Quick catch up

 The fall is already upon  us and I haven't posted since summer!  Part of it is we've lost another camera and what fun is a post without pictures?  I've been taking them with my phone which has worked well until I was unable to upload... Ugh, but problem solved and here are my cuties!

Kindergarten John and Preschool Colin on their first day! 

 Oh brothers!

 Sister after a bath, doesn't she look stunning?! 

 Soccer season is upon us and it's Colin's first season.  Though you wouldn't know it watching him play!  This was after his first goal, which was followed by another during that game and 5 more the next game.  Meanwhile John is still dancing....

 Em LOVES the wagon, seriously can't get enough!  You can pull her all day and she wants MO

 Tree climbing fools!!

 After bath silliness!  I adore these children!

 Emerson took a header off the coach and got quite the goose egg and our family's first black eye, it's even more impressive now.  Poor girl!

Prince Colin, well that is what they  will be calling him next week when he is the LHS prince for the Homecoming.  I figured I'd be there anyway...  Such a ham.  He tells everyone how fancy he is...

Okay hopefully more soon!  Already working on our fall bucket list!! Big Loves!

Summer Bucket

There is NO WAY we only have two more days of summer!  It feels like we just got out of school, how can we be going back.  But alas, it's true the lazy days of summer are just about over and the crisp morning air is helping usher in the scheduled school days.  Lots of pictures to come from the first day I send TWO kiddos on Thursday.

As for the summer, clearly we were busy which is why there isn't many posts, so let's play catch up!
This year we made a Summer Bucket List and put it on the kitchen chalk board so we could see it every day.  Everyone added items and that helped everyone buy into it!  With only 2 more days and 4 more things I think we've done an awesome job!  We have plans to do the final 4 too:)


Our Summer Bucket List

1. Make homemade ice cream (Made vanilla that we are still enjoying, it is just SO good!)
2. Make ice cream sundaes (At a birthday party, the boys were in heaven!)
3. Mow (Like every day, with bubble mowers, plastic mowers real mowers the works)

4. Landfill (Seth took the kids this weekend, Colin was in heaven)
5. Make S'mores (A couple times, camping and with friends)
6. Go to a new pool (We went to The Bay with the big boys, so fun)
7. Go to a new farmers market
8. Pick fruit (went this morning and had a blast, it was a perfect day for it!)

9. Have a lemonade stand
(Wednesday)
10. Swim at a beach
(tomorrow)
11. Camp in the yard (Seth is such a trouper, and yet they slept in until 8)
12. Go camping (In our new to us pop up camper, SO fun, but hot... Really should do it again) Here's a post Katy wrote about it
13. Go hiking (Mimi took the boys, they had a blast)

14. Run through the sprinklers (Probably more than 10 times, it was a hot summer)

15. Play putt putt
(schedule for the 19th)


Awesome list right? And we did so many things NOT on the list that were so fun. And yet, because of yet another lost camera, not a ton of pictures, I know you're not surprised:)

 Weekend at the condo

 Downtown Denver with friends, rode a bus and got frozen yogurt

 Another weekend at the condo, got stuck in a crazy rainstorm.  Colin's not thrilled

 Seth rode over 150 miles on his bike for the Children's Hospital

 John lost 2 teeth!

 My green thumb finally came in, seriously best garden ever!

 Emmy sat on a potty, no pee pee yet, but we'll give her a bit more time. 

This summer has been amazing, I can't believe it's coming to an end and yet, I'm already excited to make a Fall List.  It really focused our days at times and made us do things we wouldn't have done otherwise.  I will probably come back and add more pictures. 

Just call me Martha, or Happy 4th!

 Fourth of July is serious business around Longmont and my bff Katy and I took it to the next level this year, competing in the Longmont Picnic Contest. 

It has now become our tradition to have all of our friends meet up before the big concert in the park and have all the kids decorate their bikes. Last year after we all about died from the extreme heat parading from our house to the park, we decided that we would meet at the park and just parade around the park before the concert. We did just that this year, and it was perfect. Our parade has changed from mainly strollers and wagons to scooters and big kid bikes as our kids have gotten older, and we have some new babies in the group, so it just keeps growing each year!

And they're off! Notice John and Colin's shirts that I made from a handme down tie die.

Each year, there is a contest for the best picnic set-up at the park. We have never participated before, but this year we really got into it combine all of our party planning experience for a tablescape that we can now call award winning.  All of our friends and families humored us and we set up a pretty awesome patriotic tent/tablescape/picnic spread. Here is most of the crew.

 Here we are with our finished tablescape. We got to the park at 9am to stake out an ideal shady location next to the playground and spent time perfecting our decorations before everyone else arrived.

Every single thing on the table played into our Stars and Stripes theme.  We warned them it wouldn't make the table if it didn't.  Luckily we have really understanding friends:)  Highlights included: sliders, which made the paper here, layered Jello shots , custom water bottle wrappers and other stickers, a red, white and blue layered punch, 7 layer dip with an American flag on top , a trifle with a star on top, table runner sewn for the event, fruit flag , patriotic pasta salad, and pretzel sparklers.

When the judges came to our table, we had our kids sing Yankee Doodle Dandee. We thought it added that little something extra.

There were 24 entries in the contest this year, and we came in 3rd. Not too shabby for our first time. We took notes and are already planning next year's tablescape. We figure if we had won the first time we entered, it would have been kind of anti-climatic anyway. Now we have something to work towards. We won a family movie night themed gift basket with candy, popcorn, and movies, and a gift certificate to get our oil changed.

Both of us felt very validated by all of our over the top efforts in decor and food when no less than 10 strangers stopped to take photos of our spread, and multiple people also stopped and asked if they could buy our food. We are good at picnicing!

We headed home for naps after the concert and reconvened at our house that evening for a barbeque. All the kids had a great time playing together, and the adults enjoyed patriotic mojitos, good food and Katy's patriotic playlist that has been accumulating songs for the past 4 years.

The kids' table chowing down on hot dogs and/or black bean burgers, fruit, chips and pasta salad.

How many kids can fit in a wagon?

4 kids didn't seem to be pushing the limits of the wagon enough, so Mac and Cam crammed themselves in for a few spins around the yard.

All the kids had patriotic outfits, and Em even had a day AND night outfit.  I think she is just the cutest kiddo!

John, Colin and James doing an impromptu jam session/dance party on the picnic table after dinner. I really wish this was a video because Colin and James' had some seriously awesome moves.

Patriotic bomb pops are really the only way to end a 4th of July meal if you are a kid.

Look how much everyone (Minus Riley and the babies) has grown from last year:

Longmont, along with many other Colorado towns has a fire ban for the rest of the summer, which includes ALL fireworks-even sparklers. I have to admit that I was a little bummed, fireworks are one of my all time favorite things, but we all came inside, turned off the lights and watched NYC's fireworks show on tv and all the kids had a dance party to Katy Perry's Fireworks.
Like most Nichols' parties, this one ended with a little nudity and table dancing.  Just checking if you were sill reading:)

Happy Independence Day!

Most of this post was clearly stolen from Katy's blog, and used for my own :)  Thanks Katy!

Emerson Anne is 1 year!

I am having a hard time believing our beautiful baby girl is 1, it seems like a was JUST pregnant!  It has been amazing watching her grow into herself, seeing how she has changed her brothers and watching our family find it's rhythm. 
We celebrated at home with a ladybug themed party with close friends and family. Again Katy did all the photoshopping, and took the pictures.

 Looking for lady bugs!

 The O face, she does this a lot!

Happy birthday Wemerson!  We LOVE you!!!!