princess

2018 summer bucket list

We are back at it again this summer! This is our 5th summer with our silly little bucket list. I still love it. I love putting the list together and checking off each adventure over the summer. Like most things I do, it’s over the top and I get a bit obsessive. 
The list has evolved from a list of fun things to do to almost a photography challenge. The girls know the clip doesn’t come off the board until I get a photo I like…which may be even more challenging than doing 100 fun things over the summer. 
At the end of the summer I make a chatbook and we have great memento of all our fun little adventures. The summer buckets lists from years past are here.  
Here we go….
Last Day of School
 LEGOrado @ Colorado History Museum
Rockies vs Reds @ Coors Field
Boondocks
Welcome to Palm Springs
Pizza Night in Palm Springs
Tie Dye
Build a Buddy
Archery
Ice Cream Sundae Bar
Palm Springs Pool Party
Warner Brothers Studio Tour
 Hollywood
Redondo Beach Pier
Redondo Beach
Long Beach
Long Beach Aquarium
 Queen Mary
 Downtown Disney
Disney Character Dining
California Adventures
 Disneyland
School of Rock
Morton’s
 Mount Evans
Afternoon Tea at the Brown Palace
Vacation Bible School
Dance Rehearsal
Swim Team Pancake Breakfast
The Greatest Showman Camp
The Little Mermaid at Boulder Dinner Theater
Dance Recital
Greek Festival
 Father’s Day
Incredibles 2
Glenwood Springs
Strawberry Festival
Glenwood Hot Springs
Painting with Bubbles
Cupcake Wars at BMK
Swim Meet #1/ My Birthday
Annabelle is 11!
Celestial Seasonings Tea Tour
Grease at the IMAX
Jurassic World
Kitchen Day with Dad
Painting with Tape
Newsies at Candlelight
Cousins Lunch @ 5280 Burger Bar
Staycation @ DIA
Rigazzi’s in St. Louis
Swimming in St. Louis
The Arch
Botanic Gardens in St. Louis
Pabst Museum (Milwaukee)
Discovery World (Milwaukee)
Mader’s Restaurant (Milwaukee)
Cousins! (Milwaukee)
Brewers Game (Milwaukee)
Amtrak Train Ride (Milwaukee to Chicago) 
Dinner at Ditka’s (Chicago)
Chicago Art Museum
Giordano’s Chicago Style Pizza
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
98th floor of the Hancock Tower (Chicago)
Carson’s Ribs (Chicago)
The Bean (Chicago)
Navy Pier (Chicago)
Botanic Gardens (Chicago)
Sweets Ice Cream
Painting with sponges
Rockies vs Diamondbacks
BMK Jumangi Camp
Swim Meet #2
Sunflower Art Camp (Boulder)
Hotel Transylvania 3
Swim Meet #3
 Alligator Spirit Night
 Ant Man and Wasp Girl
 Swim Banquet
 Sushi for Gwyneth’s 10th birthday!
 American Girl Doll Store
 Digital Photography Class
 Cake Boss
 Painting with Crystals
 Bowling
 Sewing Class
The Samples Concert
 Art Camp at the Arvada Center
 Elitch’s
 Mid Air Adventures
BMK Fairy Tale Treats Camp
 Great Wolf Lodge
 Water Park
 Water Slides
 Broncos vs Bears
And just like that, it’s the first day of 5th and 6th grade!

legorado and rockies game

We started summer break off with a trip to the Colorado History museum. We were pretty excited for the exhibit cleverly named LEGOrado. 
We explored the main floor exhibits before heading upstairs. 

There was some pretty cool artwork on the walls for the event. Many of our sports favorites. 

The exhibit definitely had some cool pieces and it was fun to check them out but overwall it was pretty underwhelming.I would feel bad saying that but the clerk at the front desk said the same thing. There was just one big table of displays and then a small area for building your own. It just didn’t meet our expectations. On a positive note, here’s a few of our favorites:

Casa Bonita

It only took us about 20 minutes and we had planned most of our day to spend at the museum. Hmmm….

Lucky for us the “Play Ball” exhibit was still open and it did NOT disappoint. It was awesome! The lighting wasn’t very conducive with picture taking so I didn’t’ snap as many pictures as normal, but there was so much amazing memorabilia! 

