Last weekend we had the annual holiday fair at the kids school and we got there bright and early at 9am. There was so much to do with all kinds of crafts and activities including the little train that Jude and Anna enjoyed. They had a lot of friends there and the weather was nice so they spent a good deal of time outside playing. It was 1pm and time to go home but we could have easily stayed there all day.

Also last weekend we bought out Christmas tree. The kids enjoyed decorating, although Marcy did most of the work, but by the end it looked great. Both Jude and Anna are really into Christmas lights this year, always pointing them out when we are out driving. So, we put up some outside lights including some large candy canes in the front yard. The lights on the tree that we put in the little alcove at the front of the house are also pretty cool.

Today it was cold and cloudy – a great time to stay indoors. Marcy decided it was time to bake gingerbread cookies which was met with wild enthusiasm. It was a good 2-hour project and the kids helped every step of the way. Here is Jude and Anna licking frosting from the beater and spatula.

Jude has a new fun game that he plays by himself. Marcy bought 5,000 popsicle sticks at Hobby Lobby a while back and he has really taken to them. He will take these sticks and make all kinds of creatures from them, usually dinosaurs. But that is only half the game. The second part is where a predator will come along and eat the dinosaur. When this happens all the sticks are broken in two (Jude does this with his bare hands) and then put in the compost bin. The picture below is one of a dinosaur Jude made up that he called a carabarasuchus.

Jude had a rough start to the weekend on Friday night. It seems like there is a stomach bug going around at school. He picked it up and so he vomited few times. He was a bit pale and lacking in energy on Saturday. The only time he left the house was for a scooter ride around the block and that ended in tears. He was back to his chirpy self by this morning. We just hope Anna doesn’t pick it up.

After building up for weeks Jude finally turned 6 on Friday this past week, the day after Thanksgiving this year. As has become a tradition in our house we all headed out bright and early for breakfast at “Berries and Cream” – that is what the kids call the Original Pancake House because they serve that for breakfast. Jude ordered the kids serving of pancakes and we all sang Happy Birthday.

We told Jude that he was the boss on his birthday and of course he was thrilled about that. We gave his some options of things to do and he decided he wanted to go climbing. Marcy and I had checked out a climbing place where they had indoor walls and would accept kids. We had to learn how to belay the kids but they were both able to do it. Jude had a great time and was really good at it – reaching the ceiling on one of his climbs.

After that it was lunch time. Jude had been saying all week that he wanted Chipotle for lunch but at the last minute he changed his mind to Noodles which was great by us. We visit Chipotle once a week as it is and I wasn’t looking forward to a second visit. Then it was back home for dessert where Jude had a birthday cupcake – his actual birthday cake was happening at his birthday party the next day.

For the last few weeks Jude kept on saying that he wanted to invite some of his school friends to his birthday party. We had never done a party for him before but this year it became clear that it is what he wanted. So we invited all the kids in his class as well as Anna and Isabella Ferguson – good friends of ours who Jude loves to play with.

On the day of the party Jude was really excited. Marcy decorated the house and had lots of fun games planned. Jude had a blast. His two best friends from his class came and he was running around with them as well as playing all the games. What was great is that there were lots of boys there – all of our friends and family have girls so he doesn’t get to play with a group of boys that much. We were so glad it worked out well because we could see this was a big deal to Jude. He is already talking about his 7th birthday party.

Jude dressed up in a knight costume for Halloween. Here he is all decked out about to head to school on Halloween. That night, though, he decided to just wear his pumpkin shirt as he was out trick or treating. Anna went as a princess – they made quite the cute couple.

This past week was haircut time so they headed to the local kid’s hairdresser that both Jude and Anna love. They get to sit in airplanes or cars and best of all they get a lollipop afterwards.

This week we received Jude’s school photo that was taken a couple of weeks ago. He is quite the handsome fellow don’t you think.

