August 5, 2008

So it's really happened. I've become one of those people (at least in the summer) that gets up at 5:30am to work out. Before Ariel even got here I had ridden my bike to a trailhead, run 6 miles (on two day old blisters), got several mesquito bites and lost my cell phone on the trail. Quite a morning.

7:45 Got home, Ariel was here. Breakfast - she had a few bikes of Oat Clusters with the boys.

8:15 Ariel and I took a shower.

9:00 Drove to the woman's house who had my phone. That's one thing I love about Boulder, you know if you loose your phone, it's going to get returned and NOT have all your minutes used up calling China. I think I need to safety pin my velcro pocket shut in the future. At least my phone didn't fall out in the tall grass, that might have been a problem.

9:30 While we were out, we stopped at Target to buy Mae a birthday present and to pick up more blister bandaids.

10:15 Hit the library for story time. It was less crowded and Ariel did better this time, making it about 30 minutes. I was surprised Alex still enjoyed it as much as he did.

11:00 Last errand - post office.

11:30 Home and lunch - mac & cheese and most of a banana and a few grapes.

12:15 Ariel asked to take a nap, good sign.

3:15 Finally went to wake Ariel but she had just woken up, and had just wet the bed.

3:40 Left for Mae's birthday party in the park. All children were very excited about the party. Alex and Adam made elaborate cards while Ariel was napping.

Here's the front of Alex's card. He copied the Broadtailed Hummingbirds from the bird book, but came up with the symmetric flower motif on his own. VERY impressive for art reluctant Alex:


And the inside - on the left are a female and male House Finch at our feeder. On the right is the Bald Eagle diorama from the museum, complete with a Magpie inching in to get a bite of fish. It's in the Birds of North America room, if you want to check the original:



And Adam's - I was impressed that he tried to copy Happy Birthday Mae from the paper I wrote on for Alex. I haven't seen him write so many letters. As for the rest, your guess is as good as mine.



And the party lived up to all expectations. Ariel went nuts in the bouncy castle/slide. Really nuts:



Big hit all around:



And the birthday girl:



I didn't get any great pictures, a zoom bird lens is not ideal for 3 year old birthday parties. Unless you want to see pictures of the barn swallows that had built a nest in the playground and were diving bombing anyone in a 10' radius.

4:45 Becky picked up Ariel from the park.