Some Wicked Cool Art!

On Friday night Charline had her Art Opening at Geez Louise! Coffee Shop. Geez Louise! is a little place down off Colfax and Colorado with fabulous coffee and a really fun, kitschy atmosphere. Every few months they feature a different local artist, and our Charline's artwork is hung there from April through June! Char's art can only be described as amazing. She works in Prismacolor -- colored pencil. It's nearly impossible to believe that the vibrant colors can be produced from colored pencil, but it's true, I've watched her create several of the pieces that are hung at the shop! Truly incredible.

Lots of our friends and co-workers showed up to support Charline, as well as many patrons from the neighborhood. Everyone loved the colorful, cheerful art that brightened up the walls!

Here is Louise herself, all dressed up for the occasion. This is the second Louise, back in the late summer the original Louise was mannequin-napped from in front of the shop. Louise stands out front and welcomes coffee patrons in for a cuppa joe!

This is one of my absolute favorites. It was inspired by the ridges of an old weathered tree that Charline saw up on Mount Evans. I just happen to be the proud owner of a print of this original, which Charline gave me for my birthday yesterday! I can't wait to hang it in our family room, which is this same color motif! This picture doesn't do it justice at all!

This is Meg, our office manager, and her husband Chip. Chip just got an iPhone. He enjoyed taking pictures of everyone and everything, including me taking a picture of him! Behind them is some more of Char's fabulous work! The one with the two houses, called "Two Worlds" is Steve's favorite.

Here's a pic that Chipper took. Me, Char, Meg and Deb Geary, enjoying the art and atmosphere!

Some more of the fun and colorful art! The flower sculpture in the middle is made of MDF, and takes a lot of work to put together! I love the graphic, yet organic feel of all of the flowers!

Riley with his favorite Artist! He and Steve came straight over from the Rockies game...baseball and art, what a culture-filled day!

Congratulations, Charline, on a fantastic art show!!! If you haven't been down to Geez Louise! to check it out, you've gotta get there!

Rockies Opening Day

On Friday Steve and Riley went to their fourth Rockies Opening Day game together.  Riley went to his first opening day game when he was only 3 weeks old, and hasn't missed one yet!  I didn't get to go, since I have to take time off for the Palm Springs trip in a couple weeks, but the boys had a blast!  It was a gorgeous day for baseball, and even though the Rockies lost to the D-Backs, they all enjoyed the beginning of baseball season in Colorado!

Riley with Uncle Brad!

Those are some crazy cousins!

I had asked Steve to get a couple of good pictures of Riley with Brad and Nicole, since there don't seem to be many of them.  Nicole and I are always the ones taking pictures, so we don't appear in too many of them!

Below is the first attempt:

And the second attempt:

Finally, thanks to the beauty of HP Photosmart Studio...and a little bit of cropwork, I got something resembling a great picture of Riley and Nicole!  You almost can't tell where the two pics got stitched together.  Kinda cool...

Below:  Alyssa Jay, Steve Jay, and Steve, with the boys in their Rally Caps and Jaden Ashbrook!)

SixthMan Jam at the Downtown Aquarium

Tonight we went to the Denver Aquarium for a Denver Nuggets special event for season ticket holders.  Brad, Nicole, Andy and Kettie have a season package, and Andy and Kettie weren't able to go tonight, so we got to join Brad, Nic and O for an evening with the Nuggets!

They had food, games, and of course the aquarium exhibits were open for all to check out.  All the Nuggets players were in attendance, and we were able to get pictures with a few of the guys.

We ran into Yakhouba Diawara in the gift shop. And yes, I had to look up how to spell that!

And also Anthony Carter, who was really nice to the boys.

Linas Kleiza was hanging out by the bar.

And finally Coach George Karl and Eduardo Najera.  Najera went to the University of Oklahoma, so Steve got his attention by calling out "Boomer," to which Eduardo replied, "Sooner!" It's like some kind of weird Marco Polo for Middle America.  Steve told him that Riley was a future Sooner (we'll see about that!), and he wanted Riley to stand with him!

This is the back of Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony's heads.  This is pretty much all most people saw of them.  This was the only downside to the evening.  The two of them spent the entire evening hiding out behind the bar, even behind a wall so that they could chat and watch a basketball game on TV, and not interact much with the crowd.  I guess I understand, they live their lives in a "fishbowl," ironic, considering we were at the Aquarium...but this was an event for their true fans, the ticket holders, who spend a lot of money supporting them.  You'd think they'd at least come out and mingle a bit.  Oh well...

That's ok, though, because the kids still had a great time!  Riley enjoyed seeing the fish and the Sumatran tigers.  Thanks Brad and Nicole for inviting us!!!

It's a Boy!

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday, and found out that we're having a boy!  Riley was confused, since he was totally convinced that we were having a girl.  He had his heart set on a baby sister.  But, once we pointed out that with Owen, Ty and Tanner, plus a brother, he would have a whole basketball team, he was ok!  He thought it was pretty neat looking at the baby on "TV."

Profile view...

Yes, that arrow is pointing to his little thingy.  We're looking up from the bottom as if he's sitting on a pane of glass.  This guy wasn't as shy as Riley was.  It took a while to find Riley's parts, but this was one of the first views we got.  I guess he takes after his dad!


Another profile view, from the other side.

Here's his little feetie!

