painting | mom’s night out

We made it home from Breck a day later than planned, but just in time to get back into the swing of things. It was my turn to host mom’s night out for the girls’ school. I had planned to do a game night at our house, but that was already done this year. The organizer asked if I might be interested in hosting at Color Me Mine. I jumped at the opportunity. It’s always fun to have painters in to my studio and it meant I didn’t have to clean my house for the event. Win win!!

I met lots of new moms and everyone had a blast painting. I can’t wait to return their finished pieces to them.

kiss me kate

I really do love the theater. I can go see anything and I drag my family along with me. Well, I drag the girls. B agrees to join us for some of the shows. About half. The girls seem to enjoy it as much as I do…or at the very least they are getting some great acting experience because it really seems like they like it too.

Tonight we ventured up north to the Candlelight Theater to see Kiss Me Kate. I love when I don’t know much about the show before going. That was the case tonight and I was excited to read it was set in the 1940’s and based on a production of Taming of the Shrew.

Gwyneth and I read Taming of the Shrew together this summer. I have mixed feelings about that story. I appreciate the story but don’t love the ending. I had to get past that for the show though and really enjoyed this production.

How cute are these little ladies? They clean up pretty well!

We had great seats. Front row!

This girl has so much sass, but she sure is cute. I’m going to be happy that she put on a dress for me and didn’t even complain about it.

birthday eve | avalanche game

The girls and I planned quite a weekend for B’s birthday. It was the kick off to their spring break also so we didn’t have to worry about bedtimes or homework. We stayed in town but managed to squeeze in a lot of fun.

Our first day of fun included an Avalanche game, dinner at Mortons and a stay at the Crawford hotel. It was quite a day!

We had great seats for the game just 15 rows off the ice. There were TONS of fights, which Gwyneth loved. I don’t know about that girl. There was lots of scoring too and the Avalanche pulled off the win.

We grabbed a pre-dinner cocktail and snack at Next Door. Gwyneth was getting hangry and we didn’t want any crabby kiddos at dinner. Annabelle snapped this picture of us and cracked up because it looks like the guy behind us is taking a picture of us too. Ha!

Happy girls after a little snack

After hanging out and enjoying Union Station we walked on over to Mortons for dinner. So much food and fun with this family of ours. We had such a great day and were all quite worn out after a full day of adventures.

patsy cline

B’s birthday is on Sunday but we kicked off the celebrations on Thursday. The girls spent the evening with a sitter and we had a little pre-bday celebration just for us.

We grabbed a drink at Blackbelly and then headed to the BDT for Always…Patsy Cline. I love when I do absolutely no research about a show and I can go in with no expectations. Sadly, I didn’t even know much about Patsy Cline’s life or music. The show was entertaining, not one of my favorites, but still very good. The music was outstanding and I had excellent company.

Happy early bday to B!

stomp

We received tickets for Christmas to see Stomp at the Denver Performing Arts Center. The girls had no idea what to expect from this show and were just blown away. The show is just nonstop energy and we loved every minute of it. It was a favorite for the entire family.

Gwyneth stepped over the vent and had her own Marilyn Monroe moment. We were all cracking up.

Great seats for the show

Such a wonderful time!

nuggets vs suns

We are a Nuggets loving family. We’re all hooked on the team and love going for games.

We started our night of fun with drinks at the Westin.

Then off to dinner at the Thirsty Lion. This has become one of our favorite spots for pre-game snacks. The food can be hit or miss but their seasonal menu is always spot on and they make a delicious California roll. You can’t beat the location either – just a few blocks from the Pepsi Center.

We were just a few rows off the court for the game and were all cheering for our Nuggets. It was a great game and we all had the best time. The Nuggets narrowly lost to the Suns which a total bummer, but didn’t ruin our evening. We always have such a good time and are already planning for our next game.

We finished off the night with some ice creams at Mellow Mushroom. It was an amazing and memorable night not soon to be forgotten.

merry christmas eve

Merry, merry Christmas Eve!

Our morning started with a paint class at Whimsy while B was home watching the Bronco game. This was our first adventure at canvas painting all together. I’ve been, the girls have been, but we’ve never been the three of us together. I’m not holding my breath that we’ll ever get a family day together here. I think painting pottery is more our style as a family (luckily!).

Girls morning!

We painted fun snowmen

little goofball

In serious artist mode…

Love our fun winter paintings!

Here’s my dilemma…I love to paint (obviously, I own a PYO Pottery studio). I just don’t know what to do with 3 of the exact same picture. With the pottery we make mugs and plates and gifts, but not sure what to do with all the canvases. Ideas?

Back at home we opened family gifts. This may have been the highlight of the day for these little ladies. They only asked about 9 million times..

I love watching them exchange gifts with each other. They pick the gifts out themselves and they know each other so well.

