Jude wakes up on his birthday to presents…and he is excited.

On Saturday of this past week Jude turned 7. Like all birthdays this one was keenly anticipated for weeks. And when the day came it didn’t disappoint.

But first we should talk about school. For the past three birthdays Jude has been either in Kindergarten or preschool at the Denver Waldorf School. Here on birthdays kids are treated like royalty. They are the focus of the entire morning. The entire family comes to class and we listen to the teacher tell a long story about the birthday boy or girl. All the classmates have made cards with special wishes and a picture. And then there is cake. Jude loved it.

Well, now he is in first grade it is a bit different. No cake, no parents coming to class and no big story from the teacher. And what is worse, this year Jude had to share the day with another classmate. So, it was quite a letdown for him. He was sad and he acted out quite a bit on Thursday after his school birthday celebration.

The family tradition…birthday pancakes at a restaurant

Anyway, by the time Saturday came it seemed to be forgotten and Jude was just so excited to be turning 7. Jude was up early and was excited to get the day started. We spent some time opening presents and then it was off to Snooze for breakfast for the traditional birthday pancakes.

Having his birthday on a Saturday this year meant it was the perfect day to have a party and Jude had been looking forward to getting together with his school friends for months. He just wanted to invite the boys so we had 12 six and seven year olds running around our house for a few hours on Saturday.

Jude blowing out the candles on his birthday cake

One of our friends had an inflatable bounce house and even though it was cold outside the kids enjoyed it. But the big hit of the day was Chad Wonder – the magician. He was fantastic. He does a lot of kids parties and he kept everyone spellbound and entertained for an hour. The kids thought he was hilarious and most importantly Jude loved him.

Chad Wonder, the magician, keeps everyone entertained

It has been at least a couple of years since Marcy went away for the weekend. But this weekend Marcy decided to go on a yoga retreat while I took care of the kids. We ended up having a great time.

We kicked the weekend off with Anna’s Lantern Walk with her Morning Glory classmates in kindergarten. It is a really great Waldorf tradition where they make lanterns and then light a candle and walk to the local park in the darkness.

Then Saturday morning we did something important. We opened savings accounts for Jude and Anna. We went down to the local bank and deposited $25 each to open their account. From now on we are going to encourage them both to save some of their allowance every week and deposit into the bank.

We went from the bank up to Keystone for our first try of skiing this season. We bought season passes for the whole family (under $1,000 total which I thought was a good deal) so it didn’t matter if we just went up for an hour. That was about all I thought we should do this first time out with just me looking out for them both. 

Heading up the gondola at Keystone for the first run of the season

So, it turned out they did great. Jude picked up right where he left off last year, he was able to turn right away and stop easily. Anna needed a couple of runs to get used to turning and stopping but she was very steady on her feet right away. And within a couple of runs she had the hang of stopping.

They have had some good early snow at Keystone and we drove home from Keystone as a big storm was moving in.

Jude worked really hard raking leaves into piles

Today was spent doing some yard work. We finally packed up all the leaves in our front yard, filling 10 large bags. Both Jude and Anna were good helpers here, Jude with the rake and Anna with the snow shovel piling all the leaves into the bags.

Anna getting ready to go to her ballet recital

Then this afternoon we had Anna’s ballet recital. With Marcy away Anna had to get herself ready and she spent quite a bit of time doing her own hair. And she had a ball at the recital, she didn’t seem nervous at all. I think she liked being the center of attention.

Anna showing her style at her ballet recital

Doing “letters” on the green couch

A couple of years ago Jude was really into playing “letters” on the computer. Basically, “letters” is just an educational website called Starfall for kids to learn about the alphabet. Now, that Jude is in first grade he is learning about numbers and the alphabet in class and it has piqued his curiosity once again for this game. I think it is good for him because it teaches him some familiarity with computers and helps strengthen his knowledge of the alphabet. Computers are not encouraged at all in the Waldorf school until middle school so he gets no exposure to them whatsoever in school. This has been his sole experience with computer games are he seems quite satisfied with it.

Anna give snowshoeing a try in the backyard….but where is the snow?

I had Ridhwan school this weekend so I was not around much but Marcy took the kids to yoga on Saturday and then got out the snowshoes in the afternoon. A friend was borrowing some for a trip but Anna decided it would be fun to put them on and walk around the backyard.

Jude loves to climb on just about anything…

We have this really old back patio and awning that is going to come down when we do renovations next year. Well Jude and Anna discovered a fun way to climb on it this weekend.

Yes, that is Jude underneath this scary skeleton costume

Both kids have been excited about Halloween for weeks. They love everything about this holiday. The dressing up in fun outfits, going around the neighborhood after dark and yes…the candy. Here are both kids getting ready to roll and fill their orange buckets.

Anna, the sweet witch

There were not many kids out on our block so Jude and Anna scored a ton of candy with several people saying, “take as much as you want”. Both kids would reach in for a handful. What to do with all this candy?

Someone at school mentioned that the “Switch Witch” comes to their house and takes all the candy and in exchange leaves a toy for the kids. We loved this idea so we implemented it at our house. Both Jude and Anna were keen to give this a try although Anna decided to keep a few pieces of candy hidden from the Switch Witch…

It was another beautiful weekend here and we spent quite a bit of time outside. Today, we went to the Stapleton playground, one we hadn’t been to in over a year. It is a big playground with a lot of variety for the kids so Jude and Anna were in heaven. They could have stayed there all day. There is also a big field next to the playground where they ran around for a while. I snapped the photo below on our way back to the car with Jude and Anna in deep discussion about a pretend monster who was lurking in a drain nearby.

At the Stapleton playground in deep conversation

Finally, I was out of town in New York City for most of this week. Part of the reason was for the TedX Wall Street conference that was held at the New York Stock Exchange. The post conference party was held on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. They were taking photos of people “ringing” the closing bell so here I am with my good friend and new business partner, Bo Brustkern.