The Ultrasound tech was sweet, and gave Riley a picture of his own of his baby brother so he can take it to school and show his friends.  This is right after we got out of the office, before we went out for dinner.

All in all, it was a pretty exciting day!  I am SOOO outnumbered...but that's ok!

Riley's Birthday Party

Finally!  Pictures from Riley's 3rd birthday party!  There were WAY too many great pictures to choose from, but here are a few favorites.  The day turned out to be gorgeous, which is always iffy during March in Colorado!  Thank goodness for that, though, since we had 14 kiddos and 35 grownups!  Everyone took advantage of the early spring sunshine to hang out outside and watch the kids have a blast!

These are Riley's very best friends...Ty and Tanner are the twins, and Bayley is...well, she's the boss.  The four of them started at Bright Horizons together when they were all about 5 months old.  Bayley was with them for 2 years, but doesn't go to BH anymore, sadly, since her dad doesn't work in the district any more.  But no matter how many months go by without seeing her, whenever Bayley comes around, she is in charge of the boys!  Some things just never change!  Ty and Tanner go to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and every morning Riley asks me, "Is it a Ty and Tanner day?"  Sometimes it's the only way I can get him out of bed!
The Birthday Boy with his awesome big cousin, Owen!  Owen takes such good care of his little cousin!  They are wearing eye black because they were playing baseball in the yard.  This is a favorite activity when everyone is over.  Owen has quite the swing...I think the kid owes us about a dozen balls that have sailed over the fence into the neighbor's yard.  Who knows, maybe he'll be hitting them into the San Francisco Bay when the Rockies play the Giants about 15 years from now!
Vaughn is another of Riley's school buddies.  He REALLY enjoyed the cake and ice cream!  I work with Vaughn's dad, Gordy, at Glacier Peak!

Too bad Riley's not a happy kid!  He has SOO many people who love him to death!  What a lucky little guy!

The big gift of the year was the REAL golf clubs from Uncle Keith and Auntie Holli.  They are awesome!  We've already been hitting the driving range.  When he sets up to the ball, in order to get him to settle in, he takes a "Tiger Breath" before he swings.  I told him to take a deep breath, he decided to call it a Tiger Breath!  Too funny!

Since it was Riley's last birthday as an only child, we went all out.  It sure was a great day!  Lots of love and happiness!

Missy's Meez

Here's my Meez! It's a silly thing to do, but kind of cute.

Steve's Meez

Steve's Meez character..this worm isn't nearly as impressive as the real thing in person!

Happy Easter!

For Easter yesterday, we had a great egg hunt at our house!  Riley and Owen rustled up about 60 eggs total filled with candy, money, and of course regular eggs.  Charline and Mom helped Riley color eggs on Saturday night while Steve and Dad were at the NCAA tournament.

After hunting eggs, we all went over to Keith's golf course for a great bunch!  And of course, no brunch at the course would be complete without hitting a few balls on the range.  We forgot Riley's clubs, but Owen brought his and was so sweet to share with Ri.  They're left handed, so Riley had to adapt a bit.  He didn't do too shabby, considering!  Keith found a small club in the cart barn -- small for a grown up, but still taller than Riley!  He whacked away at the balls with that one, though, and he was perfectly happy!

Below, you can see dad in his Sunday best, and Riley with the big wedge.  As usual, he's got the tongue out, concentrating!  He's got a pretty good swing!

Today, since we're on Spring Break, Riley and I took his clubs back out to Coal Creek and spent about 2 1/2 hours hitting buckets of balls, putting, and having lunch!  I foresee a lot of that in the future! 

Air Guitar!

Friday night we had an impromptu game night with the gang! We were parents of the year...Riley stayed up until midnight. The problem is, he doesn't get cranky when he's tired, he just keeps on playing, and he's so good, so when we have friends over, he's just part of the gang! Sometime around 10:30, Livin' on a Prayer came on the iPod mix...and a great Air Guitar performance ensued!

There's a WHAT?!

Twice a year at Glacier Peak we have  Book Fair in our Library.  They're always the same week as conferences.  They're actually pretty cool, the kids get to shop for books, teachers get to make wish lists and our school makes money.  Our parent group usually gives each kid in the school a $5 gift certificate to buy a book.  Book Fairs are GREAT!  

Our librarian, bless her heart, is a really sweet lady.  And she LOVES the Book Fair.  She loves it so much that she starts advertising it about 3-4 weeks in advance.  Ok, so you have to get the word out, I understand that. However...there is such a thing as overkill.  Here's what I mean:

Posters: at least 40; Flyers sent home: 2;  Invitations to watch Book Fair DVDs/Commercials: 2,with subsequent reminders; E-mails: about 10; PA Announcements: including the ones before and after school for the staff, about 25, during the week of the Book Fair, there are usually multiple announcements within the course of one day.  I'm not kidding.  

So by the time the Book Fair FINALLY rolls around, we can't handle any more multi-media Book Fair information.  Truly.  It's become one of those dead horses we like to flog repeatedly.   Every time there was an announcement, Dubs likes to say, "I got your Book Fair right here!' with gesticulations in certain areas.  The day after the Book Fair ended, we go ahold of just a couple of the millions of signs.   See below for the aftermath...

We got a lot accomplished on that Teacher Work Day....seriously!  But we love the Book Fair!  We get cool books, and fodder for jokes to last us until the next one..only 140 more days left to go!!!