Earth Day

To celebrate Earth Day, Lukey, Dee Dee and I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens. I love going there in the Spring and its such a great way to honor Earth Day. The Botanic Gardens is in one of the older neighborhoods in Denver. The gardens are flanked by beautiful old mansions, Cheesman Park and high rise apartments. It is a lovely and tranquil oasis surrounded by city busyness.

DeeDee and Lukey were less impressed with all the blooming flowers than I was. They immediately began to run through the gardens trying to set some sort of land speed record for plant viewing. Luckily, trying to drown themselves in the water features and shredding the flowers at eye level helped slow them down. At least its never boring to go places with DeeDee and Lukey!

We ended up traveling the same direction as an older couple who thought DeeDee and Lucas were the cutest things they had ever seen. The gentleman told Lukey that he was going to call him Buckshot and his sister would be Pansy. Lucas loved the name Buckshot and to prove it had to YELL, "BUCKSHOT...BUCKSHOT..." in a very loud, piercing voice for well over a minute. I know that doesn't seem like a long time...but it is! The couple loved it and egged him on...much to my embarrassment.

The picture is of the kids being coy with the older couple who found them so, very cute. (I should have got a picture of the couple...but that would have taken a lot of thought on my part!)
It was a great way to spend a morning and to celebrate Earth Day!

Micky Donalds and a day at the park

Today we needed an outing, I needed to get out of the house and DeeDee and Lucas NEEDED to run around. After chatting about it we decided to go to Micky Donalds (McDonalds) and go to a local park for a picnic.

We decided to go to the Arvada Center and visit the dragon. The flowering plums were in full bloom, it was beautiful.

The day was warm, but not too warm and not a cloud in the sky. While we were having our picnic, DeeDee was being very loving with Lucas. I, wanting to believe my kids REALLY do love each other, snapped this picture for later proof.

It wasn't until I got home and downloaded the pictures, that I realized, DeeDee wasn't looking at her brother lovingly she was loving on the McNugget. I take comfort in the fact that she just looked lovingly at the McNugget and didn't wrestle it away from him like two chimpanzeesfighting over the last banana. Ahhh, sibling love...

Snowy Days and Olympic Events

For the love all that’s good, It’s April!!! Make the snow go away NOW! I feel like I have snow day turrets. Every time someone says, "snow" I spit out a swear word!

I’m going to try and be philosophical about it…its April and maybe this will be the last storm…please?

The babies are taking it pretty well, to pass the time they’ve been training for what could be great Olympic events:

(All events need at least two participants; preschoolers are preferred.)

The first event will be called: Good Chair/Bad Chair.

The Rules: Find two chairs that are the same in every way, in some bizarre tot ritual decide one is the good chair and one is the bad chair, fight to the death over the good chair. This will be a free style fight; hair pulling, screaming and eye poking are all considered good fun. The winner will be the athlete that can maintain sitting on the chair the longest. The loser will concede the game by shrieking, “MOMMY”!

The second Olympic event is called: Who Can Scream The Loudest

The Rules: Each athlete must be detained in a small room together with good acoustics. (Practicing for the first event is a good way to accomplish this.) Sit facing each other with feet touching. Each participant then places their hands over their own ears. Now the athletes must scream as loud and for as long as they can. The Gold medal winner is the one who shrieks the loudest and in such a horrific manner, that the judge (mommy) thinks that one of the athletes has had his or her eye ripped out.

The next event: The Naked Dash

The Rules: Participants must be naked to participate, for an interesting twist; the athletes may be wet and covered in slippery soap. Selective deafness for this event is a must. No matter what the judge says or yells, do the exact opposite, unless the judge is trying to use reverse psychology, then the participants should do whatever they want. One athlete will allow herself to be removed from a bathtub filled with water and soap by the judge. As soon as the judge turns around to get a towel the athlete will sprint away, the judge will not chase that participant because she still has another athlete in the tub. The remaining participant will also allow himself to be removed from the tub, and then twist away by using Toddler Kung Fu on the judge. Both athletes will then run around the house naked, dripping wet, giggling and screaming. The first to pee on the carpet wins this event. Extra point will be awarded to the one who pees on something that can’t be cleaned…like a book for example.


The final event in the line up (a favorite of the judge): The Nap Off

The Rules: Participants must GO TO SLEEP NOW!!! Points will be awarded to the athlete who doesn’t do any of the other 3 Olympic events while participating in the Nap Off. Further points will be earned by staying in bed, falling asleep the fastest and sleeping the longest. The winner…the judge

Photo Challenge Spring. Go fly a kite...

This weekend we went to the Kite Festival in a nearby park. Watching all those kites brought back memories of being a child and flying kites with my dad. How exciting it was when the kite went so high in the sky. Trying to imagine what it would be like to touch the clouds. I loved the feeling of the wind’s power dancing through the string into my little hands. Spring, to me, means wild breezes that come and go, and kids laughing, out of breath from getting their kites to defy gravity.

Kite DaysA kite, a sky, and a good firm breeze,And acres of ground away from trees,And one hundred yards of clean, strong string -O boy, o boy! I call that spring!
- Mark Sawyer