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.

Look what Charlie built!

Charlie loves Legos. Notice the small mark on his eyebrow. It's a Lego injury.

Charlie Lost His Front Tooth!

Charlie was brave enough to let Brian pull out his front tooth after church last Sunday. Since his brother made it into the paper, we made up a special newspaper just for him called the Duprasville Times (I've got a pdf of it if you want to see it). The following is the article we wrote about his brave feat:

Brave 5-year-old Boy Lets Father Pull Out Tooth
Louisville — Charlie Dupras, 5, had a wobbly tooth for a few weeks. It was starting to get in the way of his eating so his father, Brian Dupras, 33, offered to pull it out for him.
At first, he was scared and didn’t want him to do it, but he decided that after church, he would pull it out.
“I was scared, and I wanted it to come out. I was that,” Charlie said.
Charlie tried to pull it out but his fingers would just slip off the tooth
“When he [Brian] was pulling it out, it hurted (sic) a little but he thought it wouldn’t,” Charlie said.
Sunday afternoon, after church, Charlie and his father, Brian went up to the bedroom to pull out his tooth. Charlie was very brave and allowed Brian to try to pull it out with his fingers, but they slipped. After trying a few times, Brian finally got the tooth out with a cotton gauze.
“Certainly Charlie showed a incredible degree of bravery,” said Brian. “and I thought it was really cool that he trusted me enough to let me pull it out for him, even though it was a little scary.”
Charlie is looking forward to what the Tooth Fairy will bring as he sleeps tonight in his bed.
This is the third tooth that Charlie has lost.