Denver Kid's Museum

This summer has already been so incredibly busy. The random posts are just another sign of the crazy. Wait till I have a house and an office. You'll be sick of me...

We have a medium-sized Children's museum here in Denver. It's downtown and only took about a 30 minute drive from our apartment.

H-P is in a fireman phase. He wants to climb on every fire truck he sees. Also, he loves the outfit :) Who doesn't?

Bucks' amazing flip flop slide down the fireman pole.

One of my favorite sections of the museum is the "make it yourself" section. There are real tools and a bunch of recycled materials for the kids to make things. It seems innately dangerous, but fun too. Coo just wanted to hammer nails into little pieces of wood.

Buck making a telescope out of toilet paper rolls.

H-P loved using the most dangerous, obscure (to me) things.

We moved on to the ball chamber where the kids made tracks to keep balls moving through vacuum powered pipes. I think we were there for over an hour.

Coo especially loved the ball space. He made a lot of friends as they worked on their tracks.

 Lastly, we hit the bubble room. The big boys made giant bubbles out of bubble fluid.

H-P found the train room next to the bubble space. He was so happy! 

There are even more happenings around the house with the renovation. We are prepping for a big trip back East and a few weeks away from our apartment. Happy Days ahead!!

Renovation moving on!

Summer is in FULL SWING for us (I have a lot of pictures to prove it) but I've heard from a few people that they are more interested in what's up with the house. The Reno is in full swing too. I don't have a good supply of "before" pictures - I'll wait until the big reveal for that so that I can get these shots up. 

 The basement is fully framed in and electrical (to make it very light) is almost done.

 basement bar (notice the soffits above)

 This is the bottom of the new staircase (coming from old dining room). There is a new powder room1/4 bath under the stairs.

 Adorable baby catching a nap while we meet with the electrician (poor kid)

 This is the current view from our kitchen toward the backyard (that's RKZ looming in the shot). They have raised the ceiling height and added a new covered patio.

 What used to be an 8 foot celling is now 10. A large slider is going into the door space. The furthest framing is the new patio.

 another view from the kitchen back. 

 Next to our kitchen, we have a new garage (pictures follow). This will be our mudroom and pantry.

 If you are standing in the new garage, this is the view of the mudroom. But, the door is actually toward the front. This was a framing problem that is already fixed

 view of the new back covered patio. There is a full wall next to the tree.

 view from the back yard toward the house.

 Patio vault

Sorry that there isn't more detail. I have to run to Buck's baseball game. Ahh, summer.

Altar and Rosary Society Spring Tea

You know you're getting older when you spend an entire weekend working for the "Altar and Rosary Society" Spring tea. You know that and the fact that ladies in their 70's (plus) aren't normally the most time-efficient planners. A girlfriend and I have offered to take over the spring tea for next year, so this year we shadowed the current planners - ladies who have been organizing the event for 7 years or so. I get myself into the most interesting situations. 

 The AR president and one of the co-cordinators organizing the kids' gift bags. This year, the ladies were disappointed with the 80-woman turn out. Last year, they had 179ish.

 O-E will be my co-cooridnator next year. Here, she pretends to sample the 200 scones hand baked by one of the ladies.

 I will be in charge of the food and O-E will be in charge of the space/decor. The ladies have fairly high standards and only use real china and silver for the tea…of course. ;)

All proceeds and donations currently go to the woman's shelter nearest the parish. The quilt-maker arm of the AR makes all the quilts to be donated.

Did I mention that I LOVE elderly ladies? This event made me feel like I was living a novel, somehow.
Because it's not at all thrilling, I will have more pictures tomorrow of the actual day.

Neighbors - the movie

RKZ and I have the incredible fortune of a summer (home-from-college) babysitter. She comes over most days so that I can run some errands and clean. Thursday nights, she's been coming over in the evenings and RKZ and I have been going on dates. Awesome. 

Last Thursday, we chose the movie Neighbors. We knew that it would be juvenile and most likely a tad raunchy. We actually talked about a drinking game (again, the theater serves beer) where we drink whenever the word penis is mentioned. I am, after all, Bourgeois. And so is my husband. 

