Bicycles!

We have a had busy, fun week around here- I don't even know where to begin!  We'll start with Wednesday.  We are gearing up for fall soccer season so my team had a pre-season get together at my absolute favorite yogurt store- you know, the one I drag mom and dad to every single Friday night.  Anyway, they loved having 8 screaming 6 year old girls running around their establishment for an hour.  We had a ball and it should be a good season.

We are now two weeks into school which means it is time for Assessment Day.  We didn't have school on Thursday but we went in for an hour and a half to have our knowledge assessed.  Mom signed me up for the 10:15 slot and dad took the day off.  Which means.......Daddy/daughter day!!  He picked me up from school and we headed to Dave and Buster's to try and  finally win my big Scooby.  Only bad thing was, we got there and they had no big Scoobys left.  Kind of a major disappointment so dad being dad, drove us all the way to Westminster, which is like an hour from our house, to the other Dave and Buster's where they had big Scoobys!  And thank goodness they did because I finally earned enough points to win him!  And he is awesome!  

He barely fit in the back of dad's jeep but we made it home just fine.

He's so huge that he scares mom every time she comes around a corner because she thinks it is a person.  He is pretty much the most awesome thing ever.  For right now anyway.

Dad and I came home and dropped Scooby off and then headed to the airport to pick up a friend of ours from Tucson.  Dan and dad were bike team mates in Tucson and Dan came up to watch the Pro Cycling Challenge for the weekend.  After THAT, Dad and Dan dropped me off for my first girl scout meeting of the year.  It was good to see all the girls again and good to see mom and Ms. Chris (the other leader) try to be a bit more organized this year.  We'll see how long it lasts.

On Saturday, I got to go with dad and Dan to Golden for the start of stage 5 of the bike race.  They spent more time keeping me entertained than watching bike racing but I think we all had a decent time.  I got to have a parrot sit on my shoulder,

do some hula hooping ( and I did quite well I might add),

and try my hand (or foot) at an old time bicycle.

 Mom spent her time shopping so I think we got the better deal!  We all got home around 2 and spent the afternoon watching movies and watching the race on TV.  We headed out for pizza/beer/yogurt and then dad had the great idea of a sunset hike.  It was a beautiful night for it and just what we needed after stuffing our faces!

On Sunday (yes, there is more!) we all got up early and headed to Snooze for an early breakfast.  I devoured my eggs and half of dad's french toast.  Mom didn't share one bite of her "coffee and doughnut" pancake or her blueberry streusal pancake or her pineapple upside pancake.  Hmmpf.
Dad and Dan headed out for one last bike ride and then down to the time trial while mom and I hung out at the park and then the grocery store.

A very fun weekend and we are all off to bed early.

First Day of School! (Kind of)

Last I checked in, I was dealing with some "plumbing issues" and was not having a good time of it.  Sunday night rolled around and I was still feeling pukey but was so excited about starting first grade (can you believe it?? first grade??) that I had my outfit all picked out and told mom exactly how I wanted my hair and what jewelry I was going to wear.  I even got up early Monday morning so mom could curl my hair.  I felt OK but not great and managed to force down a little food before I had to lay down again.  I managed to drag myself out for pictures and then went inside and threw up.  But I still wanted to try to go to school so we packed up and headed out.

I barely made it to the front door of my school before I decided I needed to go home.  So as everyone was happily running into school with their new backpacks, saying "hi" to old friends, I was heading back to the car and back home for my first day of school.  Mom had full load of patients and dad can work from home, so he got the call and dad and I spent the day quietly on the couch.

Dad had to head out of town again on Tuesday and thankfully, I felt much better.  I insisted on wearing the same outfit as the day before since technically, it was still my first day of school.  We also got another really great "first day of school" picture.  Mom especially loves the well written school sign.  Believe or not, Heritage is one of the best schools in the area.  Which may not being saying a whole lot...

 

My first day went really well and I loved catching up with all my friends.  Of course, I was a basket case that night and mom had me in bed by 7:15 Tuesday and Wednesday both.  It made for a relaxing evening for her!
Dad got back into town late, late Wednesday night and we laid low until Friday when we dragged ourselves back to Dave and Buster's.  They have a ginormous Scooby Doo stuffed animal that I am dying to get.  He costs 8000 tickets (really) and I have patiently saved and saved and we now have 5000 tickets so mom and dad are hoping one more really long night at D&B and I'll have the damn Scooby and we can stop going there.  Mom is very proud at how well I've been saving and staying focused on the end prize though.
Saturday was quiet again as I was still recovering a bit but Saturday night, we headed over to some friend's house for a bar-b-que.  There were about 8 of us kids running around like crazy, the adults were deep into the margarita pitcher and a great time was had by all.  Dad decided it was time to go when he found me passed out asleep at the bottom of the stairs.
Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and after my 2 hour nap, we rode our bikes to the park and played for awhile before coming home and hitting the hay early.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week!  P.S.  Only 13 days 'til mom's birthday.  Not that she's counting.

