6 months

Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, but time is really flying by! Our sweet girl is 6 months old already. She passed her six month check-up with flying colors. Mom and Dad got a scolding from the doctor, though. Apparently a 6 month old baby who weighs 20 pounds does not need to nurse three times during the night. Who knew? We were instructed to "Let her cry!" Yikes! We were terrified. And what happened? She cried for a whole seven minutes. That's it. Seven minutes. Then slept on through. And has slept through since. Again, who knew? You would have thought we would know these things since we have had a baby before. But no. We are really clueless.

In the meantime, Miss Thing is gobbling up solids like she's training to enter pie eating contests:



She's crawling all over the place and getting into everything:



And hanging with her peeps:



Simon is a big second grader, and loving every minute of it. Not that he would admit to liking it, mind you. He's had a great start this year. No *ahem* "issues" like last year (remember the note from the teacher: Simon needs to save his stories for recess)? Yea, none of that so far. He tries to schedule his stand-up routine for lunch, and that seems to be working out well so far.

His school did a fun run to raise money for their sports programs. Did I mention that Brian is currently Simon's team's assistant flag football coach? Holla! Simon collected pledges and made it eight times around the loop. There was a bouncy house on each side of the loop that the kids had to run through. It was super fun, but it was HOT. Hello, people! It is almost October. Enough of the 90 degree weather already! I want crunchy leaves and soup!



After the run, Simon's class hosted their first Authors' Tea. The parents came, and the kids read their first written pieces. This month, fairy tales. Simon read his story nice and loud, with emotion and inflection. It was awesome! I was so stinkin' proud of that kid!



Here, in its entirety, and the original, is Simon's story:

The Shark Clue
By Simon Bernhard

Once upon a time there was a shark named prefeser mysterio. Every time his family thought something was wrong of cores he had to solve it. Most of the time it was just a knook on the door or the door bell. He knew it all the time. But sometimes there keys where stolen. If he could not find them in the house, he would look all over the neighborhood. He took training to look for clues. And so he knows how to do it now. Ok, not everything. So where were we. Oh yah. He hunted at dusk but the only thing he hunted was water dragons. He never got one. The End.

You may want to consider that for your next book club selection! Hope all are well! :)

Our Little Eggplant

Well, my friend Janel has done it again! Remember when she made Nina this adorable newborn hat seen below:



Well, now that her newborn hat is too small and safely tucked away in Nina's box of newborn keepsakes, Janel has made her an eggplant hat. How stinkin' cute is this? Janel, thank you SO SO much! We absolutely love it! Now, if I can just convince Simon to be parmesan cheese for Halloween so we can have Eggplant Parmesan! So far, no luck. He wants to be a vampire. But how cute would Eggplant Parmesan be? Thank you, Janel!!

Casa Bonita!!

All of you Colorado natives will appreciate this one. Just for fun tonight we decided to head over to Casa Bonita for dinner. See the big pink castle in the background? That's Casa Bonita. A legendary restaurant in the Denver area serving terrible food, but amazing fun. There are cliff divers and fire jugglers, cowboy and princess shows, puppet shows, a scary cave, Chiquita the angry gorilla, a Mariachi band, Mexican dancers, an arcade, etc. Kids LOVE it! When we were kids it was a huge thrill! Simon got to bring Zach at the last minute, and they had so much fun, although they did get pretty scared in the caves.

I *think* Nina enjoyed herself as well:



But let's be honest. Casa Bonita is fun for the kids, but the adults come for one reason. Unlimited piping hot sopaipillas:



In the arcade, Simon and Zach played enough games of skeeball to win two tubs of this incredibly exciting, well, goop. They loved it and had all sorts of fun molding it into a million different things on the way home. We had fun trying to pick it out of Simon's hair later. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Labor Day Fun

We had a nice relaxing labor day weekend. It's so great when Brian has a three day weekend. Now that summer is over, he doesn't have every other Friday off anymore. Bummer! We love those Fridays off. Above is a view of Simon I see quite frequently. His backside. While he plays the Wii. When Elaine and Co were here they got Simon the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games game. It is very cool, and every stadium is decked out exactly like the Beijing stadiums. Very fun! Simon got to have his buddy Romeo over on Saturday for some Wii time and of course, to toss the football back and forth. Those two had a blast! Simon and Romeo went to school together when Simon was in Kindergarten, and it turns out that Romeo's mom is a scrapper, so hello! Instant friendship! She also is an amazing cook. I've recently ordered one dozen of her breakfast burritos and one dozen of her beef and bean burritos. Can't wait! In other news, I've rejoined Weight Watchers. Ha! Something's wrong with this picture! :)

Nina sits and watches her brother play the Wii. She is so excited to be able to sit up, and she is quite proud of herself!



On Sunday, I took the kids to the park. Nina and I go almost everyday. She loves that swing! Well, she mostly loves to chew on it, but she does enjoy swinging as well.



Simon spends most of his time at the park sending his wrestling action figures down the slide, but he'll occasionally take a break to practice jumping out of the swing.



What Brian did while we were at the park:



Now don't go throwing a pity party for Brian. Working in the yard for him is like scrapbooking for me. He loves to fiddle around in the yard. Did you not notice all the flowers around the bottom of the trees? Yes, those are his babies. :) More soon!