peacock

slipper and the rose

Our entire family enjoys a trip to the theater…well, normally. Tonight wasn’t the biggest hit for everyone. 
We went to the dinner theater which doesn’t always have the best food. I like that we don’t have to fight/play for parking, but wow, the food really was not on point this evening. It was pretty bad even for dinner theater standards. We laugh about it though and make sure we order fun drinks, several baskets of bread for Gwyneth and desserts to compensate for the rough main courses. 
We went to see The Slipper at the Rose at the Candlight Dinner Playhouse. The story was Cinderella with all new music. The girls really enjoyed the costumes and I thought it was nicely done and B…well, he fell asleep! This was a little awkward since we were sitting in the front row! We had to give him a few nudges when the snores kicked in. It really was funny and the show was a mellow one. The girls and I had a great giggle every time we looked over to see his head bobbing. 
A special drink concoction for the kiddos with grape juice, sprite….and I can’t remember exactly what else but the girls liked them. 
After the show the girls were invited on stage for a photo op. First with Cinderella
Then with the Fairy Godmother and her dog, Magic. I think the dog was the biggest hit of the show. 

annabelle is ten

Oh my, oh my…Annabelle is ten! She woke up this morning and it felt as though she grew up over night. She just seemed older. She seemed a bit more mature. 
Although it’s going way too fast I know that growing older is a gift. Watching my babies turn into these beautiful, amazing young woman is not something that I take for granted. 
Annabelle is confident, fierce, passionate, beautiful, smart, funny and I absolutely adore her. She is my buddy and I really do enjoy spending time with her. The one on one time I have with her is so valuable, because she loves to share stories and make me laugh, 
I can’t imagine a life without this amazing child and she deserves the happiest 10th birthday!
Cake for breakfast. A Paz tradition. 
This girl loves her emojis and specificially requested the “poop” emoji piece for breakfast. 
(what’s with kids and that poop emoji? gross!)
singing happy birthday to the 10 year old!
Present time. This girl is so happy to be double digits. 
After much deliberation and many, many conversations Annabelle’s birthday wish came true and she received a phone. We have survived the first day and although she is a bit obsessed right now she was very responsible and respectful with it. 
Gwyneth gave her sister a new phone case
We were sad to say goodbye to the California cousins today. We dropped them at the airport after lunch and no one was happy about it. We had a great visit and of course, are already planning our next trip to see them. 
We picked up a few of the girls’ friends and headed to The Bay.  That wasn’t our original plan, but due to some afternoon rain showers and maintenance issues with our neighborhood pool Annabelle decided The Bay was our best bet. We don’t go very often and the girls absolutely loved all the slides.
I tell ya, this girl is out little fish!
Over and over and over and over….they couldn’t get enough of the slides! 
Annabelle requested BBQ for dinner so we hit Lulus in Louisville and then finished the evening with ice cream from Sweet Cow. It was a busy, busy day and Annabelle loved every minute of it. 
Happy birthday to our amazing 10 year old! 
How lucky we are to get to  be  your family and celebrate this day with you. 

swimming with cousins

These girls are so full of energy! They spent hours at the pool just swimming and swimming. I love having them here and we can’t even think about them heading home. 
Annabelle has been working really hard on her diving for swim team. 
She is freaky fast.
My goodness, I love these girls so much!

this is forty

Oh boy, my birthday just crept right up on me. I don’t know about this one. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, growing old is a gift! I love growing older with my husband (especially because he has more grey hairs than me right now…) and watching those babies of ours quickly growing into little ladies. BUT….come on…FORTY?!? I am far too youthful to be forty. 😉
B planned and planned and put together the best celebration weekend for me.We camped out at Jellystone in Estes with friends and family. My sister, Stacy and her family even flew out for the weekend! The entire weekend was about relaxing which could have been a challenge with 10 kids, but the campsite had games and activities to keep everyone entertained. 
I’m a lucky, lucky lady and extremely grateful for that husband of mine who went above and beyond to plan such a fun weekend for me. 
Our home away from home. Yep, that’s a couch in our tent. 
We’re taking this glamping to the next level!
Uno time
 Maeva chilling on our couch. This CA girl got a little cold in the mountains. 
So many laughs playing the game Wet Heads. 
Maeva was a lucky little lady and seemed to be immune from losing this game. (or winning because the kids all wanted to get wet!)
Love my little peeps
Time for a fun birthday surprise…
Look who showed up at our camp site to wish Annabelle and I a happy birthday!
Birthday girls
Great group! 
(unfortunately we were missing the Tylers for the picture)
oh I how I love this little family!
Happiness!
The gang decorate my golf cart and the trees on our site. 
Sheila, one of my dearest friends who has been with us for ages…back from our CA days. She is our camping guru and well, our partying guru! She just knows how to do it right.  
Me and me girls!
Tom and Amy
Glad to see I’m finally acting my age… 
(by the way the girls just have soda so chill!)
Rhys rocking the golf cart
Gus and Jamila
Friends!
Well, that seems about right!
Wagon ride time
Again, a big big thank you to my husband for putting the weekend together. It’s a lot of work to be able to relax like that. He made me feel very much loved and appreciated and I’m lucky to have that guy! 

