Summer is over...

Summer is over...for us that is to say.  They boys started back to school and are now in 1st grade.  I can hardly believe that they are actually full grown kids and no longer babies!  There are lots of firsts this year.  First year they will be at their new school, first year not in the same class, and of course, 1st grade.  They both did fine on their first day of school yesterday and were very excited about the day's events.  We'll see what the second day brings.  :-)  This is them posing in front of their new school on their first day.  They've got goofy expressions on their faces because the sun was in their eyes and by the time I had taken this picture, they were at their wits end with posing for me.  :-)

Now that school has started, I will, again, have two whole free days to myself, a week.  That means more time for knitting, cleaning, and...blogging!  Yes, it's been awhile and I've been quite lax in my efforts.  I have a lot of projects on the needles (quite unlike me to do so) so I should have plenty to blog about in upcoming weeks. 

Kindergarten Graduation

Yes, there's a graduation ceremony for that, too.  At least we didn't have to have one for pre-school.  I say that, not because I think they're silly, but because these things wreak havoc on my emotions!  Last night I attended the first school program for my children.  It was so sweet.  They sang, performed...and graduated.  They are now officially grade schoolers.  I have to admit...I did cry...but I didn't blubber.  :-)

Their before and after.

(Can you tell my gauge on Seamus's vest was a little tighter than Ronan's?)

6 Year Olds in the House!!!

I now officially have two six year olds living in my house!  The boys turned six on May 19th.  People say it all the time, but I really cannot believe how the time has flown.  I just love watching them grown and become their own little selves.  The future holds a lot of changes for them.  As first graders, they will be going to school all day, attending a new school, be in separate classrooms, and wear uniforms.  Wow!  I hope I can do a good job of easing them into it all (at once).  Here are some pics of them before and after (becoming six year olds).

Before...their last night as five year olds...getting into bed.

After...the night of their birthday...finally getting to blow out candles...before bed.

In the past we've typically had a week long (or so) of celebrations and activities surrounding their birthday.  This year is a bit low key.  But fear not..there will be more to follow!

So far today...

This is where I've been sitting most of the morning, admiring the beautiful weather we've had the last couple of days.  It's so nice being outside before it gets so hot...and the boys love to be outside so it's much more peaceful for me.  :-)

I have my knitting, my coffee, and my computer...bliss!

The girls enjoying the outdoors with us.

Our peony bush is in full bloom...it's beautiful.   

The grand finale!

This post is a little tardy...it took me a while to recover.  The last day of birthday celebrations was on Sunday.  We spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa's...probably the most relaxing of all the birthday festivities.  The boys opened up the last of their birthday gifts, from the family.  It seems the overwhelming favorite this year was anything Star Wars...and anything Star Wars with a light saber...and anything Playmobil came in as a close second.  Here they are anxiously waiting to open gifts.

Yesterday they were playing outside wearing one of the gifts they received on Sunday, knight cape and helmet.

According to the boys, they were showing their mean faces.

And now that the birthday festivities are over and done with, I can get back to knitting.  With all the season finales on t.v. right now, I have almost finished my log cabin blanket!  I'm hoping to have pics up over the weekend.

Day 3: Build-a-Bear

Day 3 of birthday festivities consisted of cupcakes in the mall food court followed by a Build-a-Bear party.  This year's birthday party was on a much smaller scale versus previous years.  We decided to invite just a few of the boys' schoolmates.  This was probably the most fun the boys have ever had at a birthday party.  It was really neat to see the kids interacting with each other, to see the excitement in their faces and eyes, the anticipation of each of them as they viewed each others' bear.  They were delighted!  Yes...it can get pricey.  But the joy that a child gets from making every decision to bring his/her bear to life is well worth it!  The store did a really great job with the kids and party, too.  I didn't get a picture of them with their final versions but here they are after the stuffing was added.  (BaB calls all of the animals bears.)

Why yes, that blossom covered bunny does look familiar.  Here...

