Aspen 2013

We headed off to Aspen again this year for Labor Day.  I can't believe that it's Labor day already, this time last year we had just moved out of our old house, this year we are settling in and getting used to our new house and life.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

School's Back In Session!

C started his last year at Little Lights, the preschool that he went to last year and the preschool that H went to for 3 years. I can't believe that C is starting his last year of preschool.  He is in the big kid class!  Wow.  Because we have been going there for 5 years, we know all of the teachers and we know that they will challenge and push C in everything he does.  I can't wait to watch him grow this upcoming school year!

C wasn't cooperating with taking pictures before school.  There are a ton of pictures on our camera that look like this...

 And only one like this!

H started school this year at the school in our neighborhood.  Thankfully, we started her in the summer program so she was used to some of the teachers, kids and the school before walking into her classroom for the first time.  Because the school is so close to our house, we are able to take H to school and drop her off every morning.  I love this.  I love that it is a little less time with someone else watching her and a bit more time at home with us, and us being able to be more active in her school life.  This year we didn't have tears as we dropped her off at the school.  Can't believe she is in 1st Grade!  She's getting so big.

 

Big Boy turns 4

H turning 4 made my cry because my first born was turning 4, and it went so quickly.  C turning 4 made me cry because my little boy, my baby, was growing up more quickly than his sister did.  C is such a little boy, to every extent of the word, C is a boy.  He loves Legos, he loves cars, he loves dirt and swords and ninjas.  He has the dimple in his cheek that just melts my heart.  He looks just like his daddy, and I am so happy that B has a boy that he can pass on his talents, knowledge, charms and love to.  

This was our first party that we got to have in the new house, so we had friends and family over to help break in the new house and celebrate our little man turning 4!

Of course there ALWAYS has to be a theme to the party.  This year was Legos.  C has been so obsessed with Legos and will literally spend hours just sitting and building, so it was perfect!

We found the invite on Etsy, and worked with the shop owner to make it perfect.

And as many of you know, the cake has to match the theme...so Lego cake, here we come!

This was probably the biggest cake(s) we have ever made, but also one of the more simple cakes.

C helping to move cakes!

We made some extra fun stuff for the goodie bags and we made the goodie bags look like Legos!

C had such a good time with all of his friends!

Thank You to everyone who came to help celebrate this little man!

Ugh, manual labor.....

I have never been one to shy away from doing home improvement stuff.  I have never been one to say that if I am going to sweat a little or break a nail (or all 10 of them) I won't help B around the house.  What I guess I didn't realize when we bought our little slice of the country in the city is that our money literally wouldn't get us anywhere when it came to landscaping!  We had a budget in mind when we started this process on what we wanted to spend on the landscaping, and getting grass in as soon as possible was a must; anytime it rained or even misted, our entire place turned into a giant mud pit!  Hahaha, what a laugh that budget was.  We had to seriously reevaluate some things and pull money from one place and put it into the landscaping budget.  We also had to decided that there were somethings that we just couldn't do ourselves, and that our time was better spent doing other smaller things related to the landscaping.

So we set off looking for a landscape company to help us get the infrastructure and the area directly surrounding the house done.  We found Castlewood Landscape.  Nick was great at getting the vision we wanted and helped us fix some things that wouldn't work.  He and his subcontractors A Affordable Landscape set to work in turning our dirt into beautiful grass and paths surrounding the house.

Take a look at the really ugly befores!

 So the guys set to work and in about two weeks time, they had turned our barren wasteland into a beautiful yard!

 The guys did a phenomenal job, but B and I had to pick up where they left off, mostly because it was cheaper for us to buy and plant the plants and trees ourselves!  So off we went to the Tree Farm and bought a few trees, flowers and grass plants.  I don't think that B or I anticipated how much work it was going to take to plant everything!

We got a lot of work done for this being our first summer in the house, but we absolutely have a lot more to go.  I'm so happy that we finally have grass though, the kids needed a place to run and have fun that wasn't just a pile of dirt!