The best big sister

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Mason suddenly has an insatiable hunger for reading. This a great thing, of course, but sometimes my hands are full and I can't drop what I'm doing just then to read. Enter: The best big sister!

Moments with Mason

Papa's boy

Yeehaaww!

Tub time

These two look suspicious.

Snap shots

The girls came over for a PTA meeting last week and brought
these chocolate croissants which were left a little to close
to the edge of the counter. Busted, Mason! But not before
he could stuff his mouth full of croissant!

Mackenzie has been asking to wear my wedding day
pearls for a while now. She is so excited not because of the " bling factor"
of wearing jewelry but because they are from real clams or oysters.

Peas in a pod. Mack and Kaleb

Colorful!

Annie, Emily and I had a really great time at the Color Me RAD 5k last weekend! It sure lived up to it's colorful name!

Before the Race

After the race

The shower needed a shower after I was done!

This event was so well planned and executed . 7,000 people turned out for it and we didn't wait
in line for more than 2 or 3 minutes at check in and we had no issues getting out of the parking lot! I definitely recommend this one.

Looking like a smurf was fun at the drive through after the race.

Bubble gum

Mason is enthralled with bubble gum so when he sees someone chewing it, he mimics them and it ranks right up there with the cutest things I've ever seen. Check it out:

Goofy to the max

PTSA

This summer , Mack and I met one of her preschool classmates, Riley, his mom, Kristi and Riley's three brother's at the park to play. Kristi told me about PTSA and how in need of help they are ( while there are plenty of members, only a handful of those are active). Her enthusiasm for it and her drive to make our school the best place for our kids to be was contagious. I joined and convinced Becky to do the same. We got right to work , meeting several times a week since August, and have been working each day after we drop the kids off  at school,to get things going for the year. Sadly, our PTSA has low membership so, on top of all the other PTSA duties, we are trying to focus on bringing in ( and retaining) new members. Any free time I thought I'd have, has been gladly spent with the PTSA girls , brainstorming, making phone calls and with our heads behind lap tops and phone screens, all in efforts to build up what is a vital part of  school. While we are busy with all of that, our younger kids have fun playing together.

The three buddies, checkin' out Mack's fish tank.

If you don't hear from me, check the PTSA office. I may have fallen asleep in there!

Schools in session

The morning finally dawned. The First Day of School. Mack, who was still sleeping heavily, woke easily and skittered to get dressed. As she ate breakfast, I could sense that she was a bit nervous but she danced out the door when the time came to head to school. Of course I had my camera in hand to capture this big event!

In peds, when the kids were the same height and weight, we always
told them they were square. On the first day of kindergarten, Mack was square!

Lunchbox humor

So grown up!

Neighbors and classmates. Mack has been spending her
recess time playing with Ashley :)

On her way to class!

Three days into the school year, Mack is enjoying her teacher, Mrs. Solliday and her new friends in her class! Because of a necessary increase in security, the mornings at school have been a bit hectic but it's manageable and I feel better knowing the school is focusing on safety . For as emotional as I was leading up to " the big day", I can tell Mackenzie is having a good time in school. The start of school is timely since Mason is in need of lots of one on one time . I notice that, with all the attention he gets during the day, he is far happier and eager to play on his own when Mackenzie gets home, leaving me with time to catch up on the cuddles and hugs and little details of her day that I miss while she is in school.  Off to a good start for the 2013-2014 school year!

Park day before school day

Becky and James invited us to a park in Longmont to spend the last day of summer vacation searching for crawdads ( crawfish or crayfish) at one of the parks there. I think Mackenzie might put event near the top of her " all time favorite" things to do! Between Mackenzie, James and a few other kids who came and went as their parents let them, they spent an hour and a half tempting the mini-lobster-like guys with bit of hotdog tied to a string that was tied to a stick. In that time, they caught at least 100 crawdads ( a mere estimation on my part as Becky and I were not about to go digging in the bucket of agitated pinchers to find out for sure) . Mason wasn't happy that he wasn't being allowed to climb into the water to catch a few of his own but even still, we all had so much fun and wished we'd found this little gem of a park sooner in the summer.

Mack was the only girl among the crowd of kids and she was the only one among them all
that was brave enough to pick the crawdads up.

The crawdad habitat.

Interested, Mason?

These two are such " eye candy" for my camera. They are so much fun to
listen to . Becky said she thinks this looks like a C.S. Lewis type picture. Narnia might be beyond
those trees.

