Eban's First Graduation (from preschool)

Eban had his “graduation” from his first preschool class on Friday. It was so sweet to see his class sing two songs in front of the 100+ person audience.

He also acquired some laughs when he interrupted the singing process to comment on his classmate’s shoes. He was the only one to deviate from the script the entire evening.

It was his teacher's last day as she decided to retire as she had been teaching for over 20 years. We'll miss Mrs. Lyla.

Following his graduation, we all stayed for ice cream. The boys loved this!

Check out the videos below of Eban’s debut on a stage…(the fact that he crashed his daddy’s stage last year doesn’t count).

Eban singing the Sharing Song

King of the Jungle Song (I think?)

Parties Galore Last Weekend

Avery had her first communion and we were invited to celebrate the big day with her. We had a great time with everyone and the boys loved riding on the motorboat around the lake. One of these days, they’ll be able to learn to ski behind Chris’ boat and that will be very fun for them.

They love Dennis so it’s always enjoyable to watch the kids become closer and closer with each visit. Eban and Jack got into a sparring match and you can see I captured the “make-up” hug following the punches they threw at one another.

Then we went to Ella’s birthday party where the kids enjoyed the cake, the snacks and the piñata. The kids loved stuffing candy into their cargo pants’ pockets and they were on a sugar high for about three days after this birthday party. They also learned about the toy called Flarp. It’s in a little container and you stick your hand into the gooey stuff and it sounds like a fart. Talk about my kids LOVING this toy. So thanks to Jenell, Ella’s mom, for giving the kids more ammunition on how funny farts are. By the way, that irritation under Eban's lip is called impetigo. We took him to the doctor as it wasn't going away and we had to treat it with antibiotics as it's a highly contagious skin infection. This is just another ailment I had never heard of until I had kids. Lovely. Last week, we had our first tornado warning of the season. Our emergency radio alarmed after work one day and we listened to the warning and where the tornado was. The announcer said it was close to Denver International Airport and to take cover immediately. Eban started crying as the last time we were there was to drop off Tutu. I asked him why he was crying and he asked if Tutu was safe. I told him that she was and that she was in Chicago. He didn’t understand that the airport was far from Chicago. It was interested to see his thought processes with this.

And finally – here are some pics of our favorite four-legged friends who enrich our lives and the boys’ lives. Poor Seamus is getting so gray around the muzzle - - that’s the bad thing about dogs’ lives - - they are just too short.

Playing with Flarp

Loving up Seamus & Harriet

Rockies Game 2010

While Tutu was here, we actually let her leave the house and we took her out to dinner and dessert. First, we introduced her to Morton’s Steakhouse where she gasped as the lobster moved when they showed it to us on the plate. Then we took her to d-bar - Denver’s best dessert restaurant. Keegan and Lisa took care of us and brought out lovely desserts for our expanding waistlines. Lisa even accommodated my picky dessert needs and brought me out a plate of various ice creams/gelatos and a coffee shake. It was more than delicious!

My university had their first chicken wing eating contest. It was a hoot and I was requested to be a judge…um…the only judge. All colleges faced off against one another for a minute’s worth of consuming chicken bones. It was hilarious and the crowd was fun and rowdy in our student union. Everyone was laughing! Well, after using sanitary gloves and counting all the bones, it came down to a recount. I recounted and our College of Business won by one bone. It was fun to see everyone engaged and enjoying the end of the year. In mid-May, I was honored to help host the Colorado Governor’s Service awards on the west steps of our state’s Capitol. I nominated two of the individuals who received awards and I was astonished that the reviewers chose my selections out of a fabulous candidate pool. Dan Condon won for still serving as a great ambassador of the AmeriCorps program and Neill Quinlan was honored for his military service and ensuing commitment to serving others through his nonprofit activities.

The following Saturday, six of us were honored on the field at the Rockies baseball game. Ryan and the kids went to the game and we sat in the nosebleed section. BUT, it was great to have them there (with the exception that my husband called me on the field requesting a diaper).

More pictures should come if people share them with me...or if I can ever learn how to scan photos to this thing??

The kids were amped up from all the excitement and we had to leave after the 4th inning. Eban was making friends with some of the Lt. Governor’s staffer’s kids and then made his new friends share their ice cream dots with him – Jack was yelling he wanted to go home – Jack then wanted a sip of my beer and didn’t understand why he couldn’t have it – Eban was going to others and asking for bites of their food (such a big burrito) – trust me, it was time to leave. At least all of the people we were sitting near were part of the Colorado Governor’s Commission on Community Service or AmeriCorps so they at least knew the rowdy kids were mine.

