A Little Song and Dance

My son loves God.  And robots.  And singing.  And wearing super hero costumes two sizes too small.  Evidence of all this below.  This tickles my heart.  Note the look on my daughter's little face when Dude takes center stage and dominates the screen.  That also tickles my heart.  

July Hodgepodge

Some nuts and bolts from the month that don't fit under any specific headline.  VACA will be covered soon. Wait for it....

While big brother was at "Camp Nana and Papa," Squirt and I watched Lady and the Tramp.  I hadn't considered how much my sweet and fluffy canine friend would appreciate the flick.  For the entire 1.75 hours, Enzo went back and forth between the positions you see pictured below.  He ran around the room looking for the dogs when they left the screen, he would bark and hunch down during the dog fights....it was priceless.  Squirt eventually stopped seeing the humor and enjoyment in it, but I didn't.  Now we know what to do to keep him occupied in our absence.  

The Little Black Chair took 4 more of my pieces to display and sell.  Don't they look so charming in the midst of all their edible shabby chic decor?

This was happening at 7:10 this morning.  I hid around the corner so I could take it all in.

This was happening at 7:30 this morning.  

This was happening at 8:30 this morning...

And this was happening at 4:00pm this afternoon.  Lego ship building.  They liked each other all day. Thanks be to God.  And I don't mean that sarcastically.  

Play date with our darling Brinley friend.  What are the chances they would coordinate so well?  I guess pretty high since everyone and their mother's mother shop at Target.

Nail date with Mom before our road trip to Michigan.  Oh did those pretty pink nails look shiny and new for 3 hours.

Hey look, it's me.  The Enlighten Foundation had their donors come in for a photo shoot and here's my end result. Squirt is tugging at my legs, but you can't tell right?  I don't even think I look annoyed. 

This is an oldy but goodie video of my precocious 3 year old. This girl keeps us on our toes boy.  Sugar and spice and sometimes really nice.

  

My Baby's First Solo Flight

We did it.  We put our little man on a big bad airplane all my himself.  We talked about it for months and he had no reservations about the adventure.  Naturally, the airport was at capacity for how many human beings it could hold, so we were running to the gate.  Not what I pictured.  What I envisioned was sitting down at the gate with a fresh bagel and juice, going through the carefully chosen contents of his big boy backpack, talking about the flight and what to do if he felt like he was going to ralph....he would be prepared. Not so much.  We walked up, Tim handed him his old phone, stocked with 3 Angry Birds games, he jumped with joy, squealed, hugged me quickly and ran down the ramp with the ticket check man, talking about his anticipation about drinking a Sprite during the flight. The end.

I did NOT have closure as I sat there staring at the plane, not allowed to leave until it was in the air.  My hands were flat against the glass as I sent telepathic messages to my son about all the things in his backpack that awaited him.  Really fun things.  Things I knew he would not even glance at given the phone he was just gifted with.  I begged the sarcastic gate man to allow me the opportunity to walk onto the plane and check to make sure my young son was not sobbing.  He laughed at me and continued to tell me "not a chance lady." Finally he agreed to do the checking himself and came back reporting that Dude had his feet up with a beer, talking it up with the stewardesses.

The plane indeed took off, landed and Dude was none the wiser.  He defeated some really exciting levels of Angry Birds, ate his sandwich, got annoyed by the "mean boy" sitting next to him, and that was that.  His first solo flight.  My parents met him at the gate and were greeted with a charming, toothless smile and huge hugs.  He's ready to do it again next year, minus the mean boy.    

Our 4th

I'm back.  Our trek across country is over and done, adoption camp is now complete (more on that later) and I'm very pleased to be sitting at my desk pouring over the photos taken over the past 3 weeks.  That's happiness to this Mama.  We'll start slowly with Fourth of July so as not to overwhelm my audience with 476 pictures.

If I remember correctly, we had a action packed weekend of random fun.  We were trying to pack it all in before Dude got on the plane for his week at "Camp Nana and Papa."

3rd of July - Fireworks with some neighbor friends at a local festival, aka TOTAL CLUSTER.  Next year we'll park our blanket in the empty field before you get to the herds of sweaty Coloradans. 

 A little Poke Mon card playing to fill the time.

 

Our 6th annual Liberty Hill 4th of July parade prep.  Big stuff.  

