Amen, brother!

Dancing Zoe

to a Talking Heads record and...

to a Madonna record :-)

Breckenridge weekend trip

Friday night we were eating dinner when I said to Andy, "Lets go away this weekend." Without missing a beat, Andy replied, "Alright. Where?" Twenty minutes later we had looked online, and decided to visit Breckenridge. I can't believe we've been here almost 2 years, and never been to Breckenridge, until now.

This may be my favorite picture of Zoe -ever! She's standing in front of some poppies at a park in downtown Breckenridge. We brought gluten-free bread, almond butter and jelly with us to Breckenridge, and had picnic sandwiches for lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. -A great way to save money.

This restaurant had the most petunias I have EVER seen in one place. We didn't eat there, we just admired the flowers :-)

Zoe took this one of Andy and I.

As much as I love camping, we decided to treat ourselves to a lodge Saturday night in Breckenridge. It recently changed ownership, and needs just a little TLC, so it was a great deal. Check out the view from our room!

I loved the shutters, wicker and wood beams in the ceiling.

Another view from our room.

On one of the decks.

Gluten-free dinner at Mi Casa. The girls and I shared salads and Andy got fajitas with corn tortillas. The complimentary salsas were some of the best I've ever tasted.

Outside on our patio this morning. It was so chilly! But awesome!

Cherry taking a short break from her busy day.

We played Monopoly in the lobby Saturday night, and this morning we read books there.

It was so beautiful, and so cozy, we never wanted to leave! I hope they keep the lobby exactly the way it is!

crafts for the airplane

Zoe and I packed her backpack today for her trip to New York. We thought it would be fun to play checkers in the plane, but we didn't think our big wooden board with glass pieces was appropriate, so we decided to make a soft set ourselves.

We got stiff felt from the craft store and cut it into about 1 inch strips. We used 8 strips of each color, following the number of squares on our wooden set.

Once we had a tight weave, I hot glued the squares around the edge, and then trimmed the excess with scissors.

Next we used our glass pieces as templates to make felt versions.

Zoe cut the felt pieces with scissors.

We also cut extra pieces to make kings.

But we couldn't stop there. Following the instructions in Zoe's book, Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams, we began a bracelet for her to finish on the plane. We also packed her two books, lots of paper and crayons, and a cd player with headphones, to listen to her High School Musical soundtrack.

Off to finish packing! :-)

Day Trip to Denver & GF Tour :-)

happy birthday Zoe & Ashley

Today we had a small tea party with a few friends to celebrate Zoe's 7th and Ashley's 5th birthdays. It was a small tea party because (and I say this with nothing but love) my house is very tiny :-) If I could have figured out how to swing a tea party at a park, where we could invite all of our friends, I would have! Maybe next year Zoe will request a playground or pool party, so we aren't limited by space. Or maybe we'll just have to have another party in a week or two, outside somewhere :-)

Making a banner.

Tea party and cake time.

Duck Duck Goose, followed by Red Light Green Light and Simon Says.

Making jewelry.

Listening to Happy Birthday to You, by Dr. Seuss.

kitchen backsplash!

I decided to put up a glass backsplash this weekend. Well, I decided a week ago, and I did it this weekend :-) It wasn't very difficult to do, but it was very hard work. My shoulders are super sore, and my arm muscles may have doubled in size ;-) Although the installing took many hours more than grouting, I think it was actually easier. Anyone else who's done a project like this -Which did you prefer?

Here is the kitchen before, only three sheets up on the wall.

After finishing the first row.

One and a half rows.

All the tile is up, next comes the grout...

Phew! Grouting done! I need a back massage!

After a good scrub, I put all my stuff back. Yeah!

A close up of the tile. I like it so much. It's a random pattern of clear and frosted glass.

We are so proud that we went around the angled window trim. Andy found this cool tool to cut the glass. It was really fun getting the perfect piece to fit.

And the other side of the window. Next project: the half bathroom...