4th of July

Our 4th was definitely memorable. It started with mom finding out she had a flat tire, which of course can't be fixed until Monday. We picked up fireworks while Dad made the traditional homemade peach ice cream. Then the kids, mom and I made Grandma's birthday cake since we celebrate her birthday on the 4th. There must have been some grease left in the broiler from the steak we cooked the other day because the broiler caught on fire and blackened the cake and smoked us out of the kitchen. Luckily the oven was not ruined, only the cake. So Mom and I ran out to the store to buy new cake mix and started over (this time at mom's house). After we made the cake and were decorating it, we put the 94 candles on and the 9 was broken so we had to lay them down on the cake instead. Then the rain came. We ended up eating inside because even though it finally stopped by six, we weren't sure for how long and everything was really wet. After dinner, we took the kids outside to set off the before dark stuff like smoke bombs and snakes and we had bought a bunch of silly string and had a silly string war. The big kids (Dad, Scott, and Chris) really had fun with that and Brandon has requested more silly string for his birthday. Jessie preferred to watch from the sidelines. We went back inside for cake and ice cream and presents so that Grandma could leave whenever she was ready to, and about the time we were ready to go back outside and finish the fireworks, it was raining really hard again. We had also bought some glow sticks to play with outside, and we ended up playing with those inside with the lights out. That passed the time for awhile. Around 9:30 it had died down a little bit and Chris said he had a rain poncho and would light the fireworks so we put up the patio awning and everyone sat under that to stay dry and Chris lit fireworks. Jessie was so tired by then, because of course neither one took naps, she fell asleep on Mom's lap shortly after they started. Brandon managed to stay awake until they were done but he was zoning pretty hard by the end. Because the air was heavy with all the humidity, all the smoke stayed low instead of rising up like usual and a few times you could hardly see the fountains and all the illegal fireworks the neighbors put off (that you are not supposed to) were staying low to the ground. (We of course were good and didn't have any illegals.) It is a good thing that everything was wet because there probably would have been fires otherwise. The rain held off until we got everything finished and back inside, and then it started up again shortly after everyone went home. Grandma says that even though it wasn't necessarily the greatest 4th, it will be one of the most memorable and we will look back on it one day and remember the 4th of July when we almost burnt the house down, ruined the cake, and it rained almost the whole time. And we will probably all laugh.

Uncle Jim and Aunt Pat's visit

Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim visited last weekend. It was fun as usual. Everyone really enjoys their visits getting to see family. Jessie invited everyone to her and Brandon's swimming lesson on Friday and they all went. Everyone means Scott who always goes with me, Mom, Dad, Pat, Jim, and even GG. It really meant a lot to the kids to have everyone watching them. Then we all came to my house and had lunch and relaxed outside for awhile. That night everyone came back out for a picnic. We weren't sure if the weather was going to cooperate but it ended up being nice after a short rain and we were able to eat outside. That made Scott happy because he works hard keeping up the yard and he likes showing it off. After dinner Scott lit the fire pit and we all sat in the rock garden watching the fire and listening to the fountains. It was almost like being in the mountains. It was nice sitting outside relaxing and talking. On Saturday, we went to Rye and spent the afternoon in the mountains, eating lunch and sitting around. Uncle Jim even climbed the big rock like he used to. Scott tried to get a picture but Jim got down before he could take it. Mom, Scott and I took the kids to the mountain park for awhile and everyone else stayed at the picnic site and relaxed. That night we had dinner at Chris's house where mom planned a surprise 60th birthday party for Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim. She decided to get even for all the over the hill parties they have thrown and said that they shouldn't get away with spending those birthdays by themselves. Dad had a lot of fun buying joke gifts for the two of them. We had a nice dinner and took some family photos which mom will get out as soon as she is done fixing them up and playing with her new photo software. We then ended up outside and hung around Chris's backyard until it got late and it was time to call it quits. I hope they had a nice visit, I know we did and Grandma always loves having everyone together. There are pictures of the birthday party on shutterfly for anyone who would like to see them. We can't wait until next year.

