Annual Father's Day Hike

 Happy Father's Day to my sweet husband.  We took our 3rd (or 4th, can't quite remember) annual Father's Day Hike this morning to Roxborough State Park.  It was a hot day, so we left shortly after our early breakfast this morning.  The boys did a pretty good job - it was a 3 mile hike and we were in the Foothills - so we didn't have the benefit of cooler mountain air.  Roxborough is a beautiful area with stunning red sandstone formations - and the best part is that it is close to home.

 We could see Denver in the distance - probably about 30 miles from this point.  It is pretty hazy due to the smoke from the fire in the mountains in the northern part of the state.

 I have two of the most blessed little boys - they have a wonderful, caring,  and involved father.  I love that Greg always wants to spend Father's Day doing things with his family. Although he did say that he would like to petition the president to move Father's Day to October so he could spend the whole day watching football - doesn't sound much different than any other Sunday during football season :)

Birthday Boys

 The boys turned 6 on June 7.  I finished school the day before, so we have been busy with our summer activities.  They had a great birthday and we really enjoyed having a low key family thing after their crazy birthday party. 

 Luke is our little tree hugger and he has been asking to recycle for a long time.  We don't  - my excuse is that I'm from Texas and I don't care, plus there are plenty of crunchy-granolas in Boulder to make up for it - Greg's excuse is that he doesn't want to pay $10 a month for someone to make money off our our trash.  But for Luke's birthday, we got him recycling bins.  He was so excited and shouted "Awesome" as soon as he opened the box.  He now has them in the garage with homemade signs attached so we know what item goes in which bin.

 We got Ryan a golf set.  He took lessons at school this year and seemed to really like it - so Greg found these on Craigslist and that our just his size.  Now we need to get Greg some clubs and he and Ryan can go to the driving range together.

 Ryan was so happy and he gave Greg a huge hug and a big thank you for getting these for him.

 The night before their birthday after they went to bed, I crepe-paper bombed their bedroom - I heard them get up at 6 the next morning taking all of the balloons downstairs - they were really pretty excited about it.

 Here is a link to see how much they've grown in the last 6 years.

 Lastly - a picture of Grandad and the boys.  Grandad put up a hammock in our backyard and the boys have had a great time playing in it. 

Overall - we had a great birthday.  I can't believe that they are 6 and going into 1st grade.  I love how their personalities and sense of humor continue to grow and develop each day.  They continually surprise me with the insightful and funny things that come out of their sweet little mouths.

Mad Scientist Birthday Party

 We had the boys' 6th Birthday Party today.  It was a couple of hours of somewhat organized chaos.  But I think the kids all had fun and the adults were all exhausted.  We had the kids in 5 different centers doing different "science" kind of things.  I didn't get good pictures of each of the experiments - but I think I captured the chaos and Ryan and Luke's excitement.

 

 The planning began several weeks ago.  Most of the ideas came from various blogs, as well as, www.stevespangler.com I was able to borrow some shade tents from people at school, which helped us deal with the 90 degree heat.  We were up early this morning getting everything organized and set up.

 

 Nana was enlisted to help the kids create their own lava lamps.

 Stephanie helped the kids make their own slime.  This was a perfect experiment for a former 3rd grade teacher.  She handled it with lots of patience and the kids loved it.  Ryan really enjoyed mixing his glue and water together.

 Luke loved making the elephant toothpaste.  Greg manned this messy station, along with enlisting the help of a dad of one of their preschool friends.

 

 I think Ryan is making insta-snow in this picture with Grandma, and Grandad is in the background helping the kids with the swirling colors of milk.

 

Not sure what Luke is doing here, but he was pretty excited about it.

  

 Greg had quite an audience with the Liquid Nitrogen.  He was somewhat scary with some of his demonstrations, but fortunately nobody was injured.  The kids love it.

 

Greg and his longtime childhood friend, Jeff, had a blast making the liquid nitrogen ice cream.  They both have degrees in chemistry, so it was right up their ally.  The only other experiment that I failed to photograph was of the Mentos and Diet Coke - the kids really loved that.

I told the boys that Iwould make them each cupcakes of their choice.  Ryan chose the Hostess/Fauxtess  Cupcakes.  Luke chose these Banana Split Cupcakes.  We also had punch with dried ice to add to the mad scientist effect.

 

 Party favors were some of the experiments that the kids could take home; as well as, a test tube of nerds and a beaker shaped decorated cookie.

 

We had a great time, but I don't know if we will be willing to tackle such a big party again. It is made worse in that we have 2 kids in 2 separate classes with 2 sets of friends.  But that is part of having twins and we don't want to jip either boy because of that.  We'll see what happens next year - I can't believe that they'll be 7 at that time - I can hardly handle them turning 6!

Last Day of School

 My babies are finished with Kindergarten.  They had a wonderful year and they are now so excited to be a "grader" - their own term for any kid at their school grades 1-5.  On their last day of school, they had an Author's Day and then a picnic on the front lawn.  The Author's Day was really cute.  They each showed us the books that they have written this year, as well as their memory books - it was really neat to see how they have progressed from the first day to the last.

 

Luke enjoyed drawing on the sidewalk during his picnic.

 

 Ryan enjoyed playing with the bubbles.  He also really wanted a birthday crown and he his teacher was nice enough to give him one on the last day.

 

 Luke and his wonderful first teacher.  She was born to teach Kindergarten and he couldn't have had a better start.

 Ryan and his great teacher.  She is super experienced and was really good at helping him to control his sillies and focus.  He made some really big strides this year.

And of course - here they are on their first day of school - they have grown so much.

Field Day

 The boys had Field Day this week.  I had told them that this is one of the best days of the school year in elementary school.  So they had high expectations and I don't think they were disappointed.  Ryan is above cheering his classmate on in the 40 yard dash.

 Ryan on the bouncy ball thing.  He liked to cheat at this one and run more than jump.

 But he was a great cheerleader.

 The K-2 grades had class activities.  Apparently they do the individual competitions starting in 3rd grade.  I always loved the track and field type stuff.  But the boys did a ton of fun stuff, including playing with the giant parachute which is always a fun kindergarten activity.

 Ryan also had fun playing with the lacrosse stick.  This is apparently one of the fastest growing sports in America - I don't see a future in that right now.

 And the most popular activity was Star Wars Tag - which was hilarious with 25 kids playing at once.  Ryan was tagged here and was waiting for a blue teammate to come by and set him free.

 Luke had a blast with his class.  He and his sweet little best friend had a great time turning the hula hoops into props rather than using them for their intended purpose.  Typical Luke stuff - I think they were playing some kind of game involving volcanoes and piranhas.

 Luke and his best friend, Henry.

 Star Wars Tag - Luke was practicing his Darth Mal pose.

 Small glimpse of the class chaos of the activity.

 Field Day was originally scheduled for Monday, but it was rained out.  Wednesday ended up being a beautiful and hot day - lots of water was in order.  Overall it was a great day and a good way to help wrap up a great 1st year of school

 Luke waiting for instructions with the parachute.