Injury Prone

Grandma and Grandpa Baer came to visit us the first part of August and watched the kids for a few days, while Luke and I worked. Grandpa decided to take a little spin on Tubbs' scooter...and took a spill. After a visit to the Urgent Care (and an orthopedist)....Grandpa was on the road to recovery. 
The outcome: a sprained right wrist, fractured left wrist...and stitches in the left shin. 

I don't think Grandpa will forget this trip anytime soon. 

I think it's just too bad that someone didn't capture it on video, so Grandpa could relive it over (and over and over) again. Poor Grandpa. :)
Thank goodness for grandparents who entertain the grand kids at all costs....even though I think Grandpa was just looking for a little excitement himself.

Well...week two of school Bubba calls me from school. He was playing kickball at lunch and fell on his wrist, sliding into a base. (Unfortunately, he was out.) :) I took him to the Urgent Care and he has a "Buckle fracture" in his left wrist. Bubba and Grandpa Baer are quite a pair. 

I am just thankful it wasn't his writing hand! Gotta think of the positive, right?! 

Bubba really wanted gray, but since that wasn't an option he went for black. Nice choice, even though it pretty much makes it impossible for anyone to sign his cast.

Wiggy's 4th Birthday

The princess turns four.
Yep. She's four and she knows it.
Four...going on twenty one I think. 
I never had this "problem" with my boys. In fact, they seem to age in reverse. Not Wiggy.

An early morning pic of the birthday girl sleeping....before we wake the Kracken. It's also the first day of school. 

Today is going to be a doozy!

New Princess Sofia backpack for school. Perfect!

Birthday breakfast...pancakes with mini M&M's.

Happy to be back at school with her little amigos!

Her pick for birthday dinner...Red Robin. No doubt..she has been asking to eat here everyday for a week. She loves the macaroni and cheese, with chocolate shake.

She loved her Princess Sofia shirt, Amulet, and puzzle.

Wiggy wanted a Princess Sofia birthday party with her little friends. We invited six girlfriends from school and church and they were all able to make it. 

Yay! 

Since it was a pajama party she was able to open a gift before the party, from Grandma and Grandpa Baer, of Princess Sofia jammies.

We started with some pizza...and it was wild watching a table full of three and four year olds, socializing (and not eating).

Then we rotated girls between different stations : painting nails, princess hair, making bracelets, and face painting.

 I made Wiggy's birthday cake. It was four layers and it was deeee-lish. I highly recommend Duff's confetti cake mix...and I found the buttercream frosting recipe on Pinterest, thanks to my MIL. I found the Sofia cutouts online and printed them on photo paper.

 Wiggy and Miss Brooke

Waiting in line for the piñata....

After the piñata.....holding their bags of sugary goodness.

Ballerina outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Hogue.

More Princess Sofia jammies from Grandma and Grandpa Baer.

Within 30 minutes of the guests leaving...this was Princess Wiggy. Good thing it was a princess pajama party! Happy Birthday lil' Wiggy. I love you big girl!

First Day of School - 2013

First Day of School. First Day of School.
A day I dread every school year. I love summer vay-cay! It's so good to me. No lunches to pack. No kids to pick up form the bus....or worry about because they are home in my bubble.
The last few years Luke hasn't been able to walk the kids to class with me on the first day of school, because he needs to be at his school early. So I go it alone. 
I love these kids. 
It was an early morning. A lot to squeeze in by 7:30am because it was also Miss Pretty Princess Mermaid's 4th birthday. (I can remember like it was yesterday, bringing her home from the hospital, on the first day of school. It was the best first day of school everrrrrr.)

This year Bubba is in the sixth grade and has Mrs. Townson. He weighs in at 126 pounds, is five feet, two inches tall...and wears a size twelve shoe. 
Tubbs is in fourth grade and has Mrs. Leppke. (Bubba had her in fourth and we adore her!) Tubbs weighs in at 102 pounds and is four feet, seven inches tall...and wears a size 6.5 shoe.
Wiggy has Miss Brianna in Pre-K this year. Even though a lady never discloses her weight, she is tipping the scales at a sturdy fifty one pounds and is forty three inches tall.....and wears a size one shoe.
We don't make anything "petite" around here. My little bugs are growing up soooooo fast. Please make time stop! :)

  Trying to get the little birthday diva to cooperate for our usual pics out front before school, was not as easy as years past. Being four gives this girl an official license to express her strong opinions apparently.

Boston 2013

I had a four-day conference in Boston for SharePoint. I wasn't attending with anyone else from work, so I was a little nervous...paranoid...anxious. As I age (and watch more of the news these days) I become more paranoid to travel alone. As the date got closer, Boston started to feel soooo far away from home. I have always wanted to see Boston, but wanted my historical tour guide (aka Luke) to go with me. He did really want to go, but because of the timing, couldn't miss work.
I flew out EARLY on a Saturday morning, because my tutorials started up Sunday morning. 
With a delayed connection in Denver, my plane lands in Boston around 5pm. Before we can get off the plane, state troopers are boarding the plane to remove an older gentleman and his wife. Everyone on the plane was looking around at each other, confused and curious. Welcome to Boston. 
I always get a little weepy when I travel alone, because it's just not very fun being away and in the unknown. After I grabbed my luggage, I couldn't locate a shuttle to take me to the hotel...so I call Luke. On the verge of tears, he got online, made me a reservation and told me where to go. I like that he can take care of me from clear across the country. I just needed to get my bearings and build a little confidence. Everyone I spoke to seemed perfectly friendly...so that helped. I loved hearing them talk with their East coast accents. 
Lucky for me, the hotel was perfectly located. It was close to everything and it felt completely safe to actually walk around. It was completely different from how I felt when I traveled to Atlanta in April. After I checked into the hotel I walked next door to Cheesecake Factory, sat up to the bar and had dinner. The bartender was a nice young girl and I listed to her exchange tales with an older woman who sat next to me.
Sunday morning I attended my tutorial and then decided to purchase a two day trolley tour of Boston. One of the stops was right in front of my hotel, so it was very convenient. I stopped at Quincy Market for a little bit and located "Wicked Good Cupcake," since I saw them appear on "Shark Tank" a few months ago. Amazingly wicked indeed. One of the best cupcakes I have ever had. 
I also took a 45 minute Harbor Tour, that was included in the $35 trolley ticket. It was a great afternoon around the city. The tour had 16 stops and was 90 minutes, if you didn't get off the trolley. The weather was also PERFECT. No humidity and around 81 degrees. I couldn't have asked for a better afternoon for site seeing.

After an afternoon on the trolley, I decided to go on a 6 mile run through Boston Common and Public Garden. On the way back to the hotel I found a few cupcake shops (of course) and some fabulous chicken piccata at an American Restaurant on Newbury Street.

My conference was four days long and I learned a lot of good stuff. If I wasn't sitting in classes/tutorials, I was either eating or running. 

My last morning in Boston I took a seven mile run to see the last few places on my list. I credit the trolley tour for allowing me to see how close everything was and I felt comfortable running everywhere I wanted to visit. Fenway park was less than a mile from my hotel and it was super neat.

I ran over the Charles River to the MIT campus. The day of my trolley tour, they had shut down some of the roads around MIT, for a tribute to Officer Collier, who was killed in a shootout with the Boston marathon bombers in April. It was very cool to see it all up close.

 I flew in at midnight that night and Tubbs was the only bug who stayed awake to greet me. I think he was anxious to see all the treats and souvenirs I had. :)
So happy to be home with my bugs. I did thoroughly enjoy the city of Boston though and I am really looking forward to going back soon with the family.