Chicken Wing Contest

Sweet Video of the Kids Sharing

Mother's Day 2010, Volunteering at the Garden, and our Birds

Tutu came in town for a visit. She promptly got sick and then Eban got sick. It could have been from the multiple sleepovers he had with her and in turn, she didn’t get any sleep. Maybe it was sheer exhaustion for the both of them but they both had high temperatures for a 24 hour period.

I thought he was over his sickness one morning and we went to the Stonehocker Gardens once again to volunteer in the community garden. Last year I took the boys to help plant food for those who are on the WIC program or other type of assistance. The gardens give the recipients healthy and nutritious food and for that fact, I’m very proud. The boys used their shovels last year and didn’t do much. This year was much better and we planted zucchini or cucumbers…can’t remember. They loved taking the seeds and putting them an inch under the soil and prior to that, they loved spreading the mulch or fertilizer. The soccer game was a complete mess after our gardening experience. Eban was lethargic and Jack wanted to play more than he did. I think he did as he played with our neighbor, Miles, the entire time and even shared his snack with him! We eventually had to leave due to a meltdown of epic proportions and continual crying fits.

The next day was Mother’s Day. We spent it at our local train museum in Golden, Colorado. We were able to ride the galloping goose train in the front car. If you click the galloping goose in the previous sentence, you can see what we rode. We were in car #7 in the front seat in a nicely refurbished car. It was impressive. We watched the engineer drive it like a manual car and we nicely sat on a huge red velvet back seat with light wood trim. The interior was more elegant than the outside reveals itself to be. I forgot my camera so I didn’t capture this, but if my mother sends me pictures from her camera, I’ll post them at a later date.

For Mother’s Day, I received a plant from Eban and it actually sprouted. After a week of a little green stem, it’s dying so I will have no idea what kind of flower should be appearing. At least it got green for a short while.

Harriet ran away again – but came back shortly thereafter (we think). Ryan heard some neighbors yelling her name and thank goodness as the side gate was open again (!!!)…and thank goodness our back door was open so he could hear people yelling at her to go home. She did and Ryan opened the front door and she bounded in like a gazelle.

This year is the first year we’ve had birds in our back porch nest since we moved here. Obviously, Sadie is no longer with us so she isn’t a threat to their well being. Just recently, the eggs hatched and I don’t know how many baby birds are in the nest (I think three), but it’s neat to see all the activity from our kitchen window. The robins haven’t attacked us yet, so they are more than welcome to stay and use our ledge to raise their little family.

Harriet ran away and other little stories

Grandma left and that afternoon, Ryan received a phone call that Harriet ran away. The sprinkler head man accidentally left the side gate open to the back yard and Harriet took advantage of all the new smells and simply followed her nose. Seamus meandered to the front door and sat on our front porch guarding the house.

Therefore, I scrambled from work around 4pm on a Friday to zoom home from work to attempt to find her. I called Thornton Animal Control and they promptly returned my phone call with a “Harriet sighting” northwest of our house in the same neighborhood. After two hours of searching and stopping random people on the streets to ask if they had seen a floppy-eared bloodhound, we had success. She approached a woman walking her greyhound and the woman was able to call Ryan. Harriet was several blocks due south of us which meant she crossed a four lane HUGE road. The next phone call was the worst as the woman was holding onto Harriet and Harriet shrugged out of the collar to run away once again – collarless.

Ugh.

So the screams from the van continued with the boys yelling "HARRIET" and I was yelling too...

Around 6:30, Ryan finally caught sight of her and called out to our little Houdini. She scrambled back to him whining with glee and happiness and hopped into the car with ease. What a nightmare! I never want that to happen but I was so impressed with the Adams County Animal Control as they sent a truck to help us...impressive!
I also saw one of my oldest friends at our house for some catch up - Dan Condon. I worked with him 20 years ago at Camp Heartland, the camp for kids infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and also worked with him at a leadership camp for high school students. I love that our friendship has expanded several states and many years. Eban took this shot so that’s why we look so good – cough/cough.

For some news on the boys…well, they graduated from wanting coffee every morning to wanting hot coffee or Starbucks every morning. Therefore, I need to warm up their chocolate milk so that it’s hot like my coffee. I swear I created monsters with this fad.

Jack and Eban still love the band called the Nadas. They always want to sing their songs in the car and it’s so sweet to see them sing with all their might. Below is a video of Jack in the Rehm’s basement asking me to sing while he accompanies me on the drums. I love it!