It's been so much fun getting to know Becky. Fully and proudly Irish ( with the temper to match, she says)  she has been great at encouraging me to step outside of my shell . With their Irish blooded boy and my Scotish/Irish heritage in Mack , you never know when a tiff will arise between Mack and James but, if nothing else, keeps things interesting! Now to introduce Mike and Ruben, two micro-beer loving, philosophical types to see if they hit it off, too.

Side note: Days later, Mackenzie is still talking about how cute crawdads were and is working up to convincing her daddy that they could keep one for a pet. To be continued...

Visions of .....

What started like this, ended up like this:

Mackenzie got glasses! 

 For all we knew,Mack was seeing perfectly fine. She breezed through the eye exams at her preschool last year and her well child exam this spring  but, because Mike and I have been long time wearers of glasses, her pediatrician thought she should have a quick baseline exam before school started. I scheduled both Mack and myself an appointment at the office I've visited since my first pair of glasses in 4th grade. Mack had to be super brave because they my exam with the doctor while she did part of her exam with the techs. The doctor and I giggled as we could hear her chattering away through all the preliminary tests. She even handled " The Puff of Air" ( which receives capitals in our house for all it's awfulness) like a champ! Dr. Simonson finished with my exam and started Mackenzie's. First of all, an eye exam for a 5 year old is really tough. It's tough for ME  at times. Mack handled it all so well. Between her patience ,the patience of the doctor and eye dilating drops, we figured out that Mack is far sighted with a pronounced astigmatism in her right eye. Glasses were prescribed, a dance of joy was done ( by Mack) and frames were picked! They came in the day before school was to start  and Mack has been in love with them ever since, taking them off  when she ballet leaps or plays rough. 

One last hurrah

 Off we go again! We wanted to celebrate the last weekend of summer vacation in a special way . Mack and Mike had both mentioned missing Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. After searching a bit, we found something smaller but similar  and we spent the afternoon strolling through Centennial Village in Greeley . 

Grams and Mackenzie aboard the trolley

The goats had Mason captivated.

Mackenzie learning how to throw a tomahawk.

Mike's turn

This merry-go-round was so much fun! Can we have one?

We finished off the day with pizza and a trip to Murdochs, our favorite farm store where we ran into Papa! Mason hardly knew what to think , seeing Papa away from the farm. Once he recognized him, he could be heard throughout the store calling " Papa! Paaapaa! " to which Papa answered " Hey Muscles!" . It's a good thing the store wasn't busy; we might have cleared the place out.

Autonomy continues

Mackenzie with our tree, Rapunzel's, hair

Mack grows up a little more every day. Yesterday, she put her hair in pigtails. Not just any pigtails but REAL pig tails! She often emerges from her room dressed for the day, in outfits that usually make sense. As school approaches, I said to her how much I would miss her but that I am happy that she's excited for school. She replied " Don't worry, Mom. I'll be fine and you have Mason to keep you company." She is 5 going on 25 and it breaks this mama's heart!

Hair:Done!

I happened to have my camera pointed at her when the fire truck's sirens went off

Being silly

Anatomy of a tantrum

Oh yes. We are definitely in that phase. And in true Mason form, he puts his whole heart into whatever he's doing, including tantrums. Don't get me wrong, 95% of the time, he is one jolly little guy. But it doesn't take much to push him into tantrum mode and once he's there, you have to see the process through. Sometimes a tantrum consists of banging his head on the offending object /nearest object . That usually escalates into full out crying and then leads to the infamous flat on the belly, crying into the floor pose.  And before we know it, the storm clouds pass and the sun comes out again!

Click collage to enlarge

Pretty toes, stinky toes

Mackenzie is looking forward to her second week of ballet! Last week, she had so much fun, declaring that she was going to be a marine biologist, swim teacher AND ballet teacher.  The class is 35 minutes and there are 6 other girls that dance along with Mack. She think it's so funny that ballerinas always have " pretty toes" but likes to do the " pretty toes, stinky toes" stretches ( bringing the toes upward and then stretching them downward). I'm so excited to see Mack learn and watch the recital at the end of the 5 week class. Don't worry, I will record it and post it here!

First position

Pool party and other happenings

Mack and the guys had fun playing together in the pool one afternoon.

And later, Duncan-Mack came out to play

Mike gets the best greetings every morning . Mason
is so excited , he just bursts into giggle fits and follows him saying " DAD! DAD!"

Mack has been wearing her shark tooth lots lately
as she's back into marine biology

The reading corner

Mack was quiet after she got out of the tub and I found her
crouched under her bath towel, reading a book.

Colorful days

Mason isn't quite ready for finger painting but there isn't much that he doesn't want to be apart of.  He is a lot let tempted to eat the paint these days , so that's progress!

Painting pals