 The only reason I'm including this picture is because of her cheeks.  They take me back to baby Squirt and those moments are becoming few and far between. 

 

 Later that day we parked it at our pool bbq and volleyball tourney.  It was a rather awesome way to spend the day.  Tons of food, plethora of adult beverages, lifeguards to watch the children, adult conversation, relief from the heat, lifeguards to watch our children...

 How sassy is this guy?

 This good lookin' foursome (don't ask me how they got placed together) won top beach volleyball honors for the day.  

 Sand up her crack, cherry stains on her face, pool hair, a paper cup...what else could a 3 year old ask for in a day?

  4th of July, out.

Summer O Fun Continues

We have been aiming for the best summer ever over here at Casa Vogel.  The Summer O Fun is what we've coined it.  Thus far we have been oh so successful.  A couple weeks back, after our Texas friends departed, we hopped in our trusty Pilot and headed south to Colorado Springs for the weekend.  First stop, The North Pole at the base of Pikes Peak.  This little treasure is a theme park nestled in the forest of an incredibly beautiful mountain area.  I'm going to make a statement about our experience at Santa's Village that might be a bit alarming, so prepare yourselves.  Other than not having Grandma and Grandpa Marc with us, Santas Village was better than our Disney World experience.  Why the blasphemy?  

1.  It was $44 with our coupons
2. There were NO lines.  Not one.
3. Santa HIMSELF was there.  And there was no line to hang out with him.  And he talked about his dogs with our kids.  
4. Once you're in you don't have to pay for anything.  Not even the train ride. 
5. It was 75 degrees.  Not 101.
6. There are no parades.
7. The park is walkable.  No strollers required.  And you can't get lost.
8. There is a magic show.
9. You're surrounded by mountains and tons of shade.
10. There are no lines.
11. They play Christmas music on the speakers, minus the snow.
12. It was 75 degrees.
13. Ice cream cost $2.75
14. There are places to sit down and take a load off.  Disney doesn't believe in allowing you to sit down.
15. The parking lot is 25 steps from the front door.
16. The kids could run freely and not tackle 25 people in the process.  We didn't fear losing them forever.
17. Our kids laughed for 4 hours straight.  It was the happiest place on earth to them.  They had moments of laughter at Disney but a lot of miserable whining and confusion about what we were doing to them and why to go along with it.

photo evidence of the blasphemy...

 The view from "the world's highest ferris wheel"

 

 

I will say, there's an age limit to the joy of The North Pole.  Once they get to be 8-10 ish they're too big and too mature for the rides.  But for now, we inhaled the joy it brought to our littles.  We stayed at a hotel that night, swam in the less than impressive pool, and partied at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo the next day.  I don't know why we haven't made a trip there before now, but we're so glad we added it to our Summer O Fun.  It's an awesome, scenic zoo. Totally walkable and tons of unique exhibits to see.  The giraffes are the highlight and what they're known best for.      

That long black thing is Mr. Giraffe's tongue.  Dude told everyone around us that the black is sunblock for their tongues.  I smiled and patted his cute little head.  Turns out the little bugger is right.  

 What you're viewing is fake pee coming from the fake butt of a fake hippopotamus.  He pees on you to mark his territory as you walk by.  It was the highlight of the zoo for our children.  And many other children I'm sure.  

They put all their snakes in these beautiful glass cages with colorful glass rocks.  The purpose is to take away the creepy stereotype many people have surrounding the evil serpents and make them appear soft and pretty.  Stellar attempt, no cigar people.  They're still Beelzebub.  

After arriving home that afternoon we had some good old fashioned sprinkler fun.  Never gets old. Currently, Dude is in Chi-town with his Nana and Papa.  He got on a plane, BY HIMSELF, last Saturday and has been living the good life all week.  As has his sister.  Happy to report he did awesome on the plane.  No tears (he told me he was going to "sleep and cry on the plane.")  He's a champ.  We've enjoyed the week of no fighting, taunting, crying, sticking out tongues, locking doors and invading personal space,  but we're excited to hug our little man again on Saturday when we arrive in Chicago, Enzo in tow.  Pray for us as we drive our little princess and a puppy across the plains tomorrow.  1,000 miles baby!  Ready, set.....