Day 2: Downtown Aquarium - Denver

Downtown Aquarium - Denver: We were treated to a day at the aquarium.  The boys had a great time.  I just love this place.  It's definitely worth the money if you've got the time.  We ran into some friends while we were there which made the experience even more fun for the boys.  Then...drama ensued!  At the end of the tour, there's a pool for viewing, petting, and feeding the sting rays.  My father-in-law was bit by one of the sting rays and bleeding pretty good!  He was escorted down to first-aid and his wound attended to by a medic.  Talk about excitement!  Word to the wise (aka - tip)...keep your hand against the wall when feeding the sting rays.  This prevents the sting ray from being able to wrap their body/mouth around your hand to get a better grip. A ton of pics and video on flickr!

Let the festivities begin!

Day 1...typically marked by their actual birthday or school birthday party...depending on which comes first.  And depending on which day of the week their birthday falls, it could go on for almost a week.  I feel like it will this year, though it's only day one.  So the next few blogs will probably be full of birthday festivities.  Today, their actual birthday, started with a birthday party at school.  Then presents at home tonight, then almost two hours of assembling Playmobil, then dinner, then bed.  I'm tired...and it's only day one.  Along with a lot of birthday blogging, you're also going to get a lot of pictures of the boys.  (Can you blame me?)  :-)

Eve

Today is the eve of Ronan and Seamus's five year birthday.

Going to bed as four year olds for the last time.

Brothers?

Unequivocally.

Seamus and Ronan - their new haircuts make them look so much alike!

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's day among the Healy clan.

Top: kelly (sil), shannon (sil), me, cathy (sil)

Bottom:  kelly, shannon, Grandma (mil), cathy, me

::sigh::

It snowed again last night and this morning.  Nothing major...just a dusting...but enough to make the start of our day very unwelcoming.  Hopefully that will be it for spring snow.  ::sigh::

I wanted to post a pic of the boys from Easter morning.  We went to Build a Bear for the first time over the weekend.  It was quite a treat for all of us.  Fun to see the boys choosing their pets and then the accessories.  Seamus went with a floral covered bunny and named her Blossom.  Ronan went with an owl and name him Moon Flash.  Quite original...I'm actually very proud of the name Ronan chose because it means he knows that owls are nocturnal and often times seen as a silhouette against the moon.  He is my deep one.  The kicker!  The outfits/costumes.  Seamus - for his Blossom...Obi-Wan-Kenobi.  Ronan - Darth Vader for his owl.  :-)  Very cute!

I can (almost) finally breath a sigh of relief.  ::sigh::  Malabrigo March is now over and I think I churned out more FOs in one month, ever!  I have yet to post my 10th but I'm hoping I can get that done this week.  And my 10th FO will also mark my seventh (!) sweater of the year.  I know!  I'm really excited about that.  I'm having a hard time storing all these sweaters (yet another reminder that I need to go through my closets and purge).  I have one more deadline and then I can dive in to my Apres Surf Hoodie that I'm working on with the Boulder Knitting Collective KAL.

Are you there, Spring? It's me, Amy.

This has been one of the coldest and longest winters that I can remember.  Today was such a nice reprieve with temperatures in the 50s (Fahrenheit). And the snow has finally melted off the flagstone patio out back.  To celebrate this reprieve, the boys (and girls) and I took a nice long walk on the path behind our house.

 Soon we will be able to enjoy this area every morning.

The girls posing after a nice dip in the creek.

 

The boys making discoveries as we plod along on our adventure.

  
And finally, a picnic in the back yard.
  

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Just a quick note to share my great day.

It started with this.... How cool is that? Not just a beautiful sight because of the balloon but look at that view! That's out my backyard. I love living out of "town".















Next...my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws. That there is the sight of 20 lbs of mashed potatoes which includes 3 lbs of butter and almost 2 pints of heavy whipping cream. Mmmm.... Just for scale - that is a regular 11 x 17 cookie sheet (yes...that bowl is HUGE!).