gator breakfast

We had pancakes at the pool this morning celebrating the first swim meet for the Anthem Gators. They took team pictures and some individual shots. Our little ladies are definitely embracing swimming and once they got over their initial nerves they have decided they can’t wait to keep on competing. It’s been a lot of fun and thankfully B and I are able to tag-team drop offs and pick ups because this is a daily commitment. 
I feel very lucky to have this great opportunity at the rec center right in our own backyard. 
Our girls are in the back row:
Having pancakes with Molly who they are working on swimming relays with…
Cute little friends. Molly is just a month younger than Annabelle, but in the same grade as Gwyneth. We’re finding this is becoming more and more common. Luckily our girls are good buddies and enjoy sharing friends. 

moana

We had a special visitor to the Kitchen today. Moana! The kids had a great time singing along with her and learning a Polynesian dance. It was a great a camp. 
Our neighbor, Karen has become our new party host. 
We are doing our best to have others run parties and not live at out jobs. 
After camp B had more work to get done so I took the girls to see Cars 3. I have a soft spot for that series because it was such a favorite of Gwyneth’s when she was little. 

happy first birthday | kyla

B had two catering this evening, but YaYa joined us to celebrate Kyla’s first birthday party. Our little ladies are baby crazy and can’t get enough of this little one. 
I received a new camera for my birthday (a bit early because I am sweet talker and B has no willpower when it comes to me and gifts!). I got to play around with my new toy and take lots of photos of the birthday girl and her smash cake! 

swim meet | alligators at home

After a long night of dance, the girls were in bed around 11 p.m. They were up at 6:30 a.m. for their first swim meet. Luckily this meet was at our home pool so they could roll out of bed and head right over. 
It was a bit chilly in the morning and we were not quite prepared. This was our first swim meet and we didn’t know much about bringing blankets, chairs, etc, etc. Luckily we were close to home so we could grab some much needed things for the big event. 
The girls have been swimming for a while now, but have never competed. Annabelle was all nerves. She is a very competitive and was worried about embarrassing herself. Silly girl. Her first race she was so anxious and just swam her little heart out. When it was over, she asked “how did I do?”. It was a lot of fun to be able to tell her “You won!”. Once she had that first win under her belt she calmed down a bit and got out there and had a good time. She’s a fierce swimmer and is really quite fast. She won 1st, 3rd, and 4th in her races. Not too shabby at all for her first time!
Gwyneth just seems to be good at everything she does. She also won a 1st place for the breakstroke and two fourth places. She was nervous too, but she laughed the entire time. She was actually laughing while swimming and still managed to pull off a 1st place win. This girl is wacky! 
B and I really enjoyed watching them swim. I didn’t expect to like it that much, but it was so great to see them out there competing and also having a lot of fun!
So cold

afternoon tea and recital

My mom flew in quite late last night (much later than anticipated. She didn’t arrive until about 1 in the morning). She was hear for a quick visit to watch the girls in their dance recital. 
We had a relaxing morning and had afternoon tea at The Huckleberry. The restaurant is located in a fabulous part of town. The food, atmosphere, and service were all amazing. 
It was finally time for the show! The girls were in eight dance numbers and did a wonderful job at each. I love watching them dance and seeing the improvement year over year. They had quite an entourage this year and were absolutely exhausted after the show. I only managed to snap these two pictures, but hope they will let me get some portraits of them in their costumes soon. 

discovery

This has been a weird week with the time commitment needed for recital. The girls were a bit stressed about the show, so I worked a lot in the early mornings and tried to focus solely on them in the afternoons and evenings. 
Today we planned a little adventure to Fort Collins. It’s about an hour drive and we wanted to check out the Museum of Discovery. We had been when the girls were younger, but I can’t seem to find the pictures from our visit. 
It’s a great museum and our favorite part is the focus on music. 
We also took the time to see Dream to Fly in the digitial dome. 
I highly recommend checking out a show there. 
The view from the observation deck
After the museum the girls were in a need of  snack. We had pizza at Totally 80’s Pizza and Museum. What an interesting place! It was full of 80’s memorabilia which was an entertaining blast from the past. The girls and I talked all about movies, tv shows, music, video games, and toys from the 80’s which was my childhood. They got a big kick out of hearing about the cereals I liked and all about music videos. We also enjoyed some pizza which was surprisingly good for such an eccentric place.