Living in Munchkinland

For father's day, Michael chose to attend the Renaissance Festival in Colorado Springs. We woke up early and groggily after our late movie night and the boys brought Michael his home made card and presented him with a new suitcase. Then we ran outside, dissembled the movie screen, changed into our costumes and hit the road, with our goal being to arrive when it opened as rain threatened the afternoon. Ben and the kids joined us and the day turned out wonderful! It was not too warm and the rain mostly stayed away until we were driving home mid afternoon. The festival was really fun as always. We bought a new purple sky chair to put on the deck and Davis got a pet dragon and Sam got a new sword. We ate festival food and watched a very funny show and cheered and jeered at the joust. That evening when we got home, I got hit with a stomach bug so I ended up the day doing not so well, but Michael had a great evening playing video games in his office, so it was still a winning father...

I decided a few weeks ago to throw a neighborhood block party. I wrote a grant to Littleton, but I haven't heard back yet if I got it. In the meantime, I asked the HOA to help cover the cost of the meat for the bbq and they agreed. I sent out a sign up genius and got ready to party. On Saturday before Father's Day I ran to Costco for supplies, cleaned the popcorn machine and we set up the movie screen, EZ ups and tables. I had booked Renaissance Adventures to come out for Davis's coming of age, but they had been rained out, so I rescheduled them for block party fun. They came out and played with the kids for an hour in the green space. It was a huge hit. Several neighbors grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought a potluck dish to share. After dinner, we gathered in the green space for an outdoor movie. We screened Incredibles because the sequel was coming out that weekend. Halfway through the movie, the sprinklers came on! We scrambled and moved to our backyar...

I taught another week of summer camp this year. It was so much fun! I had a great group of kids and a really fun theme of fractured fairy tales. We had a blast every day. I really love these kids so much and teaching them is incredibly fulfilling. I'm really going to miss them next year. Yes, that's my way of slipping in that I quit my job entirely to stay home and be a good mom to Sam. It's a heartbreaking thing, but it's the right choice. I will still volunteer and teach workshops with my STEM kids though. They are the best.

A couple of weeks ago, we attended the Littleton Block Party. We had been when we first moved here, but had quickly gotten rained out. We went this time with Suzy and Jason and it was really fun. There are multiple stages with music and buskers and food and booths telling you all about what Littleton has to offer. This night also marked the two year anniversary of our time living in Colorado. This is our third summer now! The night ended in fireworks and we felt so lucky to be able to celebrate our Colorado living anniversary in such style.

A week and a half ago, Michael was in town and the kids were at a half day cyber security camp. I had watched a neighborhood kid that morning and then I left a little early to pick up the kids so that I could swing by the dry cleaners. As I took a left on a green light by the middle school, I was t-boned by an older gentlemen who completely ran the red light. Luckily, he wasn't going too fast, but it was still shocking. We pulled over and called the cops, and sat in the grass while we waited, both of us shaking. He was very sweet and apologized and offered me half his sandwich. I declined. Finally the cop came and gave him a citation and me a case number and sent us on our way. I was very grateful that my friend Megan could pick up the kids and later take me to get a rental. The car is drivable, but the back door doesn't shut properly and it would make me a nervous wreck to let Sam sit next to that door. And we are still driving the rental because the shop is so busy they ca...

Wow, I'm behind at blogging. The first weekend in June was lovely. The kids played in the greenspace and we did lawn games with the Danielsons on Saturday evening. The next morning we got up early and went on a hike to Lair o' the Bear. It was a great hike, but we had to cut it short to drive back to Denver and get the kids to a birthday party before picking up Kara and Ben and heading for downtown. We checked into the Hyatt Grand, checked out our suite and then walked over to the People's Fair where we enjoyed the Tito's garden and browsed the shops and ate festival food. Then we took a lyft over to begin our immersive theater experience called Remote Denver. It was really thought provoking and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. After the show we walked through the Chalk art festival and over to Jax Restaurant for a lovely rose wine and oysters. We eventually made our way back to the hotel (my fitbit reported 25,000 steps!) and played Catan and drank wine and visited s...