10 Darling Detectives

Nine of Dude's 4 and 5 year old compadres showed up at the beautiful Carson Nature Center on Saturday to partaaaay, detective style.  Darling, is how I would summarize the day.  Absolutely darling.  The party kicked off with a stream of energetic children getting acquainted by running in circles around the party room, with your birthday boy as the leader of the chaos.  Which was a perfect segway for the nature leader, Norah, to ask them to sit in a circle and listen .  Sorry Norah. 
   

The kids were told that they had to solve some nature crimes and look for clues at different spots along the river. They were all given magnifying glasses and we provided animal masks to aid in their hunting (or rather, make them blind as bats and fall on their faces). They had to stay together as the main rule. Put a group of 5 year old boys on a wide open path and see how well that works for ya. Other than ignoring that small detail, they all did great and got into the whole thing more than I had envisioned they would. There was lots of "detecting" going on and you'll be pleased to know the crimes were solved. Norah showed them some animal furs and other natury stuff after the hike and we ended the day with cupcakes and presents. A good day for the Dude and I think the kiddos all went home happy and worn out. I know mine did - he slept for 3 hours that afternoon. 

My little birthday cow. 

Jack and Brady are "detecting."  A giant piece of dog poo.

As you can see, most of the masks were removed by this point.  Holden stayed in tiger form the entire hike.  A plastic magnifying glass had just plummeted into the river, thus the 3 boys attempting to follow it.  I'm sure Norah was thrilled with the additional of plastic to their nature preserve.

And now I present the cutest little girl ever born.  Squirt was about the most irresistible she has ever been that day.  She's barking at a passing dog in this shot.

Mr. Greg has officially become her first man crush.  She chose him over me to snuggle up to on the hike - I can't imagine why?

Their first crime scene.  Who chopped the tree down?  I'll save you the suspense.  It was a beaver.

Brady found some rather interesting cloud formations. 

Crime scene #2.  Yet another magnifying glass fell into the river. 

This was break time.  Actually, I'm pretty sure the kids saw rocks and took off.  Norah called it break time.

This was the average space cushion between the boys and girls.  Funny how the girls did what they were told and walked with their leader....

  Our child loves, openly and honestly.  Trever responded with a "YUCK!"  Some day Dude will stop kissing everyone and anyone. 

Love the spelling game from Jack.  Perfect for where Dude's at right now.

Hannah came.  And all was well with the world.

A 300 piece space puzzle from Nolan - we've already assembled a good chunk of it.  The kid is amazing with puzzles. 

Look at that sweet smile on Riley's face - she was so proud of the card she made for Dude.  I had just finished reading it out loud and praising her talents. 

These two.  Besties forever.

They could be siblings huh?  I get the feeling that Daisy's feeling a bit smothered.  Just a hunch.  Again, Dude's a lover.

The crew.  Pretty darn cute.

And I couldn't leave out the crew PLUS Squirt.  She was lovin being a part of the big kids.

It's worth watching this just for the priceless harmonies found at the end.

This concludes the birthday related posts. I promise.

Sunday Smilin'

Here are just a few things that made me smile today....

 The first year of bloom for our lovely pear tree.

We are now independently eating.  Not very elegantly, but eating none the less.

We are now independently hanging.  Granted, he fell on his face from mid air, but he's hanging none the less.

 P. Willows.  I choose to abbreviate.

Our Dude survived his very first skiing day today.  We'll dedicate a post to this moderately successful day later.  He does look cute in his ski bum outfit doesn't he?  Yes, those are adult size goggles.

Now that we're feeding our self, daily bathing is a necessity.  Dad chose to try a "Dude" style on our little punky.  This REALLY made me smile.

20 minutes on a swing.  Not a care in the world.

Just like her big brother.  I was actually rather impressed with her skiiiils.

These two play together and laugh together.  Smile.

Now that he's 5, Dude has proclaimed the firefighter pole to be not so scary anymore.  We're aiming to start from the top step, but for now, we'll take the 3rd step as progress. 

Sure hope you found reasons to smile today. 