Speaking of this evening – my heart melted with an act of love from both of my boys toward Dennis….as all the kids were playing in the Rehm’s backyard one evening, Dennis tripped and did a HUGE face plant in the grass. You could tell it hurt and Eban and Jack were right by his side when it happened. As all the adults watched from the huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows, we watched as Eban hugged Dennis and kissed him in hopes that he would feel better. Then Dennis, still crying, pointed to a different part of his head. So Jack stepped up on his tiptoes and kissed Dennis’ head and then Dennis stopped crying. All the boys smiled at one another and they continued playing. That brief moment of empathy and love was more heartwarming than words can express. I was so proud and I could have cried with love of my boys and the choices they made that night toward Dennis.

Here’s another Dennis story - - I guess he’s getting bullied at his preschool or he’s feeling uncomfortable around a certain little guy. Jen asked him what he was going to do and he said nothing. Then he piped up and told her that he was going to have Eban beat him up. Nice.

Jack Requesting ALL of his Favorite Songs by The Nadas (out of Des Moines, Iowa)

Grandma Patti's Visit

Grandma Patti came in last week for a seven-day visit.
I came down with a severe cough and cold and was hardly functional the entire visit. That was a bummer and on day 6 of my cough/cold, I finally went to see the doctor and she gave me a ton of drugs so I could combat the sickness. It worked miracles in 24 hours. Then Patti left on Friday just as I was recuperating. Go figure.

While she was here, I spent a lot of time in bed, but the boys loved having her around so they could play with her. On a down note, Jack finds all conversations around poop or bathrooms quite funny and Eban encourages him by repeating the words. So they laugh and laugh about this stuff. I've been trying to encourage them to only talk about this stuff in the bathroom where it's appropriate but I'm not having any luck with this strategy. In fact, they love farts and sounds of farts so much that Jack even starting calling Patii, "Grandma Patti Butthole." That was fabulous (insert sarcasm here).

Eban had one sleepover with Grandma and to say it wasn't restful for Grandma is an understatement. She had to get up and switch sides, she had to take a couple of arm blows to the head to arouse her from her weak slumber, and she had to have a wiggle worm of a heater right next to her. One sleepover was all she could handle. Eban slept soundly and didn't understand why she was so tired in the morning. Copius amounts of coffee were had by Patti!

While Ryan studied last Sunday, we headed out to a new adventure. I heard of the Wild Animal Sanctuary out near Hudson, Colorado, and thought we could check it out. They rescue large cats or other various aminals from neglect and/or circuses, etc. It's out in the middle of nowhere in the plains of Colorado and you need to take a dirt road to get there. I didn't know how safe it would be but basically you are on a huge platform above all the animals and we went at a prime time - - when all the cats and bears were sleeping. Awesome. At least it was great to see the good work they were doing and how they were providing a decent home for these animals who had been through some horrible situations.

Jack can't get enough of playing baseball. He doesn't want to use the tee anymore and he wants to hit it like a big kid. AND he does. It's unbelievable what he's capacble of. Check out the video below.

And Jack has also learned his numbers and letters. He has far surpassed Eban with the retention of letters and numbers and this causes Eban to get really frustrated as Jack easily recognizes letters and numbers while it takes Eban a little more time to articulate it/or know it. I'm cautious with this as Eban has gotten very sad because he thinks he's more "stupid" than Jack. I try to tell him that we all learn at different paces and that he's very smart. But it's still hard on him to see Jack look at the keyboard and easily pick out numbers/letters.

While Patti was here she was able to see Ryan sing at Earthfest in Boulder. The rules were laid out before we left - no crashing the stage and no crying. The boys even told Grandma the rules so that she would be sure to know that she couldn't crash the stage or cry. Well, it was a hippie extravaganza!! Driving into Boulder, there was a place flying overhead trailing a sign that said, "Light It Up!" Patti couldn't believe that they would so blatantly advertise marijuana. I laughed and said it was Colorado and Boulder...

The show was great. Liza and Ryan did a great job and all the kids at the show loved it. Jack stood at the edge of the stage and just looked up at Ryan smiling in adoration most of the time. Eban ran around. He hammed it up for a photographer and I love how I caught him in the act. Kalea, Liza's little girl, crashed the stage and I thought it was great as my kids weren't the only ones to do that. Kalea even one-upped the boys by putting her hands over her ears as the music was too loud. It was so funny to see how expressive she was!

But my favorite picture is the one below...by far - my favorite!

Eban reading/singing Wheels on the Bus to Jack for naptime

Wild Animal Sanctuary

Tidbit of Ryan and Liza singing

Jack Doing his Numbers

Jack Playing Baseball