Blossoms of Lights

Playschool Science Day

 B's amazing teacher hosted a "science day" for all the kids and their siblings a few weeks ago.  She planned out 3 different groups with an activity of interest for each group (including science experiments and activities appropriate for older kids).

Their attention span wasn't quite long enough, but they had a lot of fun anyway.

Magnatiles

These take a strong second place next to Legos in our house.

Holiday Program

Yet another school Holiday Program extravaganza is in the books. I only had to take B through the crowd and back to the bathroom once this year (much better than the three times last year). Ads did choir again this year for his arts elective class so got to participate in a lot of extra songs in the show including a short solo to kick off one song (shown in the video).  LT played the drums in the one piece he was in.

Santa Train and mountain weekend

A few more pics off of my phone.

Holiday Party Season (costume required)

Baking with my little guy

B mans Conference

B showing me his "binder with lots of important information".  Getting to be a big guy.

Santa Train

 On the way home from the mountains, we stopped to ride the Santa Train in Georgetown.  

Mountain Fun

 We had a nice low key family weekend last weekend in the mountains.  I brought up gingerbread houses, we watched a few episodes of "Nailed It!" and while Brian took B swimming, the big guys and I went on a fun snow shoe adventure right out our front door.

Big Performance

Kari and Ads did choir this fall with a group called Voices Rock. The separate practices every week and sometimes additional special rehearsals have added to the already busy family logistics. But it's a great community group with lots of friends and they both really enjoyed doing it  (I think). Things culminated last night with over 900 people in attendance at a sold out performance at DU's Newman Center. The kids performed first followed by the adults and they did one song all together for the grand finale. I'm no music critic but I thought it was a great show and was especially impressed by my wife and middle kiddo. Here are a few photos and short video clips taken from the seats that LT, B and I arrived early to grab at the front of the mezzanine. B did pretty well considering the show was a bit on the long and late side for a 4 year old. He clapped and even sang along to some of the songs. I don't know what happened but I somehow lost the best video I had, which showed him singing along while the adult choir performed Dear Theodosia from Hamilton.  He fell asleep in his chair during the very last song. 

Mountain Time for Mom

 I've had a lot of fun mountain time this fall, both with and without our little family.  A friend of mine planned a weekend getaway to the mountains in early October.  We stopped on the way up and did a really beautiful hike.  It felt like I was gone forever.

Back in the day, Megan and I would hike a few times a month together and this fall we started it up again.  Its been so fun to have all our kids old enough that we can escape together again for hikes.

Dress Yo' Self

 I guess he got the memo that layers are in, but I'm not sure this is what the trend setters had in mind.

Awkward Family Photo

 Traditionally we make cinnamon rolls and put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving.  We had planned on going to the mountains, but given that the highway was shut down all day Friday, we ended up making cinnamon rolls, putting up the tree and going to see "Frozen 2".  It was a really fun day, but somehow these two winner winner awkward family photos are the only ones I took.  I mean, seriously, could they get any worse?!

family

B: "Mom, I think when I grow up, I will marry you.  That way we can be a family."

Kari: "We are already a family buddy."

B: "Oh wait, I can't marry you, that won't work."

Some time passes with no further discussion.

B: "Actually it will work to get married because I think they make adult size superhero shirts"

Thanksgiving

 We had a different Thanksgiving than our past years in Denver (I guess we've had a few vacation Thanksgivings too mixed in...)  We hosted it this time, which is different for us, but it ended up being really yummy and fun.  Brian cooked an amazing turkey, I made a few sides and everyone brought their favorite dishes and it ended up being perfect.  We had three last minute drop outs, so in addition to the extra food we would have had, we had a lot extra, but that made for less cooking the next few days.  Above was the "kids table" which we lucked out having.  The table is actually for our mountain place, but we haven't had a chance to get it up there, which worked out perfectly for this.

And the adult table.  And those are the only pics I took.