The Katie-Girl Turns 6

Shad started a tradition this year that he takes the birthday kid out to lunch on their birthday. But Katie asked the day before if we could go to the zoo for her birthday activity. So Shad took her out to breakfast at IHOP since we'd be at the zoo for lunch. Katie got cupcake pancakes with a fried egg and sausage.

And IHOP gives ice cream sundaes for birthdays. The waitress asked Shad if he wanted to do that for breakfast. Heck yes!

Katie has wanted an American Girl doll all year. This summer I found out that my old doll was still in a storage box at my mom's house. While Katie was at IHOP with Shad, I staged the doll in her room. I've always been a music-oriented person, so I had a violin and flute for my doll. I figured I'd give some accessories now and save some for later.

Katie loved the doll and named her Lindsey Stirling.

Sam wanted a picture, too. And he just loves on Lindsey and thinks she's so cute.

Our first time going to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We bought a membership and have been making good use of it, going monthly since Katie's birthday. Petting giraffes is fun!

There's an old metal airplane overlooking the elephant exhibit.

The sun was really bright.

{Thora, Dancy, Katie, Tommy, Shad}

Shad's favorite exhibit was the mountain lion. You just get to get so close to it.

{Samson, Katie, Tommy, Megan}

Shad wondered if the lion wasn't eyeing our tiny human.

The moose was also really close. In the Denver Zoo, most of the enclosures are a distance away and have only one vantage point. But at Cheyenne Mountain, the enclosures are closer and have multiple viewing points, so we almost always see the animals.

The Zoo is on a mountainside, so the further in you go, the further up you go. Good views.

The peacocks get very friendly, begging for lunch donations.

And sometimes stealing. This one came and stole a graham cracker from our stroller!

I'm pretty sure we were trying to get a picture in front of the tigers, since that's a common favorite, but I can't see any in this shot.

{Samson, Shad, Katie, Thora, Megan, Dancy, Tommy}

Wallabies lounging in the grass!

(Katie dressed up special for her birthday)

We all had fun and half of the humans fell asleep on the drive home.

Exploring October

After we got mostly unpacked, we started going out exploring. I found East Library, which is a huge library with many activities all the time, storytime for kids, and the Educational Resource Center (ERC) on the second floor (which we also love). I started taking the kids to storytime, and once a lady told me about a Forest Explorers group that she takes her kids to. 

We loved the Forest Explorers the first couple weeks we went, but as it got colder (which still wasn't very cold), Thora and Sam started to make such a fuss that I had to stop going. We'll see our forest friends again when it's warmer. I just can't stand two hours of two clingy, fussy kids who refuse to do anything but cling and fuss. Plus, I need to stay home for a while anyway to potty train Thora. That'll start next week.

Anyway, I digressed. Here's a few pictures of happy foresting and "adventuring."

{Dancy and Samson}

This picture is actually a big deal. I've described Dancy as a 'timid mouse' for a long time. She's just afraid of so many things! But here, she broke out of her fear and started to explore and push her comfort zone. She even crossed the stream once or twice.

Thora and Samson

At home, Samson really bonded with Shad while he was with us for so long. Shad didn't start work until November 13, and Samson loved having his dadda buddy every day.

Only the night before did I decide to go to my pseudo-high school 10-year reunion. I'm on the fence, leaning toward indifferent, regarding high school reunions. But I graduated a year early from high school, so my true 10-year was last year (which I didn't attend).

It was a double reunion for the 20-year and 10-year classes, and I actually knew a few people in the '97 class. That's my oldest sister's class.

 

We got to tour Overland, as well as the science building where the bus loop used to be. The kids took turns testing the flight gear in one of the classrooms.

Why anyone would care that alumni from '07 are at the homecoming game is beyond me. But I had fun catching up with Xuy.

We had stayed at my mom's house that weekend and when we were ready to leave, Lori noticed that Mom and Thora were matching. So we took a picture.

And in case you've ever wondered why it's difficult to get a good picture of a three-year-old...

Most of the pictures I snap come out blurry.

And then we needed Lori, too! I've got this picture for my phone background and the previous one for my lock screen so Samson can see his Gamma and Lori all the time.

Because our HOA says that leaves can't be in the street, Shad took the kids out to sweep them up.

Happy workers!

