The People's Fair

We decided to take the day off and go downtown to the People's Fair. We had a great day. The People's Fair is an annual street fair held in downtown Denver. There are arts and crafts vendors, food, entertainment, kid's rides, etc. It's a lot of fun. We enjoyed looking at all the stuff. We tried on hats.



I bought a gorgeous bowl with the money my parents sent me for my birthday.

We tried out the hammock/swinging seats.

We looked for our friend Heather. Being that it was a street fair in downtown Denver, hers was the fifth tie dye booth we saw! She had the best stuff though. I bought a skirt. She has a new design that is really cool. It's a tie tye alien. She was all out of them, so we had to special order one for Trey. She has cute kid's stuff, too. She has clothes and hats for kids that are adorable. My favorite are the tie dyed "Born @ Home" shirts. Here is Heather with some of her wares.

We decided to chill for a while, eat our leftover pizza, and listen to one of the bands.


We had our own dancing entertainment!

Louis took a good nap!

We let the kids ride a couple of the rides. The girls rode on the carnival spinning ride. You'd think that four year old Livi would be a little nervous on such a big, fast ride, but nope! Ray decided he wanted to go in the big bouncy castle/slide things.


After we left the People's Fair, we went to the mall for a while. It was a big afternoon for Livi because she got her ears pierced! I warned her ahead of time that it would hurt, but she was determined. Her sister stayed beside her and held her hand. That girl didn't even flinch! She amazes me.



All in all a fabulous family day!

Denver Gay Men's Chorus

My friend Carrie and I went to the Gay Men's Chorus concert tonight. Out Loud and the Mosaic Youth Chorus also performed. I've heard the Gay Men's Chorus before and they are really fabulous. The concert was downtown at the Trinity United Methodist Church. I really had a good time. We took our oldest daughter's with us. Our friend Miryam's daughter Hannah had a solo with the Mosaic Youth Chorus. She did a really nice job.


Here's a video of their last song.

I got some measurable work done on the deck today.

We may have finally caught a break. After we pulled up a few boards, we saw that there is an old cement porch underneath the deck. It looks like it's pretty large, and the part we've seen so far is in good shape. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's in good shape.

Time for a dip

One of the great part of being a kid in the summer is having a backyard kiddie pool to play in! The kids had friends over for a few hours today, and luckily, it was warm enough to fill up the pool. Technically, this was supposed to be my birthing pool when I had Louis, but I didn't use it, and I still had it in the basement. It's a little small around, but it's nice and deep. They had a blast playing in the pool and squirting the water guns.

I got a little slow and steady work done on the deck, but not enough to actually take a picture of, so I'll post some cute ones of the kiddos.

Just a picture...

Nothing really to post today, but I have a cute picture!

A cool thing

My cool thing for today is that I won tickets to go see the Denver Gay Men's Chorus on Saturday. I've seen them before, and they're great. My good friend and I are going, and Trey is going to watch all the kiddos for us (what a good guy). I have pretty good luck with radio contests! We went to our first free movie, Nancy Drew, today, and then we hung out at the park with friends. Summer is awesome!

My boys are so great. Ray and Louis developed a new game last night. It involved Ray kneeling down and putting Louis on his back and the running around with him and crashing into the pile of clean laundry. It was way too cute. Here are some pictures (and yes, I need to clean my family room, fold my laundry and vacuum! What can I say, I've been sick, and we let the kids eat their dinner in there):

The end of second grade

Today was Beth Ann's last day of school. She had fabulous teachers this year. I have to admit that I've been kind of scared of my kids going to school because my first and second grade teachers were sisters of the devil. My children have had the greatest teachers, and I am so thankful for that. Beth Ann has learned so much this year. Here's a picture of Beth Ann with her awesome teachers.

Tonight was pretty historic. Barack Obama claimed enough delegates to be the Democratic nominee for president. This election has been historic. The runner up, who is not far behind Obama, is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Trey and I have been trying to make sure the kids understand why this election is historic. Obama being the first biracial/African American (I know some people can't stand the term biracial, but as a parent it seems important to me to not discount one half of his parentage - it just seems wrong to do that) nominee, and Clinton being the first woman. It's pretty amazing. I really wanted to be jazzed up tonight, but unfortunately I just don't believe in the Democratic party anymore. They're all about appeasing people and not about standing up for what is right. I've been a Democrat my entire life. I was writing to politicians long before I was old enough to vote. I've pounded the pavement for the Democrats, I given them money, I've argued the Democratic stance until I was blue in the face, but they just don't deserve that kind of commitment anymore. Fortunately for my idealism, I have found someone I can believe in - Cynthia McKinney (who by the way is an African American and a woman! She's not afraid to say that GMOs should be outlawed. She's not afraid to stand up in congress and call for the impeachment of the president. I just hope she can get the support she deserves. Anyway, it was pretty great to know you were witnessing a moment that would go down in history - and in a good way. I've seen several "historic moments." Most of them were of the kind we wish hadn't happened: 9/11, two disastrous shuttle missions, the start of two stupid gulf wars. It was nice to sit and know you were witnessing something historic that would be a positive mark in history.

Ah, Summertime

I'm still not feeling well, so much didn't get done today. I took the kiddos to the zoo for a while. We did more sitting and watching special shows than we did walking. I'm still pretty wiped though. I did manage to actually cook for my family tonight though, so that's an improvement over the past few days.

I may hate the weather here during the summer, but I love having my kiddos home. Beth Ann gets out tomorrow at 10:30. I chose to be a stay at home mom. There have been many times that I've questioned that decision for my own sanity, but I always come back to the same conclusion. In the end, I wouldn't change much about my life - my location, I'd prefer to win the lottery, but I wouldn't go back to work. The kids are growing up so fast, and I love being a stay at home mom. I know it's not for everyone, and there are days it might not be for me (LOL), but I do love it. Summer is the best. It's the time I get to do all kinds of fun stuff with the kids. Well, truthfully, a lot of the time I spend chasing them or sitting under a shade tree while they play in the water or something like that. Sometimes I have friends to keep me company though. I hope that I'm helping them make a lot of fun memories. I'm sure they won't remember it all, but I hope they at least look back on their childhood and remember that it was happy.

Here is a picture of Olivia showing off her hairdo that Beth Ann created for her - perhaps she has a future as a punk rocker!

My son loves to play with the tinker toys that a friend got the kids for Christmas. He sometimes makes these elaborate sculptures. For some reason, he really wanted me to get a picture of this one though! So, here it is.