every day but not blogging them - will get caught up honest.
watched news of fires in local area destroying around 200 homes. very sad.

also forgot

had 8 hours of power cuts over three days due to a bad generator which takes down about 3000 homes near us every so often.
have all been getting ready for the GABF (great American beer fest) this weekend
had an accident in my car. Everyone OK, no damage, thankfully.

Yoghurt

2010-09-05T08:50:00.003-06:00

So when did they start spelling yoghurt differently? It recently noticed that the yoghurt we buy is spelt "yogurt" where did the "H" go?. I thought this was an American thing as so many words are spelt differently here, but alas no, it would appear that at some point in time we suddenly dropped the H, or some places did. In the US there is no H, in the UK apparently it's okay to spell it either way or even more confusingly "yogourt" or "yoghourt" and in Australia and NZ they spell it, like i do, yoghurt.

Who knew it was so complicated! The crazy thing is i have taught the boy the wrong spelling now too, which i will now need to rectify! Sorry Son!

what's your preference?!

(p.s. the spell checker had a fit with this post!)

slacker

2010-09-04T08:27:00.002-06:00

Oh what a slacker i have been recently. I'll be honest i have been neglecting all my blogs. I need to get my fingers out and get typing!

So today's quest a new bottle for my son. Last year with school lunches we had one bottle it lasted all year never leaked, it was fantastic. Then one day over the summer it broke, so we bought a new one, it lasted two months and leaked over everything on the second day of school, i wasn't too happy as it was expensive. So we are on a quest to find one that won't leak,and i am hoping that some of my readers will have a solution. One thing to note, because of the way his lunch box is set out the bottle lies on its side a lot. All solutions welcome.

First Grade

2010-08-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Monday was the first day back at school and our first day of first grade (equivalent to Primary 2). "D" was excited to get back to school and see his friends and to meet his new teacher. "I" was just excited!

We headed of to school the first morning, and entered chaos. The first morning is always chaotic lots of parents and craziness but things were particularly chaotic this year. I caught a glimpse of "D" heading into school, he looked as white as a ghost, however things must have gotten better, because by the end of the day he'd had a great time.

We are looking forward to the school year and getting back to learning. I really like his teacher, she seems to have her head screwed on and has been teaching this grade for several years. Here's hoping for a good year with lots of fun and learning.

wetsuits

2010-08-18T16:27:00.003-06:00

Well, as most of you should know hubby is training for an iron man. This involves a 2.2 mile outdoor swim, so a wetsuit is required. The problem being that the last few times he has worn a wetsuit he has broken out in hives.

We thought he was allergic to the material so he was sent to an allergist where he found out it was actually pressure hives. Anything too tight would make him break out, things like a watch belts, wrist/ankle supports. All of which have. So after consultation with the allergist they have set upon a plan to tackle this, we will see what happens.

First things first there would be several test runs so a wetsuit was required and last night hubby became the owner of his very own wetsuit. Can't wait to see and can't wait for the allergist to find something so that he can actually wear it. If your a triathlete your self, as some of you are, and need a new wetsuit, let us know we found a great deal with free shipping.

and if you want to keep up with hubby and his training schedule check out his blog for a very frank account of it all, plus a few movie reviews thrown in for fun!

Lunch times

2010-08-18T16:18:00.004-06:00

It's part of most American kids diets the PB and J sandwich (peanut butter and jelly). In our house though it's never been done. D is a picky eater. he doesn't like to mix things. He'd eat jam sandwich or a peanut butter one but not together. I never tried it with "I" as i wasn't making two things each lunch.

However school starts next week and lets be honest it would be good to have more than one thing for him to eat. So we have come up with a sandwich rota. I asked him to pick 5 different lunch items that he liked and we have used those five to create a rota for lunch.

In a sudden moment the other day he announced that one of the five would be PB and J. shocking as he has never tried it, so i said it was fine as long as he tried it at home before next week. Here's the taste testing picture...

I guess he truly was born in America. "I" loved it too. Parents did not taste nor never will......!

Juice.

2010-08-11T15:36:00.003-06:00

When i was a kid, even an adult, if i was thirsty we'd drink some sort of "squash/diluting juice". just take a glass pour in a little and mix with water and you'd have a fruity drink. Actual fruit juice wasn't that common and was expensive, "fizzy drinks", especially as a kid were a NO. we'd have milk (which i hated), we'd also have water but i loved a glass of squash. Now I'm not saying the diluting juice was any better than soda/fruit juice, back when i was a kid it was all sugar and dyes, but huge advances have been made and now most brands are all natural dyes and sugar free or no added sugar and because of this the calories are low. One glass is around 10 calories, depending on the brand. Plus it's so common back home, there will be whole aisles in supermarkets juice with diluting juices, it was by far one of the things i missed when i came here.

Which brings me to my kids. I wanted them to try it. We drink a lot of water when we go out, especially in the summer, it would be nice to have a bit of flavour, so we bought some bottles online - 6 bottles for $25. It sounds a bit pricey, but you get about 25 glasses per bottle - think of the price of 150 glasses of soda, milk or juice. It's become quite popular with the kids. We use it when going out or in lunch boxes, or at home. We don't buy juice boxes any more, except on rare occasions. They just drink water, milk and squash with the odd glass of fruit juice. It's become popular with hubby too as he's on his diet he need low calorie drinks, the current brand we have is 5 cals a glass.

So my American friends, why not come on by for a glass one day and try it, you'll be surprised. we are currently stocking summer fruits and apple & blackcurrant. To my British friends, i am super jealous, when i fly home the first things i buy in the supermarket are soup, an irn bru, some chocolate, and a bottle of squash.