But I actually feel as though this movie marked the end of an era - the era where I can stick with a ridiculously stupid comedy for the satisfactions of a few adolescent jokes. This movie was SERIOUSLY BAD. I mean, the couple next to us walked out 3/4 of the way through. I sincerely respected them for being able to lose hope that the ending would make up for the first hour and 1/2. All I could think was how sad it is that young men might like this movie. It made me depressed about our future. It made RKZ and I have a conversation that began, "How do we keep our boys from being total douchebags like ALL of the people in this movie." 

Basically, the plot goes: drugs, whining, partying, sex, sex, gratuitous butt shots of men, drugs, drugs, immature fighting, boys wasting expensive college educations, drugs, drugs, and useless shots of Zac Ephron without a shirt. I'm even irritated writing this post. 

Vince Vaughn couldn't have saved this movie. 

At one point I turned to RKZ and said, "Isn't there a movie of 2 kids dying of cancer next door?" 

Tennis Camp 1

There is something really special about the ages of 3, 5 and 8. What is it? The fact that most summer camps and activities are for kids either 3-5 years old or 5-8. This magical summer, that means that Coo can attend different things every week with one brother or the other. Coo needs to move every day of every week. He does not like anything but sports and watching a 15-minute show called "Peppa Pig".

 This week, it was "Little Lobbers tennis camp" for Coo and H-P

 Monday was learning forehand

 Tuesday was overhead

 I took a lot of pictures of HP because it was his first summer camp.

I'm sad that I only took one shot of Coo. He is a very natural tennis player and loved every second of the camp. Good thing because he has a second week of tennis with Buck next week (Smash and Splash).

Unintentionally Confusing Renovation Pictures

I know that renovation pictures can be ridiculously confusing. Still, I like to see them - mostly just before and afters. We don't have any "afters" yet - just "currently." They are confusing and I'm sorry. But I wanted to get another collection of renovation shots out here for everyone. Slow and Steady Wins the Race, right?

 Our kitchen in its former oaken glory. We salvaged some of the cabinets for the basement bar and donated the others to a local Church.

Our kitchen was a little-ish galley kitchen with ALOT of little cabinets. Not my style but also not super practical. And that center island made more than one cook impossible. We saved the island and granite (ish) for downstairs as well.

This is a shot of after demo in the kitchen. That big square space was a pantry/hall closet/mudroom combo (that's what we had made it, anyway). It was an overused space that desperately needed to be ripped out. We sold the fridge on craigs list. We are seriously trying not to just throw away everything.

This shot is a little later than the one above it from the other side (Coo is basically standing where the fridge was). We are adding that wall in order to tuck a large farm sink and open shelves for everyday dishes behind. That way, if we have a party, all of the mess can go behind the wall so I don't have to stare at it.

This picture seems out of place, but it's actually on the OTHER side of the kitchen (the windows in the shots above will be gone and this space will be behind them. The space to the far left is a one car garage and the space on the right will be a new mudroom and pantry. It will make more sense later.

 I have to quickly add these shots (not kitchen related). This is Buck's old room and will now be our guest room. We've added a powder room (3/4) bath.

 This is our newly framed Master bathroom. It was taken from our old bath footprint and a little of H-P's room (which is now just a closet, sorry H-P)

 For some reason, the old guest bathroom had only a shower. We've removed the shower and the cabinet that was next to it, and we're adding a large tub/shower combo.

More tomorrow as I return to the blogosphere!! Hi to Jessica and Peyton!! We'd love to have you visit anytime after August ;) - that's when the house is done - we hope.

May in pictures - a recap minus Renovations

H-P turned 3

We celebrated with the "Rat" and all our newest friends

The kid's school held their annual amusement park rental/fundraiser for the end of the year. 

H-P rode his first roller coaster. 

Our family has begun invading Grandma and Grandpa's cabin in the mountains (love it!)

Coo "graduated" from preschool

H-P got glasses (which he refuses to wear)

Renovation news tomorrow! 

I'm not dead!

Sorry that it's been a while, anyone who follows the blog, i.e.: Karen :) I will begin posting again as May (swearing alert) KICKED MY ASS.

I'll upload pics tomorrow and have a ton of renovation updates. More ass-kicking which ends with this on our front door:

yep.