What happens when you leave sugar on the counter

Isaac came to me today asking if he could have something to eat and he looked as if he was covered in sand... including his face. Then I noticed the ring around his mouth.

"What have you been eating?" I asked. "Brown sugar."

Yeah. I'll be more careful to put the sugar back in the cabinet.

Boundaries

Today we learned how important it is to establish boundaries with 6-year-old boys who can ride a bike. Charlie was going to go move our neighbors' garbage cans up to their houses as an act of service. He said that he was going to ride his bike and I said that I'd be out in about 5 minutes to meet up with him.
Yeah, well, apparently, we had different ideas of what a bike ride meant. I thought he was going to go around the block. You can see the star that's at our house. We picked Charlie up and the other star.
Isaac and I saunter outside to meet up with Charlie. We walked the Cedar loop and saw him not. We returned home, I got the bike, put Isaac in the Burley and we did the loop again. I accepted my neighbor Hilary's help to drive around. Another neighbor, Steve, was sitting outside of his house and I asked him if he had saw Charlie, and he pointed in the direction that he had gone. Later on, Steve drove around in his truck. I called Brian to let him know and he told me to call 911 so then we had 2 patrol cars looking for him. My neighbor Ken drove around, our friend Craig drove around...
Charlie was fine, had no idea he did anything wrong and I was a wreck.
Now would be a great time to talk about specific boundaries with your kids. Use a map.

Oh, I should tell you that when Steve drove up and "found him," Charlie would not get in the truck with him. Good boy.

Brian's Latest Adventure

...and this is the year of the sprinkler system.
before:
during:

Balloon Launch

I thought it might be fun to take Charlie out -- just Charlie -- and watch a balloon launch. I'd never been to one and Charlie and I talk from time to time about going for a ride in a balloon (we're going to wait until he's tall enough to see over the side of the basket).

It was amazing. We had to get up before 6am, but we had a wonderful time. And then we had donuts.

Springtime

Jeff and Jill came to visit for 4 days last week. We got to meet our niece and celebrate her first birthday with her and our family. Brian's grandma was also out visiting for the occasion.

All of my bulbs are coming up! The front of our house is so colorful and it makes me happy. Oh, did I mention the SNOW we're supposed to get on Thursday?

One of the other big events of our springtime is that Charlie is now riding his bike without training wheels. Brian coaxed him into taking them off after his 6th birthday. Charlie's just wired that way -- he makes his mind up to do something, and he just does it. It's pretty amazing.




Charlie also participated in a Run-a-Thon for his school and ran 8 laps in 1/2 hour!

Gymnastics

Charlie and Isaac had a great time in their gymnastic class. The teacher even encouraged me to continue Charlie in the next session!

My Adventure Birthday

Brian took me on an adventure for my birthday this year. He planned a whole day of events and I was just along for the ride!

First, we had lunch at Annie's Cafe and then we explored downtown Denver -- Larimer Square, 16th Street Mall and the like. Then we went for a stroll to our next destination: The House of Commons Tearoom for a tea tasting.
We tasted 6 or 7 teas side by side so that we (ok, I) could learn how the teas were different. The woman who runs the shop was tickled to be able to host us for this event! She's this wonderfully authentic English lady named Jessica and she really made us feel welcome. We had a great time! Two doors down from the tearoom is my new favorite spice shop called The Savory Spice. I had been to the spice shop before and I remembered when I was leaving that I wanted to check out the tearoom sometime.
After tea, we checked into the Magnolia Hotel, freshened up and went to dinner at Tables, a foodie restaurant in the Park City neighborhood. We had a delicious dinner and then went to the independent theater company Buntport for their production of "Contrived Ending."
That pretty much was it for the evening. Both of us were pretty tired from walking a lot and having so many fun things to do!
The next day, we woke up to a gray, snowy day (which was a huge contrast to the record 74 degrees the day before), had breakfast at the hotel and then went to REI and played around with tents. We then drove to Boulder (after almost getting into an accident!!) and had brunch with Brian's mom and the boys at Turley's.



We all came home and took turns taking naps. I did, however, run out for a quick visit to my "brother" Paul's party, since we share our birthday. It was so good to see him and to visit a lot of our mutual friends.


And as if that wasn't enough, Charlie and Brian made me homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. What a day to remember! I feel so loved, so cherished and somewhat rested.