Doubly Delightful Birthdays

This week we celebrated Amie's birthday, Carrie and Spencers' anniversary and Carries' birthday. Whew!  Thursday evening, Curt and Amie, Rory and Sophie went to the Hibachi Grill for dinner and left Grayson with us.  He was so good (almost too good), falling asleep on my lap at 7:30.  The mystery was revealed the following day when Amie took him to the doctor and found out he had an ear infection!  Friday brought my sister to the house to leave another load of boxes to store until she needs them (that would be NEVER in my world!).  We ate lunch out and then picked Gabi up from school that afternoon. Pam had brought a boxful of old buttons, which Gabi found enticing and proceeded to make a bracelet for her Mom for her birthday.

The kids stayed that night for dinner while Carrie went out with her friends.'
On Saturday morning, Amie brought the kids by early so she could go run in the "Paw &; Sneakers" event. Meredith ran as well, so  the rest of us met them to watch the outcome.  They both did really well and ended up placing 2nd in their respective age groups!  I was so proud of both of them!
 Elijah and Emma's also ran with dogs (their own Rosie being one of them, the other a nice boxer named LuLu, whom I later offered to buy from the Humane Society for Amie, although it didn't happen), and did great. 

After the race, Brad and I went to Ft Collins to play bridge (poorly) and then had dinner with Beth and Fred.  Afterwards, we traveled the grocery circuit looking for the best bargain on scallops and shrimp.  Amie and Carrie had decided that they wanted a dish comprised of those two items for their birthday dinner, so we searched until we found scallops for a mere  $13/lb.....  Anyway, Brad made a wonderful dinner of shrimp, scallops tossed in linguine along with creamed fresh spinach and fruit salad.  Meredith contributed with her usual wonderful dessert of chocolate and peanut butter.  So delicious!!!! It was the second pre-season game for the Broncos, so we tried cheering them on.  Even Gramma had the spirit! After dinner, while the adults played a game of hearts, the kids put on their usual "celebration" play, with the girls in formal wear, and the boys?not sure about their roles....

Carrie took this picture of Meredith-love it!

Sometimes life is a little rocky....

This week has held several trials for the family. The boys (Brad, Curt and Spencer) worked really hard all week at Grandma's house, in an effort to get rid of some of her stuff at an estate sale over the weekend.  Unfortunately, there were few things that anyone wanted to purchase.  A lot of work for very little reward....Grandma has found the process to be more difficult than she thought, I think, and has been very emotional.  We are still a long way from emptying out the house and getting it ready to rent.
On the bright side (yep, there always is one!), school started again on Thursday, with Back-To-School night on Tuesday.

The girls were very excited to see their classrooms and meet their teachers.  Sophie started first grade and went back on Thursday, while Gabi won't start until Tuesday of this week (afternoon kindergarten).  The big kids, whose pictures I didn't have, all claimed to love their first day of school.  We are all excited that Elijah is now going to the same charter school as Emma.  When I asked Emma about her first day, she told me that it was awesome, and that even though Elijah didn't know any of his classmates, he had already made a lot of friends.  Not surprising to anyone!  Rory has also happy to get back to his school.

This week Carrie had a conference in Washington D.C., so we all got some extra time with Gabi and Corbin!  She said that the conference was one of the best she had been to, and was fortunate enough to get some time to do some sightseeing as well.

  She sent these photos of the Air and Space Museum and of the Capital.

On Thursday night, Brad and I went to see one of my favorite country music singers at the Budweiser Center, Ronnie Dunn.  The concert was good, and it was just the break we needed in the week. 

Saturday night, Brad, Curt, Spencer and Rory went to the first pre-season Bronco game, which by all comments was a disaster.  Ok, the weather was nice!  Gramma and I went to watch the game and have dinner with Amie and the kids.

On Sunday, we had only part of the group here (although by the mess and the noise levels you'd have thought we weren't missing anyone) as Meredith and her family went to a Rockies game.  We grilled steaks, had some garlic mashed potatoes and a yummy new corn recipe, then topped it off with Brad's unbelievably good rhubarb/strawberry cobbler topped with ice cream.  The day ended with a scrabble game at one table, and a monopoly game (my favorite....NOT...where I was the banker) for Sophie, Gabi and Corbin,  Brad and I were so tired that we were asleep within a half hour of everyone

leaving!

Oh, and one more picture, which is where today's title came from...Grandma is still having issues navigating our driveway!

If you look carefully, you'll see an opening down the center of our neighbor's mum about the size of a tire!  And, that junction box?  It was previously buried up to that metal part!

Brad's Birthday Bash

So, the husband caught up with the wife in age this week...always a sore spot, being the "older woman" for half the year!

Didn't do much to celebrate until the weekend.  We all (yes, all 15 of us) went to Ft. Collins on Sunday to eat at the Rodizio Grille.  It was great fun in that the kids ate and ate and ate, especially Rory and Elijah, who are both growing boys.  It was kind of a thrill to see Rory eating so much, after having had a diet for his first nearly 12 years of life of noodles, pancakes, chicken nuggets and mac-n-cheese!  When the waiter showed up with the dessert platter, we thought he would cry (with enthusiasm!). 

Rory, nearly crying at the look of the dessert tray!

The birthday "BOY" & his youngest grandson

let the kids split a dessert- gone in 35 seconds!

