Wednesday, November 11, 2009

9 and feeling fine...


our second little man turned 9 on saturday. 9 is one of those ages that you clearly remember and i think really enjoy. there are some childhood development experts that call children between the ages of 9-12 "tweens". not sure we're ready to sign on to that, sigh.

nine things about this nine year old in a nutshell: he loves any/all sports, scouting, shooting things with his brother's bb gun, has teeth that seem too big for his mouth, excels in school especially history, is begging for a bearded dragon (ugh), moves entirely too much, has doubled his appetite and is playing the piano almost completely by ear much to the dismay of his theory driven piano teacher.

nine names that this nine year old knows: teenie, teenst, "e", bean, mr. greenbrains, cranium, "bwotha" (audge), one of the "middles" and ethan ames yanez, on those special occasions.

our ethan. nine to the zillionth power wonderful.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

autumn all around...

without a doubt, fall is our favorite season. and even though we're
not in the midwest, colorado very definitely gets "fall". well, for all of about five minutes. the aspens changing are ab
solute show stoppers, the grasses browning out against the dark pine is picturesque, the breathtakingly big bucks roaming for food (and mates) remind us that winter is nipping at our heels.

in the house, the crockpot comes out, apple dip gets made, devoured and made again. a bowl of honeycrisp apples sits on the counter waiting to be sliced. ideas and preparations for 5 costumes swirl im
aginations and orange lights and jack-o-lanterns adorn the porch.

we welcomed october with a visit to the pumpkin farm resulting with a finger nibbled by a horse named sugar (audrey), followed by a major spill in the only mud puddle in Colorado (audrey again), rubber duck races, a train ride, picking out 5 pumpkins, petting rabbits, horses, a potato sack slide, a head butting camel (it liked sam, TOO much).

school is in full swing and is truly the finest learning institution we've ever seen. there is always something above and beyond going on in their classrooms, truly extraordinary teachers and staff. october has been full of new subjects including the ice age (olivia), the human body (ethan and olivia), a research paper on muslim teenagers (sam). there have been landforms built and eaten out of graham crackers (olivia), elk pelts sown (olivia), archaelogical digs attended (olivia), a field trip to the cliff dwellings (ethan), a music concert with two of our performers (ethan and olivia), a cross country season completed with two kids in the top ten of 300 runners respectively (ethan and olivia). the reading of the constitution and it's ammendments (sam), an andy warhol like self-portrait (sam) and lots of girls yelling goodbye in the carpool line (sam again).

we were thrilled to have a visit from both papa and uncle john and grandma and auntie pam. there was atv-ing and steak and bonding. there was shopping, lunching and playing.

and then the final culmination: HALLOWEEN! it is a special celebration here, of candy and imagination and our love of pumpking ANYTHING! grandma and auntie pam have made it a tradition to come out and spend the weekend with us. this year the barn dance at school kicked off the weekend, with country music, boots and a cake walk. sam went to his first haunted house a few blocks away at a mining museum. the next morning the kids had their first horseback riding lessons, just down the way from us. we made friends with a horse named privy and sahara and three dogs: cheyenne, reagan and max. chelsea is their instructor and VERY patient. we'll see her next week...

a stop back home for lunch and resting up before the big night out. there was a...cat (ev), a "spider with shiny legs and a red face" (audrey), a very cute witch (liv), a pirate/skeleton (ethan) and dwight shrute from the office (sam). grizz was a police dog and i, his officer. daddy was dad and grandma and auntie pam were support staff waiting at home for the call to throw the mummy dogs in the oven and to answer the door.

it flew by. like usual. lots of memories to think back on, in all of our free time.