Gwyneth may be more excited about the giving of the gifts than the receiving which makes my heart happy.

I think she likes it!

Christmas for the win!

Each year they receive new pajamas from us

They received sweet stuffies and Barnes and Noble gift cards from their Aunt Chriss.

And then they tried on those goofy pajamas and had us rolling with laughter.

We grabbed dinner at Stout Street Social. We enjoyed a few sushi rolls and Annabelle had a great bowl of Clam Chowder. (I’d recommend the California roll and a Manhattan- yum!).

Afterwards we went to see Waitress at the Buell Theater. I was a little conflicted for this because it wasn’t rated a family show. It had some language and some adult content (marriage, adultery, bad husbands…). It was wonderfully funny and entertaining and I think the girls enjoyed it. B and I loved it!

We arrived home late that night with only enough time to set out milk and cookies for Santa, throw on pjs and climb in bed. The girls say they like it best like that so they don’t have as much time to sit around waiting for Santa’s arrival.

Happy Christmas Eve!

beauty and the beast

We woke up early and refreshed from our adventure at the Nutcracker. We had a feast of a breakfast at the Ritz. It’s no secret that Gwyneth can eat her money’s worth in breakfast. I believe it is her one true love. Perhaps only a close second is sleep.

After a hearty breakfast, we stepped out to explore the city. We didn’t really have a plan which is very unlike me and I only had mild anxiety of allowing the day to simple take us.

Our first stop was the Brown Palace. Their holiday decoration are spectacular.

The chandelier is phenomenal and we couldn’t help just standing and gawking for a bit.

They had some openings for tea, but neither of the girls was interested. Maybe next time? They were both eager to get back out on the town and explore.

We walked all around downtown and popped into shops. The weather was gorgeous. I didn’t even wear a jacket. In December! In Colorado!

My favorite stop downtown is Union Station, but I do believe the girls prefer the Pavilions. They like to shop so I understand the appeal.

We bought a few tubes of lip gloss to share at Sephora and with our purchase came free tickets to ride the carousel. I gave my ticket to a little boy and gladly watched as my girls laughed it up on the ride. They were all blurry giggles as they would twirl by on their horses.

We grabbed lunch back at the hotel and finally checked out of our room. They gave us a late check out and we certainly made the most of our club level access. They sent us off with boxes of cookies, drinks, and were begging the girls to take candy. It felt mighty indulgent yet relaxing and wonderful! It was such a rare treat to have this guilty pleasure in the middle of the holiday chaos.

Again, we had no plan and Gwyneth requested a trip to the Art Museum. The feature exhibit was Her Paris which could not have been more perfect for our girls day.

The look of mischief

The Denver Art Museum has an amazing area where kids of all ages can make craft projects. It’s hands on and the current theme was texture. These ladies delighted in making projects with wires, wire cutters and pliers.

Annabelle’s wire teddy bear

Gwyneth’s wire dolphin

And then there was the collaborative creation with paper….

Scissors…and paper…and tape…oh my! Is this heaven???

It was hard to call it a day, but all grand adventures must come in to an end. Off we headed back to our ‘hood just a bit sad to be saying goodbye to it all.

Ok, the fun wasn’t quite over yet. When we got home we quickly cleaned up and headed out the door again. We went up North for dinner and the live Beauty and the Beast. I was concerned we would be too tired from the overload of the day, but we all held it together. The show was lovely and the girls both stayed awake singing Christmas carols in the car the entire ride home.

Now that’s a day for the books! I couldn’t ask for a better time with these girls.

disney on ice

I was so excited to surprise the girls with tickets to Disney on Ice. We have been going for years and although they are getting older they still seem to really love the show. (Annabelle likes the ice skating but doesn’t get as impressed by the princesses. Gwyneth loves it all will be a princess junkie for life, I believe. )

My grand plan did not go quite as…well, planned. Miss Annabelle is fighting a horrible cold. She has a nasty cough and sore throat. The cough is keeping her away at night so she has spent the past two days on the couch resting. Poor girl!

She really wanted to go to the show tonight but it was not going to happen. She was just not healthy enough for it. B stayed home with her and she graciously offered her ticket to Ella, Gwyneth’s dear friend.

We missed Annabelle and B terribly and wished they could have been with us. The little girls loved the show though and stayed up way past their bedtimes!

nuggets vs lakers

We took advantage of a brief break from B’s busy holiday schedule this evening and whisked him off for a little fun downtown. We snagged a great family fun pack deal for Nuggets tickets.We decided to get a room downtown since the parade of lights was the same night, Lyft prices were elevated, and we didn’t want to mess with parking. We had an entertaining and festive evening downtown and I’m glad we got to steal B away from his kitchen for a bit.

We grabbed a late lunch at Maggianos and it was decorated beautifully for the holidays.