Speaking of school we had the parent conference with Jude’s teacher a couple of weeks ago and it was great to hear he is doing well in school. We often wondered because he can be very impatient and mean to Anna on occasion at home. But apparently in school Jude is on his best behavior most of the time. And he loves it. He said this weekend that Monday is one of his favorite days of the week because he gets to go to school to see his friends. That was great to hear.

We had some big news this weekend. We have been renting here in Park Hill since returning to Denver in August but we have been quietly looking for a house to buy the last few weeks. We found a place we both loved a couple of weeks ago but someone beat us in putting an offer in. We put in a backup offer but we had pretty much given up on the place when we get a call from our friend and realtor, Melissa, on Saturday night. The first contract fell through so we are under contract now. Now, we know not to count our chickens before they are hatched but if all goes well we will be closing on the new house on Christmas Eve.

It was off to Des Moines for a few days this past week. The kids went to the Des Moines library for a Halloween Party and Jude, ever the gentleman in his knight costume, escorted his cousin Chloe to the party.

All the kids decided to climb the tree in the grandparents front yard while they were there. Yes, there are five kids in this tree with Jude being close to the top with the American flag. Nathan was underneath just in case anyone had a misstep.

Back in Denver we had a Halloween neighborhood bike ride yesterday.  Jude got dressed up in his knight outfit and we went riding round the neighborhood. He is getting much better on his bike these days – I ran beside him most of the way but he hardly needed me. Here he is enjoying a red velvet cupcake, his favorite, on one of the stops.

We also had our weekly trip to the museum this weekend, it is still the kids favorite place to go. I snapped this photo of Jude yesterday as he was riding on the wolves outside.

Anna’s preschool is in a church. One day when Marcy was picking Anna up after school she noticed a piano for sale for $100. We had been talking about getting a piano for some time. Marcy grew up with one and I also had one in my early childhood years.

So we paid $50 for a piano technician to come and look at it and he gave it a thumbs up. He said it was built around 1930 and then completely overhauled in the 1970’s. The woodwork needs refinishing but other than that it was in great shape. Both kids have been playing on it every day since we got it.

Last weekend we went to City Park for the Chipotle Festival. It was a cold and miserable day but Jude was happy as could be. He had on his gumboots and was happy to play in the mud in the rose garden.

In the last post we talked about Jude’s new dinosaur dig – well he bought another one today with some money he had earned. This one was much bigger with more hefty tools and he spent a good chunk of the day digging through clay to get to his two velociraptor skeletons that were buried inside. This was great for us because we spent the day organizing the garage and getting ready for a garage sale in a couple of weeks.

Jude has gone off bike riding lately but he is really into his scooter. And he is getting fast. This afternoon he wanted to go on a quick scooter ride. We got 100 yards from home and he thought it would be fun to go the museum which is about a mile away. So off we went. I had to run at a full sprint just to keep up with him. Just a couple of months ago he was quite tentative still. Not now – it is a great workout trying to keep up with him.

Look at the concentration on Jude’s face. Last week, with his own money, he bought a little dinosaur dig kit. He then got home and for the next couple of hours picked away at his piece of clay. By the next morning he had uncovered several dinosaur fossils and he was most excited.

Tuesday is fish day at our house. And Jude has been enjoying eating the whole fish. So Marcy would go to Whole Foods and they would pick out a whole fish to bring home and eat. These dinners have become part science experiment, part dinner for Jude as he would dig away at the fish head, poke out the eye and do other things that five year old boys like to do. Here he is with Anna as they both enjoy fish night (Anna had a salmon fillet, though typically she enjoys the whole fish as much as Jude does).

There is a field of dandelions near our house that has become a favorite of Jude and Anna. They have ridden their scooters down there several times in the past week. Jude likes to pick up the dandelion seeds and blow them into the air.

Today we had the Fergusons and Brieres over for brunch and Morgan brought along their new guinea pig. Jude was such a fan of the guinea pigs in Sydney and he was excited to play with this one (named Zipper). Here is Morgan, Anna and Jude enjoying Zipper’s company.

Last week Marcy set up the pool in the backyard and the kids went bobbing for apples. Jude was able to retrieve an apple without using his hands and he was most annoyed when Anna cheated and picked an apple up with her hands.

