swim

sat | gwl and choir concert

We had an early morning wake up call for Annabelle. She had to be in the lobby, ready for choir practice at 7:45 a.m. Not terribly early, but early after a late night of swimming. She was so excited for her performance that she popped right out of bed and eager to start her day. 

She was gone by 8 and we didn’t meet up with her again until 4:30 for her performance. 

Gwyneth and Ella were up just as early and ready to conquer their day. With all the other girls off at practice they had the run of the resort.

Before the pools opened we played a round of mini-golf

And then we were off to the pools. The girls were first in the water and stayed until lunch time. 

Beautiful view from our room

We grabbed snacks at the Golden Bee at the Broadmoor before the performance. We had some very hungry girls after a hard day of playing.

Finally time for Annabelle’s choir performance. It was a full house. So many families there to celebrate these little ones. They did a great job and sang their little hearts out. Annabelle loved every minute of it!

After the concert, Annabelle & B went right to the pool to met her friends and the little girls chose a pj and movie night. It was a very full day for everyone!

fri | great wolf lodge

Annabelle auditioned for the Colorado Elementary School Choir. Only seven children were selected from our area and Annabelle was one of them. She practiced for months with her school and then went to Colorado Springs to practice with all the members of the choir and give a special concert. 
The choir concert was at the Broadmoor on Saturday. We drove down Friday afternoon and she had to practice all day Saturday. We booked a room at Great Wolf Lodge along with many of Annabelle’s friends and made a weekend of it. Gwyneth was able to invite a friend to come along also so she had a buddy to swim with while Annabelle practiced. 
We’re very proud of this little lady! She did a great job and we had a lovely weekend celebrating her. 
Gwyneth and Ella. Such sweet friends. 

The girls swam for several hours Friday night, we ate dinner at the pool, and then enjoyed some ice cream back at the room. Lots of fun for these sweet girls.

mortons

Gwyneth joined a buddy at the pool and Annabelle asked me to take her to a different pool. Seriously? Sisters! Honestly they are good to each other and spend a lot of time together and just wanted a break. Can’t blame a girl for that. We went to the pool for the bit. Annabelle swam – I worked. I wish I would have brought my suit though. That would have been much more fun. I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with this little fish though.
We joined my dad, Melissa, and her parents for a night at Morton’s. Big steaks and good fun. It was a lovely evening and a nice kick off to the girls Thanksgiving break. 

labor day

After closing on Color Me Mine we knew we wouldn’t be able to travel for the holiday weekend. I worked at the store for a lot of the weekend and we were pretty busy on Monday for the holiday. We did sneak away for a little staycation near home. Our family sure does enjoy a hotel stay and swim in a hotel pool. We were only able to get away for one night, but it’s enough to reconnect and refocus. 
Unfortunately Miss Annabelle was not feeling great. She was fighting a terrible chest cold and was really dragging. She took a good nap in the afternoon and still managed a little swim in the pool. She was the first one asleep that night, which NEVER happens. She woke up the next morning back to her self again. I’m glad she was able to relax and get better. I hate when the kiddos are not feeling well. 
After a good night sleep, B went to the Kitchen and I asked the girls if they wanted to go for a swim. They declined and requested breakfast in bed and a movie marathon. Not a bad idea at all! 

first week of school

We survived the first week of school. 
Dance hasn’t started back yet, but the girls were right back in the pool. They stay after school for additional swimming one night a week and this week they were the only ones in the pool. I know that will change – a handful of their friends have already signed up which they are so very excited about, but how lucky to have a big ol’ pool all to themselves today.

This is absolutely not allowed during regular swim sessions, but the teacher let them mess around since it was just the two of them.

The girls both got right back in their groove of homework and reading every night. This was my favorite project from Gwyneth:

Yep, she had to write what her favorite food is and she chose Spaghetti O’s. The girl who orders her NY strip medium rare and her lobster by the pound, chose Spaghetti O’s.

Saturday we went to visit Reagan at the hospital (more about our visit here) and then hosted a kids night out at the Kitchen that evening. The kids enjoyed pizza and we made lots of Minion treats.

We ended the weekend at the pool with their friends from Girl Scouts. Annabelle’s troop had a pretty good turn out, but it was just Gwyneth and her friend Riley. I couldn’t even snap a picture of them because they were too busy going down the slides. 

annabelle is nine

Annabelle is nine! 
We celebrated the beginning of her last year of single digits today. How is that even possible? Time really does seem to fly when you are having fun. 
She received the new American Girl doll, Lea from my mom. Yaya knows just what to get these gals!
Annabelle does not like breakfast so she requested a smoothie from Jamba Juice instead. 
We wanted to check out a new water park for her birthday and found the Brighton Oasis Water Park. It had great water slides, a lazy river, wave pool, rock climbing wall and water basketball. The girls did the water slides a few times but wanted to spend most of their day in the lazy river which is my favorite part too. 
It was an interesting park, cheap admission, a bit crowded (I would recommend getting there early), but the perfect day for our birthday girl. She was all smiles and splashes!
We headed home to clean up and told this girl she could have anything at all that she wanted for dinner. She requested Dave and Busters and a Dr Pepper (is she like her YaYa or what?). We shared a few snacks and meals, because let’s be honest we’re not there for the fine cuisine. We are here to play some games! The girls are always super lucky and hit jackpots and score tons of tickets. 
Enjoying her birthday Dr Pepper: 
B and the Birthday Girl!
Me and the G:
We told the waiter it was her birthday and she got this whipped cream, brownie monstrosity that she happily shared: 
Deciding on the perfect birthday wish:
Playing games and hitting the 1,000 ticket bonus:
Annabelle shared the secret and Gwyneth hit the bonus too!
They combined their tickets and got walkie talkies to share. Annabelle got an emoji pillow and Gwyneth got three little Shopkins stuffies. I love that they share tickets, they get what they want, and don’t worry about “fair” or how many points the other spends. They are good sisters. 
Annabelle had requested lemon blueberry cupcakes so of course, I made them and even though we were all full from the dessert at dinner we had to sing Happy Birthday to this girl and let her make one last birthday wish. 
We had a lovely day and I couldn’t be more grateful for our family time and this sweet girl. 
Happy, happy birthday Annabelle!

pool revisited

Our girls had friends over and spent 5 hours at the pool. Yes, that’s right — FIVE HOURS! We went home for lunch and then returned and the girls could not get enough swim time.
Our neighbors had a vow renewal at the rec center and B catered their event. He was there for 4 hours and the girls were happy to just hang out and swim. We wished our neighbors well at the party and then back in to the pool they went. Everyone slept very well that night!
The first at the pool in the morning:
Heading back to the pool for the vow renewal. Wearing some fancy coverups:

easter eve

After a morning of catering and Easter preparation we checked in to a hotel near our house. We love our little staycations and our tradition of staying at a hotel the night before Easter. There’s always swimming and dinner and such anticipation and discussion about if the Easter Bunny will find us. 
This year we stayed at the Renaissance Flatirons. The views from the hotel were gorgeous. The pool was simple and the girls had it all to themselves. We were able to get a suite for a low, low price and they had a great lounge for watching March Madness. 

Love the lashes

Fabulous, just fabulous!

Gwyneth has gotten so much better swimming but still doesn’t like to jump right in. Luckily Annabelle is there to hold her hand.

Looking so lovely for dinner

Annabelle likes to be our photographer 
After dinner we hung out in the lounge and watched March Madness and had such fun family time. 

Annabelle may have been a touch distracted with her iPad, but she put it away once the games got started. This is our basketball lover after all.

 Now we wait for the Easter Bunny…