More Masterpieces

Dale went through a phase with his art where he cut up little tiny pieces of paper to draw on.  They.  Were.  Everywhere.  I mean, I bent over at least eight million times a day to pick up teeny tiny papers, and oh no, I wasn't allowed to throw away a single one.

I had to come up with a way to pick up all of Dale's art scraps without putting them into the garbage.  The answer?  Collage!  We had a great time making collages for several days, and Dale came up with some fun art works along the way.

Note the picture of Dale and Mommy on the bottom.  ;)

A few weeks earlier, Dale went to see Despicable Me 2 with Monga, so his art was dominated by the subject of minions for several days.

"Trying to turn purple minions back to yellow minions."

"A minion fountain with toilets.  And they just wipe with toilet paper and pull pants up and wash their hands."

Finally when Dale was done drawing minions he came up with this "shark alien with the sun and the dark and the lightening and the rain."

As for Rose, she loves to use every marker or crayon she can reach, and her pieces end up being very colorful and vibrant.

Smooshy Squishy Cuddly Love

Cutie pie snuggle bunches.  That's what I call my children when they are being so super adorable and cuddly.   That or super pooper schmooper cuddly pie.  Or poopsie woopsie shmuddle cuddle.  Or any variation of the above words.  And they know when they are being cheesy too.  If I get out my camera, they'll ham it right up for me, smiling and giggling and hugging like the best of friends.

If I keep taking pictures and making assorted "ahs" and "heeheehees," then they'll just keep getting lovier and cuddlier...

Until someone kicks someone in the face.  Then it's over.  And it's not really that cute anymore.

Duh Daddy

Dale is so confused.  He doesn't understand why Daddy is taking so long to fix Mommy's computer.

Just do it already, Daddy!

Your Daughter

Dear Daddy,

Why won't you fix Mommy's computer?

Love,

Rose

The Saddest Children Ever

Dearest Hubs,
Do you like our blog?  You do?  Awesome!  Well, in order for me to continue, I need a new hard drive.
Jeez, I hope I get it soon, or else this blog will die, and it will be all your fault.
Love ya!
Wifey poo xoxo

As you can see, the children are very sad that Daddy won't help Mommy's computer.

Denver Zoo

July 16, 2013

Thank goodness I'm not the only one who carries their camera around with them, and my fabulous friend Abbey had a few pictures from our Denver zoo trip that she so generously shared with me.  Thanks, friend.
The heat had been crazy, so I was relieved when there was a slight break in the temperature for our zoo outing.  We let the kids wander around pretty freely, so it felt like we never did get anywhere or see anything.  Oh well, it was still an adventure.

Photo courtesy of Abbey.

Adorable photo of our girls courtesy of Abbey.

I can always count on Dale to stand next to a carpeted gorilla wall for a photo.

While I lost all my pictures from this day, I just so happened to love these two shots of Rose so much that I had emailed them to my mother and therefore saved them forever.  Yay me!  Isn't my Rose gorgeous?

I Lost July

Once upon a time there was a Mommy who loved taking pictures of her beautiful children.  She captured nearly every moment with her camera and then revisited the photos over and over again until many fabulous memories were engraved on her brain forever.  She loved doing this so very much and lived a happy life with her family.
But one day Mommy's whole world was changed when an evil computer decided to erase her photos from the hard drive.  For no reason at all and with no real order or sense, the computer destroyed thousands of pictures, shattering Mommy's perfectly ordered folders and leaving Mommy with random files here and there.
Mommy quickly studied her folders and discovered that she had lost many precious files that she would never recover again.  While some months were only missing a few folders here or there, the entire month of July was gone forever, and all that remained was what she had already saved onto her blog.  Normally Mommy would have been grateful for what she had left, but July was such an important month.  July was life changing for her family.
So although Mommy cannot illustrate the joys of July in her usual way, she can pull together a few tidbits from here and there, so that it will not be forever lost.
I combined photos from my phone and instagram to put together one long moving-from-Kansas post.