Hermit Park

In front of our cabin at Hermit Park
Ronan, Tim, Amy, Seamus

Last weekend we camped at Hermit Park again. We stayed in the same cabin and camped with the same family. This time the weather was nice enough to actually sit by the campfire and enjoy cooking without freezing and huddling in the cabin. Seamus and Ronan actually had plenty of time to "explore" the surrounding area and do lots of climbing. There was one incident that was pretty scary. Seamus was climbing on a log up on a rock and all of the sudden started screaming. After having to scale the rock I found Seamus standing on the log with giant red ants covering his feet and ankles! It was like something out of a horror movie! Seamus was screaming, I was holding him under the armpits, trying to get his shoes off, and swipe all the ants off of him, and Tim was trying to get both of us off the rock. All ended well but shook us all up.

When I was a kid, on some camping trip - Girl Scouts or 6th grade camp - I remember baking cookies on the campfire. Keep in mind I've camped maybe five times since said camping trip. So I thought the kids would enjoy the same experience of baking cookies on the campfire. We started with a tube of Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough, a box, and aluminum foil.I cut the box top flaps off, covered the outside and lined the inside of the box with foil, and finally, added dollops of cookie dough to the inside of the box. The first batch went fairly quickly and tasted ok. The second batch took forever! And then something started to come back to me. I could vaguely remember covering the opening of the box with another foil covered flap. Wow! After that it was like a real oven! The cookies baked in the recommended 7-10 minutes. There was some technical difficulty. Apparently, I left a crack in the foil which was enough for the box to catch on fire - under the foil!So, though the cookies had a hint of smoke flavoring - they were enjoyed by all!

Bat-MAN!

This was the overwhelming theme of this year's birthday celebrations. Ronan & Seamus turned four years old today. Can you believe it? Their birthday cakes, decorations, and toys all reiterated their current enthusiasm...Batman. There was a family birthday party on Sunday and today was the birthday party that consisted mostly of our friends and their kids at The Hop.

Their birthday is always bittersweet for me. For those of you that don't know, all three of us almost died on their birthday. So it is on their birthday that I always feel especially grateful for my family and our good health. I leave you with the last picture of them on their birthday before bed.

Struttin' his stuff

We have family in town from Minnesota. The boys have been really looking forward to this visit because their cousin Haley, whom they have not seen since July 2007, is one of the visitors. We went to the Denver Zoo today. We were treated to quite a display by the male peacocks. There were four males vying for the affection of two females. Beautiful...

Super Seamy...

...to the RESCUE!

(pronounced Shamey)
...a couple more pics here

Almost done!

Well the holidays are almost done and over. Tim, Ronan, Seamus and I spent the Christmas holiday visting my side of the family in Las Vegas. My brother, Dwight Jr. and his family, drove up from Barstow, CA. There was quite a household of people and animals - Nancy (my dad's wife - aka - step mom) had some of her family up at the house. So...there were TEN of us staying at my dad's with their 2 yellow labs, my brother's 3 long haired weiner dogs, and Nancy's sister's 2 mini Dobermans! Ugh! Though it was crowded and overwhelming for Ronan and Seamus, it was fun to be around the chaos - and now - nice to be home. So, Tim and I did Christmas with the boys the second we walked in the door from Vegas - because Santa had come while we were in Vegas (wink, wink) and we will be doing (another) Christmas with Tim's family tomorrow night! It really is so much harder when you have children and have to spread it out. So while in Vegas, we had breakfast at a lodge at Mount Charleston. I was quite surprised at the amount of snow that was up there and the elevation. The lodge we were eating at was at a little over 7k feet but Mount Charleston reaches almost 12k feet. Who knew? After Mount Charleston we drove to Red Rocks Canyon. I wanted to visit the site where Tim and I had gotten married back in May 2001. We couldn't actually get to the site because the meadow we were married in is now a preserve but it meant a lot to me to be able to be there with the boys. Tim and I argued about the actual location of the ceremony. We took pictures of the area and then compared the pics to our wedding photos last night...sure enough - he was right! :-)

Mount Charleston

Red Rocks Canyon, Las Vegas, Nevada

...and look at this one...I couldn't resist posting this...Seamus Patrick

And at the end of it all - I was able to finally get pictures of some of the gifts I made with their recipients. Both hats were very well recieved. Success!

Stella Cloche

Cowboy Hat