Make His Cake to Eat it Too

Oliver didn't request much for his birthday outside of Oregon Ducks stuff, except a new driver, which his Nana and Papa delivered on.  It arrived in the mail and Oliver couldn't wait to give it a swing.

Meanwhile, Mommy was in the kitchen preparing his "O" (Oregon) cake, which he also requested.  It was my first time to make a birthday cake for one of the boys and it was great fun.

Oliver LOVED the final outcome of the "O" cake.

I loved that I was able to make it for him and present it on my Grandmas cake stand.

8 is Going to be GREAT for Oliver

In preparation for Oliver's 8th birthday celebration at school, we made chocolate chip cookies with an M&M topper.  Cupcakes are no longer a great idea, now we're going with cookies.  I found out that someone else in the class brought in pancakes for their birthday.  I think that I got off easy.

While we waited for cookies to bake, Keith taught the boys how to play Poker while they performed some quality control on the cookies.

The morning of Oliver's birthday, he was SO excited!  We thought that he may want this gift for his birthday day.  He was Stoked!

Some new Oregon Ducks gear, complete with a brand new jersey from Oregon!

He's never been so excited about new clothes.  Now we know, put an Oregon "O" on it and he'll smile from ear to ear.

This kid is ready to kick up his heels and head off to school.

For lunch... Oliver and his friends had some special Birthday guests.

Aren't they adorable?!

Oliver's Daddy..... and a purse?!

The kids found it very entertaining for Keith to peek in my purse.  I wonder what they expected he would pull out of it?  As you can see, Oliver isn't as entertained.  HA!

So happy to spend lunch with this birthday boy!

It was a gorgeous Colorado blue sky day!

A quick smooch before Keith headed off to the airport for business travel.

That evening, we went out for a traditional birthday dinner or Oliver's choice.  He chose Olive Garden for pasta and shrimp.  Since Keith was out of town, we invited some friends to help make the celebration more special.

Owen was anxious for Oliver to open his gifts.

YAY!!!  So Happy!  This is one serious Thank You hug.

After a few fun gifts, Oliver's birthday treat came out.

He may be a little embarrassed about all of the public attention.

Happy Birthday, Smile Guy!

Jennie and our birthday boy.

Oliver and Owen, buddies since Pre-K.

The birthday wouldn't have been complete without the Heinemans and Gami and Papa!

Papa, Gami

Kellan, Jennie, Oliver, Owen, Eric

Gami and Papa with Oliver

Mama and her two boys!

Happy 8th Birthday, big guy.  WE LOVE YOU!

Sending Anne Off in Style

After an amazing and fun filled weekend with Anne visiting, sadly, it was time to take her back to the airport so that she could go home.  She couldn't go home without a proper Denver send off so we headed down to Snooze for the most amazing french toast that I've ever had in my life.  To top it off, it was french toast on the sunny patio in October.  Anne opted for something else, but these french toast may be good enough to go down in history.

It was a gorgeous day at Union Station in downtown Denver.

It's crazy to think that Anne and I have been friends for nearly 20 years.  WOW!  Technically, more like 17, but really, at that point rounding to 20 is perfectly acceptable.

Thanks for coming to visit us, Anne.  We truly loved having you here to experience some of our Rocky Mountain wonder, weekends filled with kids and sports and a Broncos football Sunday afternoon.  We hope to see you again soon!!

Peas and Carrots

This spring, Grandma was visiting and supported the boys idea to grow some vegetables in pots.  We started with peas, pumpkins and carrots.  The peas grew and died, grew and died, grew and died.  After three times, we gave up.  The pumpkins did great and made it from the pot to a spot in the ground.  The carrots had a cozy home in our flower pots.

After a very mild and warm fall, we finally decided to pick the carrots.

The boys were SO excited to finally pick the carrots.

They may have been much shorter than we were expecting, but we still loved them.

Our harvest was complete and oh-so-cute!

The carrots are almost as cute as our boys... but not quite.

Our non-carrot loving boys loved harvesting their crop.  They nibbled the carrots a bit but confirmed that they aren't bit fans of carrots.  Regardless, we loved the process.  Next year, we won't be putting our carrots in the flower pots as they didn't grow much and we aren't even going to bother with peas to go with those carrots.