Dual dental exams

Mackenzie had her 6 month dental check up and Mason his first dental exam! They both had so much fun with Dr. Rachel and her crew. Mackenzie received glowing accolades for how clean her teeth are and how well cared for her mouth is. Dr. Rachel thinks that loose tooth will hang on for a few more months but anticipates she will have a few out by her next check up. Mack is again part of the " No Cavity Club" and left the office covered in stickers and toting the tell tale bag of goodies , a sign of a successful trip to the dentist.

Mason had fun until it was his turn on the table. I think it's best said that the dentist had no trouble seeing allllll the way to the back of Mason's mouth for all the screaming he was doing. Dr. Rachel is always fast and thorough , so he didn't have long to be upset. She pointed out that Mason is getting all four molars and two canines. We knew some mega-teething was going on from all the crankiness we were experiencing but it was good to know where Mason is in the teething process. 

With all the teething, Dr. Rachel suggested letting Mason have his pacifier more often to soothe him and help with the pain. I fear this is the start of a hard-to break trend but, for now, we go with it. While waiting for a dose of ibuprofen to kick in, I put in a Baby Einsten dvd to try and help settle Mason. Both he and Mack were glued to the screen and it was 20 minutes of peace for all

Binky and Baby Einstein

Mr. Man

I think it's only fair that parents of toddlers should be able to burn twice as many calories than normal. It's hard work keeping up with them! Mason has discovered walking and even more climbing over the last weeks. He is also convinced that chairs are only for standing upon ( who has time for sitting, anyway? Not him...and by extension, me!).  He is overflowing with new words and sounds and is always proud to show off new tricks to anyone who wants to watch.

Look out, world! Mason is bipedal!  For now, crawling
is still much faster than walking. You have to have a
well rested Mason or a really good treat to persuade him to
use his feet . I imagine it won't be more than a few
days before he's full out walking.

I got out Mack's stroller so Mason could
push it around. He surprised me by
coming right over to feed the baby.

Can't quite reach the tops shelf? Easy solution!

Around town

With summer vacation in full swing, we've started filling up the calendar with lots of fun play dates, day trips and classes. I've been so happy to discover how much our little town has to offer. Browsing our rec center catalog and the library's website, I found lots of fun  activities ! This week was the start of both swimming and "Dig into Reading" summer reading program. ( " reading"  for short in our house)

This girl was STOKED about swimming! She, and 5 other preschoolers,
had fun during their first class, learning the basics of being safe in the water.
We're excited to fill our summer with more swimming lessons and time at the pool with friends

Making friends wherever she goes!

Mack was so tickled when she saw James at reading program. The library
hosted " Mr. Shine", a retired teacher who tours the country promoting
early literacy through songs and magic. He was so much fun! Mack has
read enough in the three days following reading program to fill up two
weeks on her reading log.

We met Chantel and Franny at the rec center play ground
for Sidewalk Chalk art in the park. Chantel and Franny are my friends from
high school. It's a lot of fun to have grown up
with them and now see our kids playing together like we used to.

Mini-Missy and Mini-Franny

Poppies abound

We're enjoying another crop of Flanders Poppies! It makes us think of The A. Thueme's since the seeds for our little garden came from their wedding.

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M's on the Mountaintop

Mx4 atop Sugarloaf Mountain

What a treat- Mike had Friday and Saturday off. He had a great idea to head to the Boulder county farmer's market (about half an hour away). We really miss our Saturday mornings in Ann Arbor and thought this would be a nice stand in (It was, and more!). Boulder is in the front mountain range (also called the foothills or just the Front Range) so while we were there, we thought we'd get in a hike-Mackenzie and Mason's first. We had such a great day! Here are photos from our trip.

This balloon artist was popular and required lots of patience while waiting our turn.
Good thing Mack is a pro at patience!

The balloon snake was worth the wait!

Mack with her cute little cupcake.

Getting her face painted

Lookin' good!

Two handsome boys hanging out at the market. Mason was quite the
chick magnet. He even had his picture taken by a stranger!

We all really loved the farmer's market. Mike even thought that it was, in some aspects, better than Ann Arbor's. That says a lot considering his love for Ann Arbor. After enjoying some coffee and gluten free goodies from a local vendor, we stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some lunch and off we went to find Sugarloaf Mountain!

At the trail head!

Mini-hikers

View on the way up! Sugarloaf is about 8500 ft. Not a huge mountain by comparison
 to the many "14ers" in Colorado but this hike was a steep one!

Mack made it to the top first!

Lunch on the mountaintop

The sad, charred reminder of last years brutal fire season

Mike did the hard part, carrying Mason up the mountain. I took him down. He may
as well have had whip and reins and us a bit and halter. When he wanted to go, he'd grab an ear or a fistful
of hair!

Sensational sidewalk and more

For months I've been going through the house and collecting garage sale items, mostly baby gear, with the hopes of having enough money at the end of the sale to revamp our playroom so it was better set up for our needs. At the end of the garage sale, we didn't have enough for what I'd hoped. We deliberated and decided that we'd use the money to work on our front yard instead.

After several trips to Home Depot, we finally gathered all the flowers, tools and cement we needed to add a small bed at the corner of the yard to eat up some of the grass and to extend the driveway over the area that currently held hodge podge rocks.

As we began moving rock and tearing up the (dead) grass, we found out that the previous owners had laid down landscaping cloth under the soil before planting the grass. This is why our grass in the front won't grow- it gets plenty of water but, with the cloth, the roots can't absorb it or get any new nutrients! This is a huge problem but one for another time.

We worked together all weekend and had so much fun doing it. We can't wait to see our creation once the plants start to recover from the trauma of being planted.

We planted all native Colorado plants that require watering only once a week
once established. Along the front ( where the rock still is) we planted four
Russian Sage plants that are doing well!

Our plants from last year have come back beautifully, even after being
moved late last summer. Now I'm waiting for our wildflowers to
show their pretty faces.

Breakfast buddies

Morning, Boy!

With the arrival of summer brings the summer schedule. Mack gets to stay up until 8pm and, with the later bed time, she often sleeps in until 8am. Mason is up and at 'em by 7 so he and Ellie usually have breakfast together:

Cheese!

Ellie likes sitting by Mason because he feeds her generously