 After dinner, we came back to the house and had some of Meredith's famous peach cobbler (Brad's birthday favorite) and let him open his gifts.  I'm pretty sure he was excited to open his new set of Bobby Flay cookware!  I asked the kids to pose with the cardboard from the pots and pans set.

Hard to choose their best pose!
Carrie, Amie and I went to a Scrapbooking "Crop" on Saturday.  Had a great time and got partially caught up on my scrapbooking.  Hard to believe that school starts this week.  I asked if they were ready to go back yet, and surprisingly, they all are ready!  Went school supply shopping with Amie and kids and was amazed at the price tag for supplies.  Rory's came to close to $100 and Sophie's about half as much. Wow, things certainly have changed since the days of sending kids with a Big Chief tablet or spiral notebooks for the older kids and a couple of pencils.  Yikes, what do poor people do?

This and That...

It's Monday morning already!  How is THAT possible?  Nothing really big on the agenda for this past week, but nonetheless, eventful.  I had a vacation day on Thursday and decided to make it a real vacation day, "an all about me kinda day".  I was in my craft room all morning making my banner for my August mantle, a vintage looking "back to school" display, making the "chalkboards" out of paint chips!  The boys had found the old "Go to the Head of the Class" game at a garage sale.  I thought it turned out cute.  I also decorated my tree with school stuff.

On Wednesday, Emma, Elijah and Sophie stayed at Tasha's house where they had a great lemonade/ finger weaving stand. The kids had an awesome day, although they sold very little lemonade, and ended up giving it away. While they were selling their wares, Rory was at a church- associated

finger weaving

Lemonade stand

Rory, Seth & Jordan

 camping/hiking trip.  They really had a ball! 

Meanwhile, the Frost family went to Water World and had the "most fun day ever, even better than Disneyland". They were so exhausted on the way home, that Corbin fell asleep with his dip-n-dots in one hand and a plastic spoon hanging out of his mouth!

On Friday night, Curt and Amie went to a concert at RedRocks. We kept the kids and the night ended in a family "sleepover".  Grayson cracked us up when he got to our house and immediately climbed up and stood up on the coffee table!
Sunday was enhanced with a visit by Pam and John, who sold their house this week and needed to store a few boxes in our basement...We had a delicious meal of chicken/steak fajitas, with roasted corn/edamame side and a key lime trifle made by our expert dessert maker, Meredith.  While dinner was being prepared, many of the family members worked on a cupcake themed puzzle.

Sophie's 6

Birthday parties always tend to be big events at the Simmons house, with Sophie's being no exception.  Much of the week and weekend were spent partying like a "6 year old Rock Star".  We had a teaparty on Saturday that included 8 girls who gathered to drink tea (aka Lemonade), eat crumpets (pbj sandwiches), and display their homemade hats.  After making their hats, we moved on to customized nail art (by Emma & her friend Mary) and flip flops adorned with various craft items to complete the look.

Teacup tree

pot-o-fruit

chocolate teacups

the birthday girl

Maya & Sophie

Nail art

customized flip-flops

Happy 6th, Sophie

After the party, Brad, Carrie, Gabi, Corbin and I went to see the new Ice Age movie.  Very entertaining! We then had dinner with friends in Loveland and had a great time.
Sunday brought round two of the birthday (her REAL birthday), so we celebrated once again with the whole family and a fabulous pork loin dinner (8# of pork), with a hashbrown casserole and fresh green beans (3#) and a requested cake made by Meredith.  More presents and more fun in the typical Simmons Sunday fashion!  A successful, but exhausting weekend!

Hello, Tuesday

I usually post my weekly on Monday mornings....don't know what happened, but Monday has come and gone.  So, hello Tuesday.
The week was a sad one, with the horrendous mass murder in Aurora.  I think it affected the entire country.  On a personal level, I got a call Saturday that my cousin, Randy Miller, from Texas had died of a massive heart attack.  It's super scary thinking that someone my (exact) age is gone and to think of all of the future events he'll miss and will be missed at. RIP, Randy!
Whew, on a lighter note, the Taylors left for a Chicago vacation on Saturday. I've had several texts from them, mostly with food pictures! That cracks me up! Apparently, they ate at a top rated restaurant called The Girl & The Goat, and Emma sent me these pictures from that event, with a note that "this was only about 3/8 of the dinner!

Yesterday, they visited the Art Museum and the Sears Tower.  Meredith reported that she could've stayed at the Museum all day, however, that idea wasn't shared by Emma and Elijah, who were bored after 15 minutes.  Elijah did enjoy the modern artwork.
Over the weekend Carrie and her friends attended the Tim McGraw/ Kenny Chesney etc. concert in Denver.  Stayed at a hotel Saturday night following the concert and had a great time.  Amie & I were jealous!

I took Gramma shopping at Kohl's on Friday (her first shopping trip in a couple of years) and pushed her around the store in a wheelchair which she enjoyed immensely!  We got Sophie some birthday gifts and Gramma bought herself a watch and a couple of shirts.  HUGE for her!

Corbin and Gabi came to the office, Corbin for his first dental checkup, and Gabi for her regular visit.  Corbin did great!

We all got a laugh when Dr. T came in to do the exam and asked Gabi, "So whatcha been up to this summer?", and she replies with little hesitation, "Garage sale-ing".
On Sunday, I gave Brad a day off in the kitchen and prepared the entire meal.  Made a parmesan chicken casserole, some crockpot mac-n-cheese and a peach crumble for dessert.  Ok, it wasn't Meredith's dessert or Brad's high quality meal, but we ate it!