After the museum we met friends for pre-game drinks at The Pig and the Sprout. It was our first visit and the food was great. The drinks were even better. I had a bacon bourbon and it was delish!

Our friends, the Geyers, are visiting from Kansas and were attending the Taylor Swift concert tonight. Their twins didn’t want to go so they spent the evening with us at the baseball game. It was their first MLB game so that was pretty exciting.

Frozen yogurt time!

The kiddos became fast friends! They have met before, but it’s been a few years. 

We headed back to the house and the kids played hide and seek and board games until it was finally time for them to get some sleep. The kids slept over and were ready to play again in the morning!

last day of 4th and 5th grade

Summer is here!
Today was the last day of 5th grade for Annabelle and 4th grade for Gwyneth. They both had a fabulous year, but were pretty excited for summer vacation. They have grand plans for doing….absolutely nothing! That’s what they said anyway. They want to lay on the couch and watch movies and play with legos. HA! We’ll see how long that lasts…
They invited their friend Kierra over for a sleep over. They stated up super late…we finally asked them to please, please, please go to sleep after 2 a.m. I think it was their perfect kick off for summer!

zoo day…wait, what?!?!

The girls earned a zoo day from the fun run. As usual for their school, there were so many parent volunteers each parent was just asked to take their own children. It’s pretty great how involved the parents are at this school. 
We pulled up to the zoo at the same time as approximately 30 buses. Nope! Nope, nope, nope! There were kids everywhere. I’m sure once we got in it would have been fine, but the sea of kids at the entrance was a bit disheartening. 
I stopped and asked the girls “who wants to ditch the zoo and head to the Botanic Gardens?”. It was a resounding “Me!!!” as they saw the buses unloading. We switched gears and hit the gardens and peace was quickly restored to our day. 
The Botanic Gardens is my absolute favorite place to take pictures. I could stay there all day and just snap away. The sun was pretty intense when we arrived, so our lighting was a bit off, but that didn’t slow me down. 
We texted B and let he know that we were ditching the zoo. He surprised the girls by meeting us downtown with their Elitch passes. It’s started to rain shortly after we arrived so the girls were only able to ride a few rides but we weren’t complaining. What a fun day! Only three more days of school to go…

camping with annabelle

Annabelle and I attended our last Girl Scout event together for her troop. It has been quite a journey for her and scouts…definitely not the experience I had in mind for her. She started in kindergarten and the troop has undergone many, many changes. So many troop leaders and scouts that have come and gone. I took a turn leading the troop and it certainly had it’s fair share of challenges. In the end, I would like to think that Annabelle had a good experience and enjoyed her time. I’m not positive that she wanted to be done with Scouts but this troop is most definitely done. 
We spent the weekend at the YMCA of the Rockies. It is a lovely camp ground in Estes Park. We had a great big cabin with plenty of room for all the Scouts and moms. We spent our weekend exploring and didn’t get to do nearly as much as we have liked. Annabelle and I quickly agreed that we would need to return with Gwyneth and B. 
The camp grounds are nestled right up against the National Park. It was beautiful and there was wildlife right outside our cabin. 
We spent our fair share of time in the craft lodge. The jewelry section was a big hit and we made some super cute bookmarks. It was a wonderful weekend with my girl!

awards

This feels like a braggy post, but I just want to record this moment and how proud I am of my amazing daughters. 
I nearly missed the award ceremony this morning, because I had work to do and I wasn’t even sure what it was all about. I thought it was for awards from the fun run. My girls had a blast at the run but didn’t set any records for laps or fundraising and didn’t seem all that excited for me to attend. 
That morning I decided with only a few days left of school I wanted to soak it all in and I was going to attend that awards ceremony anyway. I am sure glad I did!
The very first award given that morning was for values and it was the “Heroism” award. Gwyneth was so surprised (and embarrased) when her name was called. She won for doing brave things! Reading to her peers when it’s not always easy for her, standing up for for anyone she sees being picked one, being kind and honest when that’s not always the easiest choice. 
I could have not been more proud of that girl! She has a heart of gold and she is brave even (especially) when it’s hard. 