{Dancy, Katie, Tommy, Samson, Thora}

Samson fell asleep on the floor in the hall.

Okay, so Thora's birthday happened. Her birthday was two weeks after we moved. I don't remember anything we gave her, but my mom and Lori came down for dinner, which was salmon, couscous, and broccoli, Thora's favorite dinner. Brownies with big purple pearl candies for dessert. They didn't even cool enough before I put the candles in, so we had some waxy bits. Lori and Mom/Grandma brought a box of clothes that they had picked up at a giveaway for all the kids. Thora once again declined getting her ears pierced. She was all for it months ago until I wanted to make sure her consent was informed and I gave her ear lobe a pinch to demonstrate the short pain. She's been turned off the idea ever since.

Some time after Thora's birthday, we went to Target (her new favorite store) to look around for her to spend her Grandma gift money. While perusing the toy aisles, Shad joked about having Thora buy Wonder Woman so we could watch it again. I told him he couldn't use his daughter like that. But when we all walked to the DVD section, Thora saw the display of Wonder Woman and shrieked with delight! "Oh, it's my WONDER WOMAN!!" I told her that she had some money from Grandma and she shrieked further, "I can BUY it?!!" That settled it. We spent two nights working on watching the movie.

{Dancy, Thora, Katie, Tommy}

I love so many things about this picture. This boy's face. His hair. His suave pjs. And he just found his Lori.

Long Awaited Change

Last I wrote, I left off with our departure from Kansas. I'll continue with establishing life in Colorado.

Oh, happy morning seeing mountains! Samson and Thora are the ones who comment on this the most. They both love seeing their mountains. Even now, three months later, they adore their mountains daily. I love this window, so there'll be plenty of pictures from it.

The original plan for the move in was that Shad's mom, Pris, would take the kids to the park across the street so they'd be out of the way. But then it was getting to nap time and rain was expected, so they hung out on the couch watching movies. Exhaustion prevailed over Katie.

Everything went well with moving in. Shad arrived with the truck almost 2 hours sooner than I expected him to. Dan, Tabitha, Vern, Levi, and Ruth all came to help and arrived before people from church were scheduled to, so we started unloading early. Then when people from church started showing up, they were all energized and ready to go. We got the truck unloaded and hauled out to return before the rain started falling. We'd have been working through the rain if we didn't get that earlier start.

It took a week or so to fully get used to the new time zone. The kids were running around wild and crazy and I told them all to sit down and be quiet. Tommy grabbed a book, the rest fell asleep.

Our master bedroom has a double door. When Shad and I would shut ourselves away, Samson would get his blankie, lie down outside our door, and softly kick against the door. He kept this up for a couple weeks.

Unpacking boxes made everything so much more exciting to the kids. Thora was thrilled every time something of hers came out of a box. "Oh, Mom! You packed my Lori! I knew you packed her!"

As a boy with three older sisters who all get their hair fixed in the morning, Samson doesn't like to be left out. He picked out each hair clip and told me to put them in.

Stylin'!

Because going for walks with badminton racquets and walking on retaining walls is fun.

Needing to wake sleeping babes still tugs at my heartstrings. Every time.

I forget what day this was, but it was a warm day in October when loads of other people were out, so we didn't quite make it to Garden of the Gods with the long line of cars. Instead, we pulled off early and walked this trail across the road.

We enjoy seeing different wild plants. I still need to find us a good Colorado flora and fauna book. Hit me up with any recommendations.

I had to convince some of the kids to touch this plant, but it was soft and fuzzy!

Garden of the Gods from a distance.

This boy is studly, wearing my coral flats and pulling them off with his outfit.

First snow in October. Again, my beloved window.

Ah, Colorado sunsets!

Not pictured: all the change-of-state bureaucracy. Driver's licenses, license plates, Medicaid during unemployment, probably more that I'm forgetting. But on a more exciting note, I started getting editing jobs. This was not something we were planning on, and I haven't worked in such a long time, so starting part-time editing on a spur-of-the-moment whim while in the midst of settling from a move was chaotic, to say the least. But so far, I've picked up an independent author's novel, a game rulebook for a board game publisher, and a personal statement essay for a PhD application. Still waiting to get the rulebook back for my second pass, and will start the second pass of the novel next week.