Renaissance Festival

Today we went to Renaissance Festival.  I haven't been since before Jake was born.  It was so fun to see the kiddos enjoy themselves like that.  They loved it.  They did a lot of things like cross bow shooting, archery and watching a joust.

This was a duo, one was juggling fire sticks and the one on the bottom had a fire hula hope.

Little knife swallowing.

Isaac trying his hand at shooting a cross-bow.  He got the target once.

Jake was throwing tomatoes at some guy who would insult them.  He yelled, "You couldn't even get on a girl's softball team".  The next tomato almost hit the guy...

Sir Roderick

Jousting in the rain....but that's Denver in July...sunny days and about an hour of rain in the afternoon.  Glad I brought my umbrella.

A quick picture with Captain Jack Sparrow.

The kids had a great time, no video games, no T.V., no movies.

I linked this fun Sunday to Unknown Mami here:

Coach Gifts & Championship Game

Today was the championship game for Jake's team.  Unfortunately they didn't win.  Fortunately they got second place for their division in their age group....so yay team!  And I'm so thankful to one of the other nurses at work who covered my shift today so I could go.  When My boss asked why I hadn't asked for this day off, I told her, "I didn't actually think they'd make it".....They did a big come around this season, they were 8 and 6 during the season, but undefeated during the play-offs, so all in all we're super happy with second place!

Jake and his proud papa

Since we were in Castle Rock for the game we thought we'd try this burger place Jason heard about where you can order anything on the burger you want.  One of their special burgers is all this stuff between two donuts for the bun (sounds a bit icky, but I guess the novelty of that is interesting).  Crave, is the name of the place.  Jake ordered a hamburger with, pulled pork, lamb, fries, chipotle sauce, cheese, ham and bacon (I think I threw up a little in my mouth by just typing that).

Jason told him he'd give him 5 dollars if he could eat it all and another 10 if he didn't throw up.

Here's Isaac with his burger...he was a little more restrained (which is surprising), He just had a bacon cheeseburger.  Me? Plain burger with a salad (okay, I snuck some of Isaac's fries).

He tried.....didn't quite make it.

We gave the coaches their gifts today.  They are three of the greatest guys around.  I'm so happy with this team!  The parents are great (one of the parents is actually the coach for the team that Jake played with the last 5 years), and the kids get along and support each other.  It was a great season.  For the three coaches I took a picture of the whole team, then one of the three coaches and framed them.  I also had all the kids sign the matting.

I took regular scrap-booking stickers for the year.  I thought since most of them are going forward  I could do this for a couple more years and it'll be a really nice memento for them.  For the head coach, I also put together an album that I did on Snapfish.

For the cover I just took a picture of one of the boys' hats.

I tried to group pitching on one page, sliding into bases on another two pages, the families on two...etc.  Snapfish didn't seem to have a lot of choices for the book, it could be I didn't really play around with it enough though.  My friend, Martha, uses shutterfly and says it's user friendly for this kind of project.  I'm so happy with the whole digital book that I'll definitely try this again.

We had one dad that was always so encouraging, cheering the boys on and the kids just adored him, so I also made him a mug with a picture of him taking the boys on the field at Coor's Field and on the other side it says, "Most enthusiastic Spartan's Dad"  He had a great time getting that gift.

It's so hard finding a good gift for coaches.  Actually for guys in general! So I hope they liked these.

Linking the coach gift ideas here:





and here:

here too (Okay, I so don't want to do housework, homework, or work of any kind so I've been searching for blogs to post my stupid project -- I have no idea why, just another way to procrastinate doing my real stuff....)

Where did the last 12 years go?

Look who's twelve!

It's been quite the crazy couple of weeks.  First...my first born baby turned 12 at the beginning of the month.  WOW.  I'm not sure where the last 12 years went.  I swear it was just yesterday he was handed to me in the hospital and I thought to myself in a panic, "OHMYGODWHATDOIDOWITHTHIS?"  I'm still trying to figure that out.  It feels parenting has gotten harder, not easier.  I have to say I've really enjoyed the journey.  Maybe I'm just supremely lucky to be blessed with such wonderful children.  Jake is funny and sensitive (so not allowed to say that).  He's smart and good in sports.  And he's adorable.  That's not just me, his mom, saying this....just ask any number of the 5th grade (oh, ooops, I guess technically he's now 6th grade) girls what they think of his eyes.

He wanted a low-key birthday this year.  Just Chipotle and movies.  He wants to take a couple friends camping with dad and Uncle Glenn (and cousin Bridget, who to Jake is one of the guys).  On his birthday he napped.  I suspect he's going through a growth spurt.  The last set of shoes we bought him were a size 10 men's.  I think he's growing all the time! Notice the brace on his arm...well he was running and tripped and landed on the cement on his hand, which was in a fist.  At first the radiologist said he was fine, no breaks.  Then the Sports Medicine doc, who we went to see about Jake's knee (which is fine, turns out a combo of growing pains and being active) took another look at it and thought it might be broken, so we needed to take another set of x-rays in a week.  Well those x-rays were done yesterday, and yay, no break!  This was particularly troublesome because Jake's team, who only did okay during the regular league games were undefeated during the play-offs and made it to the championship game which is THIS Saturday.  And Jake's favorite position to play -- pitcher.  So we're all happy -- on so many levels -- that Jake's hand is not broken.  Oh, he was on his way to the library, so now he tells me, "see mom, knowledge is dangerous".  He's a funny guy -- well he makes me laugh at least.

Not only did my son have a birthday (and my brother, his is the 3rd, happy birthday Jose...hope the Navy finally figures out where they're going to send you so I can send you your present) but our nation was celebrating too.  Love our neighborhood, they have a little parade for the kiddos, who dress up and decorate their bikes.  Then our pool has a bunch of games to do with the kids.  It was a fun afternoon (so glad I got the day off).

Here's Isaac....dressing up "like that Sam guy who wants people" (his words).  He makes me laugh too.