end of school year

Brandon had a busy May. First was career day where Scott went to talk about being a wildland firefighter and Brandon got to show off to his class and learn about a lot of other careers. He has decided that he wants to try karate which makes sense because he is always running around pretending to do it anyway. Then he had his field trip to the zoo and the city park rides. He had fun and I went to be with him but it was ninety degrees that day so all the kids were pretty worn out. Scott took Jessie to the park to feed the ducks and play and have lunch so they had their special day. Last Friday was Brandon's first field day. He got third place at the 50 yard dash that all the kids run and they all got ribbons so that every child got at least one ribbon. The other games the kindergarten kids played was egg toss, water race and group dance. The kids didn't play for ribbons, they just got tickets for gumballs. They all had a great time. Today was graduation. The kids have a program called zoo phonics to help them learn the alphabet letter sounds. It seems to really work and they all dressed up in animal costumes and sang the zoo phonics song and then individually came up and said their sound. Brandon was "Inny Inchworm, he wore a green shirt that was supposed to be the leaves of a tree and had a big stuffed inchworm on his arm.

Then they sang the kindergarten graduation song and received their diplomas.

He is now officially a big kid and will go to school all day next school year. I can't believe it. I guess I shouldn't complain too much because I got an extra year since he missed going to kindergarten last year by a month because of the age limit. Brandon is growing up so fast. A few weeks ago he gave me one of his favorite stuffed animals saying that he didn't need it any more and maybe it would help me with my nightmares. Of course he still has blankie hidden under his pillow and the bear that Scott gave him when he was born so he isn't too big yet.

Both kids are excited about summer and all the fun things. The first thing is swimming lessons and this year Jessie is old enough to start the basic program so they will both be in the water which means I can actually watch instead of trying to keep her occupied in the bleachers for a half an hour. Hopefully Scott will be on a lot of fires this summer and will be gone a lot not that I won't miss him but we need to make up for the slow season last year. I hope this summer will be fun for everyone.

Easter

The kids had a lot of fun on Easter. It was snowing so we had to do the egg hunt inside which they are used to doing as there have only been a few years when it was actually warm enough to go outside although we usually don't have snow. Jessie was really excited because this is the first year she was old enough to really get into decorating the eggs and finding them. She was bouncing all over the place and wasn't even on a sugar rush. We had dinner at our house with everyone and then that night we read the Easter story out of Brandon's Bible that he got for Christmas. It was a good day all around.

Last week I babysat for the daycare next door for an hour or so. I watch the kids for her when she has appointments she has to go to so she doesn't have to try to schedule around all of the kids. (this is the daycare Brandon used to go to) There were seven kids all under the age of five. They all knew me because I have sat for them before but it is like having a substitute teacher or a babysitter at home. They all tried to take advantage of me by trying to do things they normally aren't allowed to do. Luckily the four month baby wasn't there that day or I would have had her also. Melody had put on a movie before she left and they were supposed to rest and be quiet which lasted about five minutes after she was gone. The kept going into rooms they weren't supposed to and getting out toys they weren't supposed to play with. I knew that they were playing me but I wasn't sure exactly how much. The two older ones kept contradicting each other over what was allowed and what wasn't. I finally told them that they knew they would just get into trouble when Melody came home so they should put everything away they weren't supposed to have. They wanted to read books and kept bringing more out but wouldn't stay to read and while I was trying to read to some of the kids the others would take off. When the school bus came, they knew Brandon was on it so they went running out to see the bus and then I had to chase them down and get them back into the house which they thought was a really fun game. Luckily none of them thought of running back out of the house after I put them and and was retrieving another kid. Melody's oldest child came tearing into the house through back door shortly after Melody left, which she was supposed to be in school and took back off but when she had come in through back she let their dog into the laundry room. I kept hearing noises coming from that direction and kept counting the kids to make sure I wasn't missing any, and then I happened to open the laundry room door a little while later to throw a dirty diaper away and found out what the noises were. The dog had got into the trash can and was having a heyday. Right before Melody came home one of the kids announced that the movie was over which no one was paying attention to anyway. Needless to say the kids were all in trouble when Melody came home and I am sure her daughter was going to be too for not only ditching school but letting the dog in. It was definitely an interesting afternoon and she is probably afraid I won't ever watch the kids again but I didn't really mind and it makes good stories.

