April 2 – Weekly Photos

Highlight of our week was definitely the Arvada Fire + Rescue truck + their paramedic vehicle. A six-man crew visited our group, rolling up in an 86-ton, emergency truck on a cold, windy morning. We spent two hours learning about how the fire suits work, what types of jobs the Arvada crew is called to do + their corresponding certifications, how the firefighters get assigned their daily jobs, + what they do every day inside the firehouse. After the indoor portion, we all got a tour of the truck’s compartments. The kids’ favorite was definitely the “weapons” compartment with all the sharp axes, hatchets + car piercers. The team left us with some sirens + honks, leaving quite an impression.

March 26 – Weekly Photos

What a fun week we had! Swimming + meals with cousins + grandparents. Wildlings celebrated Cat Day with much fanfare + lots of outdoor play. Three different playgrounds with friends this week, plus art + play at the house together = happy + sun-filled days.

March 19 – Weekly Photos

Calm week spent outside as much as possible, barring Thursday. We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day twice – early with our Wildling crew and a leprechaun-fueled treasure hunt, then on the actual holiday with just family + Rosetta’s amazing 4-leaf clover cookies (not pictured). We learned a lot of Irish facts, history + lore, then polished up our limericks with Irish accents all around. We also learned to dance a basic jig. Our family ancestry runs to Ireland on both sides, so it’s exciting to learn more.

March 12 – Weekly Photos

Everyone found an art focus this week – to my surprise! I’d picked up a set of encaustics at a garage sale recently, and a friend at Wildlings gave us a tutorial. So we set up the whole shabang on the kitchen floor + painted for several days, even once with friends. By the end, a huge brush-cleaning session that stunk up the whole house with chemicals, we each had 3-4 wooden canvases that we liked.

March 5 – Weekly Photos

Finally the perfect weather for family bike rides! After one great, windy one, and then an entire day outside at Wildlings, we shuffled off to Great Wolf Lodge for a few days indoors. Altho I did make the kiddos walk to dinner across the entire parking lot, a full mile, without considering the incessant wind and our wet hair and the 30º weather. Making memories!

February 26 – Weekly Photos

We stopped + browsed the Trail Through Time, near Fruita, on our way across Colorado, picking out the bones of dinosaurs all along the 2-mile trek + reading signs about “desert patina” + “erosion” that explained the terrain. Rosetta took pictures of her entire hike to piece into a stop-motion of the trip, which ends up with 20 seconds worth of views for 200 photos.

February 17 – Weekly Photos + Notes

Hope everyone enjoyed their Valetine’s Day as much as we did! Cards, candy + miscellany were exchanged with friends at our Wildling group party (one day early), plus some musical chairs + dancing. We had a family exchange as well. Because they live too far away to come, Rosetta sent a long letter to her grandparents in Kansas, plus individual cards from both kids, along with a pile of chocolate, their favorite.

February 11 – Weekly Photos + Notes

We’re grappling with the swing of life, trying to get a better hold this week. Or at least I am. Everyone’s got loads of energy, ahead of spring, and I’m trying to leash that into more activities that require attention + movement. We bought the kids new bikes, after a long search together, and have been on several rides already. Plus we picnicked – in what turned out to be freezing wind – and had a great time revisiting old nature haunts, just the three of us.

February 4 – Weekly Photos + Notes

This week, we tried a new way to organize our family by using lists. Each kid received a journal for Christmas that’s a daily, self-ordered checklist. We chose Wednesday to start, as that’s our home day, and began planning our day at the table after we finished reading. We picked up sushi from Sprouts that day and ate outside, enjoying the warmer weather and discussing which books we want to read next. Writing the goals themselves by Friday, we managed to get a few more tasks finished than usual by day’s end. They don’t seem to care about checking stuff off the list, just putting it on (that complaint is my own). After a long, slow January, this is my ramp-up to resuming regular activities by next week.