Dude's First Day of Spring

The day when we kiss Winter goodbye and welcome in the lovely, flowery, warm winded season of Spring is always charming for me on so many levels.  Just the idea that we're nearing the end of ice, back breaking shoveling, puffy winter coats in non puffy car seats, forcing hats on non-conforming babies, cabin fever, colds and puke, darkness before 4:30pm, colds and puke (yes, I do realize I mentioned that twice) is enough to put a smile on this Mama's face.  Especially since this year's "first day of Spring" equaled my Dude's 5th birthday.  2 reasons to celebrate.  And that we did.

Pinterest has given me inspiration beyond logical explanation over the past couple months. In fact, I plan to do an entire post solely on my obsession with the idea-inducing virtual playground. Anyway, we hung streamers over Dude's door the night before and threw 15 balloons in his room. Idea being, when he woke up, he would be in a magic birthday land of every five year old's dreams. What really happened is he battled through the "magic" and came into our room at 6:00am, crying about how scary his bedroom was. Bomb. I laid in bed with him and slowly convinced him of the magic. Eventually, he conformed.
 

He took his rad fish cupcakes to day care and we celebrated with dinner out at Panera (not our original plan, but the inch of dust caking our entire house after a garage contractor installed a new floor changed our "breakfast for dinner" plans).  A story for another day.  Following dinner we hid all his presents around the house in the form of a scavenger hunt, which was a hit.  He ended the hunt with his very best present of the day, the Astronaut Costume from Grandma V and Grandpa Marc.  Needless to say, Duder was quite spoiled for the big 5. 

Below is a video for Dude's biggest fans (meaning, grandparents mainly).  I don't expect most of you to dedicate 5ish minutes of your life to watching his scavenger hunt recap, but he is pretty darn cute if you so choose. 

I apologize in advance, but Dude's actual kid party has yet to take place, so there will be yet another post dedicated to my son turning five, following Saturday's Wildlife Detective birthday extravaganza.  I'm beginning to think that perhaps I'm a bit overzealous in the recognition of birthdays department.  Just a little.

My Wife for the Week

I always joke with my girly friends how wonderful it would be to have a "wife."  This past week I received confirmation that indeed, it IS wonderful to have a wife.  My Texas gal pal, Amy, flew in on Friday and stayed through Tuesday.  She played with my kids, she helped cook, grocery shop, clean, did laundry, folded laundry, straightened up the house, helped make fish cupcakes for Dude's school birthday treat....I was smiling for 5 days straight.  Not that my hubbie isn't treasured and helpful, but a "wife" is just a whole nother realm of humanness. 

The overnight Amy and I took to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs aided in my smile too.  Tim and I have always wanted to head south to experience the luxury of this Colorado hot spot, but don't get the chance to ditch the kids for 24 hours very often, so I was pumped to finally make it down there. 

We stopped at Garden of the Gods for a hike and nature time.  Lovely.  Next was lunch in Manitou Springs at Cliffhouse (we don't often eat at white table clothed tables adorning fresh flowers these days, so that was a lovely addition to our trip).  We ended at The Broadmoor, where I was called "Mrs. Mile High Vogel" approximately 24 times  Not "mommmmmmy."  We lucked out and were double upgraded to a lap of luxury room with a balcony, where we took in a bottle of wine, our complimentary tin of chocolate and nuts and read magazines for 3 hours.  Without moving.  THAT was heaven.    

Amy took the kids to Barnes and Noble and let them pick out a book each, which was super sweet.  Dude got a book all about space (a new passion) and Squirt added to her "Olivia" collection. 

We rounded out Amy's trip with a cupcake assembly session for Dude's daycare birthday treats.  How cute are these fish?  And how cute is the Dude helping make them?  I kinda love the above picture.   

Amy and I took a girls trip to Ikea on our way home from the Springs, where I picked up this rockin art wire.  It's my new favorite item in our house - look at all the masterpieces my little man has created. 

THANKS to Amy for taking time away from your little darlings to spend time with me and mine.  It was a lovely 5 days friend.  Can't wait to do it again.