Out like a Lion

Most years April is a gateway month and once again that is proving to be true.  May is CRAZY around here with 4 birthdays, mother's day, and the end of school/start of summer.  This year we are also helping with a survivor celebration, and hosting a shower.  Phew!  But we have managed to get a few fun things in between all the planning and snow!
Last year Seth made our kids an amazing picnic table:

Then he started making them for friends and even selling them on craigslist.  It's been an easy gig.  Well using the same site for plans he built this adult table and bench so that our whole family of 5 could eat together. 

So far it's been much to snowy to use it, but rumor is it is suppose to be 70* this weekend!  Goodness our family is ready!  Big plans to grill pizza on Saturday!! 

He's also promised to make 2 lounge chairs and a couch, AND a little bar/serving area/potting table.  Hosting this shower has been awesome for the honey do list, now if the snow would stop long enough to actually enjoy it all!

 

And this past weekend my girl friends and I (the group Seth refers to as the Fab 5) ran another 5k in city park.  The only night it hasn't rained or snowed in weeks!  We were SO happy!  It was a nigh run and was called the Rave Run, so lots of loud music and lights.  Although I wasn't running for speed as I got to run with one of my besties Lindsay who was running for the the second time EVER, I did feel great and our time wasn't horrible.  I have 6.2 miles to go to hit my April goal of 30 miles so I'm sure I'll hit it!  Last month I ran 20 and before that, like 7. 

I am SO lucky to have such an amazing group of women to call my friends!  It has been such an amazing experience to learn to run with them, watch our children grow, and even become mothers together. 

 

Meanwhile, the kids are also staying busy with sports of their own!

Both John and Colin are playing Spring Soccer.  This is John's last year to be with the girls, and I'm not sure whether he will continue.

Colin's favorite part is still snack, but he also has 2 goal so far:)

 Emerson started a little gymnastic class 2 weeks ago.  She loves it and my furniture enjoys the slight reprieve.  She is SUCH a monkey and loves every part of the class, so we are going to sign up for a summer class at big gym over the summer.

I got to go to PROM!  The school where I work needed one more helper so I was my friend Anne's date.  We proved how old we were by yawning lots the last hour, but I had SO much fun hanging out with her and seeing all my cheerleaders all dressed up.

 John went snow shoeing with my mom last week and really enjoyed it.  Apparently he didn't whine the entire time!

 And finally this is what Seth and Rudy have been doing every chance they get, which for Seth is never and for Rudy is always:)  Poor Seth exhausted!
Rudy is growing like a weed and is 6 months old already!!!  Tomorrow he is heading in for the doggie snip snip.  All good juju welcome.  He is an AMAZING dog and I am so so happy he is part of our family!

 

It's not easy being green, or is it?

For the second year we and our friends have had a Leprechaun party.  As with many things since the advent of Pintrest, it was taken to a whole new level:

Also with the help of a recent craft night, my St. Paddy's flair was multiplied:

 

And because it was the end of an era, I printed this to remind me of when they were little, and just how lucky we are!

This picture shows just what everyone else sees, I guess they DO look alike!

I had Courtney watch the kids Thursday afternoon so I could take them one at a time on a "date". 

Emerson, didn't really choose, but I do know that she loves nuggets, and animals so lunch and the pet store it was!

 
Colin chose bowling where after two rounds, I gave up.  Turns out he's really good, and my sore wrist reminds me that I lost, 3 days later.

John has been BEGGING to go to the pottery painting place to paint something to keep since we went at the beginning of the month, so we did.

It was very fun to see each of them alone, doing something that they wanted to do. 


I took a class on how to make a dress, it turned out great and I'm excited to put my new found knowledge to work!  Look out fabric world!  Em didn't not feel the same way about the dress:(

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!