Poop! There It Is! And Other Things

No pictures this week but it turned out to be a pretty fun week, just not picture worthy fun.  Dad had to fly out to Washington D.C. for three days again.  He hasn't had to travel since his big trip to Norway in May so we have gotten kind of used to having him around again.  But he is back into the travel rotation and is very excited about it!
Mom has been very grump the past few weeks with no real explanation and I have been more than sassy and smart aleky so Dad was glad to get out and mom was not looking forward to the week.  Everything ended up being OK thanks to one of her patients though.  She went to see her last patient of the day on Tuesday afternoon.  It has been HOT, HOT and yucky here in Denver and this patient and his wife were sitting out by their pool, drinking a glass of white wine.  Mom sighed and made a comment about how relaxing the whole scene was.  Well, wouldn't you know it?!  They invited mom to stay and have a glass and stick her feet in the pool and just hang out for a bit.  Mom gave it some truly serious thought and then because she is the consummate professional, declined the offer.  Boo-hoo!  She just didn't think it would look good to come careening up to my day camp with wine on her breath and chlorine on her toes.  She did however, make a quick stop at the liqour store before picking me up and got two bottles of Reisling.  Mom was in a MUCH better mood that night and I've started calling it her "Happy Juice".  It was good for both of us.
Because we didn't have to wait for dad to get home to eat dinner, we ate extra early and spent some time after dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday practicing cartwheels at the park.

(Oh wait.  I guess I do have pictures!)

On Thursday, we had a busy fun afternoon.  Mom picked me up a little early and we went out for frozen yogurt and then we headed to my school for Lemonade on the Lawn.  We got to drop off my school supplies, get my desk organized and meet my teacher.  I am in a 1/2 blend classroom this year and my teacher is Mrs. Voeglie.  Mom and I love her already.  I told mom she reminds me of Ms. Barbara, my most awesomest preschool teacher.  Mrs. Voeglie seems very warm and caring- just what I  need!
On Friday, dad was home so we headed out for our usual Friday night party and then came home for more cartwheels at the park.  That is when our weekend took a nose dive.  I started feeling pukey and nauseated Friday night and just wanted to go to bed.  I woke up Saturday feeling the same but now was having pretty severe abdominal pain.  Because mom and dad are who they are, they waited until 9 O'Clock at night to call the pediatrician.  He recommended going to the ER to make sure it wasn't an appendix.  So we headed out around 10 PM and spent 2 hours in the ER to find I have a fecal impaction.  Awesome.  The ER worked some of their magic, I had a big poop and felt better.  Not great but better.  I spent most of Sunday on the couch again but at least I was eating by the end of the day.  It's a good thing too since I start school tomorrow!  Mom took advantage of the down time and made meatballs and dad mowed the lawn.  Not the day we were planning but OK, I guess.

Tomorrow is my first day of first grade and if I felt better, I would be very excited.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Rivers, Beaches and Mountains, Oh My

Well, here we are in the home stretch of summer vacation.  I have one more week of freedom and then it is back to school for me.  I'm kind of ready, kind of excited but I won't admit it!

Mom has been working four longer days and taking one day off a week so we could spend some quality time together.  This week, we went to the Wildlife Museum on Wednesday and saw a photo exhibit on ants which grossed mom out but I thought was pretty cool.  There was also a camping exhibit with a photo op of the Grand Canyon.  I look like I'm really kayaking, huh?

Wednesday night, dad's work had a company party at a place called The Islands.  It is a huge indoor beach volleyball place and we had a darn good time considering it was a work event.  They had tons of things for kids to do from sand castle building, to treasure hunting to hula hooping to my favorite, face painting.

I waited for 45 minutes and boy was it worth the wait!  I looked awesome and it was quite the battle to get me in the shower that night.  I spent a huge amount of time staring at myself in the mirror and took no less than 20 pictures of myself with the camera.  I know what I'm going to be for Halloween now!

The rest of the week was pretty quiet but on Saturday we drove up to Evergreen to meet our old neighbors Patrick and Nicole for lunch.  They are STILL on vacation (mom is so very jealous of their 3 week vaca!) and believe it or not, wanted to hang out with us one last time.  We met them at a really great little restaurant right on Bear Creek and got patio seating overlooking the creek.  It was like a mini-vacation for us.  It also happened to be the Dam Ducky Drop fundraiser for a children's hospice here in Denver.  You buy a little yellow ducky, it gets dropped into the creek upstream and whichever one crosses the finish line first, wins.  We amused ourselves during lunch watching the thousands of duckies float downstream, get caught in eddies and stuck on logs.  It kept me occupied and that was a good thing.

After lunch, we went down and played in the creek for awhile and then headed on home.  Everyone was tired and we slept hard that night!

Sunday was a quiet day.  We spent the morning lounging around and watching the Olympics.  I have been practicing my hand stands and cartwheels and have decided that my path to a gold metal is to be the girl that yells at the rowers to "stroke! stroke! stroke!"
We went shopping for some back to school clothes in the afternoon and spent some time at the park.  All in all a good week.  Hope everyone has a great week!