Our last drive to Manhattan...  Oh boy did we spend a lot of time these last six months driving back and forth between Kansas and Colorado.  It was a good feeling to know this drive was the last one, and it was nice to look in my rear view mirror and see Daddy driving behind me.

Monga and PawPaw and Grandma and Grandpa paid us a visit on our last weekend before the movers came.  Thanks to them, we have a few photos from that weekend.

The last few days in Manhattan we did some exploring and revisiting.  I took drives with Monga to see sculptures and old graves, we all went to Dale's favorite place, the mall, we studied the architecture of the courthouse, and we drove all over town, making sure we said goodbye to everything we ever laid eyes upon.  We felt happy and ready to go.

We were packed and loaded by a great company, so we barely had to do a thing.  We could instead focus on our future, and it felt so good.  It was, however, strange to see our house empty.

Last night in their Kansas beds.

Once all our visitors had gone and our furniture had been loaded and driven away, we became Manhattan tourists.  We decided to visit the Mariana Kistler Beach Museum of Art at K State.  Dale liked the cow bones, and Rose liked the giant ball hanging from the ceiling.

"Mother and Child" by Henry Varnum Poor and "Happy Birthday Baby" by Jessie Manuel Montes, which is made out of corrugated paperboard.

Our last night in Manhattan we stayed in the new hotel by the Flint Hills Discovery Museum and let our kids splash in the fountains one last time.  And since it was our last night in town, we finally discovered our favorite restaurant called the So Long Saloon.  Go figure.

We woke up the next morning and drove straight to Lucas, KS, a town I've always wanted to visit.  I'm crushed about losing my pictures from our Lucas trip, because this town was awesome in so many ways.  All I have left are a few pictures from our lunch at the Backstreet Bakery and a few more from the giant toilet.  Did I say giant toilet?  Yes, I did, but I cannot possibly tell you any more, since my heart is broken.

Why am I so happy?  Are you kidding me?  I'm inside a giant toilet!

In Colby, KS we said goodbye to the gorilla and wheat Jesus.

Then we said hello to colorful Colorado.

And that's all I have from one of the most important events in our lives.

Mostly I'm just upset about losing those last few days in our Kansas house.  I know, I know, it's not like I don't have thousands of pictures of our kids at that house, but still.  It was different.  The house was empty, but it was swarming with precious memories.  After all, it was the house we brought Rose home to.  It was hard to say goodbye, and I took a million pictures of the house and the city, so that I would remember it all forever.  Maybe it's for the best that it's all gone.  It's time for a fresh start for us, and there is no better place than Colorado to begin anew.

Here we go!

Last Day of Sports Camp

Since Daddy dropped Dale off at sports camp in the morning, Rose got to stand by the tree by herself when we went to pick her brother up a few hours later.

Rose at day four of Dale's sports camp.

While we waited for Dale to be done with his last day of camp, Rose pushed her princesses in the swings.

For the last day of camp, the coaches revisited all three of the sports they taught that week.  I got to the park in time to see Dale shoot some baskets.

He made every one.

He also got to practice blocking.

He was pretty good at that too!

"Get that weak thing out of here!"

Then all the kids got their awards from their coaches.  Dale was the last one to get his award, and when they called his name they introduced him as "Rock Chalk Jayhawk Dale."

Dale's first sports award.  He was so proud.

Independence Day

July 4, 2013

On the morning of the fourth, we headed downtown for the first annual Fort Collins fourth of July parade.  We were all so excited to see what would be coming down the road.

The parade was the perfect length for toddlers and consisted mostly of city vehicles and recreation teams.  Cinderella was walking with the library float, and when she saw Rose, she came right over for a hug.

But she settled for a high five.

After that, Rose was in such a great mood that she played the piano for us.

And of course she gave kisses and hugs to this mountain lion downtown.

Mountain lions do not scare this princess!

That afternoon was so hot that we put our kids in their swimsuits and headed to the park for some splashing.

At first, Rose was not a fan of the splash pad.

But then she kept inching closer.

Meanwhile Dale went bananas soaking himself.

Rose thought that was kind of okay.

Nope, she never really did get in.  But she did stop clutching Daddy's neck, so I guess that's a step.