We spent a great deal of time at home these past two weeks which I know Jude appreciates. One of the Jude’s favorite foods is marshmallows and he also loves roasting them on the fire which we did last year a couple of times. We recently bought a Weber grill and so so after dinner last night we let the kids roast some marshmallows.

Jude also enjoys hammering nails and I admit this is not even something I think about doing with him (I never did this when I was a kid). Luckily Marcy thinks of it so this week both kids enjoyed some time in the backyard smashing nails into a piece of wood.

Jude’s interests keep evolving. While he still loves dinosaurs he is showing more interest in science. In particular he likes space travel and rocket ships. He wants to see pictures of the solar system, his favorite planet is Neptune, and he is interested in the Voyager spacecrafts that we have been telling him about. I notice these days instead of pretending to be a dinosaur, he is often pretending that whatever toy he is holding is a rocket ship doing a blast off.

This weekend we came up to Keystone for the first time in almost a year. The first day we were here we noticed Morgan’s old bike sitting in the garage. Anna wanted to take it out for a ride but we told her it didn’t have training wheels. She insisted so I took her out and held the handle bars while she rode. I even let go for a couple of seconds but Anna didn’t really like that.

Then Jude wanted to have a turn. I did the same thing and ran along with him holding the handle bars. But when I let go he just kept on riding. His balance was good and it looked like he had been riding like that for years. In just a couple of minutes Jude had graduated from training wheels. He was very proud of himself as were Marcy and I. We have said we will take his training wheels off his green bike when we get back to Denver and he said he was fine with that.

This week also marked Jude’s return to school. He was back in Morning Glory at the Denver Waldorf School where he started last year. While this is officially kindergarten, at Waldorf they have two year kindergartens. Next year is the big transition when Jude will become a “grader” by entering first grade. Here is Jude on his first day of school this week.

Here in Keystone we have had quite the active weekend. They have a bunch of kids activities set up this Labor Day weekend and we took advantage of many of them. The bungee bounce was a big hit with Jude. He bounced up pretty much as high as it would go which I estimate is at least 40 feet in the air. While it scared him a couple of times by the end he had a huge smile on his face.

When Anna was napping yesterday Jude and I went for an adventure down by the river. The river was really low and we were able to walk along the rocks for quite a long way.

This picture shows the sun rising over Denver International Airport on our first day back in Denver. We drove from Des Moines to Denver on August 7th, staying at an airport hotel before moving in to our new home the following day. After more than seven months away we were finally back to Denver, and we rented a place just four blocks from our old home in Park Hill.

On our first weekend back they had the annual Park Hill bike parade where Jude decided to get his face painted with a shark. He looks kind of scary.

Since getting back Jude and Anna have been on their scooters a lot, probably even more than their bikes. Last week Marcy took both kids to Wash Park where they spent a long time hurtling around the park on their scooters. Both kids have shown a tremendous improvement in just the last two weeks.

Both Marcy and I miss Sydney. The proximity to beaches and the harbour was something we took advantage of regularly. So, we have decided we want to take advantage of the great things that Colorado offers. This means heading up in to the foothills or mountains at every opportunity. So yesterday we headed to Lair of the Bear, a great hiking area just west of Denver. Jude went hiking all the way to the top of the hill, quite an achievement. Here is Jude playing by the river before tackling the hike.

We have spent most of the last two weeks on our annual summer trip to Des Moines. We arrived here 11 days ago on what was the hottest Des Moines day in 29 years – it was 106 degrees. So it was straight into the pool for everyone. Since then the weather has cooled somewhat but everyone spent some time in the pool pretty much every day.

Being in Des Moines means lots of treats from Baba and Grandpa. There was ice cream or popsicles every day which Jude and Lily are enjoying right here.

Lily was away at Disney World the first few days we were here but since she came back Jude, Lily and Anna have been inseparable. There have been a couple of sleepovers with the three of them and several special outings with Baba and Grandpa. Then, of course, there are some quiet times with plenty of books.