Author: pazmeyer

pot luck

The DePauw’s invited us over for a Fall Harvest Potluck. We had a wonderful time feasting on delicious appetizers, dinner, and dessert. Our kids all went to the same preschool together and it’s wonderful to get together now that they have moved on to kindergarten (except the G who is not happy to be left behind and is counting down the days to kindergarten!). 
Great kiddos and we love their families!

jump street

Today was an in-service day for the teachers so the kiddos got a day off school. I took Annabelle, Gwyneth and AJ to Jump Street.   I’ve been building this one up and we’ve been really excited to try it out. An entire place full of trampolines…how could it get any better? 
It wasn’t an epic fail, but it wasn’t nearly as fabulous as I thought it was going to be. AJ liked the mechanical bull and the girls liked the big foam pit. Sadly the trampolines were not that big of a hit…which probably is an epic fail since it’s a big ol’ trampoline fun park. Well, we’ve done it and we played hard today and they talked me in to McDonalds for lunch so I had a pretty happy carload of kiddos.  

butterbraid

B had a class this evening so the girls and I headed off to cheerleading practice. Annabelle did a fundraiser for her cheerleading team and all the butterbraids came in tonight. There were 6 BIG boxes. Thank goodness I had Gwyneth there with me to load the car. She’s a strong one! She was a really big helper and we even made a few deliveries this evening. 
Thank you to everyone who helped Miss Annabelle in her fundraising. She is very grateful and she’s one happy gal!

favorites

These are just a few of Annabelle’s favorite things these days. 
1. Edamame. She is starving when she gets home from school and scarfs down an entire bowl. I was worried about her allergies to peas….these seem like they would be from the same food family, but alas no allergy to these little gems. Her favorite after school snack!

2.  Writing. We find her letters printed everywhere. Notebooks, scrap pieces of paper, on the back of her pillow….yes, she took a marker and wrote her name on the back of her pillow. Why??? I have no idea, she’s five. That’s all I could come up with. I have redirected her writing talents and provided fall worksheets for her to practice her letters. She loves these letter match ups below:

3.  Dancing School. Annabelle does everything with just a little extra touch of sass. That includes her dance class where she finds her own style and her own moves. Yes, those are Halloween witch tights. Yes, those are Rapunzel wedding shoes. Sometimes you just gotta make your own rules. And you just gotta do it with confidence…

family pictures

It was finally time for a family picture. We haven’t had one taken in almost 4 years. We received a great referral for Jacynthe Photography. She came over in the morning to meet the girls and get the showing off and craziness out of the way. It was such a great idea and really helped with the photo shoot in the afternoon. We got a little sneak  peak and I couldn’t be happier. Jacynthe was so wonderful to work with. She was so patient and kind and managed to capture all the wackiness that is our family.
During our morning meet and greet. Jacynthe came over right after breakfast so naturally Gwyneth was already in full princess gear. 
From our afternoon shoot. Taken right across the street from our house…not a bad backdrop. Gotta love Colorado. 

leaves

After almost 15 years of marriage, you think you really know your spouse. And then days like today you find out something new. B really, really, really HATES raking leaves. I really love it. Really, really love it! I guess after all of these years we should have known that, but it took one happy momma, two girls jumping around in leaves, and one very grumpy daddy to really seal the deal today. 
I didn’t mind raking the piles over and over and over to let the girls jump in the leaves. I thought B’s head was going to explode. He had a bit of raking leaves rage. From this year forward this chore is now mine and the girls….and I’m not the least bit sad about it. 
People love getting their pictures taken when they are doing a chore they hate and they are really irritated. I can’t imagine anyone not liking that…

Woo hoo!
So happy!

I tried to get them all out but a lot of leaves ended up in the bathtub this evening! This girl has so much hair. 

fresh beat band

Katie invited us to join her and her girls in Fort Collins for the live show of Fresh Beat Band. Please let me say I had never seen this show when I said yes. It’s a good thing I really like the Merrill’s. 
I kid, I kid. The girls I had a great time hanging out with the Merrill ladies. The girls enjoyed rocking to the music and had so much fun with Ella and Ivy. Annabelle and Ella were a bit too cool for the concert, but Ivy and Gwyneth rocked out. There was a cute little song that requested that if you came with a friend to throw your hands in the air. Gwyneth and Ivy grabbed hands and held on tight to each other while thye danced through the song. So stinkin’ cute. I love it. 
Merrill and Meyer ladies

If you are wondering if Gwyneth is wearing a leotard, tutu, and tiara….yes, yes she is. She had dance this morning, fell in love with this outfit and there was no persuading her to change. Always the little ballerina.

Katie and her girls
fresh beat band. I gotta be honest, they are a bunch of weirdos! 

fill in the blank friday

1. Something I swore I would never do, but have ended up doing anyway is make special meals for my kids. I swore they would eat whatever the adults were eating for dinner, but I’ve served up my share of corn dogs and chicken nuggets. 

2.  Something I’ve always wanted to do is go to Italy. We had planned to go when I turned 30, but Miss Annabelle was born 3 days later so not the best time for travel. Gwyneth was born the following year and well, life happened. Someday we’ll get there… 

3.  Something I have absolutely no desire to do is skydive. I don’t like to fly and the idea of actually jumping from the airplane seems equally torturous. 

4. The best thing I ever did was marry B and have these girls. I have it pretty good. 

5.  When it comes to trying new things, I am pretty open. I love to try new foods and new activities…as long as its indoors and not scary. I’m not outdoorsy at all and I’m a big chicken, so as long it doesn’t involve nature or haunted houses I’m game. 

6. One thing I’ve never done is have a live Christmas tree. I did when I was a kid, but never have in my own home as an adult. I think I would like this. I think it would smell nice. I think it would be a horrible, awful mess and I would do it only once. 

7. My favorite thing to do is go to the movies. I’m super critical of the movies I see, but I’ll see anything and I love taking my daughters or going for a date night with my husband and I always go with my mom when she visits. I don’t really watch movies at home, but love to go to sit in a theater and see a new release. Maybe it’s the movie theater popcorn?

trick or treat

Trick or treat time….FINALLY! With today being an early release day the minutes ticked by very slowly for these girls. They were ready!
Just waiting….
Wedding Rapunzel and Dorothy

I don’t remember in the movie Dorothy being this sassy…
Watching for trick or treaters to come down our street.
“Dr Bella Bean”, as the girls called her, joined us for trick or treating. 
Time to go!

After the first couple houses, Gwyneth led the way. We could barely keep up with her. She LOVED trick or treating and she loved all the costumes. She would say hi to everyone as they walked by “oh hi, ghost.” “oh hi, Banana”. “oh, hi Rapunzel”. Such a goof ball! She informed us Halloween is her new favorite holiday.

The girls were told they could each pick out one piece of candy. Annabelle chose a lollipop and Gwyneth chose a FULL SIZE SNICKERS!

Missi passed out candy while we took the girls trick or treating. 

Gwyneth didn’t finish her full size candy bar, but she put a pretty good dent in it. She was bouncing off the walls and then proceeded to tell me “I’m ’bout to throw up!”.

Handing out candy
With our neighbor, Miley

At the end of the night we wanted to get rid of our candy stash, so Gwyneth screamed “WE’VE GOT LOTS OF CANDY!!!”. She was quite proud of herself and attracted quite a crowd of kids.

Time to sort and trade their goods. 

Hoarding her jolly ranchers. Her new favs.