Each student in the school earns an award. Some earn mulitiple awards. Each and every one of them  knows on this day that they have a talent and they are special. The sap in me loved it and I had to choke back tears watching these kids so proudly receive their awards and cheer for each other.

The girls’ friend Kierra won an award for best speller and I wanted to snap this photo for her mom who couldn’t be there.

Gwyneth won “Top Performer” in her class! They don’t do honor roll in 4th grade, but she had the best performance of all the kiddos in her grade for the entire year across all subjects. This was an amazing accomplishment for a little lady who has to overcome so many challenges in her studies and never stops working her tail off!

Annabelle won two awards –  the 4Q honor roll award and Top Performer for her class! She was the only student in 5th grade to maintain a 4.0 the entire year. She is very driven and positive enforcement goes a long way with her. Her teacher challenged her this year and got her very best. So proud of her. Annabelle makes it all look easy so we don’t always give her enough credit for her hard work. Today was a wonderful reminder this young ladies intelligence, strength, drive, focus and success. So very, very proud of her.

Receiving the 4Q honor roll awards
I’m so proud of these little ladies. They worked hard this year and have grown so much! 
Annabelle and her teacher. Love them both. We couldn’t have hoped for better! 

tea with annabelle and billera celebration

Annabelle and I had a special afternoon planned with her girl scout troop. We attended a mother daughter tea party at the Huckleberry. They do a simple and casual afternoon tea with tasty tea cakes, scones, and sandwiches. 
Before setting off Annabelle asked me to give her some “beachy waves” in her hair. It was my first attempt with a new curling gadget we purchased. It took a few tries and there’s room for improvement, but I thought she looked fabulous! Very beachy indeed! She was full of confidence with that head full of curls.
Off to brunch we go! 
In addition to meeting the ladies from girl scouts, we ran into a friend from Ananbelle’s class and our former neighbors. Who knew The Huckleberry was the place to be on a Saturday afternoon?!

After tea, we headed over to meet up with Gwyneth. She spent the afternoon with her friend Ruby. We joined up with the Billera’s and many friends to celebrate Peter’s election win. He is now on the North Metro Fire Rescue Board. We are very happy for him and were thrilled to celebrate his accomplishment!
Chloe, Gwyneth, and Annabelle enjoying root beer floats!

lunch with gwyneth

Gwyneth asked for a packed lunch today and I just really, really didn’t feel like packing it. Nor did I feel like going to the grocery to buy acceptable lunch foods. The end of school year drag is real! Ha! We are at the end of the school year;  just counting down the days until we have summer freedom. I know most moms feel this way at the end of the school year. Those packed lunches and reading logs suck my will and some days I just have to throw in the white flag. Today was one of those days. 
I asked Gwyneth if we could skip the packed lunch and I would just take her out. She was thrilled! I picked her up for a special lunch and she requested Panera. That girl loves bread and soup!
I asked Annabelle if she wanted to join us and she said no! She said she didn’t want to miss even a minute of school. I love both of their reactions to my request!

girl scouts | tea party with gwyneth

This afternoon we met with Gwyneth’s troop for our final meeting. We have been going strong for the past five years and I feel so fortunate to have been the troop leader. We’ve gone from kindergarten to fourth grade and oh my how these girls have grown. 
Schedules have become quite full and more demanding. It has become difficult to find times for us all to meet up. We ended the year with bang, for the girls who could attend with a tea party in Boulder. It was a wonderful ending to a great year with these gals! 
Gwyneth LOVES to get dressed up. She is so very, very fancy. She found this dress weeks ago and had to have it for the tea party. She’s been counting down the days until she was able to wear it. 
The girls looked so lovely for tea! 
The Boulder Tea House is gorgeous! The girls were in awe of the beautifully decorated ceilings. 
time for tea
amuse bouche | phyllo dough with cinnamon apples and brie. yum, yum, yum!
our tray of treats
We had one girl cancel and since we had to prepay for the event Annabelle agreed to join us. 
I’d say the treats were a hit…
so much cake, so little time…
being this fancy is hard work!
After tea we explored the gardens. It was a beautiful day and these girls were good sports when I asked to snap a few more pictures. 
I was feeling nostalgic when I got home and had to go back and find the pictures from the day these little ladies became Daisies. My goodness so much has changed!