Brandon's bus accident

On the way home from school today Brandon's bus slid off the road into a ditch because the dirt road had turned into slippery mud from the brief snow storm we had this morning. The snow had all melted off so I wasn't too concerned with him coming home, but I didn't expect mud to be the culprit. It could have been a lot worse if the ditch were deeper as out in the farm lands the ditches can be pretty deep. The bus had turned partially on it's side but luckily no one was hurt. Nothing stops your heart faster than getting a phone call from the fire department telling you your son was in an accident. I figured that he was going to be either completely freaked out or think it was totally cool having all the firetrucks and police there. It was the latter. When we went to the accident site to pick him up and sign off that we got him, when he came off the other bus they brought there so the kids weren't sitting in the cold and mud, he came off grinning. He told us how he had to walk sideways to get to the back of the bus and a fireman helped him out and his shoes got all muddy. He was more worried about his friends and whether they were hurt or not. All the kids were checked out and no one was hurt thankfully. He hurt his nose a little when it hit the window but that is all. He told me when we got home and I said that he had an exciting day, " It was not exciting. I was in an accident and I was worried about you picking me up that you would get hurt." I will be really surprised if he doesn't go into some field where he helps people when he grows up. I will definitely be thanking God in my prayers tonight that he kept everyone safe and that it was not as bad as it could have been.

Also, Jessie was totally worried about her brother when we were going to pick him up. She didn't relax until she saw him and knew he was alright. She really loves her brother. She was so excited telling the story later to her grandma that she was jumping up and down. You would think it was her adventure instead of Brandon's.

Spring Break

Brandon was on spring break this week. It was interesting weatherwise. We went fishing at the reservoir on Tuesday and it was a little chilly with the wind blowing, but the kids still had fun. A couple of bites but no fish. There were two geese that kept scaring the kids though because they would come right up to us trying to get food and that was a little too close for their comfort. Then I took the kids to see GG at her apartment on Wednesday and they had a tea party and played over there for awhile. On Thursday we went to Walmart to get some batteries for a flashlight before the predicted winter storm hit and it was chilly but sunny. By afternoon the blizzard hit. Only in Colorado can you have sunny skies one minute and whiteout conditions the next. It snowed really hard all night into Friday. Mom stayed home from work because of the roads and so we all went out to play in the snowdrifts and build snowmen. The kids had a blast sledding and trying to walk in the drifts. Some of the drifts were a couple of feet tall and Jessie got stuck in one of them while I was getting the sled. They haven't had snow like this since before Jessie was born. The dogs thought it was pretty great too and they were acting like puppies jumping in and out of the snowdrifts. Saturday the snow started melting but they could still play in it and by Sunday we were outside wearing light jackets and most of the snow was gone.
Brandon and Jessie's snowman with Fearless


Brandon and Jessie climbed into a snowdrift and I am rescuing them


I included this picture because Mom told me that there was interest in what Chris's girlfriend Rachel looks like. The necklaces are ones that Jessie got for her birthday, Chris put them on her.

Jessie's Birthday

I can't believe Jessie is already three. Time goes by so fast. She can't decide whether she wants to be a big girl or little. One time she'll say she is a big girl and then she will turn around and say she is not big, she is little. She had a great time on her birthday. It was princess/tinkerbell themed and she loved it. She loves the princess, tinkerbell movies and wants to watch them all the time. I love watching her play and learning new things. It is so amazing to see her learn and grow and discover new things and get so excited over the smallest things.

Brandon is doing well also. He is doing good in school, a little trouble learning to write his numbers to 100 but is doing above average in reading to make up for it. They are both looking forward to spring and getting to play outside more often. Of course they also don't want to take naps either. Brandon is big enough to get by without one but Jessie becomes a roller coaster of emotions when she doesn't get enough sleep and I have enough trouble getting her to sleep at night much less fighting with her during the day also.